About

Our 10th annual Data Intelligence Symposium is centered around the theme of "Data and Delusions: Finding Intelligence in the Noise." The symposium will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and will consist of keynotes, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities. Below please find an outline of the days agenda as well as the current speaker list. This page will be updated as additional speakers are added.

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Agenda

9:00 am - Registration

10:00 am - Welcome & Introductions

10:15 am - Keynote: A Whole New World....of AI: Challenges and Opportunities for All of Us - Dr. Christina Outlay - Executive Director, Maydm

10:55 am - Break

11:00 am - Breakout Sessions

                 "Delivering Meaningful Analytic Insights" - Barron Penner, Charter Manufacturing

                "Success in Simplicity: Capitalizing on a Simplified and Modernized Data Platform" - Brent Hoyer, Sub-Zero

11:30 am - Break

11:35 am - Keynote: "Science & Bull$#!%: What We Can't Not Know in the 'Age of AI'" - Phil Henrickson, Senior Data Scientist, AE Business Solutions

12:15 pm - Lunch

1:15 pm - Breakout Sessions

                "How Self Service Advanced our Analytical Maturity" - Brandi Beals, Data Careers Summit

                "Little Warehouse on the Prairie: Datamart Development by a New Analytics Team" - Eric Kotleski, American Family Insurance

1:40 pm - Break

1:45 pm - Breakout Sessions

                 "Data-Driven Transformation: Overcoming the Innovation Delusion" - David Manske, Generac

                 "MLOps: Building Bridges Between Data Science and DevOps" - Dan Placek & Trevor Cross, AE Business Solutions

2:15 pm - Break

2:25 pm - Roundtable Keynote - From BI to AI: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Way We Work

                Panelists: Steve Konkol - CUNA Mutual Group, Dr. Christina Outlay - Maydm, William Cummings - Generac

3:10 pm - Close

3:15 pm - Happy Hour

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Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Christina Outlay, Executive Director - Maydm

Bio: Dr. Christina Outlay is the Executive Director of Maydm. Maydm provides girls and youth of color with classes, camps, field trips, and paid high school internships to prepare them for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. Dr. Outlay holds a B.A. in Psychology, an M.S. in Information Systems from DePaul University, and a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also has 12 years of IT corporate experience and 15 years of academic teaching and research experience. She was an Associate Professor of Information Technology at UW-Whitewater and a nonprofit director before joining Maydm.

As a Black woman with an IT background in corporate and higher education, Christina knows the challenges and opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups in STEM. She is committed to showing our youth that a future in STEM is possible for them and providing them with the STEM knowledge, training, and opportunities with local employers to be successful. She also regularly talks with employers about the human and business benefits of recruiting and retaining a diverse STEM workforce.
 
Outside of work, Christina is a married mom of four and a chronic overachiever who is constantly juggling multiple priorities. She is the President of the Sun Prairie Police Commission, board member of Ghana Code Club, past board member for Collaboration for Good, 2023 YWCA Woman of Distinction, 2022 Wisconsin 52 Most Influential Black Leaders honoree, 2019 Madison Magnet Impact Award finalist, 2018 UW-Whitewater College of Business and Economics Service Award recipient, 2017 Brava Woman to Watch and 2013 UW System Outstanding Woman of Color in Education. She has been quoted in The Capital Times, Madison 365, and Wisconsin State Journal.

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Phil Henrickson, Senior Data Scientist - AE Business Solutions

Bio: Phil has been a member of the Data Intelligence team since 2018.  He works in many different areas within the field of data science, with a particular emphasis on machine learning, predictive modeling, and statistical inference. Phil has a strong background in communication, research design, and quantitative methods from his academic background, completing his dissertation in political science in 2018. He has been the featured speaker at analytics conferences and meetups throughout the state of Wisconsin.

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Panelists

Steve Konkol, Senior Manager, Business Experience Reporting and Analytics - CUNA Mutual Group

Bio - Steve is responsible for leading a team of report and data developers creating insights to better understand key business behaviors, ensuring customer acquisition, and retention.  

Steve’s career experience includes 23 years with IBM Corporation, including broad experience in manufacturing; sales and sales management; customer operations; international; Lean Sigma and sales operations.  

Steve earned a Bachelor of Science in Material Science from the University of Wisconsin as well as a Master of Business Administration with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with concentrations in statistics and finance.

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William Cummings, Vice President Cybersecurity - Generac

Bio - William is an accomplished information security specialist with over 20 years of experience focused on delivering cybersecurity capabilities to large enterprises. He has systems architecture and engineering, IT risk management, business resiliency and executive leadership background. He has provided cybersecurity advisory services to some of Wisconsin’s largest institutions and has established cybersecurity programs supporting multiple Fortune 500 companies. William brings a practical cybersecurity perspective to organizations looking to responsibly adopt security principles into their organizations.  William is a board member of the Wisconsin Cyber Threat Response Alliance.  He enjoys speaking engagements which raise awareness of the importance of cybersecurity and is active in #GivingBack through championing cybersecurity as a career at local high schools and across higher education campuses.

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Breakout Speakers

Eric Kotleski, Analytics Manager - American Family Insurance

• Bio: Eric Kotleski is a Business Analytics Manager at American Family Insurance.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse and an MBA from UW – Madison.  Before American Family Insurance, Eric worked in analytics and operations in the financial services and biotech industries.
• Talk Title: Little Warehouse on the Prairie: Datamart Development by a New Analytics Team
• Description: Analytics and reporting can be challenging when you have data available. As a newly formed data analytics team, finding and structuring data can be more than half the battle. Eric will share his team's challenges, successes, and learnings in forming an analytics team, developing a self-service database and analytics pipeline, and the all-too-common experience of managing high demand for support with finite resources.

Brandi Beals - Data Analytics Manager, Artisan Partners

• Bio - Brandi Beals is the Manager of the Data Analytics team for a global investment management firm, where she determines the direction and strategy of data analytics and data science capabilities. She is focused on developing a scalable data strategy, supporting advances in machine learning, delivering an enterprise analytics platform, and growing a community interested in data science and analytics. Skilled in Tableau, Alteryx, and Python, she has a strong technical track record supported by a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University. In addition to co-leading the Milwaukee Tableau User Group and Wisconsin Tableau User Group, Brandi runs the Data Book Club and co-founded the Data Careers Summit.
• Talk Title - How Self Service Advanced Our Analytical Maturity
• Description - Our journey to analytical maturity is ultimately a collection of small steps that has led to big changes. First, we gave business users access to static reporting, then interactive pivot tables, followed by new tools to easily analyze data on the fly. Most importantly, we provided training proportionate to the growing technological landscape. This has led to new requests for more data, ways to bring disparate data sets together, customized reporting requirements, and more complex questions being asked of our data.

David Manske, Senior Director IT Digital Strategy and Technology - Generac

• Bio - David Manske was born in a digital-first era, giving him a slight edge in the tech space, but he knows that resting on his digital laurels is a surefire way to get left behind. That's why he immerses himself in new technologies, modern software delivery, and digital experiences like a kid in a ball pit. With a full stack of skills and a listening ear, he delivers new products and services that raise the bar on new digital experiences. He does this all while leading with contagious enthusiasm and building teams that are engaged, inspired, and ready to conquer the tech world.
• Talk Title - Data-Driven Transformation: Overcoming the Innovation Delusion
• Description - Corporate Innovation is often perceived as the skunkworks, rogue, and special team, that gets to play with the shiny new toys. Cut the cruft and façade of “Innovation”, and build sustainable corporate programming, that uses data to double down on opportunities in existing processes, products, and services, as well as adjacent and new markets for your business. By using data and measuring innovation, you can build a balanced innovation portfolio and drive real tangible results.

Barron Penner - Charter Manufacturing

• Bio – Barron Penner is the Director of Business Intelligence & Analytics at Charter Manufacturing. He has been with the company for 1 year and is focused on driving analytics transformation across the organization through collaboration, self-service enablement, reduced complexity, and improved speed to insights. Barron is passionate about analytics and has a strong understanding of both the business and technology perspective with 15+ years specializing in data and analytics. Prior to joining Charter, Barron led the Data & Analytics teams at Fortune Brands (Master Lock, Therma-Tru, and Fiberon) and was responsible for driving analytics transformation and modernizing the analytics platform. Barron has experience in manufacturing, insurance, and financial services industries. He is a strong advocate for incremental and sustainable change to improve efficiency, productivity, and business performance.  He enjoys spending time outdoors camping, kayaking and with family.

• Talk Title - Delivering Meaningful Analytic Insights
• Description - Ever wonder how to ensure the analytic solutions you build are actually used?  Join me for this session where we will look at an approach to drive engagement, business impact, and increase analytics maturity for your organization.  This involves people, process, technology, and of course data.

Brent Hoyer - Sub-Zero

• Bio - Brent Hoyer is the IT Manager of Data and Analytics at Sub-Zero Group where he oversees the strategy and implementation of data engineering, enterprise reporting and analytics, and data science. Brent has nearly 20 years of industry experience, focusing mainly on data engineering and architecture, across the domains of land records, healthcare, health insurance, property and casualty insurance, and manufacturing. Brent graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2003 with a degree in Management Information Systems.  He moved to the Madison area in2007 and resides there today with his wife and 3 children.  Brent has a passion for problem solving and process efficiency, but spends his free time outdoors, playing music, and spending time with family.

• Talk Title - Success in Simplicity: Capitalizing on a Simplified and Modernized Data Platform
• Description - Over the last few years, Sub-Zero has gone through a significant data platform modernization. Like others, we sought efficiency, flexibility, and advanced functionality. What we didn’t foresee in the journey was a new craving for simplicity that would come to be a cornerstone of not only our data platform, but our overall data and analytics strategy. Having the courage and support to pivot toward this simplicity has paid off in a multitude of ways, which I’m looking forward to sharing with you.