Gartner, The Godfather, Coppola, and Telling Stories: Part 7 of Data Management Blog Series

To help BRIDGE THE STORY GAP between Data and The Business, we are excited to share excerpts from the book ‘TELLING YOUR DATA STORY – Data Storytelling for Data Management’ by our knowledge partner, Scott Taylor, The Data Whisperer.

I once had a boss who, when I found out he had never seen The Godfather, I never felt the same way about him again.

Conference Chronicles: A Tale of Two Summits

Here is a story that combines my love for data and storytelling.

Long before the Gartner Data & Analytics Conference’s current incarnation, it was two separate events: The Enterprise Information Management Summit (originally called the MDM Summit) and the Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit. They were scheduled in the same location and intentionally overlapped by a few days. Each Summit had separate agendas, attendees, and exhibitors. As you might imagine, the EIM show had considerably fewer people than BI&A. I also think BI&A had better food!

One year, the EIM show was located in the basement level of the event hotel, and BI&A was on the upper level in the grand ballroom. Typical. Although EIM had a general session with a perfectly suitable speaker who was going to talk about perfectly reasonable data management uses cases, the BI&A show had a keynote address on leadership and storytelling from Francis Ford Coppola.

Coppola Encounter

Yes, the Francis Ford Coppola! One of the most important movie makers and storytellers in the history of telling stories. I have lost count of how many times I have seen The Godfather. There was no way I was going to miss his talk.

Armed with my EIM badge and a defiant attitude, I made my way up the basement escalators to the Emperor’s Level. I marched past the attendant at the Augustus Ballroom door. I managed to get a seat in the 10th row, getting very close to the stage.

Seizing the Moment

I looked enviously at the thousands of BI&A attendees tightly packed in the ballroom (versus the hundreds I knew were at the EIM Summit in the basement). I was tempted to stand up and yell, “BI doesn’t work without proper data management. You are nothing without those people downstairs!” But I didn’t want to blow my cover.

Coppola shared beautiful stories of making movies, the struggles of financing his cinematic dreams, and anecdotes about working with Marlon Brando. He spoke of the five generations of his movie-making family. The Coppolas have been working in Hollywood since its inception. Inspirational is an understatement. I was certifiably star struck.

A Bold Question

The Gartner moderator opened up the floor for questions, and I had one ready. Someone in the first row asked the first question. Then the person next to them asked the second question. When the person next to them asked the third question, I knew the fix was in. Gartner had already decided who would ask questions. I was not deterred.

A Memorable Exchange

Because I was so close to the stage, I caught Coppola’s eye. He nodded at me. When it came to the fourth question, he called on me.

The Master’s Advice

An Answer I Couldn’t Refuse

Was I hoping for a magic secret? Yes! Was I disappointed? Absolutely not. The validation from a master storyteller.

Set your expectations based on Coppola experience. There is no magic formula for a good story. There is some science, but it is mostly art. You can have all the technique in the world, and you can take every bit of advice I have given, and it still might not fly. So, work on it. Find the compelling points and the hooks. Let it sit with you. Put it away and look at it again later. And when you get it, you’ll just know.

We hope you enjoyed our 7-part blog series on Data Management.To read others parts in this series, visit: https://www.infocepts.ai/blog/