Tableau Software’s First Annual European Customer Conference Draws 150+ Customers From 25 Countries

SEATTLE, WA USA and RICHMOND, UK – May 20, 2011 – Tableau Software, the global leader in rapid-fire business intelligence software, hosted more than 150 customers and partners at its first annual European Customer Conference, held May 9-11 in Amsterdam. Simon Rogers, editor of The Guardian’s Datablog, and Stephen Few of data consultancy Perceptual Edge headlined the event, which brought together some of the region’s most ardent data enthusiasts and celebrated Tableau’s increasingly global network of advocates. Customers also previewed Tableau 6.1, including mobile capabilities and localized versions in French and German.

“Tableau customers are driven to revolutionize the way business intelligence is done, in Europe or across the globe. When we get them in a room together, it’s exhilarating,” said Bruno-Saint Cast, Tableau’s VP for Europe, who helped launch the company’s European headquarters in Richmond, UK, earlier this year. “Our customer conference was a forum not only for customers to learn about Tableau’s latest innovations, but also for the Tableau team to gain new perspectives on our customers’ needs and our industry.”

Christian Chabot, Tableau’s CEO and co-founder, welcomed conference attendees by sharing Tableau’s view of 21st century analytics. He started with the discovery that ordinary people on the public web with publicly available data using Tableau Public are producing more useful analytics than much of what happens within corporations. Co-founder and Chief Development Officer Dr. Chris Stolte then treated conference attendees to a preview of Tableau 6.1, which adds mobile capabilities, localization and major data upgrades. Tableau 6.1 was released in beta on May 5, and general availability is expected later this summer. Other conference sessions included workshops, advanced training sessions and one-on-one help sessions with the “Tableau Doctors.”

Attendees packed the rooms for keynote addresses by Stephen Few and Simon Rogers—both recognized in their fields for popularizing new ways to communicate data. Few described the importance of thinking with our eyes and called for attendees to demand more from their data analysis applications. In a later address, Rogers explained how The Guardian’s recent forays into data journalism are bringing data to life for new audiences, even encouraging readers to perform their own visualizations and analyses on public datasets.

“Unlike other conferences where you stand around wondering which few sessions might be interesting, Tableau’s conference treated us to a global view of where data and analytics are headed,” said MindShare Business Director Mark Bulling, who attended the conference. “The networking and learning opportunities were spot on. The diversity of Tableau’s users made for very rich discussions.”

Dan Holle, CTO of Vertica, an HP Company and a Tableau partner, echoed the sentiment: "BI isn't just an IT initiative anymore. This is where the BI revolution starts—with passionate individuals, brought together by a common goal of bringing data to wider audiences, and enabled by visionary products like Tableau and Vertica.”

About Tableau Software
Tableau Software is the leading provider of fast analytics and data visualization software. Ranked by Gartner in 2011 as the world’s fastest growing business intelligence company, Tableau makes its award-winning business intelligence applications available for download at http://www.tableausoftware.com/trial. They enable anyone to easily create and share interactive data visualizations, dashboards and analytics, and can scale to organizations of any size or reach. For more information, please visit http://www.tableausoftware.com.