The great thing about digital businesses is that there’s a data trail of breadcrumbs for everything you, your customers, and your partners do. The tough thing about digital businesses is that actually using that data to optimize your business takes a degree of data management maturity very few organizations have. Many firms are working hard to up their game, but there is no quick fix or one-size-fits-all solution. Data strategy is hard!

Fortunately, help is on the way: Coming up on October 13–15 is Forrester’s Data Strategy & Insights North America Forum. It’s our third year for this Forum and is looking to be bigger and better than ever — and it’s our first time doing this one in an all-virtual format. Last year, you told us that you wanted more sessions on data: data strategy, best practices, technology architectures, all things data. So this year, we have curated a track completely dedicated to driving your digital business with data.

In this track, you can hear Noel Yuhanna talk about top trends and emerging technologies in data management — he’ll map business use cases to combinations of technologies. Need to share data across business units or with external partners? Jennifer Belissent will show you best practices for creating a data sharing ecosystem. James McCormick will explain how to innovate your customer experiences with location data. Leading digital disruptors excel at providing contextually sensitive experiences — you can, as well. And all that’s just on day one.

On day two, you can hear Brian Hopkins explain why data leaders feel they’re banging their heads against the wall — and how to stop doing that. Michele Goetz will reveal the mysteries of DataOps — the way advanced firms are pursuing data projects and products. Learn why it’s important and how DataOps works to activate data for business outcomes and growth. And Michele joins forces with Noel to delve into the evolving architecture for developing intelligent solutions at the edge. Need in-moment intelligence in any tier and service? This session will show you a new intelligent architecture that is semantic and policy-driven, elastic, fast, and high-performing.

This data strategy track — entitled Drive Your Digital Business With Data — utilizes a horizontal structure that we use across all three tracks, covering organizational issues, a process focus, the broader ecosystem, a future view, a domain-specific view, and, of course, technology. So whatever your point of view or area of interest, we’ve got you covered. Please join us — and bring your questions! All these sessions will have live Q&A. I hope to see you there!