At XeoMatrix, we’re big believers in the power of data to drive smarter decisions, and we love being part of events that bring people together to learn and share new ways to use Tableau. That’s why we were excited to sponsor the recent Dallas Tableau Workshop with Carahsoft, where educators and government teams came together for a day packed with hands-on training, real-world stories, and fresh ideas about the future of analytics.
Hands-On Learning with Tableau
The day kicked off with an interactive session led by Eric Schmidt, Principal Solutions Engineer at Tableau / Salesforce. He walked the group through Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep, giving everyone the chance to roll up their sleeves and work directly in the tools. With Eric offering real-time coaching and tips along the way, participants were able to learn by doing, an approach that kept the energy high and the learning practical.
In the afternoon, Eric shifted gears to showcase some of Tableau’s newest AI-driven features, including Tableau Pulse and an Agentic Analytics Q&A.
The live demo sparked a lot of conversation about how AI can simplify everyday tasks and help analysts deliver insights more quickly and effectively.
Spotlight on Innovation in Local Government
One of the day’s highlights came from Rod Sardari, PhD., Business Intelligence Analyst at the City of Plano. Rod walked the group through how his team is using Tableau to create public-facing dashboards, including the city’s Land Use Dashboards.
His presentation showcased the value of making city data more transparent and the thoughtful design choices that make the dashboards easy for anyone to navigate.
Generative AI Meets Education
Celia Fryar, Training & Enablement Lead at XeoMatrix and Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, opened with an interactive twist her session on Generative AI in Education. For a bit of fun, she invited the audience to add their favorite GenAI source.
Then, how do they use it in their daily lives to create a live building of word clouds. This activity created a collaborative atmosphere right from the start.
Celia’s presentation highlighted cultural changes in learner expectations, informed by every day online experiences. Noting that from shopping and browsing, content is designed to capture attention, is bite sized and tuned to the individual’s experience. As a natural result, learners expect on-demand, personalized, and highly visual experiences. With the rising emphasis on agentic alternatives, it is essential to prepare learners with critical analysis skills, domain expertise, and the ability to apply new technologies effectively.
The group discussed a few case studies that Celia shared, including a recent MIT study on cognitive debt, which evaluated the level of brain activity in a person accomplishing a task while having access to GenAI. Educators worry learners will use it as a shortcut and miss the opportunity for content mastery. As MIT measured brain activity for specific selected actions, the highest brain activity was observed in a cooperative role when the participant used the LLM to enhance, extend and enrich the required work product.
To wrap up, Celia discussed the Tableau Next Beta, focusing on its semantic model. This new product offers the ability to embed business rules, data descriptions, and even sentiment definitions directly into data analytics, paving the way for more powerful AI-driven insights.
Conversations Over Pizza
Between sessions, the group enjoyed lunch from Social Pizza Pie, sponsored by XeoMatrix.
It was a chance to relax, recharge, and keep the conversations going about how they could apply what they were learning back in their organizations.
Building a Community of Data-Driven Leaders
The Dallas event brought together a diverse group of people: analysts from Dallas ISD and SMU, K-12 charter school leaders, and IT teams from the cities of Dallas, Arlington, and Plano. Despite coming from different sectors, everyone shared the same goal: to find better ways to utilize data and make an impact.
We’re proud to have been part of such a dynamic day and to continue supporting education and government teams as they grow their analytics skills. Events like these remind us that when people come together to learn, collaborate, and share ideas, it sparks real momentum toward building data-driven organizations.
Looking to bring Tableau training or analytics expertise to your team? Contact XeoMatrix to see how we can help turn your data into actionable insights.
