A lot has happened in the last year.  In addition to adding a new family member (a healthy little boy), I've seen Bank Director grow by leaps and bounds.  Already influential with members of the boards of financial institutions when I re-joined, our team has put into practice a number of ideas that bode well for the CEOs, CFOs, Chairmen and Directors that rely on us as their go-to information resource.  Let me share some of my favorites:

• We began to redesign the look and feel of the company's brand -- beginning with our efforts to prove one fish eating another really is a cool cover;
• We've taken social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and grown pretty impressive communities around each;
• Released new apps for your iPad, iPhone and Android-powered mobile devices so you can read our quarterly magazine wherever and whenever you please;
• Invested big time in our data sets to become a truly data-driven organization;
• Moved into the cloud to manage client relationships and communications of our dispersed work force;
• Put together new conferences for CEOs and their boards -- and had them sell out;
• Established new business relationships with a number of prominent service and advisory firms keen to reach bank executives online, in-print and in-person;
• Met with CEOs of banks whose asset size & market share make me shake my head in positive amazement;
• Built BankBusiness.com -- the most extensive directory of qualified companies currently serving the financial community;
• Produced three-to-five minute videos that feature some of the bigger banks in the U.S.; and
• Created a new Analyst Forum to share macro-level trends with directors & officers of publicly-held banks.

Next week, we will introduce even more to our digital arsenal -- beginning with a live webcast from NASDAQ's MarketSite.  We will quickly follow that up with something I'm personally excited to do: "ring" the NASDAQ Closing Bell on Tuesday, December 6th.  I'll be doing so with our chairman, Bill King, to close our one-day conference.  While that will be really cool, I do wish we could have the whole Bank Director team up with me... so many talented people are working really hard to make 2012, 2013 and beyond spectacular years!

After posting my last entry, I had a spirited (and educational) back-and-forth with a colleague here at Computech.  Our resident data expert, Hari Donthi warned me that when many think about business intelligence, most think about buying BusinessObjects or implementing a bunch of reports.  So, let me try and clarify my interest in Big Data + deep/exploratory/quantitative analysis.

Within our IT firm, I've heard us talk about ways to minimize the time between when data is generated and the time when data is available for analytics.  Questions like "how do we do this as data volumes get big, and the sources of data generation become disparate and uncoordinated" are the rule, not the exception.  A few others further piqued my curiosity:

• Why is it so difficult to just get all the data you can possibly get your hands on and make it available for Analysts immediately?

• Why is reducing "analytic latency" important, especially to government agencies?

• What exactly is "Analytics?"  Do the terms "Statistical Inference" and "Data Mining" completely and accurately describe this field?

New to me: Kicking your social media analytics habit

Inspirational quotes have their place (e.g. typically in a mall atrium, framed by a soaring eagle or dense forrest).  Nevertheless, here's one that really resonates: "have a point of view about where the world is going, and get there first.  Stand where the lightening should strike."  I must be channeling my inner-Charlie Eppes (Numb3rs resident data genius), because early this morning, that quotation left me wondering how to predict where lightning will strike next; albeit, on-line and in my favor.

As I began pouring over my twitter stats and Google analytics, I realized I had embarked on the proverbial fool's errand.  After all, regardless of how many tweets, followers, friends, or mentions I call my own, I know someone else will inevitably count more.  Fortunately, I am not addicted to these tools -- but I do know some people who are.  How, than, to ween yourself from over analyzing your on-line presence?  One place to start: a recent post ("Scoring with Social Media") that ran on Harvard Business publishing's blog.  Why did it -- and not something put out by, say, Mashable, catch my eye?  Simple: I liked the straightforward business truth used to introduced six tips for successfully using analytics: "numbers are meaningless unless you know what you want them to tell you."  Charlie Eppes couldn't have said it better himself.