I Went to the Gartner BI Summit and the Carpet Was Amazing

I attended the Gartner Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas, and let me tell you they really know how to make a convention center carpet there.  The convention itself was great and all, lots of discussion about business intelligence and whatnot, but the carpet was just spectacular.

I saw people give presentations about data analytics, and explored the demos of various analysis products on the showroom floor.  Afterward I wandered over to flickr to scroll past several dozen pictures of the carpets of other convention centers, but honestly none of them hold a candle to this masterpiece.

People lined up to have poetry written on demand by Jacqueline Suskin.  I'm not sure if anyone asked for poetry about the carpet, but then again would poetry have done the carpet justice?  I'm not sure.

During one presentation, an analyst described how Coca-Cola uses chemical analysis and weather data to optimize the composition of Minute-Maid orange juice, ensuring flavor consistency even in the face of supply disruption.  I walked across the glorious carpet both to and from that presentation.

At the first keynote two pieces were played on a grand piano, to make a point about how some computer programs can do things we previously thought were reserved for humans.  One was by Johann Sebastian Bach, and one by a program called Kulitta.  I was unable to appreciate either, having earlier in the day seen the carpet.

On the flight home, my plane was decommissioned after we boarded.  We were deplaned and sent to another gate to board another plane, which ultimately landed an hour after I was intending to arrive.  Driving home, passing interstate construction and the steady pulse of street lamps, my mind returned to the carpet, its tangled Texan iconography following me home, an infinite repeating mosaic.

Majestic.