The forum aims to help participants develop skills to discover meaning from data and make better data-based decisions; to understand data analytics methods and tools; and to improve communication to generate breakthrough insights from data.

“Most organizations are drowning in data and struggling to make sense of it,” said UM Associate Professor Joan Giese. “QuestMT is designed so that participants will learn how to unleash strategic and marketing insights through data science.”

National experts and thought leaders in marketing analytics will travel to Missoula to be a part of the forum.

“We are particularly excited about our kick-off speaker, Marc Mertens, CEO of the organization A Hundred Years,” Giese said.

Mertens’ organization believes the world’s greatest challenges can be solved through innovations and focuses on work that has a lasting, positive impact on the world.  A Hundred Years subscribes to the notion that when focus is shifted away from marketable products, and over to real, everyday challenges and issues, true success can be achieved.

Mertens’ talk will address how data analytics can be used to solve the world’s most pressing problems. Other nationally renowned speakers, panelists and trainers include:

• Paul Roetzer, CEO of PR2020, a marketing agency that provides performance-driven marketing services, and author of the “Marketing Performance Blueprint.”

• Jane Crisan, chief operations officer and president of R2C Group, a Portland, Oregon-based agency specializing in the intersection of direct, sales-driven marketing and brand advertising.

• Young-Bean Song, principal at Analytics DNA, a Seattle-based strategy and analytics consultancy.

• John Chandler, clinical professor of marketing at UM and principal of Data Insights, a consultancy addressing hard business questions with data science to unearth actionable insights.

• Jason Hoffman, CEO of Ars Quanta, a company specializing in both the art and the science of quantitative modeling of business problems to drive growth, revenue and profit.

• Maziar Sattari, vice president of Turn, a Silicon Valley-based software company providing a digital advertising hub that offers real-time insights for marketing decision making.

The last three presenters will conduct the Friday afternoon training session on “Learning to Talk the Talk with your Data Scientist,” where participants will learn most important techniques that data scientists use to research business questions, how these tools fare when introduced into the organization, and the most applicable algorithms used across multiple industries. In addition to learning the lexicon and tools of data scientists, participants also will have access to networking with speakers and panel leaders.

Registration for the event is open, and can be HERE. Registration costs $495 before Aug. 3, $595 after Aug. 3 and $695 after Sept. 3. Group rates are available if more than one attendee from the same company attends. To make the forum affordable for Montana organizations, small Montana businesses may be eligible for financial assistance to cover full or partial reimbursement. Please see the QuestMT website for details on assistance.

For more information on the featured presenters, click HERE .

For more information about the forum, email Dr. Giese at joan.giese@business.umt.edu.