Data Driven Case Competition: Why You Should Sign Up

This year, Adidas and Inviso are hosting a data driven case competition where students from all fields have the opportunity to solve a real life business case. You will get hands on experience with Tableau and Alteryx and an opportunity to advance your technical skills and your problem-solving mindset. Here you can get an insight into what it is like to be a participant of the case competition.

What and where are you studying?
Christian: I finished my cand.polit Master Thesis at KU in January.

Rasmus: I started my Master at ITU in September, finishing my degree in Computer Science. 

Did you have experience with Alteryx and Tableau before you attended the case competition? 
Christian: No, but I quickly learned how easy and powerful the tools are.

Rasmus: No, not at all. I watched the online recordings of the workshops Inviso held prior to the case, since I was unable to attend the workshops in person. I felt that was sufficient preparation for the case. 

What was your experience of the case competition last year? 
Christian: It was an incredibly exciting weekend, where I ended up learning a lot about working with data using Alteryx and Tableau.  Generally the atmosphere during the whole weekend was amazing. Me and two of my friends ended up winning. Other than the first-place price, we gained a lot of knowledge on how Inviso and their clients typically work with data, and what kind of issues they face every day. Furthermore, I saw what kind of work-environment consultants at Inviso have, and that lead me to applying for and getting a job.

Rasmus: It was an amazing weekend - the case itself was really interesting, but what blew me away was the atmosphere around the office that weekend. Everybody enjoyed helping us, and I was amazed to see how incredibly data-savvy the Inviso-crew were. That was what prompted me to apply for a job afterwards, that energy was just amazing. The case itself was really hands on but open at the same time, which was also really fun - but stressful, it’s tough not knowing if the results you have are the “right” ones. 

What surprised you most and what was the coolest thing about attending?
Christian: It was my first case competition, so I didn’t really know what to expect. When we got the large dataset, I was really surprised to see how quickly we got to work with it using Alteryx, and later show what we found and wanted to tell in Tableau. Generally how fast we went from receiving the dataset to telling a story was quite unexpected, since I had no experience with the two tools we used prior to the competition and workshops.

Rasmus: The same as I mentioned before - the energy really surprised me, in my experience that is quite unique for any workplace. Also just to see Inviso’s offices and the team - they were a lot more “like me” as a student than I had expected and experienced elsewhere, and the office was really cool. It was different than the other consultancy-companies I have visited, that really surprised me. 

Why should others participate in the case competition? 
Christian: Besides the chance to win a great prize, I think you should participate if you want a hands-on experience in how Inviso help companies and clients through creating value from data. Furthermore, it is a great opportunity to network with others with the same interests, and talk to Inviso-consultants who are there to answer your questions.

Rasmus: To see and try for yourself how a lot of companies out there work - or maybe should work - with data. As a computer science-student, the way we are exposed to code and working with data is usually through implementing heavy theory and math, instead of looking at it from a company-perspective, so I think it was really cool to see how that theory actually gets used “in the real world”. Also, if you want a great (but intense) weekend full of challenging work, great snacks and a chance to actually be listened to and respected for what you can do with data. 

Would you like to join us for the case competition? Read more about it here.