Andrew Dietz is Founder and President of Creative Growth Group, Inc., a business development firm that exclusively helps professional service organizations sharpen growth strategies, enhance client development capabilities, and implement marketing and business development initiatives.

There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years around whether or not there’s any value to Big Data for small to mid-sized professional service firms.  Many of our clients asked, is big data something our firm’s leadership should really pay attention to, or is this a passing fad?

On Thursday October 24, 2013, SilverEdge and partners Creative Growth Group and Deltek hosted another “Next Firm Forum – Wine and Wisdom” event: an early evening discussion and light dinner for our clients and friends-of-the-firm. We’ve been hosting this thought leadership series in Chicago since 2010 as a forum for professional services firm leaders to exchange ideas and build connections that support their continued success. 

The prevailing topic of the evening was Gaining the Big Data Edge – What Professional Services Firms Need To Know About Big Data and Business Intelligence.

Our panelists included:

Our event began with our classical guitarist, Jim Perona. Like music, we discussed, big data is about creating patterns in a certain order, and about creating a human connection or emotion that tells a story. Without order and context, notes and sounds have little value.  Done poorly, Big Data can produce a load of noise; done well, it can create harmonized, fact-based action in an organization, improve profits and create new offerings. Our panelists were able to provide some insights that night on how to make harmony from the noise created by lots of data.  Our upcoming posts will provide some of the insights brought forward that evening. 

Leigh Loftus, ThinkLeigh Photography, www.thinkleigh.com.

2013 Leigh Loftus, ThinkLeigh Photography, www.thinkleigh.com