Almost one hundred students gathered at the First Alumni Meeting of the Post-graduation in Business Intelligence & Analytics on November 6. It was held by a group of alumni in collaboration with Porto Business School through the Association Porto Business School Alumni.
This first Meeting of the Post-graduate programme in Business Intelligence & Analytics aimed to promote the exchange of experiences, talents, and projects of the alumni; still in a pandemic scenario this Meeting was held in a hybrid format, streamlining everyone’s participation.
After an informal lunch fostering moments of sharing, the afternoon programme continued at Sonae Auditorium.
Under the theme “Challenges and Opportunities in Selling and Delivering Analytic Projects”, five alumni shared their challenges and achievements.
Andreia dos Santos, Principal Analyst at Google, living and working in the Netherlands, joined the Meeting through Zoom and shared the main challenges of data projects and a set of efficient strategies. David Ferreira, Technology Delivery Lead Senior Manager at BI4ALL Norte Lead, shared a few ideas about the selling process; introducing some of the fundamental factors leading a successful project delivery.
Fábio Ferreira, Data Scientist at BNP Paribas Personal Finance, approached the role of agile methodology within a data science project and the importance of a multidisciplinary and versatile team. José Miranda, Data Scientist at Novo Banco, addressed the relevance of data science in the Banking sector.
And Rita Barata da Silva, Director Data & Analytics at MAPFRE, shared the success of a data project for an European low-cost airline company; how her team went from 5 to 100 people in four years to transform a company with an inefficient customer service onto the best low cost airline company in Europe.
In conversation with Fábio Fernandes, from the 6th edition of the Post-graduation in Business Intelligence & Analytics and one of the two students who fostered this Meeting, we learnt the idea born with the purpose of “expanding the initial lunches to all the students from the twelve editions of the programme”.
Sabina Santos, from the 10th edition of the programme and who also fostered this event, reminds they thought about the number of interesting experiences through the different editions; and this idea made us “move forward and try to make it come true together with Porto Business School”.
When chatting with the speakers, the opinion was coherent. For Rita Barata da Silva, “I travel on purpose. I wanted to meet some colleagues. I took the flight and here I am!”. David Ferreira highlights the meetings are vital “to share experiences and reliving old friendships”. And shares “Porto Business School is a reference in the field of Analytics”.
Andreia dos Santos understands these events as “valuable for potential students to understand the diversity of jobs this programme facilitates and choose the ones which are the best fit for their competences and preferences”.
For Fábio Ferreira “learning with colleagues – collective intelligence – makes perfect sense”, so “I just hope it will happen again”.
José Miranda highlights the exchange of experiences and knowledge as one of the main pros of these events, which are vital for the “architecture project and understand the issues that might take place through the different phases and pinpoints the difference between success and unsuccess”.
For Fábio Fernandes, these meetings are a good opportunity for “friendship and meet up, to boost recruitment” and “promote community, school, and the programme that has conquer increasingly more reputation in the business environment”.
Sabina Santos remarks how these moments are important for the students to understand the strength of the programme: for the alumni to share experiences and keep in touch; for Porto Business School to endure as the center of a community who works “for the future of data driven, which is already a part of our present”.
The Directors of the programme share the students’ opinion. Carlos Soares highlights “it was made by students for the students, alongside a strong networking component” and stresses that in a field where the hype is a little inflated, in this event students shared their daily experience and communicated in an honest and open manner “the projects that went smooth and the ones that did not”. Pedro Campos shares the enthusiasm, highlighting these meetings contribute “for the interaction between students and that are looking for new talents”.
To wrap up this Meeting, the organizing team offered an informal networking moment between the participants, fostering social interaction, exchange of experiences and knowledge, but also attracting talent in this area of expertise.
Watch or rewatch teh video about the First Alumni Meeting og the Postgraduate programme Business Intelligence & Analytics here.
