Last week I attended the third annual Do Good Data conference in Chicago. The turnout was impressive with about six hundred attendees across the country and a smattering of international attendees.
I attended the conference with high hopes. Andrew Means, one of the conveners of the conference suggested in his opening remarks that being a data analyst in the social sector can be a lonely job. Andrew stated that at the Do Good Data conference you are surrounded by people like yourself. For better or for worse, I did not find this to be true.
While the conference title suggests it is targeted at analysts, my experience suggested attendees were more enthusiasts than analysts. Probably rightly so, sessions were targeted at those with very little technical skill, making the content not super compelling for those grappling with higher order problems.
As I said, I don’t fault the conference for its emphasis on beginners. My experience at the conference suggests the conveners got it right for the vast majority of folks there, which reveals an unfortunate truth about the state of analytics in the social sector.
The rhetoric that analytics is changing the social sector is largely untrue in practice. Those of us in attendance did not sum to a collection of “data wizards” and “analysis ninjas”. These are nonsense terms designed to sell tickets by making us so called social sector analysts feel like something we are not. Ironically, these types of monikers are yet another example of what conference speaker and Chief Program Officer of the Robin Hood Foundation argued nonprofits do too much of, taking credit where none is do.
I don’t proclaim to be a gifted analyst. I possess the basic tools of a data scientist, but would hesitate to declare myself one in public. The fact that I felt the sessions at Do Good Data were too rudimentary is less good job me than it is bad job social sector.
Indeed, the only real kudos belong to the Do Good Data conference, which rightly recognizes where the sector is at, and developed a conference to try to bring folks along a little bit.
But little by little leaves a long way to go. I sincerely hope I’m completely wrong about the general experience level of conference attendees (less likely) or that conference attendees are not representative of the social sector’s analytical capabilities (more likely).
For my part, I would be inclined to return to next year’s conference, if for nothing else than the simple fact that I support the aspiration of a data driven social sector, even if the reality falls short. If you are a data analyst in the social sector, I’d encourage you to attend as well. Every sector contains a mix of individuals at all skill levels. Do Good Data 2015 met the needs of beginners well. Sign up for Do Good Data 2016 and help prove my assessment of social sector analytics wrong, and maybe help raise the level of sessions at next year’s conference as well.