How it all started
Back in 2019, before the world turned into a real-life dystopian movie, Chris was working in the world of data analytics and data visualization. He felt a bit isolated and lonely doing this work, so he wanted to connect with other people messing around with data in schools.
After making a few connections, he decided to offer a chance for people to get together in person. in February 2020, Chris invited a small group of data-minded educators to Singapore. Just as the threat of masks and shutting the world down came to Asia, 13 brave people decided to sneak in one last trip. The first Data in Schools Conference was born.
Shortly after, the pandemic shut down any human connection, so like other conferences, we had to take a short commercial break. (Well, it wasn’t really short, it was like, three years.)
In the summer of 2022, some former attendees and new connections started asking about getting the conference fired up again. With the support of two colleagues, Ben Summerton and Andy Sheu, we hosted Data in Schools: Southeast Asia. Since then we have be lucky enough to host conferences in Amsterdam, New Delhi, back to Singapore and then off to Frankfurt.
As organizations, we collect data all the time. Perhaps too much data. Now, I love a good spreadsheet just as much as the next data analytics person, but this conference and this group are about more than that.
It is about how to use that data for collaborative decision-making. It’s about breaking down the silos we work in to solve problems together, which probably include data.
We want to create a place that is specific to educators that have a passion for working with data.
Our goal is to build a network and connect people on things that matter to them in their schools.
Ultimately, we want to break down the silos within schools and help educators collectively make data-informed decisions.
