Applications are full, but you can still add yourself to the waitlist. We'll also add you to the newsletter so you hear about future events.
We are committed to creating a harassment-free experience for all attendees.
Read about our Code of Conduct policies here.
We’ve been hinting at it for so long and working so hard to make it happen - we’re super excited to announce that applications are now open for School of Data LA! Applications help us make sure we represent a diverse audience of as many agencies and departments as possible as we only have 100 seats available.
Data + Donuts’ School of Data LA is a two-day conference and training event happening Thursday and Friday, January 31 and February 1, 2019 at SCAG in Downtown LA. School of Data LA brings together government data analysts, systems analysts, and project managers to address their biggest needs: to improve analytical skills, and to learn from peers across the Southern California region. The School of Data LA programming is driven by community feedback and includes keynotes, workshops, and lightning talks moderated and led by regional government employees who work with data. We believe that building a community of data literacy leads to better service in government.
Our inaugural School of Data LA conference is designed to support civil servants who’d like to improve their data-related work. School of Data LA covers the skills and vocabulary needed to confidently navigate the world of data – everything from documenting metadata, to navigating systems, to managing predictive analytics projects.
Attendence is FREE with breakfast and lunch provided by our wonderful sponsors!
Analysts use Excel to deliver reports to management. Explore how to automate your work using tools and workflows such as Shiny Dashboard, Tableau, and Power BI. Attendees will learn or practice using R to generate reproducible research and reporting on their desktops.
Systems users have large databases. Explore how to plan for future analyses with your data and how to build good data systems. Attendees may manage data in a SQL Data Warehouse or on an ArcGIS Server, deal with new large data sources, or manage data and data products at scale. Attendees will learn or practice using Python.
Managers and Electeds are building teams that use data. Explore how to design and resource your data teams, hire for data skills, prioritize and budget for large data projects and initiatives, and navigate when to contract out for data work. No laptops or coding required.
We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled at the discretion of the organizers.
If someone makes you or anyone else feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible to the organizers at: [email protected], so that we can make this a valuable event for all.
We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion (or lack thereof). We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue (including talks, workshops, social settings, as well as online media such as Twitter). Participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled at the discretion of the organizers.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
Verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, or religion (or lack thereof).
Sexual images in public spaces.
Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following.
Harassing photography or recording.
Sustained disruption of talks or other events.
Inappropriate physical contact.
Unwelcome sexual attention.
Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour.
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, event organisers retain the right to take any actions to keep the event a welcoming environment for all participants. This includes warning the offender or expulsion from the event.
If someone makes you or anyone else feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible to the organizers at: [email protected]. Harassment and other code of conduct violations reduce the value of our event for everyone. We want you to be happy at our event. People like you make our event a better place.
Modified based on these original sources:
- http://confcodeofconduct.com/ (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License)
- http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy
This policy is licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license.
Take a look at our Draft Schedule Doc. We believe strongly in collaboration and invite you to add your speaker and session ideas directly to the doc. We will update this section with the details as each session is finalized. Please note - sessions are subject to change.
| Analyst Track | Systems Track | Managers/Electeds Track | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Breakfast & Registration 8:00 - 9:00am |
--- Breakfast & Registration --- | ||
|
Welcome Remarks 9:00 - 9:15am |
LA City Controller Ron Galperin MC: Jon Neill, County of Los Angeles |
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|
Morning Session 1 9:15 - 10:45am |
Introduction to Programming in R (3 hours + 15 minute break) - Kevin Kane, SCAG |
How to Make Your Future Data Scientist Love You - Sasha Laundy, Warby Parker - Hunter Owens, City of Los Angeles |
-- no class / room unavailable -- |
|
Break 10:45 - 11:00am |
--- Break --- | ||
|
Morning Session 2 11:00am - 12:30pm |
Better Dev Environments for Free Using Containers - Kegan Maher, City of Santa Monica |
-- no class / room unavailable -- | |
|
Lunch 12:30 - 1:00pm |
Catering by Bánh Mì Chè Cali | ||
|
Remarks 1:00 - 1:05pm |
Dave Wesolik, County of Los Angeles Internal Services Department | ||
|
Keynote 1:05 - 1:45pm |
Data and Delivery in the Governmentv Leah Bannon, USDS founder of Tech, Rebalanced |
||
|
Break 1:45 - 2:00pm |
--- Break --- | ||
|
Afternoon Session 1 2:00 - 3:30pm |
Geospatial Data: Intro to Data Types, QGIS, and Exploring Census Data in R - Andy Rutkowski, USC - Kate Vavra-Musser, USC |
To and From the ESRIverse: Using Geospatial Data Inside and Outside of the ESRIverse - John Gravois, ESRI |
Demystifying Data Science 101 - Hunter Owens, City of Los Angeles - Kegan Maher, City of Santa Monica |
|
Break 3:30 - 3:45pm |
--- Break --- | ||
|
Afternoon Session 2 3:45 - 5:15pm |
Sharing and Versioning Your Work with Github, Git and the Command Line - Nathan Danielsen, Farmers Insurance - Patricia Realini, GitHub |
Consuming and Using APIs; Building ETL Pipelines - Dave Marulli + Chris Tull, California Data Collaborative / ARGO |
Hiring Data Skills - Maksim Pecherskiy, City of San Diego - Phillip LeClair, City of Pasadena - Behrang Abadi, City of Santa Monica |
| Analyst Track | Systems Track | Managers/Electeds Track | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Breakfast & Registration 8:00 - 9:00am |
--- Breakfast & Registration --- | |||
|
Welcome Remarks 9:00 - 9:15am |
Future Cities Framework - Kimberly Clark, SCAG MC: Jon Neill, County of Los Angeles |
|||
|
Morning Session 1 9:15 - 10:45am |
Data Cleaning - Jon Schleuss, LA Times |
Databases, Dashboards & Death to Paper - Mateo Clarke, City of Austin - John Clary, City of Austin |
Dashboards in 90 Minutes - Juan Vasquez, City of Los Angeles |
|
|
Break 10:45 - 11:00am |
--- Break --- | |||
|
Morning Session 2 11:00am - 12:30pm |
Reproducible Research and Reporting in R - Lauren Steely, MWD - Robert Mitchell, Skid Row Housing Trust |
Data Lakes + Data Warehouse Analytics Datastores - Jon Neill, County of Los Angeles - Maksim Pecherskiy, City of San Diego |
Governance and Stewardship of Public Data (Case Studies) - Mark Greninger, County of Los Angeles - Toki Sadralodabai, County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services - Drew Atwater, MNWD - Taylor Campbell, City of LA Controller's Office (Moderator) |
|
|
Lunch 12:30 - 1:00pm |
Catering by Chinese Laundry | |||
|
Keynote Panel 1:00 - 1:45pm |
Data Is Policy Marcel Porras, City of Los Angeles Dr. Veronica Barassi, Goldsmiths, University of London Additional Panelists To Be Confirmed Andrew Schrock (Moderator) |
|||
|
Lightning Talks 1:45 - 2:00pm |
The "California Model" for Data Collaboratives - Patrick Atwater, California Data Collaborative / ARGO DocNow - Andy Rutkowski CalStreetLookup - John Hickok, County of Los Angeles |
|||
|
Afternoon Session 1 2:00 - 3:30pm |
Automating Reports with Power BI So You Can Do More With Your Time - Jessica Lam, City of Los Angeles - Eric Lai, City of Los Angeles |
Predictive Models in Production - Will High, Joymode / DataKind - Nishchal Chaudry, City of Long Beach |
Critical Ambiguity: On the Impact of Bias in Data - Patricia Realini, GitHub - Leah Bannon, USDS / VA.gov |
|
|
Break 3:30 - 3:45pm |
--- Break --- | |||
|
Afternoon Session 2 3:45 - 5:15pm |
Shiny: Building interactive, shareable web apps in R - Lauren Steely, MWD - Robert Mitchell, Skid Row Housing Trust |
Simple Machine Learning: Why Model? - Ian Rose, Project Jupyter |
Data Viz 101 with Felt Cutouts - Alex Pudlin, City of Los Angeles - Umi Hsu, City of Los Angeles |
|
Souther California Association of Governments Office
@ Wilshire Grand Center
900 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1700
Los Angeles, CA, 90017
By Bike - The Metro Bike Share dock is one block away at 7th & Flower. Bike parking racks available on 7th Street.
By Train - The 7th & Metro Station is 100ft across the intersection and is served by the Blue, Expo, Purple, and Red Lines.
By Bus - A and F DASH buses stop at this intersection, while the B DASH stop is two blocks away at 7th & Hope. Several Metro Bus lines stop here as well, including the Silver Line.
By Car Parking is available on-site in the garage for a fee. Parking validation for attendees will not be available.
Data + Donuts is a monthly morning speaker series in downtown Los Angeles. Data + Donuts presentations feature the data-related work of civil servants across Los Angeles County. The events also facilitate informal connections between government agencies and promote data literacy. All government employees are welcome, and a small portion of seats are made open to the public. Representatives from the Office of LA Controller Ron Galperin, City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, and the Southern California Association of Governments plan each Data + Donuts event, with support from Compiler LA.
Notable accomplishments since our February 2017 launch:
Organized 19 lecture events at local venues.
Featured 20 speakers from government agencies within the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, City of Riverside, and Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG).
Hosted 500+ unique attendees from dozens of government agencies and departments, universities, nonprofits, and private businesses.
Awarded the Los Angeles Excellence in Technology Award.
