Day One: Tuesday, October 1, 2019
08:00
60 minRegistration and Continental Breakfast
09:00
10 minWelcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
Martin McGarry, Partner and Chief Data Scientist, Bronson Analytics
09:10
60 minBig Data, Big Opportunities, Big Responsibilities
- Power of Big Data
- Modernization at Statistics Canada
- Governance: managing data strategically
- Developing an Innovation Ecosystem
- Data on an international scale: The UN Global Working Group on Big Data
10:10
20 minNetworking Break
10:30
60 minStandards Development in the Big Data and Analytics Space
- An overview of the Standard Council of Canada initiatives
- Standards Landscape for Big Data and AI
- How to Participate in Standards Development
- How Canadian Innovation in the space is being reflected in Standards;
- The Canadian Data Governance Standardization Collaborative
11:30
60 minCreative IT Assurance in the Age of Uncertainty
Ken Holmes, CPA & Doctoral Student, American Military University
- Unprecedented 21st Century security threats confront IT systems and users
- New and devastating cyber techniques threaten national stability
- The need for assurance on systems and data greater than ever
- The cyber world is too complex for the “us versus them” audit approach
- No one group is the “fountain of IT knowledge.” Audit and IT must work together
12:30
60 minLuncheon
13:30
60 minHow to Discover Your DataOps Advantage
Paul Lewis, Global Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Hitachi
In this session you will see how you can securely manage, govern, mobilize, analyze, and ultimately unlock your data’s value and turn it into insights for public servants and citizens alike. We will discuss:
- How data is the foundation of digital transformation and how modern IT lets you make your data a key enabler for your successful digital transformation
- The current state of most organizations – multiple data silos that prevents the strategic use of their data
- The strategic approach required to properly use your organization’s data by bringing those disparate data sets – whether structured, unstructured or machine-generated – into a single data strategy
14:30
60 minData Technologies: Flop or Functional
Geoff Marsh, Vice President, Digital Insights, Hitachi Vantara
So we know data is important to make those intelligent decisions but what are the trends and topics that really matter? What is just hype and what is truly going to make a difference in your organization. As some of my colleagues and peers have stated you need to be strategic with where you hedge your bets.
- With the multitude of vendors out their pushing your products how do you ensure that what you are going to spend your valuable time and shrinking budgets on what is truly going to really benefit your group?
- Now that some of the newer technologies have matured have they really brought the business value that they promised and why or why not?
- Where should you spend time and money investing in training and technologies, what will be a big deal both directly in the public sector or in the private that could impact the public
15:30
15 minNetworking Break
15:45
60 minCase Studies in Lifestyle Analytics as the Key Differentiator in B2B Marketing
Nader Shureih, Director, Business Development, Public Sector & Education, Environics
- Lifestyle data offers a goldmine of insights that is under-utilized in B2B marketing. This session will showcase two unique and effective applications of lifestyle data.
- Case Study 1: Viewing the B2B market through a B2C lens
- The Innovation Canada platform drove new and valuable insights through the integration of privacy-friendly Environics Analytics and Statistics Canada data into their CRM and sales funnel
- Case Study 2: Canada Day on Parliament Hill: Understanding who attended your open event is difficult
- Integrating privacy-friendly mobile location data into your analysis can add multiple dimensions of understanding about who attends your events. We will show you how to use these insights to power and improve your business cases to vendors, partners and sponsors
17:00
Cocktail Reception Sponsored by Hitachi Vantara
Day Two: Wednesday, October 2, 2019
08:00
60 minRegistration and Continental Breakfast
09:00
10 minWelcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
Martin McGarry, Partner and Chief Data Scientist, Bronson Analytics
09:10
50 minFrom Capacity to Build Statistics to Data Analytics Capacity Building
Eric Rancourt, Director General of the Methodology Branch, Statistics Canada
- Recognize the types of data available and how they can be harvested
- The power and limits of data and resulting conclusions
- The importance of questioning and assessing quality
- Anchoring the approach in a scientific and transparent framework
10:00
15 minNetworking Break
10:15
60 minData Visualization: A Smart Investment to Inform Better Decisions
Mana Azarm, Senior Data Analytics Strategist, City of Ottawa
- What do we mean by Data Visualization?
- Great data visualization examples
- The advantages and benefits of good data visualization
- How to find the most suitable data visualization tool(s) for your company
- Open-source tools and data
11:15
45 minTowards Open LMI Data
Tony Bonen, Director of Research, Data & Analytics, Labour Market Information Council
The Labour Market Information Council (LMIC) is exploring ways to create an open data repository for labour market information in Canada. In addition to bringing together a wide variety of data, all information will be organized and structured in ways that support the career, education, training and workplace decisions of Canadians. To do so, we have engaged Canadians in a series of public opinion research studies and focus groups about their labour market information needs.
- LMIC is assessing the feasibility and utility of developing an open, online repository of labour market data, the “LMIC Data Hub”.
- The LMIC Data Hub is meant to be a state-of-the-art well-structured, fully-scalable, relational database storing labour market information and related data.
- The LMIC Data Hub would be built around the following principles: Open Data, Open Code, Free Use, Clear Documentation, Easy to Navigate, Validated Data, and Up to Date information.
- The LMIC Data Hub would support policy makers, researchers and labour market intermediaries such as career development practitioners, educators among others who directly support Canadians make informed career and training decisions.
12:00
60 minLuncheon
13:00
60 minMachine Learning applied to big data at the Data Science Division
Monica Pickard, Chief, Data Science Division, Statistics Canada
The Data Science Division at Statistics Canada aims to build Data Science capacity by solving concrete problems, has an applied AI/ML solutions expertise and delivers practical results enabling clients to move forward confidently with big and unstructured data.
- Our mission and big data projects
- From intake to production, workflow and lessons learned
- Sharing through Communities of Practice
- An applied perspective: In-season crop prediction from satellite images
- An applied perspective: Retail scanner data project
14:00
60 minPredicting and Visualizing How Ottawa's OC Transpo Light Rail Will Change Our Daily Commute Forever
Martin McGarry, Partner and Chief Data Scientist, Bronson Analytics
- Predicting the future impact on Ottawa’s new light rail was a challenge when no timetables or the usual commuter tools existed. He will take us 5 years from now to when Ottawa has an integrated light rail system covering the entire city.
- Martin will demonstrate how to create an amazing story through the use of advanced analytical and visualization tools.
- Has your commute improved? Where should you be buying a future home? Is cycling a better commuting method? Did the city spend our money wisely?
- First he will outline the key components of a compelling data story and what were the drivers behind the analysis. Then he will show you behind the curtain on how the story was created. Using Google API’s, TomTom data, Alteryx, Tableau, Mapbox and more he will explain the challenges involved in creating true business or citizen insights!
15:00
15 minNetworking Break
15:15
60 minDemocratization of AI/ML: The Evolution of Tools for Advancement of Data Analysis
Rowan Sciban, Cloud Solution Architect for Data & AI, Microsoft
This presentation will focus on the skill sets and tools required for the Citizen Data Scientist — a new breed of advanced business analysts. You will see how these tools help organizations apply more sophisticated data analysis when advanced data science skill sets are not available.
- In some cases, technically advanced business analysts are able to leverage these tools to analyze available big data sources without reliance on IT or highly skilled Data Scientists.
- Data Scientists are still required for complex ML problems, however it is not feasible to deploy such individuals everywhere that AI and ML will be needed.
- Skilled analysts are stepping up into a role where they can apply AI and ML techniques, with the help of user-friendly tools to get real results.
16:15
End of Day Two