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Bringing data and design together to improve public outcomes at DataJam North East

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is collaborating with a number of regional organisations to host the DataJam North East event in Newcastle on 17th and 18th September 2018.

The event is being jointly organised by Newcastle University, LEP, DWP Digital, Newcastle City Council and Northumberland County Council and public sector reform movement, One Team Gov.

DataJam North East will bring together data, digital and service design teams to make a real difference to real issues affecting the North East.

DWP Digital’s Celine McLoughlin explains more about the event.

Can you tell us a bit about DataJam North East and what the aims of the event are?

DataJam North East aims to look at issues affecting the region through the lens of data and service design, to see what answers to real problems we can come up with.

I live and work in the region and believe that collaborating to bring data and service design closer together is really important to achieve better outcomes – and that’s at the heart of what this event is all about.

Data in the form of qualitative user research, business analysis and performance analysis is now central to how product teams in government are designing and prioritising their feature development but data science, for the most part, is still seen as something a little separate and complex.

By making data an integral part of product development it will help us to make better decisions about the design and implementation of our products for citizens.

The only way we can tackle these truly important issues is do it together. That’s why DataJam North East is a true collaboration of people and organisations from across the region.

What is the format of the event?

At DataJam we’ll have product teams working on three key themes of Health, Skills, and Child Attainment – all big issues in our region. We will also have innovation areas for participants to access open data from the Urban Observatory based at Newcastle University to understand what it’s possible to learn from data exploration.

Alongside all of this there will be a mix of unconference sessions and breakout sessions offering practical data and design ideas and stalls to visit.

For each of the three critical areas we want to come away from the two days with tangible outcomes that all of the participants can sign up to taking forward. We want this to be the start of a new way of integrating data and design, the start of more collaborative sharing of data, and the start of a new wave of collaboration across the North East.

Who should attend DataJam North East?

We’re looking for people who can use their skills and enthusiasm to make a difference, so if you’re a data scientist, data analyst, delivery manager, product manager, user researcher or business analyst working in the North East, we’d love you to join us.

How can people get involved?

If you want to attend, you can apply here.