This post highlights specific data conferences and talks recently recommended by Automatticians (employees at Automattic).
Staying informed is key in the fast-evolving field of data science. At Automattic, we value continuous learning and regularly attend conferences and talks that advance our understanding and skills.
This post shares a curated list of events and talks that have particularly stood out, as recommended by fellow Automatticians. Whether you’re deeply embedded in data work or just starting out, these recommendations are proven to inspire and educate.
Let’s talk about conferences
Madison is an experienced data engineer at Automattic, and she shared some wonderful suggestions for conferences:
PyData Seattle
- I attended this conference because I have worked with data in Python over my entire career, and it was great to have a venue geared specifically towards that!
- While Python was the common thread throughout this conference, a number of other technologies and tools were discussed—R, Spark, Elasticsearch, and SQL. The workshops the day before the main event were particularly engaging and useful. I had much to take away from the conference and bring back to my team and my work.
- I believe this is a recurring event, though I haven’t heard any announcement about a 2024 event.
- I did give a talk about Openverse (a search engine for openly licensed media) at this event: Madison Swain-Bowden – Managing a search engine for over 600 million openly licensed media records.
Airflow Summit
- This is a yearly conference based around the workflow management tool Airflow.
- I use Airflow in my work, volunteering, and personal life, so attending a conference dedicated to the project was a wonderful experience. It was excellent to connect with folks who both use and build the project, see how they’re overcoming hurdles, and find out more about the project’s future.
- This is a recurring event, and the next edition is happening this September in San Francisco!
- I’ve spoken at several Airflow Summits in the past:
Women in Data Science: Puget Sound
- This is a yearly conference in the US Pacific Northwest area for women & non-binary folks in data science & data-related roles.
- As a woman in the data space, attending an event dedicated to gender minorities in my field is such a breath of fresh air. We share so many struggles and joys; having a platform to share them is wonderful!
- This is a recurring event, next happening on May 14th this year in Seattle.
- I haven’t spoken at this conference before, but I will speak this year about Airflow and will also be on a panel about women’s empowerment in leadership positions!
Let’s talk about talks
My colleague Firat, an Analytics Engineer, shared the following talks:
Plain Text – Dylan Beattie – NDC Oslo 2021
Dylan Beattie is an excellent speaker! He generally presents entertaining and insightful talks. In this talk, he provides a pretty comprehensive history of text encoding in software engineering. I didn’t expect that I’d laugh so much while learning new things about text encoding.
Igor Khrol: How to Test BigData/ETL Solutions?
Let me share this great presentation from @khroliz highlighting the thought put into our tech stack and the architecture of SQLT, the internal framework Automattic uses to transform SQL. We use this for much of our internal work.
How to use Data Contracts for Data Quality in your Airflow Ecosystem
Shirshanka Das is one of the minds behind the DataHub project. In this talk, he explains how the team uses Data Contracts as part of the DataHub to improve data quality. I found it informative. I also liked his product demo as part of the talk and seeing the practical side of things.
Other resources
WordPress TV
Joaquín, a Data Librarian, suggested WordPress TV. It’s an outstanding resource teeming with knowledge, covering a vast array of subjects not just limited to the WordPress open-source project, but extending to numerous aspects of web publishing and content distribution, and, of course, data.
Finding more tech conferences (online tool)
An excellent resource for additional conferences is https://confs.tech/data. This tool allows you to search for in-person (by topic or location) and online conferences on various topics, including data.
Benefits of Learning
While it may be obvious that learning is important, it’s very easy to get busy with daily work and forget about attending conferences, listening to talks, or generally learning from experts in the field. The best way to ensure that learning is part of your focus is to include it in your professional goals.
One approach that has worked quite well for some teams at Automattic is to make learning a team goal. For example, a team might set a goal to attend a certain number of conferences per quarter or listen to a talk and share insights. This makes it easier for the entire team to participate and encourages learning from one another.
What has your experience been like attending talks and conferences? Have you found a good way to share what you learned with your team?
Data for Breakfast