A rapidly growing data analytics and AI conference broadening from its initial focus on women in the field has landed keynote speakers from Google and Intel Corp. for July's event in Columbus.
Women in Analytics, the nonprofit professional organization that produces the DataConnect conference, also has named a new leader as founder Rehgan Avon concentrates on her own AI consulting startup.
New CEO Kelsey Dingelstedt had joined the group as managing director one year ago.
"My goal is to continue the mission and the idea that Rehgan and the rest of the WIA team started with – and amplify those into a community that people are really excited to participate in," Dingelstedt said in an interview.
Avon founded Women in Analytics in 2016, her senior year at Ohio State University. The industrial systems engineering major was in a group of 10 students assembling a multidisciplinary concentration in data analytics. Then she went to a Columbus AI meetup event.
"I was the youngest by far and I was maybe one of two women in the room," Avon said. "They even asked me if I was lost."
Women were definitely in the industry, she said, but in many ways it was a problem of nomenclature as software tools were emerging to replace data crunching long done by hand. For example, insurance actuaries were doing data analytics but didn't call it that.
The first Women in Analytics conference on campus attracted 150 attendees. Last year's – rebranded as DataConnect – drew 1,000 (about one-fourth attending virtually). This year's target is 1,200 in-person and online attendees.
Things have improved: About a quarter of attendees are men, and the group wants the conference to appeal to a wider audience, hence the new name.
"We wanted to be the best conference for data – and it just so happened all the speakers were women," Avon said.
This year's keynote lineup so far:
- Cassie Kozyrkov, chief decision scientist at Google – and such an in-demand speaker she has an online Google form to send requests.
- Chip Huyen, founder & CEO of Claypot AI, Stanford University instructor of machine learning and author of Designing Machine Learning Systems.
- Stephanie Domas, chief security technology strategist at Intel.
This year's theme is "data as a product," Dingelstedt said, with five topic tracks appealing to different aspects of a highly technical audience.
DataConnect also has its first regional satellite event in March in Portland, Oregon.
Women in Analytics, meanwhile, is growing beyond the conference as a membership-driven professional organization providing year-round training and resources. Of some 4,600 members, nearly 100 are dues-paying – and Dingelstedt aims to boost that proportion with members-only features such as online skills tutorials with live instructors and a jobs platform.
Avon remains on the board but is stepping back from operations at the nonprofit to focus on AlignAI Inc., which she co-founded with two partners as a consulting group to help businesses more effectively adopt data analytics. They are developing software to automate their process and templates for clients.
Dingelstedt came from the hospitality industry in restaurants and hotels, and her focus on event management and content curation will boost the organization's impact, Avon said.
The industry is not just about math and technology, Dingelstedt said.
"People forget data people are also people," she said. "They want to communicate, they want to network, they want to feel cherished and build their skills."
There are other conferences that focus on women in the industry. Stanford's Women in Data Science has 200 events worldwide yearly totaling 100,000 participants.
DataConnect is growing in reputation, Avon said. Also, to help address its own problem finding speakers, the nonprofit started a series coaching women who work in the field on public speaking.
"Other conferences look at our lineup and grab speakers from our event," Avon said. "We’re definitely pumping more women into the speaker circuit."
