DaDaDa 2017 - Intro and Welcome
We started with the concept of a full-day meetup in 2016. Our aim was to provide the entire community with the opportunity to participate at a sort of data science conference at the expense of a ticket to the movies.
Transcript summary
Introduction to Munich Data Geeks
The Munich Data Geeks is a non-profit club founded in 2015, operating as a registered association (Verein in German). The organization started with meetups back in 2013 and by the time of this event had organized 34 meetups. The club has 24 official members and the meetup group had just exceeded 3,500 members. The Datageeks Day 2017 was the second annual conference, with approximately 200 registered guests compared to 100 guests the previous year, plus 50 sponsors and additional speakers.
Organizational Philosophy and Vision
All activities are run by volunteers in their free time without paid staff, driven by the belief that Munich needs a platform to bring together people interested in data science. The organization observed through their meetups that there are distinct groups - people from industry, research institutions, government, and the broader community - each with different interests. The core mission is to facilitate connections and dialogue between these different groups.
Community-Driven Approach
The organization operates on a strongly community-driven model where content comes directly from participants. Speakers are not specially invited or paid; instead, community members approach the organizers with topics they want to present. The example given was someone wanting to present data analysis they did with their cat. This grassroots approach to content creation is a fundamental principle of the organization.
Organizational Development
Since founding, the Munich Data Geeks established connections with numerous partners from industry and research institutions including LMU (Ludwig Maximilian University) and TUM (Technical University of Munich). They began supporting other data science meetups in the area and developed relationships with government entities, including organizing a benefit hack day in collaboration with government organizations.
Digital Presence and Services
Beyond the meetup platform, the organization maintains a website at munich-data-geeks.de. The website features several sections including a news section for community-contributed content, information about partner meetups, and a completely free job portal specifically for data science positions in Munich. This job portal is free for both job seekers and companies posting positions.
Event Logistics and Venue
The event was hosted at Microsoft's location, with community leader Dennis providing venue guidelines. Key rules included no food in the conference room (food should be consumed in the atrium or kitchen), no smoking directly in front of the building, and general access rules for the office building. Free drinks were provided throughout the day, with beer available in the evening.
Event Schedule
The day's agenda included a welcome talk followed by the keynote, two talks before lunch (sponsored by Autonomous Intelligent Driving), three talks in the afternoon session, a 30-minute coffee break, three final talks, dinner (also sponsored by Autonomous Intelligent Driving), and a networking party ending at midnight sponsored by jambit.
Sponsorship Structure
The event had nine sponsors organized in tiers. Three lead sponsors provided major support: Microsoft donated the venue and facilities, Autonomous Intelligent Driving sponsored all food including fruit and meals, and jambit sponsored the evening networking party. Six additional sponsors supported the event: Product Maha, PwC Data Lab, Volkswagen Data Lab, Novartis, NORCOM, and Blackwood Seven. All sponsors had booths in the welcome area and provided various gifts for attendees.
Humorous Talk Proposal Anecdote
The speaker shared a lighthearted story about attempting to give their own talk. They analyzed what made the previous year's Datageeks Day successful, identifying talks about wheat and movie content not suitable for work. They then attempted several topic proposals that were all declined: a continuation of those themes, a machine learning project analyzing chem trails images using CNNs and sky-facing cameras, and an extension of Google's Deep Dream technology into the deep sleep phase. These rejections were ultimately for good reason as the event had secured nine excellent talks from ten different speakers.
Social Media Engagement Strategy
The organization encouraged participants to use the hashtag for Twitter and Facebook posts, which were displayed on a social media wall during the event. To incentivize participation, they offered two free tickets for the following year's Datageeks Day to the person whose post received the most retweets and likes. The meetup platform also had a feature allowing guests to upload photos directly to the event page.
Data Scientist-inator Initiative
A new crowdsourcing initiative was introduced based on observations that many Munich companies searching for data scientists lack clear understanding of what a data scientist actually is. The plan was to create an online service on their website featuring different types of data scientists with descriptions and required skills. Companies would answer a questionnaire and receive a customized job profile they could use directly in job postings.
To build this resource, three flip charts were set up outside the main room, each representing a different type of data scientist. Attendees were invited to write skills these professionals should possess during breaks. The collected information would be cleaned up, and participants would then vote on skills using stickers during the coffee break. The aggregated results would be published on the website after the event.
Social Media Contest
A contest was announced offering six data science books from O'Reilly as prizes. While the main social media challenge winner would receive two tickets for the next year's event, every person who posted content using the event hashtag on Twitter or Facebook would be entered into a random drawing for the books. This ensured that participants without large follower counts also had chances to win prizes. The organization's social media handles were provided: Munich Data Geeks on Facebook and Munich Data on Twitter.
Keynote Speaker Introduction
The welcome session concluded with an introduction of the keynote speaker, Abhishek Thakur, who serves as Chief Data Scientist at boost.ai. His notable achievement of attaining a worldwide Kaggle rank of three was highlighted as the reason for enthusiasm about his presentation on deep learning in industries.