We’re so excited that we’ve got just a few days left until we all meet up for Open Data Camp 8! This email includes where to go, when to go there and other useful information.

First thing first: If your plans have changed and you can’t make it, please cancel your order so we can release your tickets

Location: Open Data Camp 8 will be held at Springfield Campus, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton WV10 0JP

Plan for the weekend:

Saturday
Arrive from 9:30
10:00 Welcome and Intro
10:15 Pitching starts
11:15 First session starts
13:00ish Lunch
16:30 Last session finishes

And then… Pub!
The pub is booked from 5
Great Western, Corn Hill, Wolverhampton WV10 0DG
The first round is on our fabulous sponsors (be reasonable please!)

Sunday
Arrive from 10:00
10:30 Welcome and Intro
10:45 Pitching starts
11:30 First session starts
13:15ish Lunch
15:45 Last session finishes, farewell
16:00 Time to leave!

Food
Lunch will be available both days. Big thanks to all those who completed our food form.
If you have special dietary needs but have not completed the form, unfortunately we can’t adjust the order with the caterer so please consider making your own arrangements.

Travel
There are loads of different ways to get to the Springfield Campus, you can find all the travel details here.

And finally, please take a look at our Code of Conduct. This is an important part of how we keep Open Data Camp the friendly, welcoming and supportive event that it is. If you have any concerns while at the camp, you can speak with one of our volunteers, who will be clearly spottable in our somewhat classy maroon campmaker t-shirts.

Oliver Buckley of the Government Digital Service has has today posted a blog entry about GDS sponsoring Open Data Camp 4.

We are very grateful to GDS and all our sponsors for their support, without whom the event would be impossible to put on. The full list of sponsors, with links to their websites, can be found on our sponsors page.

By Tom Smith, Managing Director, ONS Data Science Campus

Open Data Camp is a great community-building event, and a hugely creative space to compare notes and work alongside people tackling some of the most important and challenging data problems. I blogged about OD Camp 3 in Bristol here, which was one of my highlights from last year. So I’m totally delighted that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are sponsoring Open Data Camp 4 which is Cardiff bound this weekend.

I joined ONS last month to setup and lead the Data Science Campus, ONS’s hub and incubator for analysis announced in last year’s Budget, and based at the main ONS offices in Newport. Our goal is to explore how data sources such as administrative data and social data, and techniques such as machine learning and natural language parsing, can improve our understanding of the UK’s economy, communities and people. Our research programme is based around ‘People, Planet and Prosperity’, and will deliver projects under five themes: urban and rural future; society; sustainability; evolving economy and UK in a global context.

As well as running exploratory projects with partners across government, academia, industry and not-profits, we are also building capacity – increasing the pipeline of data science skills into government and more widely. From December we have been running the UK’s first data analytics apprenticeships, programme with 8 apprentices in the Newport Campus – and applications for the next round are open until 26 February. We are also funding a number of students to study for PhD and Masters in data science, and mentoring students on the Government wide Data Science accelerator programme.

We are formally launching the Campus at ONS’s HQ in Newport next month, and over the next few weeks we will be starting to take the wraps off our research programme. If you are interested in pushing the boundaries of data science and statistics and research for the public good, do come and find me at Open Data Camp to talk – I look forward to meeting you!

Tom Smith