WiDS started at Stanford University in 2015. Now the one-day conference is held annually with help from ambassadors who organise regional events all over the world. It aims to inspire and educate data scientists worldwide and support women in the field. All genders are invited to attend WiDS events.

This was the first year the conference was held in Wellington—following the inaugural New Zealand conference in Auckland in 2018—and was hosted by Victoria Business School. More than 300 people attended the sold-out event, and the talks were also livestreamed.

Conference organiser Dr Mary Ellen Gordon from the University’s School of Information Management says the interest is unsurprising. “There is a lively data community in Wellington. There are meetups and forums regularly throughout the year, among other events, that are well attended.”

Dr Gordon co-organised the event with Kate Kolich, director of data systems and analytics at the Social Investment Agency.

Topics at the Wellington conference covered the good that data can do in solving all kinds of real world problems, the value of diversity in doing good data science, and how people can develop their careers in data science. Speakers included chief executive of Statistics New Zealand Liz MacPherson who was the keynote speaker, the University of Otago’s Donna Cormack who spoke about working with Māori data, and Massey University’s Dr Sally (Ake) Nicholas who spoke about processing tools for indigenous languages.

A podcast from WiDS Wellington is available online.

Dr Gordon says the conference was a great opportunity for academics working in data to interact with those who are applying the teaching and research they are working on.

“The conference also demonstrated the value of collaboration across schools and faculties at the University. We had support from our colleagues in the School of Mathematics and Statistics as well as colleagues from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, the Research office, Careers and Employment, Victoria Business School professional programmes, and Professional and Executive Development.”

There are a number of data-related initiatives happening at the University, including a number of professional short courses, and the new Data Science undergraduate major which can be studied under a Bachelor of Arts, Commerce, or Science.