The inaugural National Data Analysts’ Conference took place on Monday (1 March), with 130 delegates fulfilling a desire for further training and the sharing of best practice.
Organised by Road Safety GB and Road Safety Analysis, ‘Joining the dots’ brought collision and casualty data analysts together for the first time.
There was an underlying determination among delegates to make data more accessible and more useful, in terms of policy, practice and public understanding.
Speakers included the DfT’s Dr Daryl Lloyd, TRL’s Brian Lawton and TfL’s Alexandre Santacreu. Road Safety GB’s Honor Byford and Jeremy Phillips also hosted sessions at the event.
The presentations covered topics including more accessible means of digesting road casualty data, how data plays out in public, and specific case studies of data networks. A majority of the presentations are now available to download on the event website.
The conference also marked the launch of a new national analysts’ network which has been established to connect professionals in facilitated regional groupings and through an online community.
Many delegates filled in sign-up cards to access the beta site and connections are being made across regions to support professionals who are often otherwise quite isolated in their work.
Running alongside the main event was an exhibition, which featured five organisations – Romex, Vysionics, 3M, Buchanan Computing and Road Safety Analysis.
Honor Byford, chair of Road Safety GB, said: "Spending an entire day with 130 analysts was a new experience for us all and I have to say we had a really good, educational and enjoyable day together!
"I certainly learned a lot and I hope everyone else did too. We made some good new contacts between disciplines and among people from the same regional area that should provide a firm foundation on which to build.
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