Speaking

I’ve been speaking about data at public and private events for over 10 years (see our timeline for a sample).  Please drop me a line to find out if we are available for your conference, workshop, event, or class.  Email me at rahulbot @ gmail [dot] com.

Topics

I can do workshops or lectures, for small or large audiences.  To be honest, I most like doing workshops for small groups.  I work with you to flesh out goals and desired outcomes, and then I craft and agenda to fit, usually using various version of my hands-on activities.  Here are some of the things I like talking about:

  • bringing people together around data
  • using the arts to understand and interpret data
  • tools and approaches for scraping data
  • finding stories in data
  • creative data presentation
  • working with data and community groups
  • data literacy
  • tools and approaches for cleaning data
  • data analysis as civic engagement

Videos

I’ve got a playlist on YouTube with some videos of speaking events that were recorded.

Here is a video of a more academic talk, for the US National Academies:

Testimonials

I could tell you about myself all day, but here are some quotes from folks telling how they felt about my workshops:

Amidst the fog of buzzwords and confusion about data, you need someone like Rahul to shine a light through the haze.  Rahul is one of those rare, gifted communicators – he doesn’t just talk you through an idea, he brings you on a journey.  His lectures are an inspiring mix of education, insight, and, most importantly fun.

Jake Porway, DataKind

Rahul’s presentation and abitlity to pivot on the information from the attendees was stellar. He’s a great teacher.

attendee at a workshop

Rahul brings his whole heart to his workshops. He is energetic, knows how to mix serious learning with fun and is a pleasure to work with. Rahul is an excellent multi disciplinary trainer, bringing his theoretical and applied knowledge to the group, taking them on a wonderful journey through data, visualisation and story-telling.

Stephanie Hankey, Tactical Technology  Collective

The Justice Lab aims to provide a different kind of education than the typical law school classroom, and Rahul’s session was both a highly effective example of interactive learning and invaluable to students looking for ways to present their ideas to the world, both now and in legal and non-legal careers.

Jacob Lipton, Justice Lab @ Harvard Law School

I’ve never had this experience to play with data and art.   And data can be translated into art.

participant in a data mural

Rahul’s trainings at the Media Lab are easily among of the most popular and highly rated among my AmeriCorps RISE Fellows receive each year. Rahul does an excellent job of demonstrating how data can be used to effectively to tell the stories of mission-driven organizations. After each training, my Fellows leave with a better sense of how they can use their organization’s data to tell stories that build relationships and engage with wider audiences.

Zack Dagneau, New Sector Alliance

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