Summer School applications are open!

When Peter Jackson and I began running a summer school for data leaders back in 2018, we had no idea of how popular it would become. All previous Summer Schools have been oversubscribed as aspiring data leaders from around the world apply to go back to school with their peers. And, just like data, the summer school programme is going through a constant process of evolution, with this year no different.

So, with applications for spaces on the data journey of the year now open, what can data leaders expect from this years’ Carruthers and Jackson Summer School?

At this point, I should probably let you in on where the idea for a summer school for data leaders comes from. It all stems from a coffee I was meant to be having with Summer School co-founder Peter Jackson, and my friend Natasha Lauer, now at Soda. Peter was characteristically late (sorry Peter buts its true), so Tash and I got talking about how much we wished we’d had a way of connecting with and learning from our peers in the data world when we started out in our careers. We bounced ideas off of each other and, once Peter arrived, the idea for a summer school for data professionals had well and truly taken root.

That beginning really sums up the Summer School project. It’s fun, collaborative and, most importantly, it’s based on a desire to connect with future data leaders and help them and their organisations grow in their understanding and use of data.

The first thing alumni of our previous summer schools will tell you is that our classes are very image heavy! We focus on visuals rather than slides full of text for two main reasons: first, we want classes to be as accessible as possible, which means using visuals to guide conversations rather than sticking to a rigid, text-based programme. There’s also a practical reason for using images (mainly cartoons!); the data world is constantly evolving, and so too are the summer school’s sessions. Our cartoons allow us to stick to a loose outline whilst giving us the flexibility to adapt what we’re talking about to reflect the latest updates in the data world.

Coincidentally, a lot of the time those updates and innovations in the data world can be traced back to the Summer School classroom. Data leaders learn as much from each other as they do from Peter and I, and our aim is to create an atmosphere where data professionals can connect with one another and bounce ideas around. We end up learning just as much from Summer School attendees as they do from us, but there’s also a nice circularity to the project; the discussions we have in the Summer School classroom very often provoke new ideas about how we see and interact with data.

The Carruthers and Jackson Summer School is very much an interactive process, and in a way, we’ve consciously tried to make our classes mirror data. Just like data, our classes are most useful if you interrogate them, learn from them and try to bring them to life.

I’m so excited to meet the Carruthers and Jackson Summer School class of 2021. Please make sure you don’t miss out by applying now!