The Analysis Function's Michelle Bowen is an integral part of the planning team for our very first Analysis in Government month this May and tells us why connecting analysts together is like assembling a group of superheroes! Over to you Michelle:
"We love a movie night in the Bowen household. Most recently we have been re-watching all the Marvel Avengers superhero movies (in chronological order!). What have Marvel movies got to do with analysts I hear you ask? Well…
Over the past few months, I have been working on Analysis in Government month. A campaign of events, activities and content to celebrate all things analysis. The month has the theme #AnalysisConnect and aims to bring together analysts from across government and professions to connect and collaborate. We want to encourage collaboration with others including our users, local government analysts, academics and others. We have a jam-packed month of really varied content - I'm so excited!
I like to think that analysts have superpowers!
You may be a whizz at R, a data-collection champ or a first-rate data-vizzer. The key thing about the Avengers is that each of the superheroes which are part of the group bring different skills, experiences and personalities. Each superhero exists and are successful on their own but sometimes the group need to pull together and work as a team to solve a problem. To me this sounds a bit like all the different professions in the Analysis Function. The Analysis Function is a wide and diverse community of people made up actuaries, economists, operational researchers, social researchers, statisticians and data scientists, analysts within the Digital, Data and Technology Profession and aspiring analysts. All these professions and areas have skilled analysts in different techniques and work types, but sometimes we all need to pool our resources to achieve our goal (hopefully not defeating an evil villain).
Now we're not saying that we are similar to Nick Fury and the Agents of Shield, but… the Analysis in Government month planning team have been busy pulling together an amazing schedule of events to attract all you analyst superheroes to join in the fun.
For example, all you Tony Stark types out there will enjoy the amazing webinars on innovation and methodological work including a session on the Integrated Data Programme and its importance for analysts across government or our panel session on 'the role of analysis in achieving net zero'.
Spiderpeople who are looking for ways to join the Analysis Function or climb up the ladder should look out for our event on success profiles and our blog post on '5 Things You Didn't Know About Fast Streams in the Analysis Function'.
Any Captain Americas who are looking to update their skills may find our training sessions on building accessible spreadsheets or an introduction to data visualisation useful.
To bring everyone together we will be running Analysis Function coffee connect sessions, sharing information on mentoring and hosting a hackathon to enable you to work with others on a small analytical project. We also have lots of content and events to help us understand more about the Analysis Function, the professions within the Analysis Function and the opportunities which are available to us as members of the Analysis Function.
Our month kicks off with a launch event on Tuesday 4 May with a keynote speech from Head of the Analysis Function and National Statistician, Professor Sir Ian Diamond and a panel session discussing the future of analysis in government. The month is then filled with a range of blog-posts, news articles, training sessions, webinars, videos, panel sessions, social media content and more.
