The 2024 call for workshops and conference sessions is now closed.

Data Days is a local conference focused on promoting the use of data in the nonprofit and civic sectors (civic data). Data Days sparks conversation, ideas, and builds capacity in the space where data, information, and community intersect. Civic data is information and data that comes from governments, nonprofits, libraries, and other community-based organizations, and information about the human or environmental components of a community. Here’s an accessible definition of civic data, and a second, more technical one.

Why: In an era where data can be used to reinforce existing biases and structural problems, we believe in the imperative to make data an equalizing force in solving community problems, lending power to the disadvantaged.

Data Days is looking for workshop and conference session proposals for 2024.

Workshop day is Tuesday, September 17th. Workshops are hands-on learning opportunities focused on a data set, technology, or skill. They are 1 hour and 50 minutes long and need to have a mix of instructional time and hands-on time. 

Conference day is Tuesday, October 22nd.  Conference sessions are a total of 50 minutes long, but your total presentation time depends on your proposed session type. We think a variety of session formats make for a good conference. Session types are described below.

  • Singular presenter or panel presentation: made up of a single presenter or a group of presenters and a facilitator. The presentation component must be kept to 30 minutes, reserving 20 minutes for audience Q&A.

  • Lightning talk: a brief 5 minute presentation, usually given by a single presenter, given the short time frame. Conference planners group lightning talks together into a session or two with time for attendee Q&A.

  • Out-of-the-box: have an idea for a session but it doesn’t fit either type above? Choose this type and tell us more about how the session will work. This format can be anything outside of a traditional presentation. A few examples; facilitated conversations with all session attendees (moderated panels fit in the panel presentation format above), a gamified session where participants are interactively guided through an experience or process, an art display of data, or anything else you can imagine.

With both workshops and sessions, we’ll be cultivating a mix of sessions that speak to the following audiences:

  • The data curious: people who are new to thinking about and using data in the civic space. Sessions that are aimed at this audience are beginner friendly and don’t require any prerequisite knowledge Example potential sessions: A Beginner’s Guide to Census Data, What Community Members Should Know About AI, A Guide To Understanding the City Budget.

  • The experienced civic data user/data professional. Sessions aimed at this audience cover more in-depth or technical topics that may require some prerequisite knowledge. Example potential sessions: Building Data Pipelines with Civic Data, New Accessible Data Tools, Ethical AI and Civic Decision Making.

  • The data and civic tech community. Sessions aimed at this audience offer opportunities to build connections among conference participants, focus on reflection and lessons learned in this community, and generally are helpful in building civic tech and data capacity. Example potential sessions: Centering Humanity in Civic Data and Decisions, How Are You Making Data More Accessible? (a discussion), Research Question Speed Dating.

Want to see an example? Here are a few proposals from 2023.

Have a great idea that just doesn’t quite fit with what’s described above? Have any other questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected]

Submit your proposal here:

The call for proposals closes July 12, 2024.


Data Days CLE is organized by a conference planning committee made up of civic data and tech enthusiasts in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. The planning committee is led by April Urban, Signal Cleveland, and Will Skora, Cleveland Public Library and Open Cleveland.

April Urban was the director of research and impact for Signal Cleveland through December, 2024 striving to bring transparency to local civic data.