NJI’s Day at DC Week

Last week Thursday I was lucky enough to represent NJI Media at Digital Capital Week’s core conference with the rest of our team. NJI sponsored the event and the team had a great time hanging out with our office mascot, the NJI Panda, and talking with folks from the district’s digital scene. I think everyone else at the conference had fun meeting our panda and grabbing a few of our notebooks to jot down what they learned in the sessions throughout the day. If you got your picture with the panda, you can see it in our DC Week slideshow here.

If you haven’t been to DC Week before, it’s definitely worth a stop. iStrategy Labs and Tech Cocktail join forces every year to put on this great, weeklong conference of speakers, panels, parties and more all focused on the digital, tech and startup culture found in Washington, DC. Taking place at Artisphere, I sat through a few panels including “Examining the 2012 Election Through the Eyes of Social Analytics” and “The New Economy: Technology for Social Impact.” One of the main themes I and a few other NJI conference-goers noticed throughout the discussion on Thursday was the heavy emphasis on data and what it’s used for. This was really exciting as much of what we base our decisions on at work is driven by the data we collect and how we can use that to make an impact. Data of all sorts has always been key, but until recently, it was just noted as important without any real action associated with it. Now, I see more startups and digital firms making it part of their foundation.

This may be due to the fact that measurement has come a long way and tools have been developed to effectively gather data and process it. Also, we have a lot of data now. The election panel this year had 2008 to compare the social media response to and how that changed. We didn’t have that the last time around. Having such benchmarks has become key and organizations are using it to dictate the direction of their work.

DC Week speakers such as Travis Kalanick and Noah Kunin did great jobs of highlight how the range of private, startup companies to big government agencies can collect and mobilize data to help. Kalanick, Uber CEO, discussed how they use data everyday to provide a quality service. Kunin works in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and went over just how information can be harnessed to help hundreds.

The ability to bring such diverse organizations such as Uber and a government agency together for a discussion is one of the best things about DC Week and why NJI Media enjoyed being a part of it.

NJI Team: Jason Glisson, Mike Calvo, Morgan Gress, NJI Panda, Brea MacIsaac & Jeff Hubbard