APDU Board Member: Why Do We Attend the APDU Conference? Our Business Depends on It.
By: Elizabeth Nash, APDU Board Member
Although many APDU Conference attendees show up to share information about their government agencies’ data products, private companies like PolicyMap have a compelling business reason to attend: it’s the easiest, most reliable way to learn about what’s in store for data, and data is our lifeblood.
As a board member of APDU, each year I get to put together a session at the conference. This year, I’m responsible for the first day’s keynote on the Census Bureau’s challenge of balancing privacy and reliability. I had heard about the so-called “differential privacy” solution to privacy concerns in Census products, but I was eager to learn more—particularly about how privacy concerns will affect the quality of the data products we rely on so heavily at PolicyMap. We’ll get a chance to hear about the changes in store for Census 2020, the American Community Survey, and other data products. We’ll also get a glimpse of the implications of those decisions for Census data users down the road.
After the keynote, I’m looking forward to an animated lunchtime roundtable and conversation about the subject, hearing reactions from data users and Census employees on these changes.
Join us on July 9th and 10th in Arlington, VA at the APDU Annual Conference to hear the latest updates from public data providers and users.