Pre-Conference Training
HEDW 2025 Conference offers two opportunities to extend your conference experience. Please note that you must be a HEDW 2025 Conference attendee to leverage either of these pre-conference training opportunities. The training sessions run concurrently on Sunday, April 6. These training sessions are add-ons to the conference registration and the cost for each training session is $600/attendee. Registration will be available when the conference registration opens in mid-January.
Data Engineering Workshop with Joe Reis
Description: This hands-on workshop provides a comprehensive overview of modern data engineering principles and techniques. Based on the book "Fundamentals of Data Engineering," this workshop will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to design, build, and maintain robust data architectures.
Pre-requisites: Preferably Python and SQL, but the examples can be followed along too
Target Audience: Software engineers, data analysts, data scientists, and anyone interested in learning data engineering with a mix of theory and hands-on examples.
Syllabus:
Hour 1: Introduction & Foundations
- Welcome and introduction
- Icebreaker activity to get participants comfortable and introduce themselves.
- Workshop objectives and learning outcomes.
- Overview of the workshop schedule.
- What is Data Engineering?
- What is data engineering?
- The data engineering lifecycle
- The undercurrents of the data engineering lifecycle
- Who do data engineers work with?
- Common technologies and tools
Hour 2: Source Systems
- What are source systems?
- Types of source systems
- Hands-on lab - technical
Hour 3: Data Ingestion
- What is data ingestion?
- Data ingestion patterns
- Hands-on lab - technical
Hour 4: Storage
- What is storage?
- Types of storage
- Hands-on lab - technical
Hour 5: Queries, Data Modeling, and Data Transformation
- What are queries?
- Query patterns
- Data modeling
- Common data modeling approaches
- Data transformation techniques
- Hands-on lab - technical
Hour 6: Serving Data
- Who do I serve data to?
- Stakeholders and what they need
- Hands-on lab - technical
Hour 7: Architecture and Choosing Technologies
- What is architecture?
- How to choose the right tools and technologies
- Hands-on lab - scenario discussion
Hour 8: Wrap-up Q&A and Next Steps
- Q&A and Discussion:
- Open forum for questions and discussion on any topic covered in the workshop.
- Workshop Feedback and Closing:
- Collect feedback from participants to improve future workshops.
- Final remarks and thank you.
Joe Reis, a "recovering data scientist" with 20 years in the data industry, is the co-author of the best-selling O'Reilly book, "Fundamentals of Data Engineering." He’s also the instructor for the wildly popular Data Engineering Professional Certificate on Coursera, in partnership with DeepLearning.ai and AWS.
Joe’s extensive experience encompasses data engineering, data architecture, machine learning, and more. He regularly keynotes major data conferences globally, advises and invests in innovative data product companies, writes at Practical Data Modeling and his personal blog, and hosts the popular data podcasts "The Monday Morning Data Chat" and "The Joe Reis Show." In his free time, Joe is dedicated to writing new books and articles, and thinking of ways to advance the data industry.
Visualizing Higher Education Data with Ann K. Emery
This hands-on workshop is designed for higher education staff in colleges and universities looking to enhance their skills in data visualization. The session will focus on best practices for creating clear, effective, and engaging data visualizations, tailored specifically to the needs of academic institutions. Participants will learn how to present complex data in ways that are both accessible and actionable for diverse audiences, including faculty, students, and administrators. The workshop will cover key principles such as choosing the right chart type, simplifying data for clarity, and ensuring accessibility for all viewers.
The workshop will provide a mix of theory and practice, with a focus on real-world applications relevant to higher education. Through guided exercises, participants will explore how to visualize data related to enrollment trends, student outcomes, budget allocations, and other key institutional metrics. Practical tips on color theory, labeling, and storytelling with data will be highlighted, along with strategies for avoiding common pitfalls in data visualization.
In addition to discussing best practices, participants will engage in hands-on practice using Microsoft Excel. Excel is a powerful tool widely available in higher education settings, and this session will teach participants how to leverage its built-in features to create informative visualizations. From basic chart creation to more advanced techniques, attendees will gain the confidence and skills to start visualizing their own institutional data in Excel immediately after the workshop.
By the end of the session, participants will leave with a deeper understanding of data visualization principles and practical skills that can be applied directly to their work in higher education. Whether presenting data to a committee, crafting reports for administrators, or analyzing institutional trends, this workshop will empower staff to communicate more effectively using data visualizations that resonate with their audiences.
About the Presenter:
Ann K. Emery is an internationally acclaimed speaker who equips organizations to get their data out of dusty spreadsheets and into real-world conversations.
Each year, she delivers over 100 keynotes, workshops, and webinars with the aim of equipping organizations to visualize data more effectively.
She has been invited to speak in 31 states and 11 countries; 10,000 people have enrolled in her online training academy; and she has consulted to 200 organizations, including the United Nations, Centers for Disease Control, and Harvard University.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree from George Mason University.
After traveling full-time as a digital nomad, Ann now resides in Florida along with her husband and five children.is an internationally acclaimed speaker who equips organizations to get their data out of dusty spreadsheets and into real-world conversations.
Each year, she delivers over 100 keynotes, workshops, and webinars with the aim of equipping organizations to visualize data more effectively.
She has been invited to speak in 31 states and 11 countries; 10,000 people have enrolled in her online training academy; and she has consulted to 200 organizations, including the United Nations, Centers for Disease Control, and Harvard University.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree from George Mason University.
After traveling full-time as a digital nomad, Ann now resides in Florida along with her husband and five children.