As I’ve touched on in prior posts, being involved with important causes in our local communities is one of the things that makes InterWorks a special place to work for. There are plenty of company-organized opportunities lined up throughout the year, giving each person a chance to participate as time allows. I am especially passionate about certain groups, and I’m supported in sourcing my own events to attend as well. 

As a former Oklahoma State University alumnus, I am familiar with many of the non-profit groups that are staples to the city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, such as Special Olympics Oklahoma. Their 2024 Summer Games marks the 39th time that OSU has hosted this meaningful event. In fact, the Summer Games anticipated 4,600 athletes this year, making it the largest Special Olympics Summer Games held in the country. 

With such a large number of registrants expected in Stillwater over a three day span, there are lots of notifications that get generated through InterWorks internal email and social channels asking for volunteers. In fact, signing up to participate might have been the easiest decision I made all year. Some of the planned events included golf, powerlifting and cornhole. All told, though, my favorite is always the track and field competition.   

The Summer Games were held May 15 – 17. This year’s Summer Games marked the 55th anniversary of the annual event in Oklahoma. As Oklahomans know, the weather may not always play nice. This year was no exception, as storms caused some outdoor events to get canceled or rescheduled to different days. That didn’t damper anyone’s spirits though. For me, at least, it meant double the events and double the fun for the day I volunteered.  

Watching the focus and preparation from the athletes as I led many of them to their starting lines was so inspirational. There’s a sense of celebration and togetherness that can’t be put into words. As the flags were dropped, and runners made their way around the track, the clapping was thunderous and a majority of the spectators who were able stood proudly cheering on all of the competitors.  

Once each race concluded, athletes were met with high fives from volunteers and escorted to an awards tent. Here, competitors had their pictures taken on a red carpet and medals were handed out. Coaches and families of the athletes got to watch as runners were encouraged and celebrated for their efforts. Of course, the first-place finishers were all smiles, but everyone walked away a winner from there. 

I’m always thankful that InterWorks supports our individual efforts to volunteer, both by having organized days set aside for InterWorkers to volunteer, as well as providing us with a bunch of hours off each year we can specifically use for our own volunteering needs.

If you would like to get involved with Special Olympics Oklahoma, either through a generous donation or as a volunteer for one of the local or state events, head on over to their website and check out the remaining slate of games and fundraisers planned for the year. It might just be the easiest decision you make all year, too.

The post InterWorks Causes: Special Olympics Oklahoma appeared first on InterWorks.

Giving back is a major component of the InterWorks philosophy. Being deliberate and encouraging employees to spend time in the community to help organizations and causes they are passionate about is equally important as growing our business.

Above: InterWorkers volunteer at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

Throughout 2022, many employees from our Oklahoma offices volunteered their time at food banks and food pantries packing meals, stocking shelves and delivering food, as there are many Oklahomans who struggle with hunger every day. Around 15% of households in Oklahoma lack resources to provide regular meals for one or more of its household members. One in four children in the state are food insecure. While the national average of food insecure households has dropped in the last 10 years, Oklahoma has remained steady. That’s why organizations like the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and Our Daily Bread are so important.

Across Oklahoma, food banks in particular help to provide nearly 70 million pounds of food to the community, oftentimes serving those in need with multiple meals per day. Specifically, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma accounts for nearly 50 million pounds of food annually, distributing across much of the most populous parts of central and western Oklahoma. They call on volunteers and donations regularly to keep up with the demand of those thousands that rely on them for food assistance.

Above: InterWorkers at the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, another regional food bank.

There are also hundreds of local food and resource centers across the state of Oklahoma. Many like Our Daily Bread in Stillwater, Oklahoma will serve multiple surrounding areas. These types of local organizations especially lower the gap to finding food quickly. The Our Daily Bread organization lets residents of Payne County come “shop” for free groceries, partnering with many local partners like churches, restaurants and grocery stores to keep their shelves full.

Ultimately, the goal for all of these organizations is to reduce the number of residents in the state of Oklahoma experiencing hunger.

And thankfully, many of the effects of long-term food insecurity can be reversed almost entirely with sustainable and direct efforts to help those in need. So, with continued meal gap programs and hunger charities, whether a large nonprofit or a local one, we can all envision a state where no one goes hungry and food insecurity is a thing of the past. During this holiday season and beyond, please consider making donations or serving at a food pantry to help join the fight against hunger.

Above: A few of the InterWorkers that have volunteered at their local food bank this season.

The post InterWorks Causes: Food Insecurity in Oklahoma appeared first on InterWorks.

Information technology is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors. Data, analytics and technology have permeated through all aspects of our lives, and it is safe to say that in all sectors and industries, there are data problems to be solved. Just in Australia, the IT sector is forecast to grow by 5.4% on average per year, for a total of 1.1 million workers by 2026. This is more than four times the expected growth rate of the work force at large.

DataWomen is all about supporting and empowering women in data and our data friends. This aim of fostering a great community is what led us to put together this session. We started to think about topics like:

• What in the world of data is bringing competitive advantages to our companies?
• Why is it important that more females participate in this?
• How does someone start progressing their career and benefiting from the untapped potential of exciting data roles out there?

Below, we revisit some of the highlights from of the recent event. You can catch the full recording at the bottom of the post!

What is Advanced Analytics?

We chatted about advanced analytics (AA) being the automatic or semi-automatic examination of data using specialised tools and techniques, typically beyond those of traditional business intelligence (BI), to discover deeper insights, make predictions, or generate recommendations. Using advanced analytics can make the difference for the companies stuck between keeping up with the competition or falling further behind.

We also talked about machine learning being the science of getting computers to learn from experience and perform tasks automatically. Basically, it works by combining large amounts of data with fast, iterative processing and intelligent algorithms, allowing the software to learn automatically from patterns or features in the data. With the current high performing cloud computing technologies, and the vast amount of data that is been collected; there has never been a greater time to experiment with machine learning.

There are so many great examples of how currently advanced analytics are being used. Nike, for example, uses predictive analysis to forecast consumer demand on a hyper-local level, which helps them to optimise their inventory and develop more targeted campaigns. Retail uses clustering techniques to create upselling and cross-channel marketing opportunities. Even in our everyday life, we make use of advanced analytics like, for example, how Google Maps uses predictive analytics to suggest to us the best route to our destination, or how our email providers use text mining and pattern recognition to be able to provide spam filtering options.

Gender Gap and the Motivation to Close it

“Today, women and girls are 25 per cent less likely than men to know how to leverage digital technology for basic purposes, 4 times less likely to know how to programme computers and 13 times less likely to file for technology patent. At a moment when every sector is becoming a technology sector, these gaps should make policy-makers, educators and everyday citizens ‘blush’ in alarm”

2019, UNESCO

DataWomen has always advocated for diversity. Different studies have shown that diversity increases the performance of a team by having different points of view to learn from. During our webinar, we talked about two examples that showed that lack of diversity in the technology groups developing two different products.

The first one was Apple releasing its new iOS 8 in 2014 which included a HealthKit app that promised to “let you see your whole health picture.” This app would be able to track everything from sleep, BMI and weight weight, to some obscure data such as selenium and copper intake. It was, however, missing the one thing that most of us females would be interested to track: our periods.

Our second example came from the Amazon ML specialists group that was working on developing a recruiting engine that would score the resumes from 1 to 5. In 2018, they discovered a big problem with said engine: it did not like women. The issue was that it was trained to vet applicants by observing patterns in resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period. Most came from men, a reflection of male dominance across the tech industry. The engine was penalising resumes that included the word “women,” like in “women’s chess club” or “Women’s College.”

This demonstrated twofold the importance of closing the gender gap in AI/ML:

• Awareness, education and skills. We need people to be informed of what AI is and how it works so that they can critically assess personal and societal risks and benefits from the impact of AI.
• Increase awareness within the industry and address the issues of a lack of representation and bias within used training data.

What are We Going to do About it?

We can start by understanding that there are so many roles to participate in the information technology world! The possibilities are endless. If something interests you, explore it and see where it can take you. There are so many roles, like data engineers, data scientists or data analysts.

Some of the benefits of getting into the data spectrum are:

• Almost every industry is moving towards AA and ML, which means plenty of opportunities!
• Become eligible for a wide range of roles like data analyst, data scientist, data engineer, etc.
• Career growth and strong pay scaling!
• Flexibility to work remotely from anywhere around the world.
• Plenty of amazing data science tools available in the market for upskilling.

How to get started, you ask?

Well, there are so many ways. There are plenty of free, or almost-free courses, to get started, plus meetups, volunteering opportunities, mentorship programs or data hackathons! Check out the recording of our session with Dataiku, Everyday AI, to get started.

Be part of the DataWomen Community!

DataWomen is intentional about relationship-building and empowerment. We cover meaningful topics in our events, like salary negotiations and productivity at home, host small group chats with amazing women in our community and support a mentoring program. You can learn more about our programming at our landing page, and check out our LinkedIn group to be the first to know what’s next!

We’re always on the lookout for stellar individuals to contribute to DataWomen and help it thrive. If that sounds like you or someone you know, reach out to Azucena Coronel, Beth Kairys, Carol Prins or Debbie Yu. See you next time!

The post DataWomen Event Recap: Everyday AI appeared first on InterWorks.

The year 2020 provided new, and at times harsh, perspectives on the ways we go about our lives. In light of this, InterWorks used the holiday season as an opportunity to examine what matters most. As a result, our CEO, Behfar, had the idea to donate to chosen non-profit organizations around the world on behalf of our employees. After selections were made and data was collected, we challenged our three BI interns to come up with compelling stories to tell in Tableau. We asked Kelsey, John and Ben to briefly reflect on the data stories they wanted to tell and the holiday donations effort as a whole.

A Story of Impact

Ben Calder

I was once told by a colleague here at InterWorks that data visualizations are only as effective as the stories they tell. There are plenty of acceptable strategies when it comes to deciding what that story is, but the story itself should be priority #1 and crystal clear to your audience. The story I wanted to drive an audience towards with this data viz was the global impact resulting from actions taken in Stillwater, OK—InterWorks’ Global HQ.

I thought for a while about which visual or visuals I could incorporate to highlight this information while making Stillwater a key component. I knew that our people were spread across many areas of the world, so I started scraping geographic data to see where the organizations were located. This subsequently landed me on an article about origin destination maps. This visual is most effective when you want to show a myriad of outcomes originating from a single geographic location. This was perfect because, though our people are dispersed around the world, our heartbeat is in Stillwater. The resulting dashboard is one where an audience gets a unique picture of how a tech consultancy in Oklahoma positively contributes to global causes.

Walking the Walk

During my time at InterWorks, I have learned the power of a promise. Behfar talks about the idea of using our talents here to truly make the world a better place. Certainly over the last year, many of us may have taken action to do just that. Through InterWorks’ ongoing work with non-profits, the clients we serve and this recent donations effort, I see us delivering on that promise to make the world a better place. There is always more to be done, but the dollars contributed to these organizations seems like a great place to start.

Check out my viz below:

A Story of Purpose

Kelsey Frank

What is the purpose of a story? To inspire action? To garner interest? A single set of data can be used to generate an almost infinite number of stories, a principle which is clearly expressed through Ben’s, John’s and my distinctly different dashboards. In a year rife with misfortune, the story I wanted to tell focused on the types of charitable causes closest to our hearts. In order to better understand the types of nonprofit organizations InterWorks employees donated to during the holiday season, I gathered data based on a classification system known as the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE). Utilized as a means of classifying nonprofit organizations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), the NTEE system assigns alphanumeric codes based on each organization’s primary service(s). By compiling this data and transforming it into a visual format via Tableau, I hoped to allow viewers to better understand what types of charities received the most interest and support as we closed out this memorable (i.e. chaotic) year.

Where We Stand

While a certain pandemic may have forced everyone into varying degrees of isolation, our ability to make a positive impact on those around us still remains. While working for InterWorks, I have been repeatedly surprised by the never-ending generosity and drive the InterWorks family seems to devote towards making a positive difference in the world. From working hand-in-hand with various nonprofit organizations to donating time and money to charity, InterWorks truly stands behind its people, clients and work.

A Story of Influence

John Moss

Setting in on this project, it became apparent that this was one of my first chances to take a dashboard from start to finish by myself. Having recently changed positions to BI Intern here at Interworks, I felt that this was going to be an excellent opportunity to learn from my fellow interns and have a chance to test the skills I had learned over the last six months.

As the rest of the intern team mentioned, I felt that this dashboard needed to do an excellent job telling the story of how InterWorks impacts the world. To do this, I decided a map was essential to demonstrate how far we, as a company, can reach when we come together as a team. Following the map, I wanted the dashboard user to be able to dig deeper into not only where the charities were but also the types of charities and the total USD amount donated. This two-part idea gave birth to the donut chart we see as the dashboard’s primary KPI. Finally, I wanted the user to take a more in-depth look at an individual charity. Creating the organization list, I used dashboard actions to filter only the charities in a selected region. From there, a user can click on any charity and visit their website for more info or to donate.

Aside from functionality, design is something I have always prided myself on. I started my term at InterWorks as a marketing intern, and I have continuously tried to find ways to let that skillset shine through. With this dashboard, I aimed to make a very clean-feeling dashboard while also incorporating the InterWorks colors. Using our internal style guide and some marketing instincts, I was able to create what I think is a very sleek UX that also provides a bit of InterWorks branding.

InterWorks’ Personal Impact

Over the last year and a half, there is one main thing I have learned from Kelsey Lee, our intern coordinator: InterWorks is an organization that is interested in using an individual’s strengths to accomplish not only the organizational goals but also the individual’s personal goals as well. For me, this exercise was a shining example of that idea and shows how InterWorks makes an impact on its own people.

Let’s Tell Your Story

Check out each data viz as each does a great job telling this unique story. We hope that this perspective challenges you to contribute to causes you care about or even one of those we have chosen. As always, feel free to reach out to us if there is anything we can do to help support you on your data journey.

The post Data Stories: The Global Impact of Giving appeared first on InterWorks.

Since mid-2015, InterWorks has worked hand-in-hand with the Tableau Foundation on some particularly special projects. As part of their mission, the Tableau Foundation empowers select organizations with the tools and knowledge needed to impact others through data.

InterWorks has helped them achieve this mission by providing Tableau training for numerous organizations: Equal Opportunity Schools, Community Technology Alliance and StriveTogether, as well as Data for Democracy and the Center for Disease Control & Prevention in Southeast Asia. We’ll be focusing on the first three as InterWorks’ Robert Curtis already shared his experiences with Data for Democracy and the CDC on our blog.

EO Schools

Equal Opportunity Schools partners with school, district, county and state leaders around the country, identifying thousands of “missing students” and developing systems to ensure these capable students are enrolling and succeeding in the high school classes that will best prepare them to achieve their college goals.

In May 2015, Tableau made what was then its largest grant ever through the Tableau Foundation to EO Schools as part of its effort to enroll 100,000 low-income students and students of color in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) high school classes across the country.

InterWorks joined with Tableau in supporting EO Schools by providing Tableau Desktop training at no additional cost. In June of 2015, InterWorks’ Enablement Practice Lead Carly Capitula led two groups from the nonprofit through Desktop Fundamentals courses at the Tableau offices in Seattle. EO Schools gathers a wide variety of data from their partner schools (mostly survey data) and is using Tableau for internal analysis as well as eventually developing dashboard to share back with their clients and funders.

Learn more about the Tableau Foundation’s work with EO Schools >>

Community Technology Alliance

Community Technology Alliance (CTA) is committed to ending homelessness in Santa Clara County, California by using data to better meet strategic needs. They focus on ways in which databases and other tools can communicate exchange data.

In 2016, InterWorks delivered Fundamentals and Advanced Tableau training course for CTA to give them a firm grasp on data visualization in Tableau. Considering CTA’s focus is on making data ready for analysis and visualization, these training sessions were invaluable. With considerable Tableau knowledge of their own, CTA will be able to help communities glean more insight from their data, thus helping them to serve people with greater effect.

StriveTogether

StriveTogether is a large networked organization whose members focus on improving outcomes for K-12 students throughout the U.S. Their goal is to bring together parents, educators, civic leaders and local employers to positively affect the educational outcomes of countless children. The data fellowship concept run by StriveTogether, brings together 15 data managers in a cohort, teaches them Tableau and other skills related to data use, and gives the data managers access to a group of people who are doing similar work to theirs.

InterWorks’ role in the partnership was to provide support and training. The first training was a virtual Fundamentals course led by Carly in late 2015. In Spring of 2016, InterWorks took them to the next level with an Advanced course. All the while, InterWorks’ Tableau Server guru Brad Fair was providing ongoing Server support for them. Most recently, InterWorks led another custom Tableau training course at StriveTogether headquarters in Washington, D.C.

But InterWorks provided more than just Tableau-specific support across the project. InterWorks’ Stephanie Kennedy also delivered a course focused entirely on data preparation. All of these trainings were delivered to two cohorts comprised of 30 data fellows.

Throughout these multiple trainings, StriveTogether has progressively learned the ins and outs of Tableau and their data. With such a large network, they have several uses for Tableau. InterWorks worked hand in hand with them to ensure they were well equipped with the breadth of knowledge necessary to handle any challenge they dared to tackle. The results have been near immediate, and StriveTogether is making great use of the Tableau skills taught to them over the course of these trainings.

Learn more about the Tableau Foundation’s work with StriveTogether >>

“I’ve had the chance to work closely with all of the data fellows in that network, and we’re seeing a pretty significant systems change within the organization. A lot of that is thanks to InterWorks. We’ve had nearly 30 people get trained up Tableau, but since StriveTogether is structured as a partnership of many organizations, this means that nearly 30 organizations now have a Tableau expert within them.”

“This is where the huge impact is – that all of these organizations can more effectively use data to power decision making. This ultimately has an impact on the educational and career outcomes of all of the students served by these organizations.”

– Jason Schumacher, Senior Program Manager, Tableau Foundation

Joining Tableau Service Corps

Given InterWorks’ willingness to help and our competency in all things Tableau, the Tableau Foundation knew InterWorks would be a great fit for Tableau Service Corps. Tableau Service Corps send the best and brightest Tableau trainers to do free trainings through the Tableau Foundation. While InterWorks continues to help at a larger, organizational scale, we’ve also had several of our Tableau trainers commit to the Tableau Service Corps.

We’re excited to see where this opportunity will take InterWorks. Even though we do consulting and training for a living, we’re always on the lookout for ways in which we can help organizations who are positively impacting others. What’s better than giving back by doing what you do best?

Does Your Nonprofit Need Help?

If you’re part of a nonprofit organization looking for Tableau assistance, we encourage you to reach out to the Tableau Foundation. If you’re new to Tableau or are simply looking for help right away, InterWorks is also only a call or click away! Get in touch with us today and start making more of your data.

Contact Us

The post How InterWorks and the Tableau Foundation Are Impacting Education Through Data appeared first on InterWorks.

This week I’ve had the pleasure of attending an 8-day trip across the state of Oklahoma with 22 of my friends (who also happen to be coworkers). These 22 #teamiw brave souls are battling heat exhaustion, treacherous hills, and lots of mechanical problems as they ride bicycles an average of 64 miles per day in 95°F-100°F weather. Can you imagine? No? Me either. So where do I fit in? As Support Queen/Team Mom (not self-proclaimed, by the way) it is my job to:

• Drive the truck and trailer between campsites
  
• Set up camp
  
• Make sure everyone has plenty of water
• Grocery shop (with the expected run to the liquor store)
• Acquire warm breakfast each morning
• Be generally helpful and provide moral support when most needed

“So why should I do it?”

The concept! After being blown away by last year’s team completing Freewheel, I knew that I wanted to be part of it. I don’t own a bike, nor do I think I have the emotional stamina to endure the ride, but I was looking for a way to help. I’m blown away by their commitment, so it seemed like a pretty decent way to contribute.

The food! You get to enjoy tasty camp food, even though you haven’t burned the calories to deserve it.

The tan! You’ll pick up a nice golden brown tan without even trying. Forget about boring hours of wasted time out by the pool. While setting up camp, you’ll get a great workout and a tan at the SAME TIME.

The sunrises! No words necessary – just check out these pictures.

The journey! I moved to Oklahoma in January but haven’t had the chance to explore much outside of Stillwater and Oklahoma City. Madill, Wewoka, Coalgate, Sand Springs, Okmulgee, and Claremore have been accomplished so far! This trip is giving me the opportunity to check out some new places and experience the great outdoors. Oklahoma is pretty OK

The friends! You’ll make new friends, and they’ll come to your rescue when a one person job turns into two. You’ll see the same crews at the gas station and laundromat, and you’ll learn a little about the people of Freewheel.

The fun! Imagine a weekend BBQ with 22 of your friends that happens every. single. night. We ordered pizza and sat around watching Game of Thrones. We celebrated a birthday. We girl-chatted and danced to reggae music. There is definitely no lack of entertainment.

The gratitude! Heartfelt “thank you”s are abundant and greatly appreciated. As Support Queen, you’re taking the burden off of these folks who are exhausted and sweaty, so even the smallest assistance means the world to them.

Tips and tricks

1. Take a look at the campsite maps and routes before the trip – check out Google Street View to get a sense of shady spots to set up camp!
2. Buy frozen breakfast burritos. Make sure there are at least 2 for each person, and then buy ANOTHER bag. Put them on the grill each morning and watch as smiling, satisfied riders roll out of camp.
   
3. Grill up some brats, hot dogs, or hot links as riders make their way back into camp. They’re usually starving and just about any type of food will taste wonderful. Oh, and mustard. Lots of mustard!
4. Pay to stay in an air conditioned camper. Seriously. Don’t think about it. Just do it.
5. Don’t bring makeup. Or a hair dryer. Or nice clothes. You won’t need them, I promise.

Disclaimer: It isn’t all sunshine and roses.

I’ll start off by saying that I am in no way, shape, or form comparing my struggles to those of the riders (or runners!). I honestly cannot even fathom putting in the amount of effort that I’ve seen from each of them each day – it’s inspiring! However, for this to be a fair recollection of the week, I’ve got to provide the difficult parts too. This isn’t a vacation – the work is tough! Chairs, tents, and bike supplies for 22 people add up quickly. Hitching up a truck and trailer by yourself can be quite challenging. As I drive each day, I am plagued with anxiety about the trailer coming unhitched and rolling down the street in the opposite direction. Water can sometimes be far away from camp, and you might spill it on some innocent person’s tent. 4AM wake-ups every morning to prep breakfast and finish packing are exhausting. Did I mention that it’s hot? My biggest complaint is going to bed icky. Sunscreen, bug spray, and sweat is not my preferred sleeping attire. Overall, don’t take the complaints too seriously. I’m sure I’ll have forgotten all about the tough parts when I wake up at home on Sunday.

Tomorrow’s stop takes us to Bartlesville, OK. I’m so proud of #teamiw and can’t wait to watch y’all cross the finish line in Caney, KS! Follow along on our adventure: look for #teamiw at #okfreewheel on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!

The post Why YOU Should Volunteer as Support Queen for #OKFreewheel appeared first on InterWorks.