Blog.

“Will you be my Valentine?” Sadly, we’re already busy this Valentine’s Day. While some people are celebrating their relationships, whether romantic or platonic, we’re expressing our love for something else.

It’s the second anniversary of Hub & Spoken podcast! On this day two years ago, we published the first episode of our podcast. In fact, when we asked Jason why he chose the 14th February, he said it was all about “sharing the love for data”.

Two years on, have we achieved that?

Podcast highlights

Over the past two years of the Hub & Spoken podcast, we’ve had seventeen different leaders in business and data share their experience. Certainly, the podcast is driven by innovation and forward-thinking. We’re proud to have broached topics ranging between AI, diversity, leadership, mental wellbeing and beyond.

The question remains, what can we learn from the past 17 podcasts? We’ve rounded up highlights from the past year below, helping you get up-to-date on everything Hub & Spoken.

The CDO – Pete Williams.

On our first episode, Pete Williams – CDO and data evangelist at The Decision Playbook – discussed the role of the Chief Data Officer.

Indeed, we focused on how a CDO transforms a business, and the importance of becoming a leader in their own right. Likewise, we talked about the impact of ‘soft skills’, and how to encourage data literacy across departments.

Listen: Pete Williams’ session.

Diversity – Women in Data.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, last year we hosted a wider discussion on Diversity & Inclusion in data, with  three leading women in data sharing their experience.

With Roisin McCarthy (Women in Data), Michelle Wong (Farfetch), and Allison Nau (consultant), we discussed how to foster diverse teams in data. Furthermore, we recognised the benefits of inclusion, and discussed wider discrimination in analytics.

Listen: Diversity and Inclusion.

Marketing Analytics – Phil Day

Phil Day is the Marketing and Comms Director at Really Useful Group. He shared his experience with deploying marketing data and analytics to reach new audiences. Jason also pitched “GDPR: The Musical”!

Overall, we discussed how Phil worked to bring Andrew Lloyd Webber’s catalogue to wider audiences. They achieved this through customer segmentation, attribution modelling, and AI to develop better campaigns.

Listen: Phil Day’s session.

Tinder – Nick Saretzky.

How is data transforming dating? Nick Saretzky is the Senior Director of Project Management at Tinder. He shared how dating apps have started to deploy data and alter user romantic behaviours.

We talked about what user data Tinder has access to, and the benefits of driving change through data insights. Plus, we discussed the impact of dating apps on how people interact.

Listen: Nick Saretzky’s session.

Data teams – Johanna Hutchinson.

Johanna Hutchinson is the Head of Data at The Pensions Regulator. She shared her experience building data teams, and what any organisation needs to succeed with data.

After it published, Johanna used her session as a practical resource in her organisation – sharing the value that this would create. This episode explored the type of skills and capabilities any data teams need to succeed.

Listen: Johanna Hutchinson’s session.

Mental health – Jacquelyn Guderley.

Jacquelyn Guderley is the Social Entrepreneur and Founder of MNTL HLTH. She joined the podcast to speak about the issue of mental wellbeing from a leadership perspective.

We discussed what mental health is, and why businesses should work to provide support for their teams. Moreover, we also considered what role data & tech can contribute to supporting mental wellbeing.

Listen: Jacquelyn Guderley’s session.

AI – Daniel Hulme.

AI expert and CEO of Satalia, Daniel Hulme, featured on the podcast to discuss on the current state of AI, how machine learning is being implemented today, and what role AI optimisation should have.

We talked about where this technology is being applied today, the questionable future of AI, and the potential risks presented by humanlike artificial intelligence.

Listen: Daniel Hulme’s session.

Team culture – Will Fraser.

Rugby legend Will Fraser, now Director of The Saracens Way, joined the podcast in March to talk about the potential of competitive sports data.

We discussed the cultural change embedded in becoming data-driven, and the impact of this change on an organisation or team. Similarly, we covered the future potential of sports data in rugby and beyond.

Listen: Will Fraser’s session.

Thank you to everyone who’s listened to the Hub & Spoken podcast. We’re excited to continue these conversations – make sure you’re subscribed on Spotify, Itunes, Stitcher, or your platform of choice.