Daniel Chen - Hello Community
Hello Community by Daniel Chen Visit https://rstats.ai for information on upcoming conferences. Abstract: Special Appearance Bio: Daniel teaches data science at UBC and works as a data science educator for Posit, working on the RStudio Academy team. Author of Pandas for Everyone. Twitter: https://twitter.com/chendaniely Presented at the 2024 New York R Conference (May 17, 2024) Hosted by Lander Analytics (https://landeranalytics.com)
image: thumbnail.jpg
Transcript#
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Alright, so before we get to our next speaker, we all know that Dan Chen has spoken at every single conference we've had. But he's in England right now. And we're really upset about that because, you know, it breaks his streak. So we arranged for a special appearance...
They're playing O'Canada for you.
So Dan recently had to relocate to Canada for a job. So he's really enjoying Canadian culture. You've gone curling and enjoying hockey and all that good stuff, right? Yeah, the Canucks are in the playoffs. There you go.
Alright, so Dan is going to do a quick little short presentation in order to keep his streak alive. Alright, yes. So welcome everyone. Sorry I can't be there in person, but this is just a quick little talk about the community and my way to thank the community for the last 10 years.
So for those who don't know me, I'm Daniel, I'm currently a postdoctoral teaching research and teaching fellow at BC in Vancouver, Canada. So that's why I'm in Canada right now. I'm also a data science educator at Posit and working mostly as like on their developer advocacy team. And I also authored a book called Pandas for Everyone. So I've been doing a lot of our stuff, but still do some Python stuff.
The 100k race story
For those of you who remember or who were here last year, the photo is the race that I ended up finishing. So last year's special note about me was I was training for a 100 kilometer slash 62 mile trail running race. And that is me at the finish line.
So I was at the finish line. This is photographic proof. But if you look up my race results on UltraSignUp, it is 26 hours and 18 minutes, which is technically 18 minutes past the 24 hour cutoff time. So I actually have an official did not finish as my time. So we'll sort of hand wave that away. It was in kilometers anyway. And maybe one day I'll do 100 units in the proper measurement in miles one day. So that's maybe a goal in a couple of years.
Ten years of the conference
But yes, this is 10 years of the conference. Ten years ago at the very first conference, I gave my first talk titled Interactive Ebola Plots and Shiny. Shiny was a brand new tool back then. And I got to present at the very first conference. And the running joke between Jared and I was this conference has been running for many years as I was in grad school. And I'm glad that I broke that streak. But still continuing on this particular streak. So I'm very thankful for Jared for that.
But you've probably heard this a bunch throughout the conference already, that the R meetup was the precursor to the conference. And even before then, it was really just a bunch of people sitting around at a bar at a regular interval. And then eventually they named themselves in NYC Data Mafia. That eventually turned into the R meetup and now the Open Statistical Programming meetup. And then all of that accumulated into the R conference. So it's been actually really cool to just see the community grow.
Thank you to the community
Thank you to the community. I met hundreds of folks over the past couple of years. Before I even moved to Canada, I was up in D.C. And there's a conference there in D.C. as well. But being part of the R community and this particular community really helped me transition between cities. So if anyone needs to leave New York City anytime soon, just look for a local meetup or start your own is sort of my recommendation to you to get acclimated to a new place.
And really the conference has given me the opportunity to present and talk and refine and hone all of those skills. And also meeting all of these folks over the past couple of years or past 10 years has opened a lot of doors for me. And so that's really my way to also say thank you for being here. But also the fact that you're here can help you as well.
But also the fact that you're here can help you as well.
So participating in the meetups is a great way to sort of bolster your own professional experiences. So volunteer at any of the meetups. You don't even have to volunteer at Jared's particular meetup. But to be plugged into any community, an easy way to contribute is to volunteer. You can also give talks. A lot of the meetup organizers are always looking for people to give talks. So I'd say that's also a great way to contribute to the community and also help yourself in your own presentation skills. And then say hello to everyone whenever you can. And then over time, you'll see a lot of benefits out of it, more so than what I can list or talk about. And it'll be different for everyone.
So with that, I will just, you know, introduce the next block of speakers. So Wes, Max, and Hillary are the next block of speakers. And I'm sure Jared will have a fun, quirky, fun fact about all of them. So I will relinquish my time. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue on my streak and still be part of this meetup and this conference.
Thank you very much, Dan. It was wonderful seeing you. Have a fun time there. And we look forward to seeing you next time. And everyone, enjoy the conference.
