Our first DATA Play day (co-hosted with RIO and i-DAT) went really well and gave us a wonderful insight into the many skills the digital sector in Plymouth had to offer.

We were looking for people who cared about Plymouth, had ideas, technical knowledge or coding talent to come together to collaborate and help us use data to explore and understand the city in fun and interesting ways. And we weren’t disappointed!

The day included all sorts of exciting conversations around how we could use data that the Council had opened to better understand the city and communities. It was a great mixture of discussions and activities and gave everyone who attended time to share and explore ideas and skills.

Topics we discussed included:

• Sanses electronics and AIs
• Performance monitoring
• Crowdsourcing data and ideas
• Co-operative Councils
• Relationship with devolution and mass creativity

And as a thank you for everyone giving up their time we offered a free space on local Open Data Institute training. We also introduced our new reward scheme; at DATA Play 2 we’ll be offering £2,000 to the three ideas that have the most potential for the city.