The Data Conversation: Data learning community

About the learning community

This learning community aims to support small and start-up social enterprises with all aspects of collecting, using, and managing data.

It's common for people to feel overwhelmed or anxious about data, worried about “what they don’t know they don’t know" or unsure about how to improve their data environment. This learning community will share ideas and tips for making your data more secure, more useful, and less stressful. Together, you'll work on identifying common data challenges, creating a safe space for learning, and supporting each other to problem solve and iterate.

About the convenor

The Data Conversation supports not-for-profit organisations, social enterprises, and other community organisations to collect, manage and use their data to support their missions. They provide a range of data services, including building data systems, developing reporting dashboards, and advising organisations on data security, governance, and visualisation.

Being a small, start-up social enterprise, they share the challenges (and fun!) of working out how best to use data to help achieve goals.

How will this learning community work?

This learning community will include five online meetings (each 90 minutes long) between October 2025 and June 2026.

• Thursday 22 January, 11:30am - 1:00pm: Planning what to collect.
• Thursday 19 February, 11:30am - 1:00pm: Managing data safely and securely.
• Thursday 19 March, 11:30am - 1:00pm: Managing data on a budget.
• Thursday 23 April, 11:30am - 1:00pm: Collecting stories, managing stories, telling stories.
• Thursday 21 May, 11:30am - 1:00pm: Hot Topic to be determined!

After each meeting, we’ll create simple “Tip Sheets” that sum up the best advice, ideas, and solutions shared by the group. These will also include helpful links to guides, tools, and presentations that are especially useful for small or new social enterprises.

How to get involved

This learning community is intended for social enterprises that are small (fewer than 20 employees) or start-up (in the first 5 years of operation).

To find out more and join this learning community, register here. All welcome.