Innovate By Analysing Your Business Data

Date: Friday 5th November
Time: am (exact time TBC)
Duration: 1 hour

Introduction led by:

• Professor Jonathan Sapsed, Principal Investigator for Creative Fuse North East and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Dr Rebecca Casey, Lecturer in Information Systems Management
• Mark Adamson, Project Director for Creative Fuse North East

An introduction to the Creative Fuse North East project and the aims and objectives and expected outcomes for the workshops. Participants will be invited to introduce themselves and their business and an outline of the other workshop sessions will be provided. We will also aim to collect feedback from participating businesses about any potential data they may be able to share e.g. from spreadsheets, tables of data, twitter handles, keywords, hashtags etc, that might be used or referenced in the practical workshop sessions later.

Date: Wednesday 10th November
Time: pm (exact time TBC)
Duration: 2 hours

Making Sense of Business Data led by:

• Nick Howey, Lecturer in Information Management

Microsoft Excel is a straightforward and affordable way to store, analyse and visualise data. This practical workshop will introduce you to useful functions and features which will help you turn your business data into helpful graphics, tables and charts. Detailed knowledge of Excel is not required – however, participants will undertake some practical analysis of data (this will be provided) so access to MS Excel is required/recommended.

Key elements of the workshop include:

• Constructing basic tables and graphs
• Constructing pivot tables
• Understanding different types of graphs and their connection to data types

Key outcomes:

• Discover and understand insights into data and how this may be applied for a variety of organisational and business applications.
• Understand and demonstrate the role of visualisation as an aid to decision making.
• Make effective use of pivot tables.

Date: Thursday 18th November
Time: 2-6pm
Duration: 4 hours

This session is led by:

• Dr Wasim Ahmed, Lecturer in Digital Business
• Dr Marc Smith, Sociologist and Director of the Social Media Research Foundation

The need for organisations to gain insights into social media has grown significantly with the popularity of social networking websites including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. As people increasingly participate in online communities for social, commercial, and civic interaction, masses of data are being generated which can be utilised for commercial insights, and new methods are needed to study these phenomena. This session focuses on using tools to give data-driven marketers access to powerful social media analysis features including influencer identification, brand evaluation, social listening, content analysis, ideation, lead harvesting, competitor social and campaign analysis, automation, white-labeling, and more. The session will specifically look at accessible tools (such as Microsoft Power BI and NodeXL Proto) that support analysis and visualisation.

Key elements of the workshop include:

• Installing and using relevant tools and platforms
• Data preparation and cleaning methods
• Data about relationships, entities, and groups
• Content analysis, network structures and data visualisation to support decision making

Key Outcomes:

• Appreciate the increasing use of social media data across commercial organisations
• Understand key tools for influencer identification, brand evaluation, and social listening
• Learn theories and concepts of networks and social networks
• Learn to prepare your data for analysis and identify key people and groups on social networks

Date: Thursday 25th November
Time: am (exact time TBC)
Duration: 2 hours

This session is led by:

• Dr Rebecca Casey, Lecturer in Information Systems Management

Information Technology (IT) can be a critical enabler of competitive advantage in a business. These are business issues, which must be owned by business leaders. Unfortunately, many individuals and organisations can struggle to realise the strategic potential of IT. Leaders of IT-enabled change and transformation need a broader range of skills than expertise with mobile and social technologies.

The goal of the workshop is to provide insights into the issues and opportunities of delivering value from IT as well as to help develop expertise in using a range of practical tools to enable individuals to make a difference to their business.

Key elements of the workshop include:

• The challenges and opportunities associated with delivering value from IT.
• A benefits framework for planning projects.
• Harvesting the benefits from investments in IT-enabled change.
• Building dynamic capabilities.

Key Outcomes:

• Relate a benefits-driven framework to realising the strategic potential of Information Technology in order to deliver value.
• Equip participants with the skills and ability to play an effective role in enabling their organisations to succeed in realising the strategic potential of IT.