Keynote and Other Events

Arizona's Answers to Demographic & Workforce Challenges

Carlos Contreras, Director, Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity

Jim Chang, Chief Demographer, Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity

9:00am, Tuesday, Feb. 4, Salon K

Keynote 

Jed Kolko headshotBuilding Trust in Data and Research

Funding challenges, declining response rates, and politicization all threaten trust in official statistics and the research that depends on it. The statistical agencies invest significantly in building and maintaining trust in their data, and the private sector is increasingly an important complement to government statistics. This keynote will explore the severity of threats to trust in data; what public and private data providers are and should be doing to increase trust; and how the broad community of researchers and other data users can help build trust in data and research.

9:00am, Wednesday, Feb. 5, Salon K

About the speaker: Jed Kolko was the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Biden-Harris Administration, where he led economic research for the department and oversaw the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Previously, Jed was the Chief Economist at Indeed, the world’s largest online jobs site, and Chief Economist and VP of Analytics at Trulia, the online real estate site. 



Town Hall Discussion

Town hall discussion on headwinds facing demographic data in the U.S. and how demographers can stay engaged. Thursday, Feb. 6, 8:00am.