Love Data Week 2025 Celebrates Data Across Northeastern
Northeastern University joined the international celebration of Love Data Week during February 10-14, 2025. Love Data Week is a global event, held annually during the week of Valentine’s Day, and bringing together data enthusiasts at institutions worldwide to showcase and celebrate data in all its forms.
For Northeastern’s inaugural participation in Love Data Week, the Data Literacy Program hosted a series of data-related events designed to create an inclusive environment where staff and faculty could share their experiences and learn from one another. Planning began early, with a university-wide call for presenters issued in August, resulting in a diverse program of 22 sessions scheduled across the week.
Sessions
Twenty-two sessions were delivered by presenters from across the university community. The majority were staff led (14/22 or 64%), while six were led faculty and two by other contributors, each sharing their unique perspectives on and experiences with working with data. Of the 22 sessions, two-thirds focused on uses or applications of data in professional settings, while the remaining sessions highlighted data in people’s everyday lives (e.g., baseball, commuting, satellites, etc.). The two in-person sessions featured creative ways of engaging with data, like mapping emotional data and creating data sculptures.
The two most common themes of Love Data Week were:
- Northeastern-Specific Data Initiatives: 40% of the sessions (n=9) showcased data work being done at Northeastern University, addressing such themes as accessing NU data, data literacy and data maturity at NU, cross-departmental data sharing and collaboration, and more.
- Data Visualization: Nine sessions focused on data visualization platforms like Tableau or Google Looker Studio, and/or interactive visualization tips and techniques
The week concluded with an inspiring, 60-minute closing keynote session, “We Are All Data People, in Work and Life,” delivered by Valerie Logan, Founder of The Data Lodge and Chief Strategy Officer at Data Society Group. Logan’s presentation, which drew 52 attendees, explored how data literacy impacts both professional success and personal decision-making in today’s data-driven world.
Detailed information about all Love Data Week sessions, including the closing keynote, are available on the Data Literacy SharePoint site.
Attendance
The success of Love Data Week is evident in the attendance figures:
- 177 unique participants attended a total of 709 sessions.
- Attendees collectively spent an impressive 10,585 minutes (nearly 176 hours) engaging with data concepts & applications.
- Attendees attended a range of 1 to 22 sessions, with the average attendee joining 4 sessions.
- Tuesday saw the highest overall attendance with 191 total attendees across six sessions.
- Midday sessions between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM proved the most popular.
- The most popular session, “Where’s the Data?,” was delivered by Mindy Anastasia, Director of Institutional Research. Mindy’s presentation, which explained how to find the data you need at Northeastern, drew 55 attendees.
Badge Achievement
A highlight of the program was the opportunity to earn the “Data Concepts & Applications” badge. To qualify, participants needed to attend at least three hours (180 minutes) of presentations AND complete session evaluations with learning reflections for at least 3 hours of sessions attended. The Data Literacy Program is pleased to report that 37 participants successfully completed all requirements to earn their badges, demonstrating their commitment to data literacy!
Looking Ahead
We’d like to offer a special thanks to all presenters and participants who made Love Data Week 2025 such a tremendous success!
If you were not able to attend Love Data Week or missed any sessions, recordings of most virtual sessions will be available soon on the Data Literacy SharePoint site.
Based on the enthusiastic response to this first Love Data Week, the Data Literacy Program is considering making this an annual event.