Medienmitteilung

Swiss statistics days Swiss Statistics Days 2021 in Lugano - data from everyone for everyone?

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Swiss Statistics Meeting 2023 - without data, no statistics, no research, no business!

30.08.2021 - The Swiss Statistics Days (SSS) will be held this year from 6 to 8 September in Lugano, in Ticino, in the presence of Federal Councillor Alain Berset. These are taking place within the scope of the “Road to Bern” programme in preparation for the United Nations World Data Forum in Switzerland. The meeting will therefore focus on the subject of sustainable development, in particular on the 2030 Agenda and its 17 goals, as high-quality statistical data and information are indispensable to measuring the progress made in this respect. A challenge!

The 2030 Agenda’s universal watchword of “leaving no one behind” will be at the centre of this great meeting of professionals from all statistical fields. In concrete terms, in order to leave no one behind, high-quality, reliable and current data are needed on all social groups, including minorities and in all subject areas. Furthermore, this statistical information must be accessible for everyone. Another challenge exists with regard to vulgarisation and communication.

The organisers have planned over fifteen workshops incorporating some 70 presentations. Over three days, the City of Lugano, the canton Ticino, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) as well as various other institutions, will present different projects to illustrate the progress achieved in diverse fields ranging from data science, open data, data harmonisation to visualisation.

The strategic importance of data

While COVID-19 continues to cause lasting disruption to the functioning of society, this pandemic has revealed the close interaction between data, politics and the economy. This will be an occasion for Councillor Alain Berset to underline the strategic importance of all data and statistics for everyone.

In another plenary conference, the FSO Director General, Georges-Simon Ulrich, will talk about the office’s new directions and the implications of these changes for the Swiss statistics system and the data ecosystem in general. Since the start of the year, the Federal Council has entrusted the FSO with the mission of becoming a pillar of data science and their harmonisation at national level, to meet some of the challenges of digitalisation.

In other conferences, Vittorio Ferrari, Google researcher and honorary professor at Edinburgh University, will share his experiences with learning computer vision by using deep learning. Maria Pia Sorvillo, from the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT), will talk about the issue of coordination between national statistical services. Lastly, Professor Jürgen Schmidhuber from the University of Lugano will explore a topic related to artificial intelligence.

Data from everyone for everyone

Throughout the different contributions, the importance of having high quality data in all fields to measure developments in our society, and in particular the impact of COVID-19, will raise different questions. The various presentations and workshops will also provide an opportunity to underline the crucial importance of cooperation between the different producers of statistics, both public and private. The central issue of producing quality statistical information and communicating it to everyone will also be on everyone’s lips.

A variety of examples affecting all areas of society will show that in order to make good decisions, or even to anticipate certain trends, particularly in the context of the current crisis, reliable and up-to-date data and statistics are indispensable. Given the scale of the challenges, the various innovations presented in Lugano will be essential.

Data ethics

On Wednesday, at the end of the presentations, a round table on data ethics will provide an opportunity to take stock of a subject of increasing relevance in an era of mega data and their generalised use in the most diverse fields. It is a subject that concerns official statistics, businesses, research, and data journalists alike.

The Swiss Statistics Days 2021 are being organised by the statistical services of the City of Lugano with the support of the cantonal statistical office of Ticino (USTAT), the Swiss Statistics Society (SSS), the Swiss Conference of regional statistical offices (CORSTAT) and the FSO. Professionals from the media industry are welcome: the Swiss Statistics Days 2021 offer a unique opportunity to meet and interview specialists from these varied areas and in the management of digital data. We look forward to your visit.