Ottawa to hold World Statistics Congress in July 2023

By: Bridget Duquette, Statistics Canada

This summer, Ottawa will be the backdrop for the 64th World Statistics Congress (WSC), hosted by the International Statistical Institute (ISI) from July 16 to 20 at the Shaw Centre. This event will feature a variety of panels, presentations and social events, as well as networking and recruitment opportunities. It will offer a great opportunity for knowledge sharing and collaboration between data scientists, statisticians and methodologists at the international level.

The WSC has been held every two years since 1887 and is attended by statisticians, academics and business leaders. This event helps to shape the landscape of statistics and data science worldwide. Canada has hosted this prestigious event only once before, in 1963, in Ottawa.

It’s traditional for the host country of the WSC to plan social events for attendees. This year, international guests will be offered a tour of local sites in Ottawa’s downtown core, guided by Statistic Canada’s Eric Rancourt, Assistant Chief Statistician, and Claude Girard, Senior Methodologist.

A sneak peek of the event’s congress programme is available and includes information on presentations dozens of topics of interest to data scientists.  This year, the illustrious keynote speaker will be former Director of the United States Census Bureau, Professor Robert M. Groves.

Figure 1: Ottawa’s Shaw Centre.

Kenza Sallier, Senior Methodologist at StatCan and co-author of the recently published article entitled Unlocking the power of data synthesis with the starter guide on synthetic data for official statistics, is looking forward to participating once again—though this will be her first time attending in person.

“I attended the 2021 WSC, in the middle of the pandemic (and census collection),” Kenza says. “I had the great opportunity to present Statistics Canada’s achievements related to data synthesis and to also be invited to take part in a panel session to share my experience as a young female statistician in the world of official statistics. Even though it was virtual, the event supported meeting and networking with many interesting people. I am looking forward to attending the 2023 WSC as it is taking place in person. My colleague Craig Hilborn and I will be presenting our work and I hope to get feedback from our peers.”

Shirin Roshanafshar, Chief of Text Analytics and Digitalization at Statistics Canada will also be attending the conference and speaking at the session about the challenges of Natural Language Processing techniques in official statistics.

For all participants—whether they are attending for the first time or the fifth time—WSC 2023 is sure to be an exciting experience. In the words of ISI President Stephen Penneck: “The congress encourages collaboration, growth, discovery, and advancement in the field of data science. I am excited to have the 64th World Statistics Congress visit Canada and look forward to the impact it will have on the industry.”

Check back for a review of the conference and the exciting developments from this global event.