A Day in the Life: What Data Professionals Actually Do

Day 4 — How Data Is Used — July 21

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A Day in the Life: What Data Professionals Actually Do Watch the recording What to Expect Speakers Who this is for Need Support to Attend?

A Day in the Life: What Data Professionals Actually Do

Forget the job postings. What does a data professional actually do on a Tuesday afternoon?

A panel of working practitioners walks through their real day-to-day. What the work looks like. How they got there. What they wish someone had told them earlier.

The picture is more accessible than most people expect. And more interesting than the headlines about AI suggest.

Event Details

Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM MT
Platform: Online
Online attendance available — link sent after registration
Free to attend

Watch the recording

What to Expect

Panel of 2–3 practitioners in analyst, coordinator, and operations roles across sectors
Honest conversation about what AI has changed in their day-to-day work and what it hasn't
What makes a job-ready junior data professional stand out to a hiring manager
Direct enrollment push: last call for the five-day training intensive

Speakers

Blaine Horner - Moderator

Consultant, Unlocking Data Careers

Blaine Horner is a Calgary-based program and operations professional with over a decade running complex membership programs. He spent eight years at SPE International, a global engineering membership organization, progressing from section coordination to overseeing membership delivery and volunteer operations across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and North America, including two years in London. He later ran operations for a national accelerator placing mid-career energy professionals on teams building new enterprises.

Eric Richardson

Senior Manager, Transformation Strategy & Intelligence - Large Calgary Employer

Eric is a Calgary-based data leader with nearly a decade of experience across finance, HR analytics, and data visualization. He started out building skills in Excel-heavy roles before moving into dashboard and KPI reporting, and today leads strategic planning and transformation analytics work. His path into data wasn't a straight line, he built it on the job, and he now mentors junior analysts and presents data-driven insights to senior leadership. He holds a Finance degree from the University of Calgary.

Candy Nwigwe

ICQA Data Analyst - Amazon

Candy is a Data Analyst at Amazon Canada, where she works on data automation, SQL development, reporting, and operational process improvement for the ICQA team. She previously worked in people analytics at Brookfield Properties, and completed the AI4Good Lab Machine Learning Fellowship, focused on computer vision and responsible AI. She holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Calgary. Outside her full-time role, she mentors youth through Black Kids Code Calgary and speaks at community events on breaking into tech and data careers.

Who this is for

Anyone who has followed the series and wants the final piece. New attendees get the full picture in one session. This is the most accessible entry point for people who are still on the fence.

Need Support to Attend?

Email us: udc@ppdm.org