Houseversary (Housiversary? 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Today is one year since we bought our house. How has it already been a year?! Our first year of homeownership has been an interesting one; lots of learning, adulting, and two kittens. We love living in the city and are looking forward to seeing what the next year in our home brings.

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#TBT – DataGEEK Logos

As you know DataGEEK recently attended his 4th Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. So for today’s #TBT I thought I’d share our previous logos relating to DataGEEK.

Started as StatGEEK. We originally had the state of MO with glasses (before I even needed glasses and before DataGEEK has LASIK) and it was filled in differently depending on who was using it. Maybe someday we’ll explore this idea again, sans glasses.

DataGEEK wanted business cards for his second conference and he came up with this idea. I created it for him and he switched from statistics to data. Gotta admit I like data better because then we both start with D (plus it’s SO much shorter!) I don’t know that this idea will ever be used again? But I do like the graph with the football field background.

Current logo. Personally I love the simplicity of it. Maybe we should have separate logos for Data and Design? ::shrug:: It’s working for the moment.

-DesignGEEK

Lonely Weekend

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog or Twitter, you know that DataGEEK was in Boston this past weekend for the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. This was his 4th year in attendance and every time he goes I get Kacey Musgraves’ Lonely Weekend stuck in my head the entire time he’s gone (okay just the past two years because her Golden Hour album just came out in 2018), so of course this year it served as design inspo.

If you haven’t listened to this song I highly recommend it. Honestly the whole album, it did win the Grammy for Album of the Year after all.

DesignGEEK

#SSAC19: Pre-conference thoughts and plans

Good evening world, DataGEEK here.  It’s been a while!  Thankfully, DesignGEEK has picked up the slack and has been providing some of that #content that I clearly have been slacking on for the last few … well, let’s not get into how long it’s been.

In case you’re somehow reading this but not attending #SSAC19, the 2019 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is this weekend in Boston, MA. This will be my fourth year attending. Looking around on the Attendify app tonight, I saw many people mention that it was their first time at the conference. Hopefully someone will find something helpful in this post.

One of the coolest features of Sloan is that you never know who you will run into. Obviously there are sports industry professionals throughout the conference (while it is a sports analytics conference in name, IMHO it is half sports analytics/half sports business), including some prominent sports celebrities.  It is quite amazing to have a random conversation and discover that you’re talking to Cherokee Parks (my opening line: “You’re tall”). Or run into SSAC founder Jessica Gelman in the elevator. Those are both highlights I will not forget.

Positives I’ve noticed so far this year

1. I think this is the first year that they’ve re-used the same app for two consecutive conferences. I don’t know about you, but my phone suffers from having way too many accounts and way too many apps (though I think I do better than DesignGEEK). The last thing I want is to add yet another app just to open one e-mail (I’m looking at you, secure e-mail services) or go to one event. So I was pleasantly surprised to see #SSAC19 using the same app that I already had from last year.
2. I think re-using an app is a good thing.  I’ve recently joined a new employer, and for the first time in my career I’m working for a company that is using best-of-breed tools rather than a lot of in-house solutions. I think it’s a good thing for an event like Sloan, which is run by MIT Sloan Business School students, to utilize other company’s expertise and applications, rather than build their own and be responsible for their own infrastructure to support it.
3. I don’t know if attendance is up, but there seems to be a good amount of people that are attending either their first or second conference. On the face of it, that seems like a good sign.
4. This year’s conference goodie bag is more like a zippered tote bag than the previous years. While it’s not likely that DesignGEEK will find a use for it, I think it’s significantly more likely than past years.
5. This year’s conference is again at the wonderful Hynes Conference Center. Sloan seems to alternate between Hynes and BCEC. Both have their advantages and disadvantages in terms of floor plans and as conference venues, but I personally look forward to the Hynes years because of its location. Not only is it smack in the middle of the Back Bay neighborhood, but it’s attached to the Prudential Center, which is full of shopping and restaurants. It’s a lot easier to grab a bite or grab something you forgot here versus BCEC, which is more disconnected from immediate shopping.

What to expect from the weekend

1. Eataly. Italian marketplace in the Prudential Center that is owned by Chef Mario Batali. I will go there at least once this weekend.
2. I’m looking forward to seeing some familiar and friendly faces. While I don’t know who’s attending for sure this year, I’m certain to at least run into a couple people I’ve met previous years. It will be nice to see them.
3. My annual inspiration to #DoIsh. One underlying theme to every year’s conference is that the only way to make it in this industry is to get out there and do something.  It’s not just to catch someone’s attention or get your name out there (though more and more I think that might be the direction hiring is heading). It’s also because experience is, by far, the thing that will set you apart.  I got my new job not because I had ANY experience relevant to the actual job description, I got it because I had specific experience that they were looking to add to their team, namely that I had even the basic concepts of R (thanks Jared Lander!).

And finally, what am I looking forward to on Day 1

I haven’t thouroghly looked at the agenda this year, so there might be a diamond in the rough or two that I’m missing, but here’s what stands out to me in terms of highlights for Friday:

• Data is the New Black, Building Data-Driven Organizations: The most relevant panel (for me) may be the first one of the day. Since I’ve recently joined a new company in a data role, I hope this will be relevant beyond sports.
• Data Science & The Action Network’s Win Probability: A Competitive Advantage talk, Action Network has apparently modeled all of the major sports to attempt to calculate a win probability not just for a team, but for the user’s bet (which in my head could be a lot more complicated than just a team’s win probability) at any given time.  That seems like an insane undertaking, and I’m definitely interested.
• Beautyball, Using Analytics to Build Beautiful Games: Another Competitive Advantage talk, basically as a response to Moneyball, but in a way to use analytics to improve games, not just gain competitive advantages. Interesting.
• DeepQB, Deep Learning with Player Tracking to Quantify Quarterback Decision-Making & Performance: ESPN’s Brian Burke is going to talk about approaching using player tracking data to asses quarterback’s decision making processes. Unfortunately it looks like this is at the same time as the Data Science talk, so I’m not sure which one I’ll pick.

And so it begins…again.

Hi everyone! DesignGEEK here.

Alright so word of warning this is probably going to be a long one. Stick with me here…or don’t, no pressure.

Where to begin? Well, I see that our last post on here was in 2016…and it’s now the last quarter of 2018. What can I say except, life. As DataGEEK mentioned, in 2016 we were planning a wedding, then we had our wedding in 2017, went on a week-long honeymoon to Paris & London that we paid for in points and miles (I’m sure DataGEEK will do a post on that later), then we were stuck in Hawaii for a month after my dad (who is doing great now) had a heart attack, and then we bought a house, which we are still settling into 5 months later. So yeah, life. It’s busy. Always.

So why start this…blog? brand? thing?…up again now? Well, I quit my job. I wasn’t happy and we decided that it would be better for me to quit and focus on getting a job I enjoyed rather than keep trying to work, job hunt, and be unhappy.

So what’s the plan? Well, I plan on job searching, but I’m hopeful that I can also spend time on here. I plan on using GEEKinSTL as a place to be creative, share my designs, and honestly, learn wordpress.

So that’s the plan. That’s why now.

I will admit, it’s hard for me to just jump into this. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so doing this without having our site and logo and everything “perfect” is hard, but as Bobby Bones says, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just start. So here goes.

I think I’ll end by reintroducing us and what we’ll be doing (or trying to do) here. I think my husband said it pretty good in our first post:

Who is GEEKinSTL?

Since we’re just getting started (again), might as well start with an introduction. GEEKinSTL is made up of two distinct parts: DesignGEEKinSTL and DataGEEKinSTL. Both of those parts will become more obvious as this site and identity, builds, but for now it should be pretty obvious that we’re a couple of geeks in St. Louis.

What is GEEKinSTL?

GEEKinSTL is going to be our outlet to do very geeky things, including Etsy freelancing, Pinterest-style DIY, becoming involved in sports analytics, or talking about DataGEEK’s near-obsession with points and miles. And, let’s be honest, there will probably be some Star Wars. And Doctor Who (yes, that’s how DataGEEK proposed and was a big part of our wedding).

What’s next?

Will our logo be redesigned? Will we keep referring to ourselves as DesignGEEK and DataGEEK? Will we actually post? Well, you’ll have to come back to see! Or follow us on Twitter or Instagram: GEEKinSTL

Until next time, GEEK out!