How we review Open Data Week proposals

Every March, we like to celebrate all things New York City and public data through the Open Data Week festival. It is planned through a partnership between NYC Open Data, BetaNYC, and Data Through Design, as well as the countless organizers and volunteers who help put on events. Each event, whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid, explores some aspect of public data and what it can tell us about New York City.

As we curate the festival, we want it to reflect a wide range of topics, everything from comparing public schools, to facing climate change, or improving government efficiency – and a variety of event types. We typically offer presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and even exhibitions. We are always looking to add new event formats, for example in 2026 we hosted our first data film series as well as crafting workshops! If there is something you are interested in hosting that isn’t on our form, please suggest it. We always want to bring new audiences to this festival. 

Open Data Week 2026 received more than 300 proposals so to shed a little light on how we review and select Open Data Week proposals, we are sharing what it is we look for in a proposal. If you are thinking about submitting an idea, this should give a sense of what could make your proposal stand out. 

Can we see your project?

If you are applying to present a specific project, make sure you include a link to it! You would be surprised how many people forget to do that. If it isn’t an app or web-based project, do you have any other materials you can share? This could be reports about the work, slides from other presentations, lesson plans, articles or reviews of it, or something else entirely. The more you show us, the better sense we get. 

Also, if your work is a mobile app we may not be able to download it. Include a link, but it could also be helpful to share screenshots or videos of the app in action so we can see how it works. 

Why are you presenting on this topic?

Don’t forget to let us know why you are interested in presenting about this topic. Do you have a personal connection to the topic, or do you have a specific work background that gives you unique insight or expertise? Something probably inspired you to pursue this, so please share! 

For example, if you are submitting a class on using the Open Data APIs and you have years of experience teaching adult computer classes we want to know that! Or if you have built an app about housing and have experience working in housing advocacy, that is extremely helpful context for us. 

In general, a successful proposal includes someone with expertise on the topic(s) covered, the method(s) used, or both.

Is this project unique or does it include a novel use of the data?

We love the 311 Service Requests datasets, but did you know that in the last four years we’ve had 35 sessions about that data? And that doesn’t include the countless proposals that we weren’t able to accept. If you are using a popular dataset, or exploring a popular topic like shedding light on landlords, what is it that makes your project stand out? 

Take a look at our past sessions to see if there has been other work on the topic. And make sure you explain if you are connecting the data to new sources, or are bringing a distinct lens to your work. 

What is actually going to happen during this event?

Open Data Week events are, by default, one hour long. And sometimes it really isn’t clear from the proposal what you are hoping to do with that time. While we are looking for a description of your topic, including details about the event itself can really help us understand what you are proposing. If you are doing a demonstration of a tool, are you thinking of talking a little at the top then showing people, and will attendees get a chance to try it themselves? If you are holding a panel, how many people are included and will you have planned questions before opening up to a public Q&A? If you are accepted you will have a chance to submit a public facing event description. Your proposal should be written as a pitch to the Open Data Week team.

As a note, we tend to review proposals in batches. We are starting to see more AI written proposals, and when we’ve been reading a lot of them they don’t stand out as much from one another since they share a lot of similar language. If you are using AI, please review the text and edit it so it truly reflects what you are able and intending to do. 

Is this proposal a work-in-progress?

Are you proposing an event about a project that hasn’t been completed yet? If so, please give us a sense of your work timeline. We want to make sure it is feasible that it will be completed, or that you will have something substantial to share, by Open Data Week. 

Or, is the proposal fully conceived? In the past we’ve welcomed proposals that weren’t completely thought through, but as we receive more proposals we aren’t able to follow up with each person to help refine your ideas, especially since so many of the proposals we receive are already fairly concrete. Instead, we recommend sending us an email with your idea so we help provide some initial feedback. 

The earlier you submit, the more time we have for feedback

That being said, the earlier you submit a project the more time we have to work with you. So we do recommend not waiting too long to submit something! 

We are looking forward to reading your ideas and working with you all to make Open Data Week 2027 something special.