Aimia put its data-heads together to benefit four not-for-profits: The National Gallery of Canada, Médecins Sans Frontières, 60 Millions Girls and Young People’s Theatre.
On Nov. 11-12, more than 50 Aimia data scientists and consultants took part in a 24-hour “Data Dive” at the company’s Montreal office. The employees analyzed trends and patterns in the charities’ data and made recommendations to improve their programs. Students from four universities helped the Aimia teams.
Globally, Aimia took part in a U.K. event two years ago called Data Kind, and the organization decided to host its own event in Canada last year.
“We don’t just contribute to the community, we’re part of the community and feel that we should be engaged in that way,” said Kevin O’Brien, SVP and chief business development officer for Aimia.
“We’re looking for more opportunities where we can take what we’re good at… and make that available to our community partners in a creative way.” On top of that, the event is great for employee engagement, added O’Brien.
Aimia partnered with charities it has existing relationships with. The company actually got the data six weeks in advance to clean it up and get it ready, said O’Brien. At the event, four teams plowed through the data, picking off five or six topics they knew the charity wanted to learn about.
For example, The National Gallery wanted to help driving traffic. In just 24 hours, Aimia was able to produce a predictive model that quantified the impact of different factors on traffic. For instance, an average daily temperature increase of one degree Celsius generates an additional 16 daily visits to the gallery, while major renovations at the gallery cost 230 visits per day. Recommendations were provided around partnering with other local cultural institutions and events.
“The organizations that we work with have data, know they have data, know there’s value in that data, and by and large, haven’t had the resources to go in and find the gold,” said O’Brien.
The recommendations were presented to the charities on Nov. 20, and O’Brien said the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive.”
