BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//HasGeek//NONSGML Funnel//EN DESCRIPTION:Call for Data Problems and Proposals X-WR-CALDESC:Call for Data Problems and Proposals NAME:The Fifth Elephant 2026 Winter Edition X-WR-CALNAME:The Fifth Elephant 2026 Winter Edition REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT12H SUMMARY:The Fifth Elephant 2026 Winter Edition TIMEZONE-ID:Asia/Kolkata X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT12H X-WR-TIMEZONE:Asia/Kolkata BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The Fifth Elephant 2026 Winter Edition DTSTART:20260907T023000Z DTEND:20261205T182900Z DTSTAMP:20261019T201838Z UID:session/Cj24RgBCYbi87AANw3hnRA@hasgeek.com SEQUENCE:23 CREATED:20260907T094937Z DESCRIPTION:## Call for Data Problems and Proposals\n**4 & 5 December 2026 ** \n**Working with data: what changes\, what endures\, and what becomes possible.**\n\nA conference for people who use data to understand the worl d\, investigate questions and make decisions—in industry\, research\, jo urnalism\, public policy and the social sector.\n\n**[Submit your proposal ](https://hasgeek.com/fifthelephant/fifthel-winter-call-for-problems-and-p roposals/sub) by 11 October 2026.** \n\n**[Register to attend](http://has .gy/-fQi)**\n\n## Bring a problem you have been thinking about\nTwo teams report different numbers for the same metric. A clean-looking public datas et leads to the wrong conclusion. An experiment passes every test\, until you discover what the tests missed. A supplier delay raises a question: wh at breaks next?\n\nThe Fifth Elephant Winter Edition is about the work beh ind answering such questions: understanding how data was generated\, decid ing what to measure\, choosing methods\, testing explanations and knowing when a result deserves another look.\n\nAI is changing what we can attempt and how quickly we can explore it. We want to hear what this makes possib le in your work\, where it falls short\, and which principles matter as mu ch as ever. Your proposal can involve statistics\, spreadsheets\, visualiz ation\, machine learning\, LLMs or a combination. *Using AI is not a requi rement.*\n\nBring new ideas\, familiar problems approached differently\, s urprising findings\, failed attempts and work in progress. You do not need a finished success story.\n\n## Who can propose to speak/showcase/teach\n We welcome analysts\, data scientists\, statisticians\, researchers\, jour nalists\, visualization practitioners\, and people who work with data in b usiness\, government and non-profits.\n\nYour domain might be retail\, fin ance\, education\, healthcare\, economics\, elections\, manufacturing\, th e arts or something we have not listed. What matters is that you can make the problem understandable and share something useful beyond your own sett ing.\n\nThe Winter Edition is also a place to find collaborators: people w ith a different dataset\, a useful method\, domain knowledge\, or a questi on that changes how you see your work.\n\n## What we are looking for\nWe a re interested in proposals that explore questions such as:\n- **Can we tru st this data?** How collection\, sampling\, annotation\, missing informati on or changing definitions affected your conclusions—and how you discove red it.\n- **Are we asking and measuring the right things?** How you chose a question\, designed an experiment\, evaluated a model or found that a m etric was rewarding the wrong outcome.\n- **How did you investigate someth ing unexpected?** Show the observation that puzzled you\, the explanations you tested\, and what you learned or still cannot explain.\n- **What beco mes possible with newer methods?** Show an analysis\, experiment or applic ation that was previously difficult\, expensive or impractical\, and how y ou checked the results.\n- **How does analysis become a decision?** Explor e business constraints\, domain knowledge\, competing interpretations and the organizational realities that shape how findings are used.\n- **What c an others do with your work?** Share a dataset\, visualization\, research project or open problem that could prompt further investigation or collabo ration.\n\n**The focus is data practice and analytical reasoning.** Infras tructure\, pipelines\, deployment and tool implementation are outside this edition’s scope when they are the main subject. Technical detail is wel come when it helps explain the investigation\, evidence or lesson.\n\n## H elp the audience learn from your process\nStart with the problem and the d ata. Explain what you tried\, why you made those choices\, what happened\, and where the limitations remain. Make room for the false starts and judg ments that a polished result can hide.\n\nA useful question to answer in y our proposal is: _what will someone in the audience be able to do or think through differently after your session?_\n\nShow enough of the work for p eople to examine your reasoning. If you cannot share the original data\, e xplain what you can show through anonymized examples or clearly labelled s ynthetic data\, and what those examples cannot establish.\n\nUnfinished wo rk is welcome. Be clear about what you have already tried\, what evidence you have\, and what remains a hypothesis or an open question.\n\n## Ways t o participate\n\n### Practitioner talks · 25 minutes + 5 mins Q&A\nExplor e a problem\, method or investigation in depth. Use concrete examples to e xplain your reasoning\, findings and limitations\, and help people recogni ze where the lessons apply in their own work.\n\nYou can present completed work\, a failed approach\, or an investigation still in progress.\n\n### Showcases · 20 minutes\nShow one or two interesting things you have done with data: an analysis\, visualization\, experiment or practical applicati on.\n\nYour project need not be in production or introduce a new technique . Give us a focused look at what you made or discovered\, how you approach ed it\, and why it may inspire someone else.\n\n### Problem wall\nBring a problem you would like help with - or a dataset looking for worthwhile que stions. Explain what you know\, what you have tried\, where you are stuck\ , and which ideas\, expertise or collaborators would help.\n\n### Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions\nPropose a discussion that benefits from people comparing experiences and working through questions together. Tell us who should join\, what you want to explore\, and how you will get the room par ticipating.\n\n### Posters\nShare research\, work in progress\, charts\, m aps or a project visually. Give people something they can examine\, ask qu estions about and discuss with you between sessions.\n\n## The first confi rmed talk for Winter edition\n**When a fabric mill is late\, what breaks n ext? — Abhijith Neekaje (Beyond Vectors)**\nA delayed fabric order can a ffect products\, stores and planned promotions. Abhijith’s retail case s tudy examines how to represent those dependencies in data and check whethe r proposed responses meet business constraints. It uses knowledge graphs a nd neurosymbolic AI to explore a broader question: what must we make expli cit before an AI recommendation can be verified?\n\n## Not sure where your idea fits?\nSubmit it anyway. You can propose more than one idea\, and yo u do not need to settle on a format before starting the conversation. The editors can help you refine the focus and identify a suitable format.\n\nT he final scheduled sounding board call is **Friday\, 9 October\, 12:00–1 2:40 PM IST**. Bring an idea or a question and discuss it with the editors .\n\n[Join the sounding board call](https://meet.google.com/jqd-fvvp-tho) \n[Submit a proposal](https://hasgeek.com/fifthelephant/fifthel-winter-cal l-for-problems-and-proposals/sub)\n\n## Meet the editors\n- [Karthik Shash idhar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthikshashidhar/) — AI and data con sultant\n- [S Anand](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanand0/) — LLM Psychol ogist at Straive\n- [Prasanna Bhogale](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbhogal e/) — Founder at Romulan AI\; author\n\n## Deadline\n**Submit by 11 Octo ber 2026.** Earlier submissions give us more time for discussion and feedb ack.\n\nThe planned programme includes six practitioner talks and six show cases\, alongside the participatory formats above.\n\n## Questions?\nEmail info@hasgeek.com or call/text 7676332020 LAST-MODIFIED:20261014T112107Z LOCATION:Bangalore & Hybrid - https://hasgeek.com/fifthelephant/fifthel-wi nter-call-for-problems-and-proposals/ ORGANIZER;CN="The Fifth Elephant":MAILTO:no-reply@hasgeek.com URL:https://hasgeek.com/fifthelephant/fifthel-winter-call-for-problems-and -proposals/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:The Fifth Elephant 2026 Winter Edition in 5 minutes TRIGGER:-PT5M END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR