BATON ROUGE, La. – February 25, 2022 – Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced today her office will host a virtual event from 6 – 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8 to mark the City-Parish’s celebration of 2022 International Open Data Day. Each year, International Open Data Day serves as a way for governments around the world to highlight the benefits of open data and engage communities in the development of data-driven solutions to common civic challenges.

“Over the past several years, we have transformed our City-Parish into a hub for data-driven decision making while continuing to reinforce Baton Rouge’s standing as a leader for open data and transparency in local government,” said Mayor Broome. “International Open Data Day provides us with an annual opportunity to demonstrate and reaffirm that commitment to the Baton Rouge community while engaging our residents in the important work we do to serve them as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

The virtual event will feature “lightning talks” with City-Parish leaders who use data daily to improve programs and services and make better decisions in areas like public safety, drainage, stormwater management, blight and code enforcement, health, and human services, and more. Each lightning talk will feature different department leaders discussing their use of data and how they use data to engage with key stakeholders and the general public, along with a question-and-answer session with participants.

Speakers will include:

• Eric Romero, Warren Kron, and Michael Stein with the Department of Information Services
• Jared Hymowitz, Director of the Mayor’s Healthy City Initiative
• Kelvin Hill, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for Public Works, Office of Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome
• Chief Murphy Paul, Baton Rouge Police Department          

The event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. To register, visit brla.gov/opendataday.

For more information on the City-Parish’s open data program and other transparency initiatives, visit brla.gov/transparency.