UNM’S BUREAU OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH ORGANIZES ANNUAL NEW MEXICO DATA USERS CONFERENCE

October 31, 2003

UNM’S BUREAU OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH ORGANIZES ANNUAL NEW MEXICO DATA USERS CONFERENCE

The fifth annual New Mexico Data Users conference will be held Thursday, Nov. 13, in Ballroom C at the University of New Mexico Continuing Education Conference Center, 1634 University Blvd., N.E. Registration starts at 7:30 a.m., with opening remarks at 8:15 a.m.

“Based on exit surveys from prior years the Data Users Conference has become a valued learning experience for businesses, government agencies, service organizations and students,” said Kevin Kargacin, head of information services for UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Reasearch (BBER).

Conference sessions will be held on new databases — the Census Bureau’s Local Employment Dynamics database and the American Community Survey; the New Mexico Department of Health’s vital statistics datasets; sessions on the basics for the decennial census and economic data; and special topics sessions — such as poverty and child well-being, race data for American Indians, and the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder interactive website.

“The conference will provide everything you wanted to know about where to find data but were afraid to ask. The experts will show you,” said Larry Waldman, BBER’s senior economist.

Guest speakers come from a variety of organizations, including several UNM departments—BBER, Earth Data Analysis Center, Community and Regional Planning; the U.S. Census Bureau; New Mexico Department of Labor; New Mexico Department of Health; and New Mexico Voices for Children, a child advocacy group.

Waldman the luncheon speaker, will present a review of New Mexico’s recent economic performance and a short-term economic outlook.

The New Mexico State Data Center/Business and Industry Data Center (SDC/BIDC) Program sponsors the annual event which is organized by BBER, a coordinator in the SDC/BIDC network.
Registration is $40 per person and includes all conference materials, continental breakfast, beverage breaks and a luncheon buffet. For more information and a registration form go to BBER’s website at www.unm.edu/~bber/conference.htm, or call Karma Shore at 277-8300 or Kevin Kargacin at 277-3038.

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