How to Build a Global Data Community | Natalia Kotova, ThinkLinkers

What does it take to build a thriving global data community, and what makes a data conference worth attending? Natalia Kotova, Project Director at ThinkLinkers and founder of She Leads Int., joins host Henry Clavo to share what she has learned from more than a decade of delivering international data management events and building a network of more than 30,000 data professionals.

Natalia talks about how data management changed after ChatGPT, what she looks for in speakers, why the hardest gap to close is the language between data teams and management, and what barriers still exist for women in data leadership in Europe.

Chapters

0:00 Cold open

0:12 Orlando Insights Podcast intro

0:51 Meet Natalia Kotova, ThinkLinkers

2:14 What separates a good data conference from one that shifts thinking

3:41 How she got into data management events

5:33 How ChatGPT and AI changed data management

10:09 What she looks for in speakers

13:22 Designing events that bring participants together

14:25 Making the business case to attend a conference

14:51 The hardest part to align: data teams and management

16:55 Data maturity: what she hears backstage

20:26 From social media to a network of 30,000 data professionals

23:11 Why she founded She Leads Int.

27:05 Barriers for women in data leadership in Europe

30:52 Art, travel and life in Prague

36:27 Upcoming events and how to connect

39:04 Outro

About the guest

Natalia Kotova is Project Director at ThinkLinkers, the team behind some of Europe's best-known data management events, and founder of She Leads Int. She has delivered 30-plus international data conferences and initiatives and is based in Prague, Czech Republic.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1gu8dlphzAA

More episodes: https://orlandoinsightspodcast.com

Find Natalia: https://thinklinkers.com (Data Management & AI ThinkLab events in Prague) and LinkedIn (Natalia Kotova).

Host Henry Clavo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henryorlandoclavo/

The Orlando Insights Podcast is brought to you by Orlando Insight Group, data and AI advisory for CIOs and Chief Data Officers: AI Readiness Assessment, Data Governance & AI Foundations Sprint, and Fractional Chief Data & AI Officer. Book a free 30-minute AI readiness consult: https://calendar.app.google/xkJqUsFzrHAVkY4W7

https://orlandoinsightgroup.com