ICTworks

Please sign up to present, register to attend, or reserve a demo table for MERL Tech DC 2018 on September 6-7, 2018 at FHI 360 in Washington, DC.

We will engage 300 practitioners from across the development ecosystem for a two-day conference seeking to turn the theories of MERL technology into effective practice that delivers real insight and learning in our sector.

MERL Tech DC 2018, September 6-7, 2018

Digital data and new media and information technologies are changing monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL). The past five years have seen technology-enabled MERL growing by leaps and bounds. We’re also seeing greater awareness and concern for digital data privacy and security coming into our work.

The field is in constant flux with emerging methods, tools and approaches, such as:

• Adaptive management and developmental evaluation
• Faster, higher quality data collection
• Remote data gathering through sensors and self-reporting by mobile
• Big data, data science, and social media analytics
• Story-triggered methodologies

Alongside these new initiatives, we are seeing increasing documentation and assessment of technology-enabled MERL initiatives. Good practice guidelines are emerging and agency-level efforts are making new initiatives easier to start, build on and improve.

The swarm of ethical questions related to these new methods and approaches has spurred greater attention to areas such as responsible data practice and the development of policies, guidelines and minimum ethical standards for digital data.

Championing the above is a growing and diversifying community of MERL practitioners, assembling from a variety of fields; hailing from a range of starting points; espousing different core frameworks and methodological approaches; and representing innovative field implementers, independent evaluators, and those at HQ that drive and promote institutional policy and practice.

Please sign up to present, register to attend, or reserve a demo table for MERL Tech DC to experience 2 days of in-depth sharing and exploration of what’s been happening across this cross-disciplinary field, what we’ve been learning, complex barriers that still need resolving, and debate around the possibilities and the challenges that our field needs to address as we move ahead.

Submit Your Session Ideas Now

Like previous conferences, MERL Tech DC will be a highly participatory, community-driven event and we’re actively seeking practitioners in monitoring, evaluation, research, learning, data science and technology to facilitate every session.

Please submit your session ideas now. We are looking for a range of topics, including

• Experiences and learning on digital MERL approaches
• Ethics, inclusion, safeguarding, and data privacy
• Data (big data, data science, data analysis)
• Evaluation of ICT-enabled efforts
• The future of MERL
• MERL Failures

Visit the session submission page for more detail on each of these areas.

Submission Deadline: Monday, April 30, 2018 (at midnight EST)

Session leads receive priority for the available seats at MERL Tech and a discounted registration fee. You will hear back from us in early June and, if selected, you will be asked to submit the final session title, summary and outline by June 30.

Register Now

Please sign up to present or register to attend MERL Tech DC 2018 to examine these trends with an exciting mix of educational keynotes, lightning talks, and group breakouts, including an evening reception and Fail Fest to foster needed networking across sectors and an exploration of how we can learn from our mistakes.

We are charging a modest fee to better allocate seats and we expect to sell out quickly again this year, so buy your tickets or demo tables now. Event proceeds will be used to cover event costs and to offer travel stipends for select participants implementing MERL Tech activities in developing countries.