Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Greenfield Challenge

The European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics has the objective of "...connecting individuals and organisations, interested in theoretical developments and practical applications in the field of business and industrial statistics." They achieve this through their electronic network, and an annual Spring Conference.

The co-called "Greenfield Challenge", which is now an annual event, arose from a challenge laid down by Tony Greenfield in his George Box Medal acceptance speech in 2009:

"My challenge to you is that you will tell some audience about work you have done, and completed successfully because you used a statistical method. But that audience must be of people who are not statisticians.
And you will have spoken to those people through publications that are for the wider public, through magazines or newspapers, or from a public platform. You might even write a short story or a play. That is my challenge: Tell the world, outside your circle, of work you have done, and done successfully because you used statistics."
Fighting words!

You can read more about the responses to this challenge from members of the ENBIS community here.

I really like this challenge. It seems to me that it would be equally applicable to the econometrics community.

What do you think?


© 2012, David E. Giles