What is External Data University?

Here's what you need to know about External Data University. 

🎓 What is External Data University? 

External Data University, also known as XDU for short, is a virtual learning community presented by Crux. This is a place for anyone within the external data community–from suppliers to engineers to beginners to leadership–to come together and learn from one another, or share their insights across the industry. 

Currently, XDU will consist of virtual learning events via LinkedIn, which will be smaller regularly scheduled sessions on the Crux corporate page. We will host both internal and external speakers for these learning events on a variety of topics. 

XDU will also have a regularly weekly newsletter, where recipients will get a new topic and pertinent insights sent directly to their inbox. You can subscribe to that newsletter and check out Issue #1 right now on LinkedIn. 

XDU is NOT a direct sales tool. Any speakers will be sharing their thoughts independently, and there will be no sales or pitches related to any topic. 

❓Why is Crux presenting this? 

As far as we know, there is no unified learning community for the external data industry today, and we want to change that. Just like those of you who work in ESG know, working together is critical in a time when the world is looking to us to better data technology to better the world around us. Our goal is to create an environment for everyone in the industry from CEOs to engineers to come together and share their ideas and questions with other great minds. 

🗓️ Why does XDU have events? 

We want our learning community to be interactive. While some of our sessions are pre-recorded to fit into guests' schedules, we also will be hosting conversations live so everyone has a chance to ask questions and engage with speakers on a variety of topics. We encourage you to join live sessions and interact, but just in case you're unable to attend, we'll always share our content in a variety of other ways so you can access it in a way that's best for you. 

📚 Where can I find XDU content? 

There are currently three places where XDU content lives: 

1. On our blog. Any content we record for XDU will be linked directly on the blog, and provide readers a quick summary of what happened in each session. This is great if you can't listen to a video out loud, or just want a brief overview before bookmarking the video to watch later. Here's a summary of our first session with MSCI's Dania Koedih. 
2. In our newsletter. You can subscribe directly to the newsletter via email or LinkedIn. Each week we'll deliver the latest XDU content straight to you, along with information on upcoming learning events and trending topics we're watching in external data. Think of the newsletter as a one-stop-shop for weekly XDU content. Check out our first issue here. 
3. On YouTube. Any conversation we have with a fellow external data export will be published to our channel. You can subscribe directly to it for notifications each time we post a new video. Prefer to dive right in? Watch our chat with Dania here. 

📣 How do you pick speakers? 

We source speakers from our Crux network, but we also take volunteers. Our speakers are internal to Crux and external, and we welcome topic proposals from anywhere within the external data industry, whether it's technical or a 1,000 foot view. 

Interested in speaking? Reach out to scout.scholes@cruxinformatics.com to share a topic or volunteer to chat. 

Happy learning!