Virtual event
Hacks for Cleaning Messy Data (in Minutes)
Exclusively for public servants and policymakers
Tuesday, Jul 28, 2026
Time is displayed in your local time zone
Speakers
What to do next
- Catch up on the 7-minute highlights above, or dive into the full recording
- Join the Data Skills Network
- Check out our upcoming event AI Skills Lab | AI for Data Visualisation
Resources
Join the Data Skills Network
The Data Skills Network is an online community to build your data skills through connection and conversation with peers across government. This space is open to all, whether you consider yourself a data novice or a data expert.
Event Description
You inherit a spreadsheet that should be simple to use. Instead, it is full of duplicates, inconsistent categories and missing fields that make it unreadable.
Messy data builds up fast when a file passes between teams and individuals. Formatting differences, mixed date styles and other problems can turn a dataset into a time sink right when you need answers.
In this session, we’ll share a fast routine for cleaning a messy spreadsheet so you can start analysis sooner. You’ll learn how to spot the highest-impact issues and fix them quickly, so you spend less time untangling inconsistencies and more time producing the report you were asked for. The event will leave you with a repeatable approach for getting to a usable dataset before your next status update.
Image Credit: ChatGPT
Speakers
Allan Yarish
Partner, Lancea Partners
Canada
Allan Yarish, a finance professional with more than 17 years of experience across investment fund marketing, portfolio management and financial analysis. He is currently a Partner at Lancea Partners and Director at Juno Finance, having previously worked as a Portfolio Manager at Channel Capital Advisors. Alongside his extensive industry experience, he is an enthusiastic and highly skilled Excel user, with a particular interest in harnessing the seemingly limitless power of spreadsheets to analyse data, solve problems and improve decision making.
