Few leaders have the insight, passion, and strategic foresight to make real, meaningful changes across industries and society. Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker is one of these visionaries, a globally recognized strategist in exponential technologies and deep science. She has spent decades bridging the gap between cutting-edge technologies and their societal impact and is living out her bold vision with her latest venture, XPANSE – the most influential exponential tech forum of the year, taking place November 20-22 in Abu Dhabi.

The core of her work is the idea that exponential technologies can change how we solve the world’s most pressing problems. But, as Dr. Cinker explains, it’s not just about the technologies themselves; it’s about building a network of visionaries, innovators, and decision-makers who can come together to make it happen. To serve this purpose, she created XPANSE, the global agenda-shaping exponential tech initiative, and forum hosted by ADQ, the Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company.

“Centuries ago, kings would send envoys to different lands to learn about the most exotic and cutting-edge developments of their time, translated from many languages and fields. That is what is needed now. Leaders need a credible source that is translating this news in the right way, so they know what is coming but don’t have to spend too much time on it.” Dr. Cinker says in a recent interview. 

Dr. Cinker emphasizes that collective intelligence is needed now more than ever as advancements in quantum computing, neuromorphic technology, and genomics accelerate. XPANSE, in many ways, reflects this ethos—bringing together 2,500 of the world’s brightest minds to collaborate, share insights, and shape the future.

A transformative period in human history

We are entering a transformative period in human history, Dr. Cinker calls it “the age of exponential technologies.” Four key areas of human knowledge—nano assembly, quantum technologies, AI, and genomics—are accelerating one another, creating hybrid developments that are reshaping industries and society in ways we could not have predicted even a few years ago.

“At this point in the development of exponential technology,” she explains, “we can no longer follow predictive linear models, where we say, ‘in five years, we’re going to be there.” Instead, these technologies are converging and emerging at a pace that forces businesses, policymakers, and society to adapt quickly. Rapid progress in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced genomics seems to happen out of nowhere, so many are caught off guard.

“We can no longer follow predictive linear models at this point in the development of exponential technology”

Businesses, legislators, and policymakers face new challenges and opportunities in this era. “You need to know what is happening on the horizons of all these different areas,” Dr. Cinker urges, emphasizing the need for decision-makers to understand how breakthroughs in one field might ripple across others. It’s not just about staying ahead in one sector; it’s about understanding how unexpected connections can happen between fields, such as how biological computation could solve the energy requirements of AI-driven technologies.

XPANSE: The most influential exponential tech event of the year

Set to take place from November 20-22 in Abu Dhabi, XPANSE is the premier UAE global exponential tech initiative, uniting the world’s most powerful voices, government, Sovereign Funds, family offices, and key industries. Hosted by ADQ, the Abu Dhabi-based holding and investment company, it is not just another tech event, it’s a blend of a powerful agenda-shaping forum and an experiential immersive design with multi-media and sensory experiences designed to activate opportunities and build strategic relationships.  

2,500 world’s brightest minds, Nobel Laureates, industry leaders, policymakers, scientists, and entrepreneurs will gather to exchange knowledge on topics ranging from AI, quantum, and genomics to space habitats and organoid intelligence, all to tackle some of the world’s most complex and pressing challenges.

Key speakers at XPANSE:

• ⁠Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate, Former US Secretary of Energy, Stanford University
• ⁠Dr. Anton Zeilinger, Nobel Laureate, University of Vienna
• ⁠⁠Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder of WPP and Executive Chairman, S4 Capital
• ⁠⁠Sir Ronald Cohen, Co-Founder and President, GSG Impact
• ⁠⁠Honorable Cristina Gallach, Former Under-Secretary-General, United Nations
• ⁠⁠Dr. Najwa Aaraj, CEO, TII
• ⁠⁠Prem Akkaraju, CEO, Stability AI
• Carolina Aguilar, CEO and Co-Founder, @‌INBRAIN Neuroelectronics
• ⁠Shahid Ahmed, Group EVP, NTT

Sharing her excitement about XPANSE, Dr. Cinker describes the event on LinkedIn as “THE MOST ambitious, mesmerizing, and groundbreaking experience I have ever created in my entire career.” For her, XPANSE is more than just a gathering to talk about the latest developments in deep tech, it is a force for transformative change, bringing the right people and the brightest ideas together in a way that can actually make a difference.

Connecting deep tech entrepreneurs with UAE & global decision-makers

The Startup Pitch Competition is one of the key components of XPANSE, an opportunity for early—and growth-stage deep tech startups to pitch their solutions to UAE & GCC and global investors, industry leaders, and government officials and win $20,000 for the best pitch. This isn’t a competition about winning funding, instead, it positions startups as central players in the emerging landscape of exponential technologies in the UAE and globally.

Dr. Cinker believes deep tech startups have a powerful role in translating complex scientific breakthroughs into practical solutions that can help society. XPANSE will be the platform for these startups to gain visibility, connect with UAE and global decision-makers, and secure the resources they need to scale. “That is another reason why we create forums like XPANSE,” she explains, “to show the world what the explorers in the fields of quantum, 2D materials, fusion energy, and carbon capture are creating and how it will change the next chapter for cities, citizens, industries and societies.”

Why you should apply to the Startup Pitch at XPANSE

The XPANSE Startup Pitch invites early-stage and later-stage startups in deep tech to apply by October 15, 2024, to showcase your solution to UAE and international leaders and win $20,000 for your pitch. This is a rare chance to access strategic receptions and networking events to forge partnerships with influential investors and VCs from the Middle East, US, and Europe, including Quantonation, Shorooq, Curiosity VC, Plug& Play and more.

Whether your focus is AI, genomics, advanced materials, or quantum computing, XPANSE provides a unique platform to accelerate your startup’s growth and make your proposed solution a reality. As Dr. Cinker says, “XPANSE will be a place where decision-makers in industry and policy meet with the world’s brightest minds in exponential tech and deep science to look at how we can work together to shape the future.”

On a recent evening in July, data professionals convened at Mindspace Munich for the Data Natives’ “Data Sips and Bites” meetup in a collaboration with Double Cloud. Hosted at one of Mindspace’s coworking locations, the event was a convergence of insightful talks and professional networking. Mindspace, a global coworking and flexible office provider with over 45 locations worldwide, including 13 in Germany, offered a conducive environment for this knowledge-sharing event.

Talks and insights

Mikhail Epikhin: Navigating the processor landscape for Apache Kafka

Mikhail Epikhin began the session by sharing his team’s research on optimizing Managed Service for Apache Kafka. His presentation focused on the performance and efficiency of different instance types and processor architectures. Mikhail compared various JVM implementations, including OpenJDK and Amazon Corretto, as well as different generations of Intel, AMD, and ARM processors. The findings provided practical insights that attendees could apply to enhance their own platforms, beyond just Apache Kafka.

Ed Posinitskii: Simplifying data workflows with DBT and Managed Airflow

Following Mikhail, Ed Posinitskii discussed simplifying data workflows using DBT and Managed Airflow. Ed explained the differences between ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) processes, highlighting the advantages of the ELT approach in modern data environments. He introduced Airflow as a robust tool for orchestrating data pipelines and DBT for data transformation within data warehouses. The integration of these tools, Ed noted, enhances pipeline control, observability, and continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) practices.

Mikhail Anukhin: Integrating DoubleCloud’s DataTransfer with ClickHouse

The final talk by Mikhail Anukhin focused on integrating DoubleCloud’s DataTransfer ELT tool with ClickHouse. Mikhail discussed the construction of data pipelines for popular analytical scenarios, such as real-time streaming and data warehousing. He addressed challenges in data replication and offered solutions to optimize these processes. Mikhail’s presentation provided attendees with actionable insights into improving their data workflows.

Networking and professional exchange

The event concluded with a networking session, allowing attendees to engage in discussions and share ideas. This session provided a valuable opportunity for data professionals to connect and exchange insights, reinforcing the importance of community and collaboration in the data field.

Overall, the “Data Sips and Bites” meetup at Mindspace facilitated an evening of professional growth and networking. The event underscored the importance of knowledge sharing and community among data professionals, offering attendees practical insights to apply in their own work.

SI3, an organization championing women and non-binary individuals in the Web3 space, has announced its inaugural “Granting Access” event on August 1, 2024. The virtual gathering will connect participants with grant funding opportunities at major blockchain and protocol organizations and features representatives from Gitcoin, LUKSO, ThankArb, Push Protocol, and Unlock Protocol.

“Granting Access” is designed to foster financial inclusion and access for underrepresented groups within the Web3 ecosystem. The event will kick off with a keynote presentation by Kara Howard, Co-Creator of SI3 and the Si Her Co-Active, who emphasized the importance of unifying and accelerating the growth of women in Web3.

“We are thrilled to host Granting Access, an event that aligns with our mission to drive financial inclusion and access for women and non-binary individuals in the Web3 ecosystem,” said Howard. “We hope to foster a more equitable and diverse Web3 landscape by bringing together leaders and grant programs.”

Panel discussions will feature Elizabeth Cusma (EducationDAO), Mashal Waqar (Octant), and Reena Shtedle (Founding Member, Cosmos Cartel), moderated by Ksenia Stark (Co-Founder, ⅄Oᒋ⅋NOISՈᖵNOϽ and Partner Growth, SI3) delving into strategies for equity and financial inclusion in the space.

The sessions will provide attendees with a unique opportunity to engage directly with representatives from leading blockchain and protocol organizations. Participants are set to learn about various grant programs, funding priorities, and application processes, gaining valuable insights into securing financial support for their Web3 projects and initiatives.

FIXX: Building a More Inclusive Web3 Future

The “Granting Access” event is just one facet of SI3’s broader mission to empower women and non-binary individuals in Web3. Their flagship initiative, FIXX (Financial Inclusion XX Chromosome), is a comprehensive program providing education, mentorship, and community-building opportunities.

FIXX’s upcoming program, starting in September 2024, will feature monthly sessions on personal values, unconscious bias, diversity in marketing, DEI strategies, advocacy, and impact tracking. 

By equipping participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in the Web3 landscape, FIXX is helping to build a more inclusive and equitable future for all.

A Call to Action

SI3’s “Granting Access” event and the FIXX initiative represent a significant step forward in fostering diversity and inclusion within the Web3 community.

“I’m excited about this event because it’s a chance to push for more recognition of women in web3 and learn from others. I believe that equity and financial inclusion are key to real progress and innovation,” Mathilde DV, Grants Program Lead at Gitcoin, said.

As the decentralized technology landscape continues to evolve, it is essential to ensure that opportunities are accessible to everyone, regardless of gender or background. After all, DEI isn’t a “nice to have” or a cause driven by ethical and moral issues – diverse, equitable, and inclusive teams contribute to financial success by fostering innovative, engaged, and productive workforces that create products and services that work for and resonate with a broader range of consumers and investors.

Despite DEI layoffs at major corporations such as Microsoft, the momentum is building, and the message is clear: a more diverse and equitable Web3 is not just an aspiration but a necessity for the industry’s continued success. Interested participants can register for Granting Access via Unlock.

This article was originally published on Hackernoon and is republished with permission.

If there’s a single trend dominating the tech conversation in 2024, it’s Web3’s surging momentum. While still a nascent concept to many, Web3 is rapidly gaining traction, backed by a burgeoning market expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2030, with a growth rate of 44.9%. BananaConf, formerly NFT Tallinn, is riding this wave with its 2024 conference, positioning the Nordic & Baltic region as a hub for Web3 exploration and development. 

From April 22 to 24, expect hard-hitting discussions, showcases of bleeding-edge applications, and a glimpse into the internet’s decentralized future.

Dataconomy readers! Receive a 40% community discount on your BananaConf tickets.

Web3 is More Than a Buzzword

Let’s be clear: Web3 isn’t your average tech hype cycle. It’s a foundational change in how we think about the internet. “Web3 breaks the mold of centralized corporate control,” Sander Gansen, cofounder and organizer at BananaConf, told me. “It’s about putting power back into the hands of users, giving them real ownership of their data and a say in how digital platforms are run. That’s going to upend the status quo.”

Drivers include the rising need for decentralized technology and applications, which offer solutions to pressing digital challenges like data breaches and privacy infringements. Additionally, Web 3.0 fosters trust and user control over data through features like decentralization and transparency. 

However, challenges include regulatory scrutiny and the evolving nature of regulations, which can create uncertainty for businesses. The scalability of blockchain technology is another restraint, as current infrastructure struggles to handle the demands of a global decentralized ecosystem. 

Yet, there are opportunities to address these challenges, and the event aims to discuss possible solutions and foster a community of movers and shakers that can peel back the sometimes ugly skin and help reveal the fruits within.

BananaConf: It’s Not Just Crypto Anymore

BananaConf won’t shy away from crypto’s role in Web3, but it aims for a bigger picture. Attendees will see how blockchain’s unique characteristics are reshaping everything from finance and supply chains to the booming creator economy. “Web3 use cases are expanding at breakneck speed now,” Gansen said. “The most successful players won’t just ‘do blockchain’ – they’ll use it to solve problems, improve experiences, and create fairer outcomes for businesses and users alike.”

BananaConf’s ‘five stages’ format will be graced by over 100 speakers, offering attendees everything from showcases to thought leadership, ROI-focused talks to discussions on ethics and regulation, and practical masterclasses to developer workshops.

Attendees will also enjoy a list of side events to suit every palette, from the ETHTallinn hackathon and policymakers roundtable to a VIP yacht party and sauna, and (as is expected of all tech conferences), an after-party of two.

Web3: A “C” of Change

Web3 is all about community, co-creation, collaboration, and direct communication, with the technologies that exist now and in the future being the tools to help deliver on the promise of an antidote to the transactional nature of Web2, the organizers recognize that it takes a village to create the biggest Web3 event in the Nordics and Baltics. 

“BananaConf is being supported by both sponsors and grassroots networks behind its success,” Gansen said. “The mix includes heavy hitters like VISA and Binance sharing stage time with NFT collectives Bored Ape Yacht Club and World of Women, representing Web3’s unique blend of disruptive energy and big-picture investment.”

Whether you’re a startup founder, tech veteran, or curious newcomer, BananaConf in Tallinn promises to be a mind-expanding experience with tangible takeaways.

Remember, Dataconomy readers receive a 40% community discount on your BananaConf tickets!

Amidst the glitz and glamor, the annual Miami Art Week again profoundly emphasized sustainability, impact, and purpose. The main Art Basel event returned to its usual sprawling Miami Beach location, with a plethora of booths helmed by 277 top galleries from 34 countries, numerous art fairs, and a multitude of VIP soirées, which paradoxically underscores an event that epitomizes contemporary art’s opulence.

As dawn breaks each day, the ironic aftermath reveals South Beach strewn with champagne remnants, an indulgence that the local community diligently cleans post-revelry.

The discourse on the climate crisis is palpable within the art community, spotlighting the excesses of the yacht culture, opulent lifestyles, vehicular emissions, and the ubiquity of disposable water bottles that Art Basel Miami is famous for.

However, the pivotal question lingers: Can sustainability in art be marketable? And can art impact the other areas of concern echoed across the galleries and 500+ side events squeezed into Miami this year: equality, diversity, and peace?

Last year, one curator opined that activist art may only sometimes find a commercial audience, but artists persistently channel their energies into this cause. Here are some of the artworks and experiences that did precisely that.

SCOPE at Art Basel Miami Beach: Global Contemporary Art and Intellectual Dialogue

The fair once again attracted art enthusiasts, collectors, and professionals from around the globe, with 79,000 visitors witnessing the latest trends and developments in the art world. While much of the attention centered on what pieces sold and for how much across the plethora of galleries, there were some notable exceptions.

In particular, SCOPE, a renowned platform for emerging and mid-career contemporary artists, illuminated Art Basel Miami Beach. SCOPE hosted over 170 galleries from 38 countries representing a global ensemble, painting a comprehensive picture of modern art’s diverse and dynamic landscape.

At the heart of SCOPE Miami Beach was “The New Contemporary” atrium. More than an exhibition space, it emerged as a nexus for intellectual discourse, hosting performances, panel discussions, and wellness activities. This vibrant convergence of artists, curators, and enthusiasts nurtured profound dialogues on art’s intersections with culture and society.

The iconic SCOPE Walls on Miami Beach stood as monumental testaments to artistic expression. Serving as expansive canvases for large-scale murals, these artworks echoed poignant reflections on pressing social and political issues, capturing attention with their vivid hues and compelling narratives.

SCOPE Miami Beach 2023 was a beacon of contemporary art’s evolving ethos. Its dedication to amplifying emerging voices, nurturing inclusive dialogues, and curating immersive experiences reinforced its pivotal role in shaping the art world’s future trajectory.

Art Basel is All About Access

The word “access” is used a lot at Art Basel. VIP access, private event access, exclusive access: visitors are always wondering what they have access to, which events they can access, and which are beyond access.

This year, Art Basel launched a new initiative – aptly named Access – a new digital sales initiative in collaboration with Arcual to foster philanthropy within the art community.

Access has started small, featuring slightly over a dozen exhibitors, including Pace Gallery, François Ghebaly, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, and others, showcasing works by artists like Hernan Bas, Katherine Bradford, and Rafael Delacruz, among others. But its intentions are good.

Buyers must pledge a minimum 10% donation on artwork purchases to The Miami Foundation or The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Art Basel has committed an initial donation of $25,000, split equally between these organizations. The Miami Foundation is a collective of three impact initiatives: Arts Access Miami, LGBTQ+ Equity Fund, and Racial Equity Fund.

Untitled Art: Inclusivity, Digital Innovation, and Sustainable Artistry

Untitled Art, a prominent independent art fair, marked its 2023 edition as its most extensive and internationally diverse presentation.

Untitled Art’s 2023 program highlighted two central curatorial themes: “Gender Equality in the Arts” and “Curating in the Digital Age.” Approximately 60% of exhibiting artists and 35% of exhibitors identified as female or non-binary, emphasizing the fair’s focus on gender inclusivity. Furthermore, the event prioritized meaningful representation, with 37% BIPOC, 23% Latin American, and 23% Asian artists and exhibitors. The exhibition also underscored its global reach with exhibitors from diverse regions, including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Recognizing the evolving landscape of art presentation when it doesn’t turn anymore, Untitled Art emphasized the role of technology with its “Curating in the Digital Age” theme. Vortic, as the fair’s Digital Partner, facilitated virtual extensions of exhibitor booths.

Additionally, notable online platforms like Victoria Miro Projects and Platform contributed to the digital discourse, reflecting the integration of technology into contemporary curatorial practices.

In alignment with environmental stewardship, Untitled Art joined the Gallery Climate Coalition and collaborated with the City of Miami Beach to ensure its presentation had no negative impact on the city or the environment. Untitled Art’s 2023 exhibition at Art Basel Miami exemplified its commitment to fostering inclusivity, embracing technological advancements, supporting emerging voices in art criticism, and promoting sustainability within the art ecosystem.

SUMM3R at PLAYGROUND: A Fusion of Web3, Art, and Cultural Innovation

Art Basel Miami is renowned for its showcase of cutting-edge art and immersive experiences, and this year, a standout side captivated attendees. During SUMM3R at PLAYGROUND, two organizations that believe in the power of creators and help them to make an impact joined forces along with leading Web3 communities.

⅄Oᒋ⅋NOISՈᖵNOϽ and WeCare Impact curated over 15 groundbreaking artists, leading impact voices, and immersive installations, with a strong focus on co-creation, ecosystem support, and providing momentum towards their joint mission to use multi-sensory experiences to create positive impact. The insightful panels and discussions that included leaders from /Prompt and Web3 Familia, which included talks on the intersection of Social Impact, Community, and Culture, and the role of creator marketing in the realm of wellness and healthcare, were underpinned by thought-provoking digital art.

In particular, the CityX NFT Art Project exists to preserve endangered art from remarkable Ukrainian avant-garde artists currently underrepresented because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. The City X NFT Art Project aims to safeguard the Municipal Gallery and Vovatanya Gallery’s collections forever. The inclusion of the revolutionary WOWCube – a tactile Rubik’s Cube-style device that uses screens instead of colored squares – showed how impactful art such as the CityX NFT collection can be interacted with in new, emotionally connecting ways.

Live art enthusiasts were rewarded as UN award-winning artist Marco Santini brought his dynamic creations to life. Attendees immersed themselves in art journeys curated around pivotal themes like climate justice and gender equality, with AR and digital artworks from Chroma Link Collective represented by Stacy Ant and Carmilla Sumantry, and VideOrbit founded by Isabelle Udo, who collaborated with Katja Perex, and several other remarkable contributors such as Fatimah Hossaini, Marjan Moghaddam, Yacine Ait Kaci (ELYX), David Lindberg, Isla Moon, Sovereign Nature, and Marina Jaber.

Further enriching the experience were live-streamed interviews on Si-Her.live, spotlighting creators and unveiling the narratives underpinning their artistic endeavors. A special segment with True Stars‘ Emily Carrig also shed light on groundbreaking projects redefining the artistic landscape. The collective focus of the event was on Thousand Faces, a community-driven funding platform to finance impact-driven female founders, shedding light on the cause of empowering female founders driving impact in startups.

Attendees ended the experience by grooving to the beats of a live set by DJ collective NEXUS, who reflected the city’s pulsating energy and amplified the multi-sensory experience of the event.

Wear the Future with Nolcha Shows: A Collision of Art, Sustainability, and Fashion

Art Basel Miami witnessed a groundbreaking fashion showcase that seamlessly melded art with sustainable style. Curated by the esteemed sustainable fashion showroom, Wear the Future, the event was a collaboration with Nolcha Shows, renowned for its discovery of avant-garde fashion designers.

Held at the iconic Sagamore South Beach, the original Art Hotel synonymous with Miami’s cultural renaissance, the event drew a crowd of press, retailers, stylists, and industry influencers. A highlight of the evening was AKS MATHUR’s collection, where leather was transformed into a canvas for vivid expression. His creations, adorned by celebrities like Sofia Reyes, showcased premium, handcrafted leather goods radiating brilliance.

Lunaversoul’s soulful handmade jewelry pieces were added to the allure, each narrating a unique story of artisanal elegance. Aflé Bijoux further enriched the narrative with their Adinkra Bracelets, celebrating culture and love while transcending cultural boundaries.

Nandanie presented a modern twist to women’s neckwear, offering sophisticated statements crafted in New York City with Italian materials. Their designs graced the likes of Miami Heat’s Josh Richardson, DJing in a classic Pearl tie, and notable figures like Doctor Jarrett Schanzer and artist Singer Valentino Bornancini.

The collaboration between Nolcha Shows and Wear the Future culminated in a Sustainable Fashion Art Showcase that went beyond mere fashion. It was an artistic narrative spotlighting sustainable elegance, artistic expression, and a shared commitment to a greener future.

Many steps in the right direction

Art Basel Miami 2023 transcended the boundaries of traditional art exhibitions, forging pathways into sustainability, digital innovation, and societal impact.

From the monumental expressions at SCOPE to the pioneering initiatives like Access and the boundary-pushing experiences at SUMM3R at PLAYGROUND, the event was a symphony of artistry and purpose.

It demonstrated that art is not just a reflection of society but a powerful catalyst for change, urging us all to reimagine, innovate, and embrace a future where art and purpose walk hand in hand.

As the sun sets on Miami’s vibrant showcase, it leaves us with a resounding message: Art has the continued potential to shape narratives, inspire movements, and pave the way for a more inclusive and sustainable world.

CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program is just around the corner. Held annually, this program celebrates excellence in design and engineering across the vast landscape of consumer technology.

What is CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program?

This prestigious program is dedicated to acknowledging remarkable achievements in the field, setting a benchmark for innovation in the industry. It spotlights products that stand out in their design, functionality, consumer appeal, and technological advancement.

In this program, products are evaluated across a diverse range of consumer technology categories, showcasing the latest and most innovative achievements in the sector. The CES Innovation Awards program not only highlights honorees in these various categories but also goes a step further to distinguish the top-rated products, marking them as leaders in their respective fields.

The recognition process in the CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program is tiered, as outlined on its official website. There are two distinct levels of honorees:

• Honorees: Products that meet or exceed a high standard of excellence in their category are recognized as Honorees. These products demonstrate significant advancements in technology and design, marking a notable achievement in the consumer technology space.
• Best of Innovation: This level is reserved for products that stand above their peers. These are the highest-rated products in each category, exemplifying extraordinary ingenuity and a leading edge in today’s technology market. Best of Innovation Honorees are selected for their exceptional performance in various criteria, setting new standards for technological development and consumer experience.

The application window for the CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program has now officially closed.

Eligibility for the CES Innovation Awards program extends to any individual, organization, or authorized representative involved in the manufacture, design, engineering, or promotion of consumer technology products. To qualify, the submitted products must either have been introduced to the market for the first time after April 1, 2023, or be projected to be available on the market by April 1, 2024.

Last year’s CES 2023 Innovation Awards winners

Each year, the CES Innovation Awards program serves as a showcase for groundbreaking technology and design, reflecting the dynamic and evolving nature of the consumer technology industry. It celebrates the ingenuity of designers and engineers in creating products that enhance daily life, driving the industry forward into the future.

1. Ashirase by Ashirase (Honoree)

A wearable navigation system for visually impaired individuals, featuring a smartphone app and in-shoe vibration device for intuitive walking guidance.

2. Bedsore-M by BlissTech (Honoree)

A machine vision and AI-powered device for pressure ulcer management, providing posture analysis and treatment solutions.

3. WL1 Bidet Toilet Lift by Dignity Lifts (Honoree)

An assistive toilet lift that aids people with limited strength or mobility in using the toilet independently.

4. Dot Pad by Dot (Best of Innovation)

A tactile graphic device for visually impaired individuals, displaying images, graphics, and charts in tactile form.

5. HAPTA by L’Oreal (Honoree)

A handheld, smart makeup applicator designed for disabled users, featuring motion sensors and stabilizing technology for precision application.

6. E-Digestion by Lux Lab and Hayang University Erica (Honoree)

A digital system for managing digestive disorders, using a controller with an intestinal health sensor and a therapy mat for digestive muscle stimulation.

7. Microsoft Adaptive Accessories by Microsoft (Honoree)

Customizable accessories designed for people with reduced mobility, allowing personalization of mouse and keyboard inputs.

8. Self-dispensing Refillable Toothbrush by Nest Care (Honoree)

A toothbrush with built-in toothpaste dispensing technology, aiding elderly and disabled users in one-handed brushing.

9. HP Hearing PRO by Nuheara (Honoree)

Self-fitting hearing aids with mobile app control, offering enhanced speech understanding in noisy environments.

10. BrailleWear by ORama AI (Honoree)

A smart glove that aids visually impaired people in learning braille faster and more independently.

11. KeyinL by Raonark (Honoree)

An upgradable smart lock with an automatic mortise for easy unlocking, designed for people with reduced mobility.

12. Relumino by Samsung (Honoree)

A visual assistance technology for TV, enhancing viewing experiences for people with low vision using AI.

13. Evolv AI by Starkey (Honoree)

Advanced hearing aids with improved sound quality, noise reduction, and remote fitting capabilities.

14. WHILL Autonomous Model A by WHILL (Best of Innovation)

An autonomous powerchair with advanced mapping and sensors, designed to aid navigation in large venues for individuals with limited mobility.

Good luck to all

CES 2024 is shaping up to be an event full of surprises and groundbreaking innovations. For a comprehensive preview of what to expect, including emerging technologies, key speakers, and anticipated product launches, check out our detailed article for CES 2024.

CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program not only recognizes the hard work and ingenuity of its participants but also sets the stage for future advancements in technology and design. As we eagerly anticipate the array of innovative products and solutions that will be showcased, we extend our best wishes to all the contenders of the CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program.

Your dedication, talent, and vision contribute immensely to shaping the future of consumer technology. May this platform serve as a testament to your achievements and a stepping stone to greater success. We look forward to celebrating your contributions and witnessing the unveiling of groundbreaking technologies that will inspire and transform the way we interact with the world around us. Good luck to all the participants in the CES 2024 Innovation Awards Program!

Featured image credit: Headway/Unsplash

Global DevSlam is back, setting the stage for a unique gathering of tech aficionados from all corners of the world. Supported by Coders HQ—a standout initiative by the UAE government—and the Python Software Foundation, this year’s event is designed to cultivate innovation and foster meaningful connections.

Taking place at the bustling Dubai World Trade Center from October 16-20 and co-located with GITEX, Global DevSlam is dedicated to offering a diverse platform that encourages widespread participation. The event beckons a rich tapestry of insights from C-level executives, government representatives, and a broad spectrum of international coding professionals.

With a focus on a harmonious blend of deep knowledge sharing and transformative dialogues, the conference aims to provide a practical, engaging, and enlightening experience for all its attendees. As a hub for exploration, learning, and networking, Global DevSlam is set to showcase an array of tech expertise and collaborative endeavors.

During a special pre-event interaction, we delved into the perspective of JJ Asghar, a Developer Advocate at IBM. Hailing from Austin, Texas, JJ brings a robust reservoir of expertise in DevOps and SRE, paired with an intense enthusiasm for the ever-growing realm of AI. He shares diverse insights as he gears up to enlighten the Global DevSlam audience—from his personal aspirations and cultural immersion at the event to in-depth musings on trending industry topics like Cloud Native and Serverless Applications.

JJ’s participation will be a journey of exploration and innovation, contributing tales of unexpected discoveries in serverless applications and insights into the transformative facets of AI. He will join other esteemed speakers in guiding pivotal dialogues on AI, emphasizing the essential role of ethical and responsible practices in technology’s evolution.

We invite you to join us in exploring JJ’s insights and forecasts as they shape the course of what promises to be an unforgettable experience at Global DevSlam:

1. Is this your first time attending Global DevSlam? What are your expectations for the event, and what insights or experiences should participants from around the world anticipate?

Yep! I’m a Developer Advocate from IBM, living in Austin, Texas. I never once in my life thought I could make it over to the UAE, and speak no less. Thank you for having me! My expectations of the event are not only to learn about the culture in the UAE, but to learn how I can engage in the space from a technology standpoint. I’m passionate about this AI ecosystem, and I want to make the biggest impact I can.

2. What are the highlighted discussion topics at this year’s Global DevSlam, and are there any that resonate with you particularly?

As much as Cloud Native is still “hot” it’s incredible how many people genuinely don’t understand that it’s a journey, not a “goal.” In order to grasp the advantages of Cloud Native, you have to first take stock of what you are trying to accomplish and what you already have invested in your development and infrastructure.

So many times, I’ve helped advise clients and/or companies that “You need to do your homework first” before you buy that OpenShift/Kubernetes cluster. Figure out what you’re trying to do, and maybe you should be looking at your next project, not this one. On top of that, too, I’ve learned to give people/clients/companies permission to realize that Cloud Native is hard. It isn’t like any other way of running your application and requires a real investment of time and effort to be successful. It’s amazing how many people don’t actually say this and give a false sense of security, saying, “just by my thing, and everything will be ‘ok’”.

Our team at IBM helps businesses navigate this process and implement hybrid cloud infrastructure to ensure security and make it as simple as possible for their development teams to manage.  

3. Could you provide some insights into the presentation or talk you’ll be delivering at Global DevSlam?

I’m going to be talking about how we accidentally created a Serverless application, and surprisingly a very common journey for developers to find themselves in the serverless space. I’m a highly experienced DevOps/SRE engineer, so it has a vector of how leveraging DevOps software can get you only so far, and before you know it, you’re building an application to make your life easier. And before you know that, you’ve accidentally created a Serverless app!

4. What industry trends or shifts are currently on your radar, and why do they excite you?

Frankly, I’m very excited about the AI space. With Generative AI all over the world and people are starting to pay real attention to our industry as a whole. That’s actually not what excites me, it’s more the aspect that now as technologies, we have the chance to teach and engage with non-techies in a way to understand what we do day in and day out. Nerd stuff is cool to nerds, but when we get say my parents interested, now I can show it to anyone.

This also ties in with how everyone needs to use this AI space responsibly. Something I genuinely love about IBM watsonx is that we really are the trusted AI platform. We have the datasets and the training of our foundational models there, so you can verify that our models are fair/balanced and built the way real enterprises and privacy-concerned institutions need. 

5. Gen AI is significantly shaping our global landscape. How do you view its influence on individuals, communities, and the broader enterprise world?

Honestly, that’s one reason why I’m so excited about coming to Gitex. Where I’m located in Texas, the AI space is just budding, and the community is small. I’m hoping through the lens of Gitex and AI Everything that, I’ll be able to find influencers to learn from!

The much-anticipated Europas Awards are making a grand return, promising a dazzling celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship in the vibrant city of Lisbon on November 13th, 2023. Set to coincide with the renowned Web Summit, this event is a beacon of excellence, recognizing and honoring the crème de la crème of tech startups across the continent.

A galaxy of innovation and entrepreneurship

Get ready to witness a stellar assembly of pioneering minds, as the Europas Awards—Europe’s most distinguished tech startup awards—unveil a universe of opportunity and recognition for the groundbreaking startups shaping our future. It’s not just about being a startup; it’s about standing out as a supernova in the expansive galaxy of innovation and entrepreneurship!

Past winners and success stories from The Europas Awards

Take a look at the trajectories of some of our past laureates:

• BUILDER.AI (2022 Scaleup of the Year Winner): Post-victory, BUILDER.AI has ascended to remarkable heights, securing a colossal $450 million in additional funding from esteemed entities such as Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority.

• MICROHARVEST (2022 AG/Food Tech Category Winner): A trailblazer in sustainable protein production through microorganisms, MicroHarvest is on a mission to build the resilient food system of tomorrow, earning widespread acclaim and enhancing the visibility of their pioneering value proposition.

• DELIVEROO (2015 Best E-commerce Startup Winner): With a footprint in over 10 countries worldwide, Deliveroo has emerged as a formidable competitor in the realm of food delivery, going toe-to-toe with giants like Uber Eats and Just Eat.

Mark your calendars

Join us in the celebration of brilliance and determination, as we showcase the best and brightest startups from across Europe. Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, an investor, or a tech enthusiast, the Europas Awards are a golden opportunity to network, learn, and get inspired.

Event details

• Date: November 13th, 2023
• Location: Lisbon, Portugal
• Co-located with: Web Summit

For additional information, registration details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit the Europas Awards official website.

Get ready to embark on a two-day journey into the heart of technological innovation at the inaugural Future Go Tech Summit, scheduled from October 6-7 at the vibrant Das Das in Istanbul. This groundbreaking conference promises to bring together thought leaders, government representatives, business luminaries, consumers, and entertainment industry visionaries to explore the ever-evolving landscape of technology.

With an extensive program designed to cater to diverse audiences, the Future Go Tech Summit is set to ignite discussions, unveil opportunities, and tackle the most critical challenges facing the tech world.

Diverse perspectives, common goals

At the core of the Future Go Tech Summit lies a commitment to fostering collaboration between individuals from varied sectors, including consumer, business, management, and entertainment. The summit’s organizers understand that technology touches every facet of our lives, and as such, it is crucial to engage with different perspectives to ensure its responsible and effective development.

Speakers and thought leaders

The summit boasts an impressive lineup of speakers and will be emceed by our very own Editor-at-Large, Stewart Rogers. With leaders from renowned companies such as Mohammad Nur-A-Alam of Nokia, Nainan Shah from Playstation, Kristina Lucrezia of Cointelegraph, and Sharon Epskamp of House of Flux, among others, these industry authorities will not only share their insights but also provide a glimpse into the future of their respective fields.

In-depth exploration of tech trends

The program is structured to provide a comprehensive view of technological trends from various angles, ensuring that all participants can grasp the significance of these shifts. Some key topics will be covered, including digital citizenship and privacy, biohacking and business, blockchain, and emotional AI. These discussions will accompany hands-on keynotes, sessions, and roundtable discussions, encouraging lively discourse and knowledge sharing.

Infotainment events

Beyond the traditional conference format, Future Go Tech Summit 2023 offers a range of unique infotainment events designed to foster community building and add fun to the proceedings. Stand-up evenings, cocktail parties, business runs, and more will ensure that engagement at the conference reaches new heights. These events will not only provide networking opportunities but also create a sense of camaraderie among attendees.

The Future Go award

One of the summit’s highlights is the Future Go Award, which recognizes tech and blockchain leaders driving progress and innovation. Only projects that have made a tangible impact, solved real-world problems, and improved our lives will be considered. A panel of 12 experts, well-respected in the tech community, will carefully select the winners. The award ceremony and afterparty promise to be a memorable culmination of the summit, celebrating the brightest minds in the industry.

Transforming DasDas

During the two-day event, DasDas will transform from a concert hall into a hub of technological energy. Participants can connect with tech leaders, gain inspiration, stay updated on the latest tech trends, and participate in hands-on keynotes that can revolutionize their businesses.

The Future Go Tech Summit 2023 is set to become a pivotal moment in the world of technology, bringing together diverse voices to shape the future of innovation. With its impressive lineup of speakers, in-depth discussions on critical tech topics, and unique infotainment events, this conference promises to leave a lasting impact on attendees. If you’re passionate about technology and eager to be part of the conversation that will define our future, mark your calendars for October 6-7 and join us in sunny Istanbul for this unforgettable experience.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been making waves since 2014, especially in the last two years. The concept of a non-fungible digital asset, one that you cannot easily exchange on a one-to-one basis like cryptocurrencies, emerged as a way to represent ownership and scarcity in the digital world. As with anything scarce, these conditions have led to a focus on NFTs becoming the latest nugget in the blockchain gold rush. And that is the problem.

During the California Gold Rush, a relatively small number of people became truly rich and achieved significant wealth, while the majority either experienced modest gains or ended up with minimal financial success, often struggling to meet their basic needs due to the high living costs in gold mining regions.

In the case of NFTs, those costs include the complexity and technical knowledge needed to acquire them. And while the riches have been some of the most significant in recent times, the NFT industry also suffers from the same level of speculation, notoriety, and scrutiny as those transformative ’40s and ’50s.

“While NFTs have the potential to revolutionize industries, their high transaction costs and low profitability make them a risky investment,” Olga Vorobyeva, founder at Vox Consulting, said. “The average NFT sale results in a loss, unlike the stock market where investors typically earn returns over time. Additionally, the high cost of minting and trading NFTs can hinder participation, making it difficult for ordinary investors and artists to get involved. Despite these challenges, NFTs still hold promise for innovation and growth, particularly in art, gaming, and collectibles.”

But to think of NFTs only in terms of quick financial gains is short-sighted, according to Sander Gansen, founder at NFT Tallinn – the NFT conference I attended in May. I spent some time discussing non-fungible tokens’ past, present, and future and the underlying technologies that power them.

“Reducing the value of NFTs solely to monetary gain overlooks the true power of this technology, which lies in its ability to revolutionize ownership, provenance, and the democratization of creative expression,” Gansen told me. “NFTs represent a groundbreaking technology that can transform how we perceive and interact with digital assets, particularly in art and collectibles, and also physical assets by introducing digital twins that help us verify their ownership and provenance.”

Money don’t matter

Since the Colored Coins project in 2012 and the CryptoKitties craze of 2017 (which at one point was so popular it functionally broke the Ethereum blockchain), the NFT market has expanded into various domains, including art, music, gaming, and collectibles. Artists and creators have started utilizing NFTs to sell digital artwork and authenticate their creations, allowing for direct ownership and provenance tracking. Even bigwig auction houses like Christie’s have even held NFT art auctions, attracting significant attention and high-priced sales.

NFTs are being used in supply chains, fashion, and loyalty programs. Sadu – an app that converts your exercise into planting trees and other carbon removal projects – rewards you with NFTs as you reach certain milestones. AirBaltic has its Planies program, an NFT that allows you to gain air miles without flying.

On the flip side, the collapse of Terra and the volatility witnessed in the world of cryptocurrencies has led to some claiming that NFTs are already finished as a trend, but arguably that is because the only indicators being used to predict its fall are lines and candlesticks.

“While the monetary aspect of NFTs has understandably garnered significant attention, it is crucial to acknowledge that their value goes far beyond money,” Gansen said. “NFTs can revolutionize ownership, provenance, and the way we engage with digital art, opening up new possibilities for creators and collectors alike.”

Of course, NFTs can only do that if they sustain interest. While anecdotally, the sector has seen a dip, data suggests otherwise. According to DappRadar, the market continues to grow and evolve despite that volatility, with new technology and platforms supporting the rising demand. In 2022, NFT sales skyrocketed. In Q1, sales reached 28.44 million, a 483.14% increase from Q1 2021’s 4.88 million. Q2 2022 saw 20.23 million NFTs sold, a 73.87% rise from Q2 2021’s 11.64 million.

But digital art, including images, videos, and music – while obvious uses of NFT technology – aren’t where the magic will happen, according to Gansen.

“NFT technology has expanded beyond digital art and collectibles to encompass tokenizing real-world assets, enabling ownership of in-game items and virtual land, verifying digital identities and credentials, fostering fan engagement and social tokens, enhancing supply chain traceability, and supporting charitable donations and fundraising efforts,” Gansen said. “These diverse applications demonstrate the versatility of NFTs across industries, providing new avenues for ownership, engagement, and transparency in the digital and physical realms.”

For example, the first “real world real estate” NFT was sold in 2017 and was recently re-auctioned through Propy, a blockchain-based real estate solution. Plenty of virtual real estate has been sold through platforms such as Decentraland. The potential of NFT technology lies in its ability to tokenize and sell tangible assets that people can live in, not just visit through a screen or a headset, complete with their full-body, banana-suited avatars.

Why is NFT technology a better way to sell houses than how we do it now?

“Each blockchain ledger provides a history of every step and transaction for every asset, and that’s a lot of information,” Gansen said. “For example, using NFT technology in real estate allows you to check every previous buyer, investment, action, legal dispute, payment, and more. In addition, you’re cutting out all the middle people, which makes buying property additionally expensive, and the speed of buying and selling your property increases massively. People love it when you save them time and money.”

If you want NFTs to rise, stop talking about NFTs

When did you last ask someone to check out your pocket-sized, multi-functional, hyperconnected device equipped with advanced computational capabilities and communication protocols? In fact, when was the last time you asked someone to check out your smartphone at all?

If we tighten that analogy, when was the last time a startup successfully sold you their app, product, or solution by advertising it as their latest “Kotlin/Java/[insert programming language here] technology project?” People don’t talk like that unless they are trying to impress an investor that wants to ride a bleeding edge bandwagon, and consumers both don’t care and would be confused.

“Uber revolutionized the transportation industry by providing a convenient and efficient way for users to request rides with just a few taps on their smartphones,” Gansen said. “I didn’t care what programming language or underlying technology it was created with. I just cared that getting a taxi was easier than ever, cheaper, and more convenient for me and my friends.”

According to Gansen, talking about something other than NFT technology and the associated blockchain/cryptocurrency industry carries an additional benefit.

“While Bitcoin and Ethereum have moved into the daily conversation thanks to mainstream media, so has a string of high-profile scams, failures, and daylight robberies,” Gansen said. “The industry is known as much for Ponzi schemes, vaporware, and data and financial breaches as it is for its potential to revolutionize our world, so the less we talk about it, the better. Instead, if NFT and blockchain technology are the best way to solve a problem, let’s just use it and show everyone the solution we created instead.”

Uncommon thinking leads to extraordinary results

Gansen’s ideals and principles extend beyond NFTs and are born from his personal experiences of rise and fall.

“In 2015, I founded a supply chain startup and raised significant funding, yet we weren’t able to the right product, prompting my departure in 2017,” Gansen said. “In 2019, I returned to that same startup and helped sell the IP. I built a global franchise of robotics and AI events, and after starting a successful marketing agency experienced the impact of COVID-19. During the pandemic, I ventured into the world of Web3 and NFTs.”

Those experiences led to him creating NFT Tallinn, which has already become the biggest NFT conference in the Nordics.

“We have embraced the community we built, leaped between endeavors, crafted demos, sought collaborations, and poured our energy into the NFT Tallinn, something we had initially conducted as an experimental trial,” Gansen said. “While some ventures didn’t pan out, the event garnered resounding feedback, and it is now our mission to elevate it to new heights, expanding its scale and audacity, including similar initiatives in South America, the Balkans, and possibly even Africa.”

The underlying principle of speaking less about NFT technology and more about the solutions it offers to the world is at the core of what Gansen is attempting to achieve, as are the uncommon decisions that amplify what makes this event different from the likes of NFT.NYC and Miami NFT Week.

“By choosing to host such a big and audacious event in Tallinn, we raised some eyebrows,” Gansen said. “However, In the realm of information technology, Estonia reigns as the triumphant Nordic nation, boasting unparalleled business ambiance across Europe and a large pool of exceptional talent. From ingenious Web3 innovations like Alphabill, DeCommas, Dottyland, Ready Player Me, and Solid World to our unrivaled expertise in cryptography for three decades, Estonia’s prowess is unmatched. One might ponder: if not within Estonia, then where else?”

To underline that we should speak less about NFT technology and more about what it does for us, NFT Tallinn was full of great examples, including beer from Metabrew, event tickets from Enter, and Videomart Club.

NFTs aren’t dead or dying. That view is only valid if you are a speculator attempting to make a buck quickly from the technology industry’s latest darling. But if we stop talking about it and focus on what it can usefully do for us, its potential to transform how we interact with both the virtual and physical world is clear, and no doubt Gansen will continue to promote and explore this in his future events and other upcoming initiatives.

This article originally appeared on Hackernoon and is reproduced with permission.

Web Summit, the world’s leading technology conference, is gearing up for its highly anticipated 2022 event. Web Summit 2022, which will host more than 70,000 thousand visitors with the participation of more than 900 speakers, more than 1000 investors, and more than 2000 startups between November 1st to the 4th in Lisbon, has a schedule full of interesting events.

Web Summit had difficulties in 2021 due to the pandemic but is already sold out in 2022. The event will bring together leading speakers, tech’s biggest companies, and top media outlets from 160 countries and will focus on the future of technology. Participants will have the chance to find valuable leads, access premium content, and make meaningful connections.

World-renowned speakers will meet in Lisbon

Web Summit 2022 is adding new names to its list of eye-catching speakers every week. They include hundreds of inspiring speakers, including Changpeng Zhao, Co-founder & CEO of Binance; Nathan Blecharczyk, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Airbnb; Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO at The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 Team; Lisa Jackson, Vice President of Environmental Initiatives at Apple; Meta’s Head of Product Naomi Gleit; world-renowned author Noam Chomsky; President of Y Combinator Geoff Ralston; Amazon’s Senior Vice President and Head Scientist Alexa Rohit Prasad; OnlyFans CEO Amrapali Gan, and VR legend Palmer Lucky. There are dozens of other speakers with amazing panels, and new names continue to be added to the already long list of speakers. You can see the current list of them here.

Don’t miss these panels

Dataconomy and Data Natives Founder Elena Poughia will moderate the “Accelerating Innovation Starts with Your Data and Your Culture” panel, accompanied by Nylas’ co-founder and CTO Christine Spang. They will detail how business leaders can effectively utilize their data and culture at scale to make the best possible decisions for their customers and their people. The panel will be held on Thursday, November 3rd, from 12:10 – 12:30 pm.

Another familiar name, Stewart Rogers, currently the Managing Editor of Grit Daily and Editor-at-Large of Dataconomy, will moderate the panels “Gearing Up for The Enterprise Metaverse” on Wednesday, November 2nd, from 10:20 – 10:40 am and “How Blockchain Can Create an Inclusive Society” on Thursday, November 3rd from 11:50 – 12:10 pm.

Also, Grit Daily will hold its Fifth Annual Speakers and Media Dinner on November 2. An “oasis” during Web Summit, this sit-down benefits startups with a combo of FastCo, Hackernoon, BlockTelegraph & Grit Daily & investors. You can use this link to buy your ticket with a %10 discount.

Europe’s hottest tech startups will be awarded

The Europas Awards 2022, Europe’s hottest tech startup awards, will be held as a part of Web Summit 2022. The finalists are already announced, and the winning startups will be announced on November 1st to receive their awards. Founded in 2009 by Mike Butcher, editor-at-large at TechCrunch, The Europas will reward initiatives in many categories, from sustainability to cybersecurity, from edtech to web3. The finalists of the artificial intelligence category of the competition are as follows:

• Condense: The world’s first company to stream live 3D video into the metaverse.
• Fiat Republic: An EMI-regulated, Fiat-as-a-Service platform aggregates local fiat rails for crypto platforms and enables crypto platforms to embed fiat payments into their platform easily.
• nobank: Offers the simplest way to invest in crypto with a wallet that everyone can use to build a diversified portfolio and explore Web3.
• Peccala: Crypto robo-advisor that allows retail investors to invest in cryptocurrencies easily and effectively with no prior knowledge
• Qubit9: Creates a cloud ecosystem owned and programmed by many, secure, always reliable, and resource-efficient – at a fraction of the cost of incumbents like AWS or Azure.
• Unstoppable Finance: Unstoppable Finance is building a next-gen crypto wallet to bring DeFi to retail investors globally.

Buy your Europas ticket here -with a 25% discount

You can buy your Europas 2022 ticket here with a 25% discount using this code: 22EU-$4tn8x$Po

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler revealed at Adobe MAX 2022. The long-awaited modeling and sculpting software from the company is now available. A complete collection of tools for modeling, texturing, and lighting 3D objects and scenes are provided for creative professionals. The Oculus Medium VR sculpting tool served as the basis for the Substance 3D Modeler tool, which intends to integrate VR modeling into the suite’s 3D workflow.

We have already explained some of the best AI-art tools like Stable Diffusion along with DALL-E 2, Midjourney, DreamBooth AI, Wombo Dream, NightCafe AI, Make-A-Video, Chai App, AI Dungeon, and NovelAI. What about AI art robots? Check the Ai-Da. But when it is come to being professional, keep reading and explore Adobe’s latest tool Adobe Substance 3D Modeler.

What is Adobe Substance 3D Modeler?

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler 1.0, the company’s eagerly anticipated digital modeling and sculpting tool was formally published by Adobe during the Adobe MAX 2022 conference, concluding the software’s open beta stage.

The software, which was first unveiled in late April, was created by the Substance 3D team in cooperation with the designers of the VR sculpting tool Oculus Medium. The tool’s standout feature is that 3D artists may construct their projects on both desktop and VR, switching between the two at any time.

The recently released software introduces a practical toolkit for sculpting that seasoned digital sculptors will be familiar with. Users can add and remove 3D clay using the tools Clay, Erase, and Buildup; carve on the sculpture using Crease, and change the shape of the sculpture by stretching it with Warp and Elastic.

Additionally, the 1.0 version of Modeler includes the Stamps system, which was first unveiled earlier this month and allowed users to add detail to a model by stamping a mesh onto its surface.

The tool also allows you to export paint as textures with UVs or vertex colors and supports all popular interchange formats (USD, OBJ, FBX, GLB) for import and export. Besides, there is a mobile app for Android, iPhone, and iPad called Adobe Substance 3D Modeler.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler tutorial

We highly recommend viewing Adobe’s recently released tutorial series, which details the initial steps of using the tool in both VR and desktop modes, if you are new to Substance 3D Modeler and are unsure of where to start.

• Click here to access the full VR playlist

• Click here to access the full Desktop playlist

Is Adobe Substance 3D free?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. But you can try Adobe Substance 3D Modeler before you buy. You can use 30-day free trial with this link.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler pricing

Only with a subscription, which costs $49.99/month or $549.88/year, is Substance 3D Modeler available. By going to the tool’s official website, you may find out more and buy it.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler review

You may sculpt your model as you would in a physical workshop thanks to Substance 3D Modeler’s interpretation of spatial input from the actual world. Employ the organic, fluid movements of the artistic flow. Alternate between the desktop and VR.

Modeler adjusts to your demands, considering your preferences and the current situation’s needs. Modeler assists you with your project at every stage, whether generating concept art, prototyping, planning gaming levels, building intricate characters or props, or sculpting a whole scene.

By using an easy approach to 3D modeling, you may free yourself from technological limitations and concentrate on your creativity. Modeler enables you to switch between VR and desktop at any time based on the demands of your project, the task at hand, or your own personal working style. Advanced structures can be efficiently created and edited using tools like symmetry, repeaters, and linked copy variations.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler support

Support for Adobe Substance 3D Modeler is available online, during regular business hours, and via  24/7 live support.

What users and organization types does Adobe Substance 3D Modeler work with?

These users and business categories can utilize Adobe Substance 3D Modeler:

• Mid Size Business,
• Small Business,
• Enterprise,
• Freelance,
• Nonprofit,
• Government.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler integrations

Adobe Aero, Adobe Substance 3D Sampler, Adobe Substance 3D Stager, Adobe Substance 3D Designer, and Adobe Substance 3D Painter are all integrated with Adobe Substance 3D Modeler.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler download

• Click here to buy & download Adobe Substance 3D Modeler.

• Click here to start Adobe Substance 3D Modeler free trial and download.

Adobe Substance 3D tools

You can design 3D objects thanks to the ecosystem of tools and content provided by Adobe Substance 3D. Texture objects and intuitively render your scenarios. Connect Adobe Creative Cloud apps to your workflow.

These are the Adobe Substance 3D tools:

• Substance 3D Sampler
• Substance 3D Painter
• Substance 3D Stager
• Substance 3D Designer
• Substance 3D Modeler
• Substance 3D Assets

Let’s take a closer look at what they do.

Substance 3D Sampler

In a flash, turn a representation of the real world into a 3D material. Substance 3D Sampler lets you blend samples to match your reference image closely to create more complex surfaces.

Substance 3D Painter

You can choose a brush and texture your asset quickly and easily in Substance 3D Painter. Layer modification makes it simple to alter already-created paint strokes. Furthermore, a real-time viewport allows you to create exactly what you see.

Substance 3D Stager

Your own virtual studio, Substance 3D Stager, allows you to contextualize and display your 3D elements. Drag and drop 3D objects, materials, lights, and cameras to build up the ideal shot. Export photorealistic produced photos, post them online, or share them in augmented reality.

Substance 3D Designer

Create content with total author control. Substance 3D Designer‘s node-based approach enables you to experiment and make changes anytime. Prepare your stuff to fit any situation.

Substance 3D Modeler

Substance 3D Modeler enables drawing-like gestural and organic 3D modeling. Use this adaptable and potent 3D sculpting tool to unleash your creativity.

Substance 3D Assets

Get access to more than 15,000 materials, lights, and models that may be customized and made by top artists for every sector. You can find everything you need for each step of your creative workflow in the Substance 3D Assets collection.

Other Adobe MAX 2022 announcements

Several new improvements for Adobe’s photo editing ecosystem, which includes Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, were unveiled at Adobe MAX 2022.

These are all the Adobe MAX 2022 announcements:

• Major changes to selections, content-aware removal, sharing, and more were made to Adobe Photoshop. Click here for more information.
• Improvements in productivity, stronger AI, and other features are delivered by updates to Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. Click here for more information.
• Adobe’s Generative Artificial Intelligence initiatives. Click here for more information.

What is Adobe?

Providing tools for a wide range of content, including graphics, photography, illustration, animation, multimedia/video, motion pictures, and print, Adobe is an American multinational computer software firm.

Located in San Jose, California, and incorporated in Delaware, this company is well-known for its creative suite, which includes Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, After Effects, Lightroom, Substance 3D Designer, and many other programs.

Partisia Blockchain and Data Natives are partnering to bring to hackers worldwide a great hackathon experience happening online from Sep 28 to Nov 14. Code and network with like-minded Rust and Python developers, and have free 1:1 mentoring and interesting workshops in this hackathon. As a bonus, between 15-17 Nov, the 30 strongest teams will be invited to join free for an extra on-site event in Paris from Dec 1-3. To participate in the competition, developers must submit their code solution built on Partisia Blockchain until Nov 14.

Main focus verticals of the #PartiHack will be DeFi beyond Crypto and Data Economy.

Partisia aspires to create blockchain-based distributed trust technologies that promote the growth of our society. This mission can only be accomplished with the help of a thriving ecosystem of developers and communities who can show the value of MPC on blockchain and how privacy-preserving principles must be a cornerstone of any decentralized infrastructure solution for the future digital economy.

The Partisia Blockchain underpins blockchain-based privacy-protecting and governance solutions that show the capability of multi-party computation (MPC) to address societal concerns related to economic growth, healthcare, and well-being while advancing the UN’s sustainability goals.

When will it take place?

● Online: Sep 29 – Nov 14

● Offline: December 1-3

On November 15, when both the offline event registration period and the online activity period come to an end, teams will be chosen for good. There is no cap on the number of teams that can participate in the hackathon, however, Partisia will choose the top 30 teams to present live on stage.

The second part of the event will be held in Paris between December 1-3. The top 30 teams will come together in a face-to-face event and awards ceremony.

How and where to apply?

In order to join the #PartiHack in Paris, teams need to fill out the registration form and submit their code in GitHub. It is not necessary to attend the Paris event to be selected as the winner. But you wouldn’t want to miss the chance to work with founders and senior architects, which will improve your prospects.

You can check the hackathon page here.

Prizepool

● $125K: Become the Parti Hack champion

● $100K: Introducing the “Ivan Damgard MPC Award”

● $75K: Parti Hack second prize

● $25K: Parti Hack third prize

● $25K: Partisia Community Award

Watch their announcement in Singapoure token 2049 here:

The biggest meet-up for the developer community, Global DevSlam, is just days away, and the already jam-packed calendar of the event is getting richer with new speakers, sessions, and details.

Global DevSlam will bring together over 15,000 attendees from 170 countries, including the world’s greatest coding talents, decision-makers, and visionaries, at the Dubai World Trade Center from October 10-13. Global DevSlam will also host the PyCon MEA with the collaboration of the Python Software Foundation.

5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THE GLOBAL DEVSLAM

The conference agenda at Global DevSlam will be jam-packed with industry-leading discussions on Python, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, DevOps, Javatalks, metaverse, mobile, NFTs, gaming, quantum computing, cloud, Kubernetes, and many more disruptive technologies and many other disruptive trends.

Dr. Seth Dobrin is one of the exciting names that will take the stage at Global DevSlam. He will present how to implement responsible and human-centric AI to benefit more from artificial intelligence. Dobrin, a pioneer in artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning, answered Dataconomy’s questions before the big event.

1. Can you share your responsible AI perspective with us? 

Trust is essential to human beings: trust encapsulates aspects of humanity that define a responsible attitude that is inclusive and fair: without trust, relationships stall, and transactions fail. Trust and responsibility are vital aspects of our online and offline life, without which normal operations would come to a grinding halt. As technological advances continue at pace, one of the forces behind innovation is the application of artificial intelligence (AI). But AI has not had an easy ride, with issues originating from a lack of trust by design. As a result, ethical issues have blighted the image of AI, with concerns ranging from using AI to manipulate behavior to inherent racial and sex bias. As humans expand our technology repertoire to include AI-enabled systems, these systems must be fair, responsible and inclusive. To help the industry reach this objective and need the Responsible AI Institute has built a schema to score AI systems:

• Ensure explainable and interpretable AI systems
• Measure bias and fairness of AI systems
• Validate systems operations for AI systems
• Augment robustness, security, and safety of AI systems
• Deliver accountability of AI systems
• Enable consumer protection where AI systems are used

2. What does adopting responsible AI approaches promise for enterprises?

In short, better business value and this is backed by several pieces of research from PwC and MITSloan/BCG, whom both demonstrated that businesses placing a priority of responsible implementation of AI systems yield better business value, including better products and services, enhanced brand reputation, and accelerated innovation.

3. To achieve these benefits, what should enterprises consider in implementing responsible and human-centric AI?

Step 1: get a baseline – perform a responsible AI organizational maturity assessment

Step 2: Set clear AI policies, strong AI governance, and appropriate controls – policies, governance, and controls drive innovation as they set clear lanes for your internal teams and expectations for the humans your business interacts with.

Step 3: Maintain an inventory of automated systems – AI is built, acquired, and used widely across most enterprises, but there is not a central management of these assets.  This inventory needs to be built and maintained and should be part of the funding and procurement processes.

Step 4: Assess automated systems – especially where they impact the health, wealth, or livelihood of a human, AI, and automation in general needs to be understood on the six responsible AI dimensions or explainability and interpretability, bias and fairness, systems operations, robustness, security and safety, accountability and consumer protection.

4. What is the difference between responsible AI and trustworthy AI?

Trust is a component of responsibility. When organizations talk about trust, they are generally talking about the technical aspects of an AI system and not necessarily the organizational, process, or workflow aspects.

5. Would it be right to call the human-centered AI field a milestone toward artificial general intelligence, digressing from the vision of more autonomous and godlike AI forms?

We have been talking about AGI for more than 50 years. At that time, we keep saying it was 50 years away; the consensus is it is still 50 years away or more. There are many things we need to achieve technically for AGI to be a reality. On top of the technical aspects, there are many processes, workflow, and societal aspects that need to be considered while we are on that journey – responsibility and the human impact are definitely core considerations.

Global DevSlam will bring together more than 15,000 participants from 170 countries, including the coding world’s leading talents, decision-makers, and visionaries, at Dubai World Trade Center between October 10-13. The mega event will also feature the popular Python community conference PyCon in the MEA region for the first time.

PyCon MEA will be held with the collaboration of the Python Software Foundation and Global DevSlam. PyCon has held successful Python community events in over 50 countries. The conference will feature 80 speakers and more than 100 hours of interactive learning opportunities.

We recently spoke with the regular keynote speaker of the PyCon events, David Mertz, about what to expect from PyCon MEA and the latest trends in development with Python.

1. Python is very popular in today’s emerging fields, such as data science, analytics, machine learning, and others. This may sound cliché, and you’ve probably answered this question countless times before, but we would love to hear it from you anyway: What makes Python so popular in these and other fields where it is a popular choice, and what advantages does it offer to developers?

I cannot speak for everyone, but for myself—as a member of the Python community for more than 20 years—a large part of what drew me to Python was precisely its community.  Pythonistas, by an large, are friendly, caring, cooperative, but also brilliant, innovative, and dedicated to our technical work. In more narrowly technical terms, Python has benefited greatly from popular scientific computing libraries like NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, and more recently PyTorch and TensorFlow.  The language itself is well designed and flexible, but the numeric tooling developed for it has made it the obvious first choice for data science and other scientific fields.

2. The world-renowned PyCon event series is coming to the MEA region for the first time. What should attendees expect from this great event?

I have worked with the organizers of PyCon MEA to move the focus of GITEX at least partially towards developers and the general Python community in its PyCon MEA program.  We have attracted many of the most prominent people in Python communities worldwide as speakers—most of them my friends and long-time colleagues, I can say proudly—which I think will make this event one where developers can share technical thoughts, and not only for managers to share product pitches.

3. In your opinion, what are the prominent trends affecting development with Python, what should Pythonistas keep their eyes on?

Python encompasses so many different software domains, that it is hard to name just one main trend.  I myself have worked largely in numeric and scientific computing, but Python is equally prominent in web applications, in education, in computer science, and in bread-and-butter commercial applications.

In all of these areas, the breadth and quality of supporting libraries are central to Python’s popularity.  Within the language itself, however, I think the growth of type annotations and gradual static typing have made the language more appealing to large application developers who have historically had a resistance to purely dynamic languages.

4. Would you like to add anything else about Python, PyCon MEA 2022, and/or Global DevSlam?

I would love it if PyCon MEA succeeds in reaching out to the developing world, and most especially to Africa (part of the name “Middle East & Africa”, after all) which has seen an amazing and rapid growth in developer communities and conferences throughout the continent, often drawing multi-national and continent-wide audiences to events.

There are many reasons to attend the world’s biggest coding and development networking event, and here are five prominent reasons not to miss the Global DevSlam.

The world’s biggest coding and development networking event, Global DevSlam, invites the top 200 developers to build the metaverse with the Metaverse Masters hackathon. The Microsoft-sponsored hackathon will be hosted in collaboration with HACKMASTERS.

Reimagining a more sustainable world

The Metaverse Masters hackathon challenges developers to reinvent a more sustainable world for future generations using Microsoft Azure and metaverse technologies.

Building mixed reality experiences to reinvent MENA as a sustainable region!

The top 200 developers will try to figure out how to create new planet-friendly solutions using Azure and metaverse technologies to reinvent and enhance the following sectors: tourism, food, and smart cities by reducing carbon footprints and improving quality of life.

Challenge 1: Tourism

In this challenge, developers will use Azure and metaverse technologies to find ways to redefine the tourist experience of visiting Dubai by maximizing visitor enjoyment while minimizing carbon footprint.

Sign up as a team or individually here.

Challenge 2: Food

Developers will need to find a way to reduce food waste by creating a solution that provides consumers with contextual information about the nutrient content and environmental impact of the food they are about to purchase.

Sign up as a team or individually here.

Challenge 3: Virtual Spaces

Developers will reimagine the virtual spaces for novel forms of human interaction to reduce the carbon footprints of energy use, transportation, and education.

Sign up as a team or individually here.

Launch your idea with Microsoft’s support

Only three winners will emerge from the Metaverse Masters hackathon, but no developer will return home empty-handed. The overall winner will get mentorship opportunities with the Microsoft product team and exclusive Microsoft gear. Also, some surprise prizes for the winning team will be announced soon.

HACKMASTERS will invite the developers of the most creative concept to their London Studio, all expenses paid. Microsoft will reward the best HoloLens design with the opportunity to join Founders Hub, Microsoft’s new innovative platform offering support at every stage of idea development.

The prizes are not limited to these. All hackathon participants will receive free entry to Global DevSlam, complimentary Azure credits, exclusive access to Microsoft training materials, and one-to-one mentoring sessions.

More prizes will be announced as the hacking day approaches.

The timeline

Free registrations will be followed by confirmation as a hacker and team matching on October 2. The hackathon’s online ideation and preparation period will start on October 4. Developers will start ideation and building their team’s concept for the hack, interact with exclusive mentors, and submit a one-minute video of their team’s concept by October 10. The actual hacking will take place on October 11 with physical attendance at Global DevSlam at Dubai World Trade Center.

Metaverse Masters hackathon in 5 Questions

1. When and where does the Metaverse Masters hackathon take place?

You’ll hack online from October 4 through October 10, utilizing the tools provided and interacting with the instructors the entire time. On October 11, you’ll present your submitted solution and its supporting presentation to the mentors in person at the Dubai World Trade Center. You will be able to present your hack to the judges and other attendees if you advance to the final round of presentations.

2. Who can participate? 

All developers interested in Azure and Microsoft technologies are welcome to join Metaverse Masters. There is a place for you as long as you’re eager to learn about Microsoft technologies! There is no age limit, but to be considered a legitimate participant, you must be able to attend the actual hackathon on October 11.

3. Can I participate alone?

You can participate unassisted, but it can be challenging to devise a solution in time. The Metaverse Masters teams advise finding a team of 2-5 individuals with various skills. As an example, one person programs, one understands design, and one organizes the team’s work and displays the outcomes. Don’t worry if you don’t already have a team in mind when you sign up. Metaverse Masters will have a team-building opportunity. There won’t be anyone left behind.

4. Can I take my idea further after the hackathon?

Your concept and solution remain yours and your team’s, as Metaverse Masters does not own the intellectual property created during the hackathon. If you bring home a reward in one of the prize categories, you may have the opportunity to develop your solution further.

5. How can I benefit from mentors’ expertise?

The Metaverse Masters team will organize mentor conversations so that each team has the chance to talk about and receive feedback on their concepts. Schedule time with mentors if you want to take advantage of this when the appointments open up. The Metaverse Masters Discord server will be used to discuss mentoring sessions.

You can find all the other details about the Metaverse Masters hackathon and submit your application here. Only the first 50 participants will be able to guarantee their place in the hackathon. There are only 200 spaces available so guarantee yours now!

The Global DevSlam will host the FutureHack Hackathon, held by FutureLab in collaboration with Hackmasters, where the world’s top 200 developers will compete.

The FutureHack Hackathon welcomes developers to participate individually or as a team, but only the best of the best will get the opportunity, limited to 200 bright minds.

The FutureHack Hackathon is sponsored by FutureLab, Emirates NBD Bank’s strategic think tank and testing center dedicated to creating new solutions that can benefit their clients and respond to their always-evolving needs. The think tank focus on creating seamless smart payments, simplifying business administration around banking for SMEs, and enabling customers to monetize their data. Developers will try to tackle these challenges with their innovative ideas.

Challenges to Tackle

Challenge 1: Seamless Smart Payments

“How to create a new and innovative payment experience using open banking APIs that streamlines payments for daily users?”

Developers will create a solution that would benefit users in their daily payment activities in this challenge, such as innovative, easy-to-use digital payment solutions for replacing cash with digital payments and context-aware retail payments to replace the physical act of payment. Also, utilizing innovative channels like face, palm, senses, state of mind, voice, QR codes, IoT, cars, and others is encouraged.

Sign up as a team or individually here.

Challenge 2: SME Simplified

“How can we develop a value-added service for SMEs that simplifies their business administration around banking?”

In this challenge, the developers’ task will be to create a solution that simplifies banking administration for SMEs. Solutions will need to ​provide SMEs with a better view of their business while spending less time on banking administration, simplify management of transactions for SMEs to increase international business trade or lending criteria for SMEs / micro-SMEs that may not have an extensive credit history.

Sign up as a team or individually here.

Challenge 3: Monetize Your Data

“How can we create a new asset class—’Personal Data’—that can be monetized by all?”

Developers will race against time to create a new asset class — “Personal Data” — with a business model that enables monetization. In order to complete this challenge, developers must design a new asset class, smart contracts to authenticate individuals, goods, and personal data, as well as a monetization platform to make personal data an asset available to all citizens.

Sign up as a team or individually here.

Incubation opportunities with Emirates NBD

Free registrations will be followed by selection and team matching on September 28. The hackathon’s online ideation and preparation period will start on October 5. Developers will start ideation and building their team’s concept for the hack, interact with exclusive mentors, and submit a one-minute video of their team’s concept by October 11. The actual hacking will occur on October 12 with physical attendance at Dubai World Trade Center.

Winners will begin incubation opportunities with Emirates NBD after the event and receive details about an exclusive trip to London with Hackmasters. Also, all participants will have the opportunity to meet recruiters from Emirates NBD and explore current career development opportunities and vacancies.

Great prizes for winners and participants

No bright mind will return empty-handed from FutureHack. The team that came up with the best idea and MVP will get $10,000 worth of prizes and goodies, along with an opportunity to finesse their solutions with Emirates NBD subject matter experts, as well as a fast track to DevSlam Talent – an opportunity to present to potential hiring and be considered for full-time positions.

The creators of the most impactful idea will get an Oculus VR Set and goodies, plus $5000 worth of prizes and a fast track to DevSlam Talent. The winners of the best technical design will also be given a fast track to the DevSlam Talent competition, as well as prizes totaling $3,000 and an Oculus VR set. Also, Hackmasters will invite the team that created the most creative concept to their London Studios, all expenses paid.

All hackathon participants will receive free entry to Global DevSlam on the 10th, 11th, and 13th; they will gain exclusive access to the region’s largest API Souq, 1-on-1 meeting chances with inspiring mentors, and the opportunity to meet recruiters from Emirates NBD and explore current career development paths.

FutureHack Hackathon in 5 Questions

Here are the answers to some of the questions you might have about the FutureHack Hackathon:

1. When and where does FutureHack take place?

You’ll hack online from October 5 through October 11, utilizing the tools provided and interacting with the instructors the entire time. On October 12, you’ll either present your submitted solution and its supporting presentation to the mentors virtually via the FutureHack Discord server or in person at the Dubai World Trade Center. You will be able to present your hack to the judges and other attendees if you advance to the final round of presentations.

2. Who can participate? 

Everyone is welcome to FutureHack, regardless of their level of expertise in coding, design, ideas, or public speaking. Only passion is required! FutureHack offers a small available space but no age restriction. Therefore, sign up as soon as possible because only the first 50 registrations will be assured a spot.

3. Can I participate alone?

You can participate unassisted, but it can be challenging to devise a solution in time. The FutureHack teams advise finding a team of 4-6 individuals with various skills. As an example, one person programs, one understands design, and one organizes the team’s work and displays the outcomes. Don’t worry if you don’t already have a team in mind when you sign up. FutureHack will have a team-building activity. There won’t be anyone left behind.

4. Can I take my idea further after the hackathon?

The development team that created the project during the hackathon is the rightful owner of its intellectual property. The owners and inventors of the tools and techniques that developers utilize are the rightful owners of those resources.

5. How can I benefit from mentors’ expertise?

The FutureHack team will organize mentor conversations so that each team has the chance to talk about and receive feedback on their concepts. Schedule time with mentors if you want to take advantage of this when the appointments open up. The FutureHack Discord server will be used to discuss mentoring sessions.

You can find all the details about the FutureHack Hackathon and submit your application here.

The Global DevSlam is counting down the days to its grand launch. The world’s biggest coding and development networking event for learning, skills, and talent acquisition will be held for four days, from 10 to 13 October, at the Dubai World Trade Center to celebrate all things code!

The Global DevSlam will bring together an influential ecosystem of top software engineers, data scientists, coders, and developers from all over the world hosting the most active and strong community network of technical minds, skills, and talents. Professionals, creators of popular software, libraries, frameworks, and the coding world’s radical superstars, who have left their mark on the coding world, will take the stage at the Global DevSlam.

The first mega event in its region

The Global DevSlam will be the first event in the region where public and private businesses with ambitious transformation projects can interact, find, and hire top developers and coders worldwide, enabling the largest coding recruitment drive in the region.

The event’s four-day agenda is live and full of exciting conferences, training sessions, networking opportunities, and hackathons. The Global DevSlam will also host advanced Red Hat, Microsoft, Google, and InterSystems workshops. Participants will have the chance to experience the exhibitions of dozens of leading companies, such as Zoom, VMware, Autodesk, and many others.

Follow disruptive tech and trends shaping tomorrow

Global DevSlam’s power-packed conference agenda will include industry-leading conversations on Python, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, DevOps, Javatalks, metaverse, mobility, NFTs, gaming, quantum computing, cloud, Kubernetes, and many more disruptive technologies and trends shaping tomorrow.

The world’s top talents and teams will come together for DevSlam Hack Challenges, the largest hackathon in the region with over 3,000 participants, to create innovative solutions to address real-world problems with inspiring ideas.

Launched with the support of Coders HQ, a transformational project by the UAE government to help coders become strategic enablers of the UAE digital economy, Global DevSlam is expected to host over 15,000 visitors from more than 170 countries all over the world. The event will present great networking, discovery, hiring, and career opportunities.

5 reasons not to miss the Global DevSlam

There are countless reasons not to miss the Global DevSlam, the largest coding and developer community meetup in the Middle East and the world. The five most important of these are as follows:

1. The world’s biggest meetup for the developer community 

More than 15,000 participants from 170 countries, including prominent talents, decision-makers, and visionaries from the world of coding, will come together. The event presents great opportunities for networking, inspiration, hiring, and career. Conferences will take on the subjects trending in the coding world, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, machine learning, Blockchain, DevOps, Javatalks, metaverse, mobility, NFTs, gaming, quantum computing, cloud, Kubernetes, and others.

2. The world’s largest Python conference, PyCon MEA now in Dubai

The Global DevSlam makes a great breakthrough, bringing the world’s largest Python conference to the region. PyCon has hosted smash-hit python community conferences in over 50 countries. It is now making its first appearance in the region as Global DevSlam presents PyCon MEA in collaboration with the Python Software Foundation. Pycon MEA will present 80 speakers and more than 100 hours of interactive learning opportunities.  

3. Exciting series of hackathons

The DevSlam_Hack Challenges will gather the most talented individuals and teams from around the globe to develop innovative solutions to thematic challenges. Over 800 programmers will have four days to address real-world problems with their creative solutions:

• Metaverse Masters

The Global DevSlam teams up with Microsoft and Hackmasters to gather the best of the best to hack and showcase futuristic innovations that define an internet for sustainability.

• FutureHacks

In a one-day hackathon, Emirates NBD challenges the best tech minds in the MENA area to develop creative solutions to three distinct challenges: payments, SME lending, and personal data economy.

• Ko-World 2022

A-nex Korea invites hackers to its annual Ko-World hackathon to test, evaluate, and expand its cryptography exploiting skills.

4. Certified workshops

The Global DevSlam will host two certified workshops to take your coding skills to the next level:

Le Wagon

Le Wagon is one of the world’s most renowned coding boot camps. It helps students reinvent their careers through technology by offering immersive web development and data science boot camps. Le Wagon will run the following workshops at the event:

• Web Scraping with Python
• Build a game with Javascript
• UI / UX Design I AI 101 I SQL Sprint

Blockchain Council

The Blockchain Council offers a variety of certificates that are tailored to suit Web3 aficionados of diverse backgrounds. Blockchain Council will run the following workshops at the event:

• Certified NFT Developer
• Certified Metaverse Expert

5. Career opportunities from global organizations

Industry titans in the UAE are embarking on a major tech expansion mission, fueling an increase in the need for programmers. Take advantage of career-changing opportunities as the Global DevSlam is expected to host the largest hiring event for the coding world. 1000+ career opportunities from global organizations will be waiting to be seized by the right talents.

Get involved now!

Global DevSlam will be the first-of-its-kind event in the region, dedicated to the community of coding and development. You can find detailed information about the Global DevSlam and get your pass here.

Dataconomy, Europe’s leading media and events platform for the data-driven generation, hosted the 8th edition of Data Natives 2022 (DN22) was a resounding success, welcoming over 1,000 on-site visitors, with thousands more participating via social media. From August 31st to September 2nd, Europe’s largest tech and Artificial Intelligence conference showcased the newest data innovation with its three days of panels, interactive talks, and demonstrations across five stages with over 200 speakers. The presence of 146 nationalities gave the event both academic credence and cosmopolitan flair, many of them esteemed members of Data Natives’ world-beating 183,000-strong online community of data experts.

Data Natives, an intergalactic thought leaders’ experience

Amongst the big names and corporate innovators and leaders present at Data Natives 2022 were:

Dee Wood (Head at Twitter Next Lab, EMEA); Mina Saidze (Lead Data, Axel Springer, Founder, Inclusive Tech); Mike Butcher (Editor at large at Tech Crunch); Tina Kluewer (Director, AI Berlin Centre of Artificial Intelligence); Franziska Heine (Deputy Managing Director, Wikimedia Germany); Carlos Ahumada(Data for Good at Meta); Ait Si Abbou (Director Client Engineering DACH at IBM); Kenza Nicole Büttner (CEO Merantix Labs); Katherine Townsend (Director for Policy at World Wide Web Foundation, Executive Director at Open Data Collaboratives); Lubomila Jordanova (CEO & Co-Founder Plan A & Co-Founder at Greentech Alliance); Julien Carbonnell (Data Scientist);  Will Hurley aka whurley (CEO of Strangeworks); Johannes Steger (MO at Tagesspiegel);  Iliana Portugues Peters (Futurist at Siemens Energy); Clara Rodriguez Fernandez (Deeptech Reporter at Sifted). 

In addition, Dr. Ralph Kleindiek, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of Berlin, delivered a keynote and took the time to meet with many young entrepreneurs from startups in all sectors. 

The 8th edition of Data Natives was greatly enhanced by its post-pandemic return to form an entirely in-person event. 

The conference’s theme was naturally future-forward; “Guide to the Galaxy” not only encapsulated the stratospheric tech advancements anticipated in a world so altered by COVID-19 but also shone a necessary spotlight upon up-and-coming B2C developments.

Reflecting Data Natives’ commitment to accessible innovation, Blockchain and Web3 were highlighted as primary topics of discussion throughout the three-day event: A Web3 hackathon enabled visitors to enter the Web3 space with ease and the final day of the conference was devoted to demystifying the often intimidating world of the Metaverse, Blockchain, decentralized finance, and NFTs. 

DN22 dared to lead to the future for inspiration and also served as an opportunity to examine the human edge of tech. This momentum was experienced by the sense of community established throughout the conference, with over 20 satellite events taking place during the event itself and offering a mentorship program to pair tomorrow’s pioneers with current big names in tech. The powerful lineup of female speakers included tech icons and influencers in the Women in Tech Community, like Mina Saidze, founder and CEO of Inclusive Tech, Europe’s first consulting organization for diversity in tech.

On August 31st, the conference entered its first day in a typically pioneering fashion, concentrating this year on the increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence in society. With many distinguished faces from the world of AI speaking on the practical application of human-taught tech, DN22 offered curious, if sobering insight into the future of Artificial Intelligence from the standpoint of climate change, Sustainability, and the use of AI to avoid human errors in the recruitment process.

Day 2 focused primarily on data programming, offering tech know-how and innovative instruction on how to develop Machine Learning responsibly. A pioneering analysis of AI’s place in the future of international banking, healthcare, and academic research served as a suitably space-age backdrop to the practical data application demonstrations given by top names in tech throughout the day. 

The conference’s final day truly delivered on its promise to provide visitors with a revolutionary “Guide to the Galaxy”. Exploring the far-flung corners of Planet Tech, DN22 presented an agenda capitalizing on the latest developments in Web3, Blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrency, with attendees enjoying a cutting-edge forum of participation and discussion around often inaccessible virtual spaces like the Metaverse. Paula Schwarz’s NFT4refugees art project showcased the intersection of art and tech can impact the migrant crisis relief projects.

“We at Dataconomy and Data Natives are happy that DN22 was such a staggering success; it’s great to know that Europe’s leading conference for tech and AI remains THE calendar event for tech experts and data innovators worldwide. After hosting the event digitally for the past two years, we guided our community on an interstellar on-site journey to explore the galaxy from the vantage point of data science. Data Natives is all about the interaction of human experience and data. So, beyond the latest trends in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, DN 22 focused heavily on Sustainability, healthcare, social causes, and data ethics. We are an open and inclusive forum for inspired and sensitive discussion, collaboration, and conversation-led innovation”, said Elena Poughia, founder and CEO of Dataconomy and Data Natives.

Breaking news!

Data Natives is thrilled about the announced support of the Berlin Senate for 2023. Dr Ralph Kleindiek, CDO of Berlin, delivered a compelling keynote and took the time to meet with young startup entrepreneurs.

“Elena Poughia founded the Data Natives Conference seven years ago in Berlin, and she worked so hard to enlarge, support and interconnect the data-driven community. Her work and her story show us that even a country like Germany and a city like Berlin can be leading in the field of digitisation when the mindset is right and the spirit high.”

With great thanks to the commitment of Data Natives’ sponsors and community partners

Data Natives shares the success of this 8th edition with its major partners and would like to thank them for their commitment:

Diamond partners

Astar, Siemens Energy, Applied Data Incubator, Paretos, Quix

Gold partners

SAP, Big Bang Food, Metro Digital

Partners

Amplitude, Alteryx, Neti, Schwarz, SMP, PopSink, IBM, Merantix, AI Campus Berlin, Partner AI Berlin, HowtoHealth, OpenFabric, TheMamaAI, OXREF, Tilo

Community partners

Factory Berlin, HandsonData, Omdena, ICT Spring Sesamers, SigmaSquared, Uhlala Group, Vojvodina ICT, Cluster, Women Authors of Achievement, Women in Data, Helsinki Data Science Meetup, Developer Nation, LeWagon, Stte IASI AI, Contextual Solutions, Hackers&Founders, MindSpace, Nectios, Data Fest, Tbilisi, Tiloers Data Science, Retreat Female, Digitale Academy, AsiaBerlinSummit, KIEZ TechSpace, GirlsinTech, Trust in Soda, MindtheGap, Inclusive Tech, TOA LatBan, Female Founders, Tilores

About Data Natives

Founded in 2015, Data Natives is Europe’s leading events platform for the data-driven generation. Aiming to educate and connect their 183,000-strong community of data enthusiasts via interactive events, they spark innovation across industries and throughout their vast network of entrepreneurs, researchers, and students. They also share cutting-edge research and thought-provoking content through their media platform, Dataconomy. Created to facilitate collaboration between communities excited by the boom in data science, Data Natives inspires tech pioneers worldwide through their 50+ hubs in regional tech ecosystems around the globe. Into its eighth year, their flagship conference unites 5000+ data-driven professionals and multinational companies, bringing together the best minds in tech for up-to-the-minute discussion and demonstrations from the worlds of data, tech, AI, corporate ethics, diversity, and Sustainability. 

For its first post-pandemic, fully on-site comeback, Data Natives Conference will guide 5000 expected visitors on a hybrid tour to explore the galaxy from the vantage point of data science. On five stages, the event will be hosted by Dataconomy, Europe’s leading portal for news, content and expert opinion from the world of data-driven technology.

Superstars of the data science and artificial intelligence ecosystem, startup enthusiasts, innovative corporations, decision-makers and thought leaders will meet in Berlin from 31 August to 2 September.

The best-known data science unicorns and enthusiasts from around the world, young aspiring founders and data scientists, will embark on a unique journey to the galaxy of Data Science and AI. They will gather for learning, connecting, and collaborating with a particular focus on Blockchain and Web3 on day three.

Three days of content

• Day One: AI Ethics and Sustainability
• Day Two: Healthcare and Social Issues
• Day Three: New Content on the verge of data and blockchain, web three, and the Metaverse

Data Natives’s mission is to connect data experts, inspire them, and let people become part of the equation again.

The story of Data Natives began in 2015 when Greek entrepreneur Elena Poughia found her purpose in Berlin: to create a place to go for the European Data Science Community. As a data enthusiast herself, she believes in leveraging data to make our world a better place. During the past few years, she established and shaped a unique conference concept: Data Natives became an annual 3-day data experts festival with keynote speakers, panels, networking concepts, startup pitches, and an epic Berlin party finale. On its growth journey, the Data Natives team successfully onboarded the important players needed to build a future society with good use of Data and AI: corporations, science, academia, politics, media, the design industry, and the startup community. It also endeavoured to bridge the gaps between corporations and startups, matching data scientists and AI experts with companies, and making an impact through Data Design Thinking and Data Visualisation.

The Data Natives community is diverse, but united by a shared purpose: to contribute to building a sustainable future with the help of data and machine learning.

DN22 confirmed speakers

For this year, Data Native’s confirmed speakers already include: Caroline Lair, Founder at The Good AI, Mike Butcher, Editor-at-large at TechCrunch; Clara Rodríguez Fernández, deep tech reporter at Sifted, Mina Saidze, Lead Data Analytics & Tech Evangelist at Axel Springer SE, Lubomila Jordanova, CEO & Co-Founder Plan A & Co-Founder at Greentech Alliance, Berlin Chief Digital Officer Ralph Kleindieck, and many more international data natives and AI experts, leaders, and thought leaders in data science, Artificial Intelligence, Sustainability, Blockchain and Web3.

The conference will kick off from its main stage with the topic of Ethical AI, with Kenza Ait Si Abbou, Director Client Engineering DACH at IBM, followed by workshops, networking, conference sessions, matchmaking, and an exhibition.

What can you expect from this year’s conference? Here are the for tracks designing the content

Data Natives 2022 will delve into how data can transform economies and create opportunities, hosting thinkers, doers, and innovators whose focus is shaping a brighter future for all. Also, we will talk about Phyton, NLP, transformer networks, and augmented analytics. All this while interacting with the freshest startups in the ecosystem.

We aim to bring data and tech professionals and established companies together to collaborate, diversify, and ease the transition into the Blockchain space by sharing their thoughts on the future of tech trends, changes, and inspirational stories. Four tracks design the conference’s content:

1. Future Society

The Future Society track hosts thinkers, doers, and innovators whose focus is shaping a brighter future for all. Whether through impact initiatives, data, and AI governance, or any other emerging tech, this stage is for those who want to change the world.

2. StartUp

Cutting through all the usual conference jargon in startup presentations, we bring you unfettered insights from the freshest startups throughout the conference.

3. Dataconomy

Let’s talk business – the debates of the Data Economy track are meant for those who want to know how to ethically use data to transform economies and create opportunities for business growth.

4. Data Science

Deep dives into Python, NLP, transformer networks, AutoML, graph databases, augmented analytics & smart passion projects live in our Data Science Track. Most of our attendees flock to the Data Natives conference to learn something new, and this track is where that happens.

DN22 Full agenda

Please check the full agenda on our website:

https://agenda.datanatives.io

Data Natives is made possible by the generous help and support of our sponsors and community partners: IBM, SAP, Big Bang Food, Siemens Energy, Neti, Penfabric, Popsinc, Paretos, HowtoHealth, SMP,  Factory Berlin, Hands on Data, Imdena, ICT Spring, Sesamers, Sigma Squared, Uhlala Group, Women in Data, Developer Nation, Helsinki Data Science Meetup, Womens Authors of Achievement, W all Woen, Contextual Solutions, Nections and many more.

We can’t wait to see you!

WHEN?

Wednesday, August 31, 2002, Thursday, September 1, 2002 and Friday  September 2, 2022, 9:00 AM –6:00 PM

WHERE?

Kühlhaus Berlin
Luckenwalder Straße 3, 10963 Berlin info@kuehlhaus-berlin.com

Kühlhaus is not only beautiful, but extremely easy to get to. It’s a one-minute walk from U1+U2 Gleisdreieck, and a few minutes away from U7, various S-Bahn, and buses.

Press Contact: ch@harthcommunications.com

The Data Natives Conference 2022 (DN22 Conference) will bring together data and technology experts, creators, and thinkers to share their perspectives on future tech trends, developments, and moving stories. 

What’s in it?

DN22 Conference promises to be particularly lively since a hackathon and a “machathon” will take place alongside the conference. The hybrid conference will host offline and online events, activities, and networking sessions.

The DN Matchathon will match the winning solutions from the DN Hackathon, job seekers, startups, and companies, as well as the best tools, people, recruiters, and corporates, to explore collaboration opportunities. You can find detailed information about the DN Hackathon in our article here.

This year’s DN22 Conference will feature over 120 speakers on five stages, ranging from climate change activists to industry titans bringing data science to healthcare. Check out the bottomless list of speakers, including visionaries such as Strangeworks CEO Whurley, Sola Osinoiki from Prosus Nasper, what3words’ Clare Jones, and Jessica Graves from Sefleuria.

The agenda for the three-day event is packed with inspiring sessions on the future of society, data economy, data science, entrepreneurship, Blockchain, and Web 3. 

Participants will also have access to exclusive matchmaking events. Those interested in following the event online can move around in a virtual space and exchange ideas and business cards with data science companies, tech geeks, startups, hackers, recruiters, and job seekers from over 37 countries.

When and where?

The DN22 Conference will take place in Kühlhaus, Berlin from August 31 to September 2, with offline and online events.

How to buy tickets?

You can get your ticket here. The various tickets grant access to Data Natives online and offline activities, community membership, and Data Natives 2022 Conference registration.

From February 28 to March 7, 2022, the Applied Data Hackathon welcomed data scientists with entrepreneurial spirits from multiple backgrounds. Participants tackled three challenges or brought their own, intending to solve some of the most pressing real-world problems we face today.

The satisfaction of coming up with original and inspiring solutions was incentive enough, but to add to the available rewards, the winner and runners-up had the chance to share over €120,000 in prizes and a place at the Applied Data Incubator in Berlin.

Challengers formed 17 teams, creating their solutions throughout the weekend, culminating in a Pitch Day event hosted online and at The Drivery Berlin on March 7.

An all-star judging panel

Joining the event both virtually and in-person, the judges brought a huge amount of experience and knowledge to the table. Selecting the winners were:

• Carla Penedo of Celfocus
• Michael Durst of ITONICS GmbH
• Claudia Pohlink of Deutsche Bahn
• Michael Leyendecker of VITRONIC Machine Vision
• Peter Ummenhofer of GO Consulting GmbH 
• Thomas Brüse of QuickMove GmbH
• Simon Mayer of University of St. Gallen
• Timon Rupp of The Drivery Berlin
• Judith Wiesinger, DeepTech Entrepreneur
• Norbert Herrmann of Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Energie und Betriebe 
• Maren Lesche of Applied Data Incubator and Startup Colors

“We already have an incubator in the healthcare field, and I’ve seen the impact that it creates,” Lesche, Founder at Applied Data Incubator said. “There is so much unstructured data around, and we produce, produce, produce, and we don’t even know what to do with it. So I hope that we can empower entrepreneurs and teams to use the available data. This is the reason why I wanted to do it; these hundred hackers that registered for the hackathon can help to shape the future.”

Pitch it to win it

Of the 17 teams that entered, nine presented their solutions during Pitch Day, intending to win those coveted places at the Applied Data Incubator.

The first pitch tackled a problem that will become significant as more electric trucks take to the roads.

Hyperfleet supports logistics with a data-driven multi-variant decision model for order taking and fleet route optimization, helping organizations make decisions that improve their total cost of ownership and the environment.

Three projects tackled an expensive problem. AI Anomaly Detector, Archimedes, and MoveQuickly all created an intelligent anomaly detector for industrial applications, assisting with the predictive maintenance of costly and critical machinery to ensure they stay up and running.

Panos.AI is a digital advisor that helps companies identify, manage and scale their process automation initiatives more successfully, powered by data-driven, self-learning algorithms.

Hyperspace analyzes scientific papers and news articles to extract insights about emerging technology milestones and breakthroughs.

Composite Vision is an automated system for detecting particular types of defects in data acquired by non-destructive testing, such as ultrasound, x-ray, and more.

ClearCO2 maps the cause and effect of carbon emissions in food production and logistics to reverse climate change.

Kapsola empowers health tech companies to label data for use in their AI applications, providing them with services like image classification, object detection, semantic segmentation, and more.

And the winner is?

After a great deal of discussion, the judges selected their winners, with the results appearing for all participants and interested attendees on the Applied Data Hackathon portal, powered by Taikai.

Hyperfleet, Composite Vision, Panos.AI, ClearCO2, Kapsola, Hyperspace, and AI Anomaly Detector all won the opportunity to go through the eligibility criteria process and join Applied Data Incubator either in April or October 2022.

And the winner of the €500 Conference Voucher is MoveQuickly, with Archimedes taking home four hours of special coaching, worth €400.

It was a challenging but fantastic and inspiring week. And it was wonderful to see so many participants, both in-person in Berlin and online.

Congratulations to all the hackathon participants and the partners, mentors, judges, and organizing team for making it all possible. 

What connects Zapier, GroupMe, CloudMine, Zaarly, LaunchRock, and Foodspotting? These successful startups were created during weekend hackathon events and, combined, have gone on to raise $51.4m in funding.

However, when you search for “hackathon success stories,” you’ll see that these examples are somewhat rare. Partly that’s because the teams involved don’t stay together after the weekend (no matter how unique the ideas are or how well they worked together). Partly it’s because they don’t get the ongoing support necessary to take the concept further.

The Applied Data Hackathon solves those two issues and will run from February 28 to March 7. 

Included in the €120,000+ total prize package is a place at the Applied Data Incubator in Berlin for the winning team. Its six-month startup program supports first-time founders from Europe in launching sustainable data startups based on validated, industry-relevant business solutions.

So what are the challenges being set during the Applied Data Hackathon?

Predictive Maintenance

Powered by hackathon partner QuickMOVE GmbH – an expert in machinery and plant engineering, including innovative conveyor technologies – this challenge focuses on machine data and machine learning.

For example, in logistics and manufacturing, customers expect that conveyor systems have a regular availability rate of 99.7% during their productive hours. Current systems work on the basis that maintenance is called for in a crisis. Future maintenance must be predictable, optimized, and done outside of regular working hours. 

This challenge aims to develop predictive analysis tools to solve those existing and costly problems. QuickMOVE will support the challenge with actual customer data readings from machine controls.

“QuickMOVE regards access to data-driven analytics as very important for future technology development, maintenance, and life cycle management,” Thomas Brüse, Managing Partner at QuickMOVE, said. “Data is the new gold. Applying data-driven solutions will help significantly improve technology in the near future. Startups will generate dynamic fresh eye views on the available technologies and help improve these rapidly.”

Object Classification in Real Environments

The University of St.Gallen and IntellIoT provides this challenge in manufacturing and logistics.

The problem? How to reliably classify objects in real industry environments. Participants are provided with a data set of RGB and low-quality depth images of an industrial scene. While the background is static in these pictures, there is not have enough control over the environment to modify the background, lighting, and other artifacts that occur.

Intrepid hackathon participants will need to develop innovative solutions for such environments.

Alerting for Emerging Topics

Hackathon partners ITONICS – a software platform that helps organizations around the globe to identify emerging technologies, trends, and market potentials and translate them into powerful growth strategies – posed an intriguing challenge. 

When scouting for disruptive information and scanning the corporate environment, it is paramount that one acts promptly to recent developments. ITONICS has built data ingestion and enrichment pipelines that store documents such as news patents, publications, and named entities that allow its users to search and discover those. However, there is too much information to sift through manually and identify whether changes are happening. 

Hackathon participants will research, build, and validate a proof of concept prototype that uses search fields a customer has defined and automatically alerts them if significant changes occur within it.

“Our vision at ITONICS is to empower everybody to innovate,” Moritz Kobler, Senior Product Manager, Cloud at ITONICS, said. “In line with this vision, we aim to offer solutions that will propel innovation management through data-driven processes. Aside from sharing our insights with the hackathon teams and supporting them in creating something innovative, the Applied Data Hackathon provides us with a fresh lens on how we might address authentic customer challenges.”

BYOC – Bring Your Own Challenge

Do you have another real-world issue that you’re burning to solve? Good news! You can bring your own to the table.

The Applied Data Hackathon is looking for data-driven solutions, including data analytics, embedded systems, digital twin applications, processing and analysis models, and AI technologies.

The start of a life-changing weekend

The hackathon, which will take place in person at The Drivery in Berlin – which will also be the location for free co-working space for the winners – and online, could be the first step for the next startup weekend success story.

“The Drivery is proud to be a partner of the Applied Data Hackathon,” Timon Rupp, Founder and CEO at Drivery, said. “We are a marketplace for innovation that provides the perfect infrastructure for the hackathon. With our onsite GPU farm and our coding area, and the Algorithm Farm, we contribute to the hackathon’s success.”

Budding hackathon challengers have formed teams and are ready to get started. 16 teams will be working throughout the weekend of March 5-6, 2022 to deliver solutions to both the big challenges our partners have set and those they brought to the table.

The hackathon culminates with Pitch Day on March 7, at 4 PM CET, and you are invited to witness their unique and inspiring solutions. Whether you need new ideas, want to discover the startup stars of tomorrow, or invest in the future, this event is for you!

Register for the Grand Finale and maybe you’ll be there when the next Zapier or GroupMe is created.

Data Natives is back! Europe’s biggest data science and AI event will take place in Berlin, for real and in person, because online conferences are so 2020. Mark your diaries – we’ll be bringing you the best speakers, networking events, hackathons, open forums, and more between March 10 to 24, 2022. Get your tickets now!

Data Natives Unlimited 2020 was a huge success. We brought together 5,000 attendees, over 150 speakers, incredible partners, and fantastic volunteers. Delivered by a team that put their heart and soul into the event, we set out to create something unique; an online conference that felt every part as good as the offline events of previous years.

As part of Data Natives Unlimited 2020, our DN Unlimited Hackathon brought over 500 hackers, 15 mentors, and the support of companies like Bayer, Flying Health, and Vision Health Pioneers together to create new and innovative solutions in social impact, data protection and cybersecurity, healthcare and data accessibility, and more.

And our Open Forums with the likes of Berlin Partner and Alibaba delivered unparalleled information and takeaways for all our attendees, inspiring the community to take action and innovate.

Finally, Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform saw two flagship AI events come together in July 2021. During the week-long VentureBeat event, hosted by our own Stewart Rogers, we delivered a half-day Data Natives segment that kicked off with a thought-provoking opening speech from our CEO and founder, Elena Poughia. We continued with remarkable insights from Shamala Hinrichsen, Toby Walsh, Kaoutar Chennaf, Thorsten Dittmar, Juan Carlos Medina Serrano, Bart de Witte, Caroline Lair, Taryn Andersen, and Whurley.

The Data Natives We Know and Love

But nothing beats the authentic, in-person Data Natives we know and love, so we’ve moved from our regular November date to March next year. The shift to 2022 allows us – with exemplary levels of safety for all – to return to an in-person conference as well as providing an outstanding online experience.

We’ll see you in Berlin once more for 14 days of dynamic, educational, and inspirational content!

“We can’t wait to bring you Data Natives 2022 – to see each other and hug each other again,” CEO and founder at Dataconomy and Data Natives, Elena Poughia, said. “Most importantly, in a post-pandemic world, we know the event has to be hybrid, and that’s why we’re going to have both in-person and virtual sessions. The reason we have moved it to March is to ensure we can provide this hybrid option. Data Natives has always been multi-faceted, so delivering the conference, hackathon, open forums, matchathon, and more – both online and offline – will allow us to create an environment where everyone can learn and connect.”

We start with the Data Natives Hackathon and Demo Day between March 10-13, 2022, bringing together the smartest in data, tech, entrepreneurship, activism, and policy-making to solve critical challenges.

Throughout March, we’ll be holding our weekly Open Forum sessions. A weekly portion of live debates with experts in data and tech, these online sessions are the perfect build-up to the big event. From online masterclasses to unconference-style gatherings, we will bring together global audiences to learn.

And we’ll crown the month off with the Data Natives conference and Matchathon, March 22-24, 2022. The Matchathon is a global matchmaking session with no borders – companies, startups, hackers, recruiters, and job seekers are all brought together to create the next big thing. And, as ever, the Data Natives conference will bring thinkers, innovators, and creators in data, AI, and emerging technology under one roof.

Get your Tickets Now!

More details will be announced soon, including our first speakers, and for 2022, we’ve got some exciting cards up our sleeve to reveal. You can buy your tickets for the online sessions right now, and soon you’ll be able to upgrade those tickets to the in-person, physical event in Berlin! Existing ticket holders don’t need to do anything – you already have access to the online segments of the event.

Want to reach our community of 106,000+ data enthusiasts at Data Natives 2022? Request our event brochure now for all the ways we can work together to deliver an incredible experience for you and our attendees.

It was a week of superlatives. Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform week was an outstanding success in every aspect. Whether you measure the quality of the speakers, the content of the sessions, the incredible registered attendee facts, the support of our sponsors and partners, or the number of people watching the live streams, it blew away our expectations.

If you weren’t able to tune in through the week, or on the day of the Data Natives segment, here’s what you missed.

P.S. Don’t worry – we’ll explain how you can forsake that FOMO and catch up on everything you crave.

From Monday to Thursday, VentureBeat delivered four days of top-draw sessions, emceed throughout by our very own Stewart Rogers. From the future and value of AI in healthcare with Taha A. Kass-Hout, Dr. Doug Melton, and Dr. Joe Colorafi, to diving deep into diversity, equality, and inclusion with Kathy Baxter, Carla Saavedra Kochalski, and Kay Firth-Butterfield, both the roster and the knowledge delivered were of the highest order.

With over 100 speakers, more than 60 main stage sessions, three breakfast panels, and in excess of half a dozen VIP roundtables, both registered attendees and live stream viewers received value in droves.

On Friday, Data Natives delivered its program on the Transform main stage, with sessions on everything from deep fakes to the future of AI, and AI for good to quantum computing. After a thought-provoking opening speech from our CEO and founder, Elena Poughia, we were frankly wowed by the knowledge, experience, and expert analysis of our speakers.

Thank you to Shamala Hinrichsen, Toby Walsh, Kaoutar Chennaf, Thorsten Dittmar, Juan Carlos Medina Serrano, Bart de Witte, Caroline Lair, Taryn Andersen, and Whurley for delivering such inspiring and captivating sessions, and to our expert moderators Alistair Croll, Dan Taylor, and Nicholas Borsotto for your insightful questions and deep understanding of the subject matter.

Over 3,100 people pre-registered for the week-long event, and there were more than 112k live stream views. “Engaged” viewers – those that were unmuted, full screen, and clicking – topped 16k people. And during the Data Natives segment on Friday, we registered around 20% of the total VB audience enjoying our agenda.

Of course, we couldn’t have done it without our incredible team, the rock stars at VentureBeat, their world-class A/V provider – Evergreen Creative – and our own amazing partners.

Each of our Community Partners creates inclusive, educational, and supportive spaces for anyone interested in AI, data science, technology, and the startup community.

All in Tech has the vision to create 10,000 tech opportunities for women and people of color in the workplace by 2030. It envisions a world where everyone can create their own opportunities and not be impeded by lack of access.

Factory Berlin’s diverse community of members and partners collaborate to build the world of tomorrow. It is re-imagining collaboration by connecting people, ideas, and resources to impact our community, our surroundings, and the world, both online and through its campuses in Berlin and Hamburg.

AI Campus is a not-for-profit space where research, startups, and corporates come together and collaborate on artificial intelligence projects. It brings together leading universities, cutting-edge research centers, top tech and entrepreneurial talent, industry experts, and policymakers, both virtually and at its campus in Berlin.

Our Special Partners are just that – special. Their support and assistance ensure that both the Data Natives segment and the entire VentureBeat Transform week are brought to you with the highest quality, wherever you may attend from.

3pc was one of the very first web agencies in Germany and has been offering the best digital solutions for almost three decades. 3pc creates solutions for the digital age, combining strategy, design, technology, and communication in a holistic and user-centered approach. We broadcasted throughout the week from its offices and studios in Berlin’s thriving creative hub, the district of Kreuzberg.

Equally special is BiTHOUSE Group/UNITED17 Ventures, which gave immeasurable support to the event and helped us bring you this amazing content. Scouting and supporting the future leaders of society and those who have the skills to create inclusive opportunities for humankind wherever they scale due to their character, stamina, and passion for success, it is an innovation ecosystem of builders and connectors. Created by corporate and startup founders, BiTHOUSE Group/UNITED17 Ventures levels the playing field for all founders, adding an inclusive lens to its efforts and providing mentorship, advice, funding, and support.

Thanks to all our incredible partners for their efforts in bringing you this program.

Last but by no means least, huge thanks to the fantastic team at SpatialChat for powering our interactive, “almost as good as real life” networking room (and not-working room – a space for people to escape and get to know each other without business chat). As well as the ability to move around the room and talk to different groups of people, we ran a re-run of Data Natives Unlimited 2020 day one, delivering even more amazing content to attendees of Transform Week.

So how do you catch up and see it all for free?

You can watch the entire Data Natives segment on YouTube right now! In fact, we won’t even make you open a new tab in your browser. Just hit play below.

And for the rest of VentureBeat Transform? Register now and you can watch on demand. See everything, or choose only the ones that matter to you most.

The optional VIP pass is still great value. While you missed out on the VIP networking experiences, it includes an annual VentureBeat Membership unlocking gated content, community spaces, future events, and more. Use the code Datanatives21 for $100 off a VIP pass!

That’s all for now. Look out for announcements of more events from Dataconomy and Data Natives soon! Thanks to everyone that helped make it possible, which – of course – means you. Our community, readers, and viewers are the reason we do this, and we appreciate each and every one of you.

It’s almost time to bring Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform to life. As part of VB’s week-long flagship AI conference, Data Natives is hosting half a day of amazing, educational content this Friday.

VentureBeat Transform 2021 takes place between July 12-16, 2021, and we’ve already had two incredible days of knowledge, networking, and new opportunities. The event is hosted online and includes a stellar cast of speakers and an array of great networking rooms and side events, such as the Women in AI breakfast.

In addition to the amazing speakers we’ve already announced for the Data Natives segment of the event – which airs on Friday, July 16 – we’re proud to announce some of the other inspirational leaders you’ll hear from. And since no event is possible without our incredible partners, here’s our chance to shine a spotlight on their work.

In a fireside chat with our very own Elena Poughia, Whurley will discuss how quantum computing will forever change the technology landscape and, potentially, the balance of international power – but not without your involvement. Currently CEO at Strangeworks, Whurley (William Hurley) is an Eisenhower Fellow, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Liaison for Strategic Partnerships for the Entrepreneurship Steering Committee at the IEEE, the first Ambassador to CERN and Society, founding partner of the CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme (CESP), and co-founder of EQUALS; The Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age.

Kaoutar Chennaf is trying to unravel the mysteries of the world and reach the ultimate truth. And how does she do that? Through the lens of a data scientist. A master student-researcher at TU Berlin, Kaoutar started her journey with philosophy, maths, and computer science, before taking on data analysis. Her goal? To unravel the meaning of life through decent coding and data analysis. She’ll be discussing how AI is in charge of decisions that impact people’s lives and decisions – and what is coming next – during an inspiring panel session at Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform.

Toby Walsh is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW in Sydney, Australia. He was named a “rock star” of Australia’s digital revolution, a fellow at the Australian Academy of Science, and a fellow at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He has won the Humboldt research award and the NSW Premier’s Prize for Excellence in Engineering and ICT. Toby has played a leading role at the UN and elsewhere on the campaign to ban killer robots, and he is the author of “2062: The World that AI Made”. Toby joins our panel on AI for the future, and we’re sure he’s going to deliver some incredible insights.

In addition to all our expert speakers, Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform couldn’t happen without our amazing partners.

Each of our Community Partners creates inclusive, educational, and supportive spaces for anyone interested in AI, data science, technology, and the startup community.

All in Tech has the vision to create 10,000 tech opportunities for women and people of color in the workplace by 2030. It envisions a world where everyone can create their own opportunities and not be impeded by lack of access.

Factory Berlin’s diverse community of members and partners collaborate to build the world of tomorrow. It is re-imagining collaboration by connecting people, ideas, and resources to impact our community, our surroundings, and the world, both online and through its campuses in Berlin and Hamburg.

AI Campus is a not-for-profit space where research, startups, and corporates come together and collaborate on artificial intelligence projects. It brings together leading universities, cutting-edge research centers, top tech and entrepreneurial talent, industry experts, and policymakers, both virtually and at its campus in Berlin.

Our Special Partners are just that – special. Their support and assistance ensure that both the Data Natives segment and the entire VentureBeat Transform week are brought to you with the highest quality, wherever you may attend from.

3pc was one of the very first web agencies in Germany and has been offering the best digital solutions for almost three decades. 3pc creates solutions for the digital age, combining strategy, design, technology, and communication in a holistic and user-centered approach. We are broadcasting throughout the week from its offices and studios in Berlin’s thriving creative hub, the district of Kreuzberg.

“AI will shape the future of the world. Therefore we are proud to stream VentureBeat Transform 2021 live from our studio in Berlin to the whole world,” Armin Berger, founder and CEO at 3pc.

Equally special is BiTHOUSE Group/UNITED17 Ventures, which gave immeasurable support to the event and helped us bring you this amazing content. Scouting and supporting the future leaders of society and those who have the skills to create inclusive opportunities for humankind wherever they scale due to their character, stamina, and passion for success, it is an innovation ecosystem of builders and connectors. Created by corporate and startup founders, BiTHOUSE Group/UNITED17 Ventures levels the playing field for all founders, adding an inclusive lens to its efforts and providing mentorship, advice, funding, and support.

“The utilization of AI is inevitable, therefore creating enterprise technology solutions that are inclusive is a must. We always focus on the ‘DNA’ of tech tools in order to ensure that innovative solutions benefit those who make up society. Unconscious bias is real. The goal of our initiative ‘Al Inclusionists’ is to dismantle systemic bias and support solutions that are representative of the world in which we live. After spending 17 years in San Francisco, focusing on diversity in tech, it is such a pleasure to now live in Berlin, align with 3pc to stream VentureBeat Transform 2021, and to partner with Dataconomy who is the host of such a great event,” Jewell Sparks, founder and CEO at BiTHOUSE Group/UNITED17 Ventures UG.

Thanks to all our incredible speakers and partners for their efforts in bringing you this program.

Access to the live stream will be free for the entire Transform World event (July 12-16), and Data Natives will be going live on July 16, delivering our brand of thoughtful and provoking content throughout the morning. You’ll also gain access to the Data Natives networking and Q&A space.

A VIP pass for the whole week is available, which access to the mainstage experience plus access to offstage speaker Q&A, private roundtables, and networking sessions. It also includes an annual VentureBeat Membership unlocking gated content, community spaces, extra events, and more. Use the code Datanatives21 for $100 off a VIP pass!

Register now, and we’ll see you at Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform 2021!

It’s time to announce our first speakers at Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform, the week-long AI conference where we’ll be hosting half a day of amazing, educational content.

VentureBeat Transform 2021 takes place between July 12-16, 2021. The event is hosted online and includes a stellar cast of speakers and an array of great networking opportunities and side events, such as the Women in AI breakfast.

And we’re incredibly pleased to announce the first speakers for our Data Natives segment at Transform 2021. Not only do these amazing experts bring a wealth of specialized expertise to the stage, but they’ll also entertain and inspire you during two of our panel sessions.

Shamala Hinrichsen will be joining us for an inspiring panel discussion on “how AI is improving human outcomes now, and in the future.”

Shamala is a founder of Hanai, and is trained as a medical scientist with experience in corporate, research, and government. For the last 15 years she has been focused on relevant medical communication.

The panel will discuss how AI is in charge of decisions that impact people’s lives and decisions, and what is coming next. The stakes are high, and the rewards are great – how will you leverage the opportunities AI presents in 2021 and beyond.

Thorsten Dittmar and Juan Carlos Medina Serrano will be speaking on a panel about deep fakes, including the implications of video and audio manipulation with AI, and how society will combat this ever-present threat.

Thorsten started his computer science career in the early 80s when he had a 4 color Mohawk haircut and most of the computers where the size of a garage. He got in touch with PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, formerly Xerox PARC) and fall in love with Smalltalk – the first object-oriented programming language and the base of all graphical user interfaces. In early 2019, Thorsten founded his latest venture polypoly.eu, that aims to give each individual back the sovereignty over their digital data, and in this way, supporting the flow of European data capital back into the local markets.

Juan is a data enthusiast (data scientist, data engineer, and ml engineer). He pursued a Ph.D. at the Technical University of Munich where his research focused on the spread of misinformation in social media and its effects on the political landscape. Juan Carlos has worked in data projects at companies such as BMW, Bosch, and Siemens. Currently, he is the Head of Data at the CSU, where he develops data-driven tools for the 2021 German Federal Election.

Transform World already has an incredible roster of speakers, including top-level executives from Levi Strauss, American Express, Adobe, Intel, DoorDash, Salesforce, IBM, PayPal, and more. 

In addition to our Data Natives speakers, and the other experts you’ll hear from throughout the week, Transform 2021 features various break-out rooms, and Data Natives will be hosting a Q&A and networking space where you’ll get to meet not only your peers but also the speakers who will be joining in to answer your questions.

Access to the live stream will be free for the entire Transform World event, and Data Natives will be going live on July 16, delivering our brand of thoughtful and provoking content throughout the morning. You’ll also gain access to the Data Natives networking and Q&A space.

A VIP pass is available, which access to the mainstage experience plus access to offstage speaker Q&A, private roundtables, and networking sessions. It also includes an annual VentureBeat Membership unlocking gated content, community spaces, extra events, and more. Use the code Datanatives21 for $100 off a VIP pass!

Register now, and we’ll see you at Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform 2021!

Want to get involved? Ask us for our Data Natives x VentureBeat prospectus to learn how you can sponsor the program, gain access to our extensive and highly engaged communities, and increase your brand awareness (among other benefits).

You may already know about our Data Natives event. Last year, Europe’s biggest data science, AI, and machine learning conference brought over 5,000 attendees together to enjoy more than 150 speakers in 2020.

And you may also know that VentureBeat is one of the world’s most famous tech publications. VentureBeat helps break the news to millions of readers every month, and its yearly Transform event focuses heavily on AI and related areas.

We’re incredibly proud to announce that Data Natives will be hosting its half-day content program at VentureBeat Transform 2021.

Transform takes place between July 12-16, 2021. The event is hosted online – as is natural in these extraordinary times – and includes a stellar cast of speakers and an array of great networking opportunities and side events, such as the Women in AI breakfast.

“Transform World is targeted at smart data-driven executives and professionals,” said Matt Marshall, founder and Editor-in-Chief at VentureBeat. “Its goal is to offer the wider community of data-driven leaders a variety of compelling content – ranging from inspirational and strategic advice for C-level executives to educational and practical lessons for professionals and practitioners, to helpful forums around topics like AI or big data for women or BIPOC groups. Transform World is a federation of multiple event hostings, where like-minded conference organizers cooperate to help cut through the noise in a fragmented virtual event world, with the goal to expose the most compelling, high-quality content possible.”

At the last Data Natives event – DN Unlimited 2020 – you heard from luminaries such as Chris Wiggins of the New York Times, Erika Cheung of Ethics in Entrepreneurship, Cory Doctrow of Craphound, Areeq Chowdhury of WebRoots Democracy, Kathryn Harrison of FixFake, Mia Shah-Dand of Lighthouse3, Jessica Graves of Sefleuria, Moojan Asghari of Thousand Eyes on Me, and so many more.

We’ll be announcing the Data Natives x VentureBeat World speakers soon, and we promise you the line-up is just as exciting!

“We’re delighted that Data Natives has joined Transform World,” Marshall said. “Data Natives is Europe’s largest community of data-driven professionals, with a goal of educating and inspiring its 106,000+ community members to shape the innovations of tomorrow. The Transform World alliance already includes groups such as VentureBeat, which will be hosting Transform 2021, the world’s leading AI and data event for more than 2,000 enterprise executives, and several other groups, including Clarion Events, Women in Voice, Women in Big Data, and the DataScience Salon.”

Transform World already has an incredible roster of speakers, including top-level executives from Levi Strauss, American Express, Adobe, Intel, DoorDash, Salesforce, IBM, PayPal, and more. 

Of course, it’s not all about listening to excellent speakers and finding out about the latest moves in AI, ML, NLP, computer vision, and the automation world in general – it’s about you and your fellow attendees.

In addition to Transform World’s various break-out rooms, Data Natives will be hosting a Q&A and networking space where you’ll get to meet not only your peers but also the speakers who will be joining in to answer your questions. Who knows – you might even find your next job!

Access to the live stream will be free for the entire Transform World event, and Data Natives will be going live on July 16, delivering our brand of thoughtful and provoking content throughout the morning. You’ll also gain access to the Data Natives networking and Q&A space.

A VIP pass is available, which access to the mainstage experience plus access to offstage speaker Q&A, private roundtables, and networking sessions. It also includes an annual VentureBeat Membership unlocking gated content, community spaces, extra events, and more. Use the code Datanatives21 for $100 off a VIP pass!

Register now, and we’ll see you at Data Natives x VentureBeat Transform 2021!

Want to get involved? Ask us for our Data Natives x VentureBeat prospectus to learn how you can sponsor the program, gain access to our extensive and highly engaged communities, and increase your brand awareness (among other benefits).

When you build products and launch them, are you – and be honest here – making decisions on each stage of development using data?

While for many years, everyone from development teams, product managers, founders, and marketers have touted they’re using a data-driven approach to everything; the truth is often starkly different.

Partly, that’s because we’re just creating what we technically can. Partly it’s because the wrong strategies, tactics, and foundations have been put in place, and processes aren’t followed.

With this in mind, The Tesseract Academy is delivering a free short introductory workshop on April 19, 2021, designed to help you make a real impact with your current or next product.

This is a free short introduction to the data-driven product boot camp delivered by Noam Auerbach. The full boot camp’s goal is to help product managers and other product practitioners level their decision-making skills. The free intro will present some case studies, such as how Soundcloud is building data-driven products. A Q&A session will follow where the participants can ask any question they like or get help with any issue related to data-driven product development.

Noam Auerbach is a Data Product Manager and consultant with 10+ years of experience in the field.

Noam is focused on scaling and monetizing platforms. He has been on the fine line between product management and growth throughout his career, driving retention and revenue. At the moment, he is the head of product & growth at Enhancv – the world’s leading resume builder and career development platform. Before that, he was the product lead at Tourlane (a Soquia Berlin-based traveling start-up), head of product at YEAY (Berlin-based video social shopping app), and the Growth PM at SoundCloud.

This event is perfect for CEOs, founders, managers, entrepreneurs, and product managers, which will equip you with tools and techniques to build agreement as you create your product strategy and roadmap.

Anyone interested in the free introductory workshop by The Tesseract Academy can simply register on Eventbrite.

Data Natives Unlimited – Europe’s biggest data science and AI event – was forced out of its regular, “so Berlin” home this year thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. What followed was an endeavor that exceeded our expectations.

With 5,000 attendees, over 150 speakers, incredible partners, fantastic volunteers, and a team that put their heart and soul into the event, we set out to create something unique; an online conference that felt every part as good as the offline events of last year.

“2020 has been the year where an unprecedented event changed our lives, and we had to change the way we work, live, and communicate,” CEO and founder at Dataconomy and Data Natives, Elena Poughia, said. “Digital transformation happened faster and accelerated more than ever expected, and similarly Data Natives Unlimited was the experience that we put together as a reaction to the situation.”

And the journey didn’t just start with the conference.

“It was more than an event,” Poughia said. “It was an experience that started from September, with a hackathon, which we found was the best way to find quick, innovative solutions to societal problems and challenges, and then it continued with discussion roundtables tackling important topics before coming to an end with the DN Unlimited conference.” 

And while we’re a little biased, we think we achieved exactly what we set out to do. Over three days, we brought you keynotes, discussions, networking, community features, and exclusive access that came as close to an in-person event as is possible across a screen. 

Opening the event on day one, Poughia set the scene with a talk that sparked some interesting discussions. Looking at a year we lived online, for the most part, Poughia’s keynote turned to the privacy, security, and transparency of our data, a commodity that is now more valuable than ever.

“The world produced an immense amount of data over the past months. It is our responsibility to handle this data with care – staying both private and transparent, sharing our data while protecting it, and always keeping in mind that impact is the new money,” Poughia said.

Chris Wiggins of the New York Times then explained the ins and outs of data-driven journalism and how the world’s oldest newspaper became the forerunner in the media industry by developing a data strategy for its core activities.

Speaking of news, two themes emerged across the first two days of DN Unlimited. Fake news and deep fakes; both of great concern to many.

Juan Carlos Medina Serrano presented his research on Tik Tok as the new gatekeeper of political information and social media’s power to increase societal polarisation. Weifeng Zhong fascinated us by NLP’s applications, predicting the next major political moves by analyzing propaganda content. And we heard from the likes of Thorsten Dittmar, Kathrin Steinbichler, and Alexandra Garatzogianni on deep fakes and fake news too.

“Based on the lessons learned in the last five years of tackling fake news, we can design the proper policy response to deepfakes, but we need to spot the risks early on,” said Areeq Chowdhury of WebRoots Democracy.

Of course, the battle for the presidency in the United States made its way into the conversation, especially given it was happening at the same time as the conference.

“Take the US election; 98% percent of disinformation didn’t require any AI at all to create a very compelling conspiracy. We need to learn to think critically about the media messages we are receiving,” added Kathryn Harrison of FixFake.

There is some hope for the future, however, as we start to see more data sovereignty solutions come to fruition worldwide.

“We are entering the third phase of internet development, where citizens create control over their data. This year is all about personal privacy and internet reliability,” said John Graham-Cumming

In addition to the discussions around how our data is used, we dove deep into another topic that keeps AI and machine learning advocates awake at night; ethics and data bias.

The opening keynote from Mia Shah-Dand, CEO at Lighthouse3 and Founder at Women in AI Ethics, talked about the crisis of ethics and diversity in AI.

“We can draw a direct line between a lack of diversity and AI bias. The questions we should ask ourselves before implementing algorithms are who participated, who was harmed, and who benefitted from our solutions,” Shah-Dand said.

Listening to Jessica Graves of Sefleuria, we realized that there is no technical reason algorithms can’t eventually learn to generate creative output if we give them access to the same inputs and feedback as humans.

The conversation around data also extended to governmental and regulatory policy. Anu Bradford, Alexander Juengling, Sebastien Toupy joined us on the main stage to talk about the “Brussels effect” – the EU’s unique power to influence global corporations and set the rules of the game while acting alone. We found out that neither a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit will liberate the UK from the EU’s regulatory reach.

One of our main partners, IBM, had a stage that was booming with insightful talks. Noel Yuhanna and Kip Yego discussed how trust in AI should start with the concrete data foundation, and Jennifer Sukis and Dr. Robin Langerak walked us through the AI lifecycle.

“I haven’t been prouder than before when it comes to our content,” Poughia said. “We really managed to get very high level quality speakers, focused on a lot of interesting topics such as the pandemic, data monopolies, deep fakes, fake news, and other areas that impact our lives.” 

In addition to the conference content, we announced the winners of the DN Unlimited Hackathon we ran in September. Three winners created solutions to help bring adaptive learning to places where internet connectivity is weak, to accelerate precision medicine, and to help people measure their environmental impact.

Our EUvsVirus colleagues Michael Ionita, Urska Jez & Jesus del Valle concluded that realizing our wildest dreams is possible not only through hackathons but entirely online. The trend is here to stay.

Speaking of online, our attendees took full advantage of speaker Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, where participants could meet and greet our distinguished experts. Our Slack channels were buzzing with activity, and the various networking tools on offer helped to connect the masses.

“I’m glad we had a way to bring everyone together and to be connected on different mediums and formats,” Poughia said. “And it’s ‘DN Unlimited’ because there was no limit to the communication, and the connections that were made. We really were crossing all borders.”

We would love to bring Data Natives back in an offline capacity for 2021, and pandemic permitting, we’ll make that a reality. And while COVID-19 forced our hand, we couldn’t have wished for a better online event this year.

Thank you to everyone that participated, in whatever capacity – you made it special. We’ll see you all, in either two or three dimensions, next year.

• The DN Unlimited Conference will take place online for the first time this year
• More than 100 speakers from the fields of AI, machine learning, data science, and technology for social impact, including from The New York Times, IBM, Bayer, and Alibaba Cloud
• Fully remote networking opportunities via a virtual hub

The DN Unlimited Conference will take place online for the first time this year.

The Data Natives Conference, Europe’s biggest data science gathering, will take place virtually and invite data scientists, entrepreneurs, corporates, academia, and business innovation leaders to connect on November 18-20, 2020.

The conference’s mission is to connect data experts, inspire them, and let people become part of the equation again. With its digital networking platform, DN Unlimited expects to reach a new record high with 5000+ participants. Visitors can expect keynotes and panels from the industry experts and a unique opportunity to start on new collaborations during networking and matchmaking sessions.

In 2019, the sold-out Data Natives conference gathered over 3000 data, technology professionals and decision-makers from over 30 countries, including 29 sponsors, 45 community and media partners, and 176 speakers.The narrative of DN Unlimited Conference 2020 focuses on assisting the digital transformation of businesses, governments, and communities by offering a fresh perspective on data technologies – from empowering organizations to revamp their business models to shedding light on social inequalities and challenges like Climate Change and Healthcare accessibility.

Data science, new business models and the future of our society

In spring 2020, the Data Natives community of 80.000 data scientists mobilised to tackle the challenges brought by the pandemic – from the shortage of medical equipment to remote care – in a series of Hackcorona and EUvsVirus hackathons. Through the collaboration of governments such as the Greek Ministry for Digital Governance, institutions such as the Charité and experts from all over Europe, over 80 data-driven solutions have been developed. DN Unlimited conference will continue to facilitate similar cooperation.

The current crisis demonstrates that only through collaboration, businesses can thrive. While social isolation may be limiting traditional networking opportunities, we are more equipped than ever before to make connections online.

The ability to connect to people and information instantly is so common now. It’s just the beginning of an era of even more profound transformation. We’re living in a time of monumental change. And as the cloud becomes ambiguous, it’s literally rewriting entire industries

Gretchen O’Hara, Microsoft VP; DN Unlimited & HumanAIze Open Forum speaker.

The crisis has called for a digital realignment from both companies and institutions. Elena Poughia, the Founder of Data Natives, perceives the transformation as follows:

It’s not about deploying new spaces via data or technology – it’s about amplifying human strengths. That’s why we need to continue to connect with each other to pivot and co-create the solutions to the challenges we’re facing. These connections will help us move forward

Elena Poughia, the Founder of Data Natives

The DN Unlimited Conference will bring together data & technology leaders from across the globe – Christopher Wiggins (Chief Data Scientist, The New York Times), Lubomila Jordanova (CEO & Founder, Plan A), Angeli Moeller (Bayer AG, Head Global Data Assets), Jessica Graves (Founder & Chief Data Officer, Sefleuria) and many more will take on the virtual stages to talk about the growing urge for global data literacy, resources for improving social inequality and building a data culture for agile business development. 

On stage among others:

• Erika Cheung, Executive Director, Ethics in Entrepreneurship
• Cory Doctorow, Science Fiction Author, Activist, and Journalist.
• Whurley (William Hurley), Eisenhower Fellow, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Alistair Croll, Founder, Solve for Interesting
• Clare Jones, Chief Commercial Officer, what3words
• Mark Turrell, Orcasci, CEO
• und many more …

AI has been facing a PR problem. Too often AI has introduced itself as a misogynist, racist and sinister robot. Remember the Microsoft Twitter chatbot named Tay, who was learning to mimic online conversations, but then started to blur out the most offensive tweets?

Think of tech companies creating elaborate AI hiring tools, only to realise the technology was learning in the male-dominated industry to favour resumes of men over women. As much as this seems to be a facepalm situation, this happens a lot and seems not so easy to solve in an imperfect world, where even the most intelligent people have biases.

“Data scientists are capable of creating any sort of powerful AI weapons”,

Romeo Kienzler, head of IoT at IBM and frequent speaker at Data Natives.

“And no, I’m not talking about autonomous drones shooting innocent people. I’m talking about things like credit risk score assessment system not giving a young family a loan for building a home because of their skin color.”

These ethical questions rang alarm bells at government institutions. The UK government set up a Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and last month the Algorithmic Accountability act was proposed in Washington. The European Union created an expert group on artificial intelligence last year, to establish an Ethics guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.

IBM had a role in creating these guidelines, which are crucial according to Matthias Biniok, lead Watson Architect DACH at IBM, who designed CIMON, the smiling robot assisting astronauts in space. “Only by embedding ethical principles into AI applications and processes can we build systems that people can trust,” he tells.

“A study by IBM’s Institute of Business Value found that 82% of enterprises are now at least considering AI adoption, but 55% have security and privacy concerns about the use of data.”

Matthias Biniok, lead Watson Architect DACH at IBM

AI can tilt us to the next level – but only if we tilt it first.

“Artificial intelligence is a great trigger to discuss the bias that we have as humans, but also to analyse the bias that was already inducted into machines,” Biniok tells. “Loans are a good example: today it is often not clear for a customer why a bank loan is granted or not -even the bank employee might not know why an existing system recommended against granting a loan.”

It is essential for the future of AI to open up the black boxes and get insight into the models.

“The issue of transparency in AI occurs because of the fact that even if a model has great accuracy, it does not guarantee that it will continue to work well in production”

Thomas Schaeck, IBM’s Data and AI distinguished engineer, a trusted portal architect and leader in portal integration standards.

An explainable AI model should give insight into the features on which decision making is based, to be able to address the problem.

IBM research, therefore, proposed AI factsheets, to better document how an AI system was created, tested, trained, deployed and evaluated. This should be audited throughout their lifecycle. It would also include suggestions on how a system should be operated and used. “Standardizing and publishing this information is key to building trust in AI,” says Schaeck.

Schaeck advises business owners to take a holistic view of the data science and machine learning life cycle if they are looking to invest in AI. Choose your platform wisely, is his advice. One that allows teams to gain insights and take a significant amount of models into tightly controlled, scalable production environments. “A platform, in which model outputs and inputs are recorded and can be continuously monitored and analysed for aspects like performance, fairness, etc,” he tells.

IBM’s Fairness 360 toolkit, Watson Studio, Watson Machine Learning and Watson Open Scale can help you out with this. The open-source Fairness 360 toolkit can be applied to every AI model before it goes into production. The toolkit has all the state of the art bias detection and mitigation algorithms. Watson Studio allows teams to visualize and understand data and create, train and evaluate models. In Watson Machine Learning, these models can be managed, recorded and analyzed. And as it is essential to keep on monitoring AI during its lifecycle, IBM Open Scale connects to Watson Machine Learning and the resulting input and output log data, in order to continuously monitor and analyze in-production models.

Yes, it can all be frightening. As a business owner, you don’t want to end up wasting a lot of time and resources creating a Frankenstein AI.

But it is good to keep in mind that just as our human biases are responsible for creating unfair AI, we also have the power to create AI which mitigates, or even transcends human biases. After all, tech is what we make of it.

If you would like to know more about the latest breakthroughs in AI, Cloud & Quantum Computing and get your hands on experimenting with blockchain, Kubernetes, istio, serverless architecture or cognitive application development in an environment supported by IBM experts, then join the Data & Developers Experience event that is going to take place on June 11-12 at Bikini Berlin. Register here, it’s free.

Meet investors, Blockchain and crypto enthusiasts, a talent pool of developers and programmers  as they solve three Blockchain challenges over two days in Berlin. Here is why you should be a part of LongHash Cryptocon Vol2.

Berlin has been recognised as the cryptocurrency capital of Europe for more than half a decade. The city emerged as one of the first in Europe to accept digital currencies back in 2013 and the crypto revolution is now backed by over 100 blockchain companies based in Berlin. Jasmine Zhang, CEO, LongHash Germany, which is organising its second Blockchain Hackathon (part of LongHash Cryptocon Vol2) in the city on May 18-19 this year, rightly puts this in perspective, “Berlin, as many people have commented already, is a great place with infrastructure and talented, international people. We would like to leverage the strength and expertise we have from the East, and bridge with the West to make a positive impact on blockchain ecosystem. Our aim is to further accelerate the understanding and development of blockchain technology globally.”

LongHash is a platform for accelerating the development and understanding of Blockchain technology. LongHash incubators provide a full-range of support for start-ups working on blockchain-related projects.

As an early-stage blockchain investment and incubation firm, Longhash supports its portfolios long-term. Zhang says, “We are hosting different events including hackathons worldwide, like in Germany, Japan, Vietnam since last year to help their ecosystem grow. This edition’s three projects come from U.S, China and Germany with big potential and a healthy, strong developer community is what they are seeking at the moment and this belongs exactly to the post-investment management that LongHash is providing.”  

Back in Berlin:  With more challenges and ETH prizes for developers and Blockchain Geeks

The first edition of the Hackathon was last year during The Longhash Crypto Festival Berlin, which took place between October 26 and October 29 and promoted innovation among programmers, attracting participants from Asia, eastern Europe and the US. And this being the second edition, the competition will be more challenging yet rewarding at the same time. Winners of the second edition of hackathon have an opportunity to win upto 30 ETH equivalent prizes. Here is a look at the categories:

• Cybex Prize: 5 Eth
• MXC Prize: 5 Eth equivalent amount of MXC Token
• Taraxa Prize: 5 Eth

On top of this, one chosen winner will be  awarded Euro 2,000 equivalent amount of VET powered by VeChain and more prizes are to be announced soon!

The challenges have been carefully designed considering the needs of the Blockchain ecosystem and where the innovation is most desired. Here is a look:

Challenge 1: How to implement an Algo Order in Cybex Dex？

Cybex.io is a blockchain based decentralized exchange that supports crypto trading. When a user has an intention to perform a large trade, it is useful to have an algorithm to split the order into smaller slices and trade it over a longer period. This feature is referred to as ‘Algo Order’ and is widely adopted in regular exchanges.

In decentralized exchange, each sliced order must be signed by the user’s private key. This provides a new challenge to algo orders. In order the place orders automatically, while keeping the private key safe, a user typically has to write its own program and run it in its own machine. This makes it difficult for normal users to use algo orders due to the lack of programming skills.

Design a solution that allows a normal user to execute and manage algo orders.  

The following are some basic Algo order types:

• TWAP :http://empirica.io/strategies-catalog/twap
• VWAP :http://empirica.io/strategies-catalog/vwap
• Iceberg:https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/icebergorder.asp

The solution should be using Cybex API, which is available at the following locations:

• Cybex API server documentation: https://apidoc.cybex.io
• Sample program to place an order:https://github.com/CybexDex/cybex-python

Solutions will be graded on :

• User interface friendliness
• The ideal solution should be easy enough to attract people without programming skills
• Security
• As trading involves using private key, the management and storage of the key is a crucial consideration.
• Framework Coding quality

Challenge 2: How do we automate the Smart Machine Bidding procedure for the LPWAN devices in order to reduce the costs of an IoT network?

MXC foundation focus on connecting Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology with the blockchain as an infrastructure for Internet of Things (IoT). MXC automates machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions and provides a device data economy. The pricing policies of data transmissions through gateways in LPWAN are determined by MXC Smart Machine Bidding (SMB). In the SMB, based on the bidding strategies provided by the device owners, and the gateway owners, the payments for using downlink / uplink LPWAN resources will be determined.The following parameters are set by the device in bidding strategies of the SMB:

• max_bid: the maximum bidding price defined by the device owner shows the upper payment threshold of the device (in MXC tokens) for the downlink request.
• max_delay: this parameter defines, under certain circumstances, the maximum acceptable_delay (in seconds) for the packet to be sent. If max_delay is reached, the packet will not be sent and the cloud will notify the client about the rejection of the downlink request.
• accepted_delay: the tolerable delay defined by the client (or device owner) to indicate the time period a packet is willing to wait for the lowest possible price.
• Lowest possible bidding price is the current lowest bid of the available gateways for the device.

Each gateway provides a value on using its resources called min_bid. The device in order to use the gateway downlink resource, should bid at least min_bid value. If multiple devices in a same time wants to use a downlink resource of a gateway, the one which define more max_bid will be the winner. More details about bidding procedure are provided in MXC Smart Machine Bidding white paper (available in the repository stated below and the MXC website). Based on downlink / uplink data flow of the device owners and their requests, MXC cloud can provide data driven automated smart machine bidding.  max_delay parameter is mainly related to the application and the priority of the data which is known by the device owner/client and is defined by the requirement of the provided application by the device.

On the other hand, accepted_delay, and max_bid parameters should be provided by the device owner (or the client) in some way to make a balance between the priority of the related uplink/downlink data and the corresponding data transmission cost. These two parameters (accepted_delay, and max_bid) can be automatically provided for the device owner to make this balance. Your task is to develop an automated solution (e.g. based on Machine learning methods, dynamic algorithms or greedy algorithm) which provides near-optimum value for accepted_delay and max_bid parameters to reduce the total cost of the LPWAN for the user.

In the input file, you will receive max_delay, payment limit which the data owner wants to pay in total (for all of the transactions), and the downlink resource usage history of the device and other devices. Your program (preferably in Go) will be evaluated by output efficiency (based on the test cases of LPWAN data simulation), and solution explanation (provided in your documentation). Note that you can provide multiple solutions and do the implementation as much as you want/can. A sample input file and its details will be provided in the below repository:

https://gitlab.com/mxc-hackathons/smb

Challenge 3: How to implement an anonymous data collection scheme that allows the manufacturer to anonymously collect data from its end devices without knowing exactly which device it came from?

Data privacy and security has become an increasingly urgent concern worldwide. Large corporations cannot simply collect data from its end users without their knowledge or explicit consent. However, it would be nice if a manufacturer could still collect data generated by its devices without user consent, but do so in a way that’s cryptographically-guaranteed to be anonymous. In this scenario, the manufacturer would like to collect data from anonymous devices, but it would want to be sure the data it’s receiving is not garbage and is guaranteed to have come from a device it has manufactured. The end user would not mind that its device’s data is being harvested as long as it is impossible to trace that device’s data directly to the end user’s identity.This problem is broadly defined as direct anonymous attestation, and more narrowly defined as a membership proof. An earlier paper (https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/128718/files/CCS08.pdf ) had been published with an open-source implementation published ( https://github.com/ing-bank/zkproofs ).

Assumptions :  We assume that the manufacturer has embedded within each device it made with a pair of asymmetric encryption keys, and that hacking the device on-premise to obtain these keys is prohibitively expensive to do. We further assume that the manufacturer is willing disclose the public keys associated with all of its products to the open.

The challenge: HOW to implement an anonymous data collection scheme that allows the manufacturer to anonymously collect data from its end devices without knowing exactly which device it came from?

• A device can prove to the manufacturer that it is indeed one of the devices it has created
• The manufacturer will construct a temporary X.509 certificate so that a proof does not need to be provided every time, temporary because the end user might want to stop even anonymous data collections

Bonus:

• Manufacturer & device both anchor the challenge & proof onto the blockchain
• Device anchors its data transmissions onto the blockchain with the temporary certificate

Does this interest you as well? Apply here for the Hackathon before the 12th of May – the event is free for all developers. Also, there is more. If you are a developer or aspiring entrepreneur in the blockchain/crypto space and  want to know about the investment perspectives from Top Asian & European Funds in the Blockchain segment or business use cases in real word adoption, get your free tickets for Hash Talk which will be an afternoon-long summit focused on discussions and creating insights on investment, business, and tech in blockchain curated and brought by LongHash Germany. More details here.

How do you merge the perspectives of the data scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, student and CTO’s under one roof when it comes to data-driven decisions? How do you bring together the likes of Google and IBM with academics and universities to find answers to the most relevant questions in the world of data and technology? How do you combine the tech trends ranging from AI and Blockchain into digital health or data analytics into the field of sports? You would have got some of these answers if you were one of the 2000 enthusiasts to attend Data Natives 2018.

A hundred and thirty speakers shared their views on the most relevant tech trends affecting lives and economies across the globe. Here are a few highlights to make you relive parts of this conference through the perspective of some of our speakers.

Artificial Intelligence can destroy inequality between nations; here is how

Bart De Witte, Chair Faculty of Futur Medicine, Futur.io and Director Digital Health, IBM DACH, started his talk by explaining how social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are really good at capturing our attention by providing us with information, services and entertainment. These platforms resell our attention to advertisers and please their shareholders. It is well known that we are not their customers, we are their product.

“After providing you with information, I won’t resell your attention to advertisers to benefit some shareholders, but I hopefully will convince all —or at least many of you—that we as a collective have to resell our attention to humanity, and let us become a product for society, if we want to create a future that is desirable.  In 40 to 50 years from now, we will probably have access to a much broader form of AI that is capable of helping us to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases. We are currently creating the foundation of medical Artificial Intelligence that will permeate every aspect of our lives and health,” he says.

He continued by saying that we are most probably the only generation, that has the opportunity, to build medical Artificial Intelligence, that has the opportunity to further destroy inequality between different nations; progress of equality in one and the same nation and lastly, the real improvement of man.

He adds, “Technology is not a verb —it is capable of doing great things. But it doesn’t want to do great things. It doesn’t want anything. It’s up to us, as a collective to decide how we will develop AI in healthcare. Do we look at it, as a technology that allows us to build the next unicorns or do we look at it as something we as a collective can develop together in an open-sourced way, governed by all of us, following the rules of our societies, to serve both the needs and the wants humanity.”  

The relationship of Data with Machine Learning, Deep Learning and AI systems

How can you have a conference on tech and not hear straight from the horse’s mouth? Yes, we are talking about IBM. Romeo Kienzler, Chief Data Scientist, IBM Watson IoT delivered the Keynote at Data Natives. He says, “If data is the oil for Machine Learning, it is plutonium for Deep Learning and AI systems. The most important matters to address are openness, fairness and robustness. Training a deep learning neural network has become a commodity. So, who owns the most relevant data always wins.”  

Romeo gave Mozilla Commonvoice and DeepSpeech as an example of how to unlock AI. In addition, he emphasized the importance of data protection in order to prevent AI oligopoly. He gave the recent Uber hack as an example and encouraged attendees to encrypt their emails, use secure messengers like Signal or TOX, and of course to not forget their annual donation to the Wikimedia foundation.

Removing model bias against minorities and robustness against adversarial noise attacks was the second major point to address in his talk. Therefore IBM open-sourced all relevant tooling in that space which is all part of IBM One AI – in the cloud, in your data centre, on your desktop or on the IBM PowerAI supercomputer. Finally, he gave an outlook taking recent advancements in robotics, 3D printing and neural network synthesis (AI that creates AI) into account.

Are the drugs we consuming authentic? Blockchain can help you answer

The startups in the unconference room had pitches ranging from topics such as Blockchain in Health Tech to sports tech and “privacy by design” in GDPR.  One of the talks was by Lea Dias, CEO and CoFounder, Protolync who flew from Paris to talk at Data Natives 2018.

With the estimated cost of counterfeit drugs valued at $90 billion and cost of lives estimated at over 700 000, there is a growing imperative to bring traceability, transparency and security to the medication supply chain. Currently, the medication supply chain is flooded with fake drugs, incomplete and falsified information, complicated and complex supply chain logistics and error-prone manual processes, leading to inefficiencies, errors and wastage.

“Blockchain technology ensures seamless transparency and traceability of medications information along global supply chains, thereby improving inventory and stock management. Traceability of medications from manufacturer to customer verifies the authenticity of returned, recalled or missing medication, and provides transparency on consent in clinical trials, hence improving the quality and reliability of clinical trial data,” she says.

In addition, Blockchain technology establishes an immutable hack-resistant permission-based ecosystem, eliminating fraud and allowing information to be shared securely with partners and clients without any fear of information leaks.

The evolving role of AI: What is ROI on AI?

More and more companies are claiming to use AI to improve their processes- but it can be difficult to assess the return on investment for AI-based solutions when no case studies or benchmarks exist. Not to mention, success in AI projects relies on a number of predetermined factors: having the right amount and right type of data, having the right staff to tackle the problem and having a use case where AI is appropriate, for example. Investors, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and companies will discuss the current state of ROI on AI and share some learnings.

Claudia Pohlink, Head of Intelligence at Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories gave a perspective straight from the customer’s mind, “For our customers at Deutsche Telekom, AI plays a major role already today to keep the high quality of our network and customer interactions. But before you dream of AI, do your homework. And that means, clean up your data, establish a well-organized data management and take care of data quality.”

But what is the ROI on AI when it comes to venture capital investments.  Stephen Candelmo from Azafran Partners tells us, “In the end, ROI of AI is the same as any business…how are you saving the customer money or how are you helping the customer make more money?  Understand the specific metrics as to how you do that whether through human augmentation for greater efficiency in systems and processes or enhancing sales results through AI…”

Data and Research in Digital Health

Hours of research goes into any disruptive innovation and how could we not highlight the work of researches in the field. Johannes Starlinger, Project Leader Health Data Science & Digital Health Architect mentioned that in the Data Science in Perioperative Care Lab at the Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine (CCM/CVK) at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, they combine data from a number of clinical sources to do statistical, predictive, and visual analyses.

“While this includes a large amount of structured data continuously recorded in our intensive care units, much important data recorded in clinical settings today is contained in free form text and not readily accessible to analytical processing,” he says.

He adds that for English language clinical text, tools, terminologies, and corpora are available to automate the extraction of structured data. For most other languages, including German, such tools and resources are rare and everyone has to build their own data extraction pipelines and tools sets from scratch – if they can get legal access to sufficiently sized corpora of clinical text at all. In fact, one of the most pertinent hurdles is the (un)availability of clinical texts to the community knowledgeable in building text mining systems. To overcome this hurdle and to fuel development in clinical natural language processing, we have to find ways to engage patients in safely sharing their medical documents (and data) with researchers within and outside the healthcare system itself.

Data Privacy and Data Ethics

You cannot end a conference on Big Data without talking about privacy, which was a major topic of discussion throughout the panels. Martin Lopatka, Senior Staff Data Scientist/Applied Statistician at Mozilla questions, “How do we perform research into web browsing activity in a privacy-respectful manner? We ask permission. We acknowledge and identify the biases of an opt-in data collection model and we supplement these shortcomings with non-personally identifiable data where possible. We try hard to have a human-readable privacy policy and get real informed consent by default. We believe in transparency around every study launched on this platform; as such, both the code and the results are discussed in the open.”

Dennis Grishin, CoFounder, Nebula Genomics says that when people talk about how a data-driven solution is going to have an impact, it’s usually about how to make data accessible, analyze it, use the gained insight etc: “However, with genomics, we are facing the unique challenge that the data that we want does not exist yet. The main challenge that we are facing is the data generation. How can we incentivize more people to sequence their genomes? What are the obstacles that deter them? How can we solve these issues? These are the challenges that we are trying to solve at Nebula Genomics. We believe that by addressing privacy concerns that many people have and shifting the sequencing costs to biopharma companies we can accelerate the beginning of a genomics age that is going to transform medical research and healthcare.”

Let us leave you with a fun question asked by Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google–  “What spaceship would you choose? One that never flew but you thoroughly tested it, or one where you have no idea how the thing flies, but it successfully flew many times before?” Cassie would pick the one she tested, as crafted testing is the basis of trust.

Elena Poughia, Managing Director at Dataconomy Media and Head Curator at Data Natives conference captures the essence of all the excitement we went through, “Data Natives exceeded our expectations this year. More attendees than anticipated eager to stay till the very last talk on the second day to learn. Hands-on nerdy content by unapologetically honest and sincere practitioners. It is apparent that Data Natives is more than a conference. Its a community of tech disruptors.”

Preparations are well underway for the 2018 edition of Data Natives– the data driven conference of the future, hosted in Dataconomy’s hometown of Berlin. Data Natives brings together a global community of data-driven pioneers to explore the technologies that are shaping our world- from big data to blockchain, from AI to the Internet of Things.

On the 22nd & 23rd November, 160 speakers and 1,600 attendees will come together to explore the tech of tomorrow. As well as two days of inspiring talks, Data Natives will also bring informative workshops, satellite events, art installations and food to our data-driven community, promising an immersive experience in the tech of tomorrow.

The theme of this year’s conference is quickening. Technology is developing at an unprecedented rate, and the pace of life is advancing with it- we all know that famous statistic that more data was produced in 2017 than in the previous 5,000 years of human existence combined. But what does this accelerated pace mean for businesses, for scientists, and for each and every human? How can enterprises catch up to tech landscape that’s accelerating at an unprecedented speed? How can we best use the influx of data to fuel the breakthroughs that will shape our scientific landscape? How can we adapt to life at an accelerated pace- and is there any way to switch off and slow down?

Today, we’re pleased to announce the first seven speakers who will join us in Berlin to explore these questions, and provide insights that will allow us to catch up to an accelerated world.

BART DE WITTE- Director of Digital Health DACH, IBM & Chair Faculty of Digital Health, futur/io Institut

Bart De Witte has over 20 years’ experience at the intersection of health, technology and business, working for companies including SAP, and is currently overseeing IBM’s Digital Health Unit. As IBM’s Director of Digital Health DACH, Bart is working on transforming health solutions in the DACH region, using IBM’s Watson Health to aid in this mission. When he’s not working with one of the world’s most sophisticated data platforms, he chairs the Faculty of Digital Health for futur/io, a new education and research institute focused on developing health systems which are inclusive and accessible to all.

ANNINA NEUMANN- VP Data Technology, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE

ProSiebenSat.1 is the leading German entertainment company, reaching 45 million households, via web, mobile, smart TV, apps and social media. Unsurprisingly, such a vast company produces a vast and challenging array of data- and Annina Neumann is the person responsible for using this data to provide insights and build data-driven software components. For Data Natives 2018, Annina will be sharing her unique insights into AI in business applications.

NOA TAMIR- Data Science Team Lead, Babbel

A master of all trades, Noa Tamir has a diverse background in physics, economics, design and management. She has used her unique and multi-disciplinary approach to data science and King.com, and is currently the Data Science Team Lead at Babbel. When she’s not building Babbel’s Decision Making Data Science team, she also organises the R-Ladies Berlin Meetup.

DANIEL MOLNAR- Data Engineer, Shopify

Daniel Molnar has 19 years’ experience startups, 9 years’ experience in data, and has worked for leading companies including Microsoft and Zalando. This year, Daniel became the Director of Engineering for Shopify, an e-commerce giant who empower virtually anyone to open up their own online store. With clients including Red Bull, Nestle and Kylie Cosmetics, Shopify have proven themselves to be titans of ecommerce- with the hordes of data to prove it. We look forward to Daniel’s insights in wrangling such massive data sets.

STEWART ROGERS- Director of Marketing Technology, VentureBeat

VentureBeat is a publication known by almost everyone in the tech community- and their Director of Marketing Technology, Stewart Rogers, is similarly well-known in tech publishing and beyond. A self-described “journalist, analyst, founder, speaker, and digital nomad”, Stewart is currently the Director of Marketing Technology for VentureBeat and VentureBeat Insight, BV’s analysis and reports resource. With over 25 years’ experience in the IT and software industries, Stewart has used his unique insights into the developments in software and IT past, present and future to contribute to numerous publications and events.

JOHANNES STARLINGER- Health Data Researcher, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Johannes Starlinger is a computer science postdoc and MD doing research in biomedical informatics at Charité and the research group for Knowledge Management in Bioinformatics at the Department of Computer Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Combining his previous research and studies in Medicine and Computer Science, Johannes is currently focusing on service-oriented architectures in the healthtech sector, using knowledge mining and representation, similarity search, and predictive analytics.

ELENA PETROVA- Data Scientist, Auto1 Group

Elena Petrova is a Data Scientist for Auto1, Europe’s leading car trading platform. As part of her work for Auto1, Elena develops supervised machine learning models and Python packages for data processing and feature engineering. As part of Data Natives, Elena will be sharing her insights into unit testing for data science applications.

Data Natives will take place on the 22nd & 23rd November at Kühlhaus Berlin- for tickets and more information, please visit the Data Natives website.

Last year was full of exciting events. As soon as solarisBank received its banking license, a new
chapter was opened for the company, as well as for me. We faced a tough but an exciting challenge:
as a tech company with a banking license, we needed a strong BI team to provide the company with
a vehicle to drive business strategy with data. As the Head of BI, this meant that I needed to create this
department from scratch.

Throughout the year, I had a chance to attend several conferences where I met interesting and
inspiring individuals who were as driven by data as I am. Back then, I was looking for a teammate
who would help me with establishing the BI Department and creating processes that would help
transform the data collected into scalable and valuable knowledge.

In October, I attended the Data Natives conference here in Berlin, where I met Ofer Kulka. We had a
successful first meeting at the conference and we were both excited to have the same BI mindset, so
we decided to get to know each other better, have a more detailed exchange at our office, where he
would get to know more about the company, team and our mission.

And what can I say: It all worked out. In November, Ofer joined me at solarisBank to push our work
within the Business Intelligence Department forward. We have accomplished a lot in the past year;
we managed to create and develop workflows and processes to structure the company’s most
important data, in order to identify potential challenges as well as strategic opportunities.

We work closely with a wide range of stakeholders at solarisBank, therefore, it was important for me
to create a reliable and transparent team that manages to collaborate with stakeholders and support
the company in its development and evolution. With Ofer on my team, we managed to achieve this.
Despite our contrasting backgrounds, competences and our problem-solving approaches, we always
manage to find the best possible solution.

Exciting times are ahead of us as solarisBank is aiming to expand into Asia. Even more exciting is that
we are growing together with the company. We will soon have two more analysts joining our BI
team, who will help us overcome the new challenges that might come up along the way.

The Data Natives Conference last year was a great opportunity for me, in many ways. Ofer has been
a strong asset to solarisBank. Furthermore, I managed to not only expand my network with others in
the industry but also create a long lasting and strong partnership.

To learn more from Mari, get your Data Natives ticket here.

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It’s that time of year again.  Data Natives is ramped up and ready to go for its most impressive lineup of speakers to date.  Whether focused on the fastest growing developments in fields such as FinTech and AI or examining the many minute ways that data sets can affect individuals, businesses, or even entire economies, here are just some of our high profile and highly engaging speakers.

Kirk Borne  serves as both principal data scientist and executive advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton.  With career that includes over 20 years of experience working with large data bases at NASA  (not to mention the Hubble telescope), he is one of the most influential figures in data science today.  

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is the founder of Designswarm and Good Night Lamp, as well as being the co-founder and CEO of Tinker London.  A standout when it comes to both entrepreneurship and interaction design, she is as comfortable exhibiting work at the MOMA as she is discussing IoT.

Bart De Witte is the director of Digital Health DACH at IBM Germany. With over 17 years of experience in digital health, as well as serving at the helm of IBM’s newly-formed Digital Health Unit, he is a master at understanding and applying the most cutting-edge developments in HealthTech.

Trent McConaghy is the founder and CTO of BigchainDB.  As the founder of three successful startups, he has used his knowledge of AI to serve humanity in brilliant and inspiring ways. His latest endeavor has the goal of democratizing data, and of course, making Data Natives all the more dynamic.

Alan Akbik is a research scientist on NLP at Zalando. As one of Zalando’s most relied-upon researchers, he has been looking into advanced text analytics capabilities and what they can do to serve the ever-growing online retail market.  

Nicolas Woloszko: is a data scientist and economist at OECD. As a part of the OECD, his work is shedding a light on all of the latest ways in which we can leverage the new knowledge to improve economic performance and quality of life for people living in countries all around the world.

Dirk Freytag: is the founder and MD at Content Pass and has over 20 years of executive experience in advertising. Working to provide an array of cutting-edge monetization strategies for digital publishers, he has a valuable perspective on one of the most competitive industries on the planet.

Nasir Zubairi is CEO at the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT).  An avid entrepreneur and FinTech aficionado, his knowledge of how modern technology meets with the world of finance is as extensive as it is impressive.

Mari Hermanns is the  Head of business intelligence at Solaris Bank.  Every day, she is ensuring that her company’s digital products are quick, efficient, and always scalable. Like solaris, she is a bridge between banking and the startup scene.  

Dr. Chris Armbruster is the director of Data Science Retreat in Berlin.  He has an astute understanding of the many ways in which AI can change our world for the better. Organizing an array of data from academic work and global surveys, he’s masterful as both a mentor and an expert at exploring the reader-author relationship.

Suzy Moat: is an associate professor of behavioral science at Warwick Business School.  As digital tools become an increasingly critical part of our lives, her work is about using data to better understand how we all behave, leading to some fascinating correlations.

Curious to learn more?  Join us for Data Natives 2017 by getting your ticket here.

On October 12th, Cloudera will be in Munich composing a series of straightforward approaches and concise strategies for companies preparing for one of Europe’s biggest regulatory reshufflings of data ever.  Register now to find out what tactics, methods and tools are best suited for you.

May 25th, 2018 is just around the corner.

The fast-arriving General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is European Parliament’s biggest effort yet to penalize the loss and mismanagement of data gathered from EU citizens. With so much to adjust for in so little time, many companies already risk being caught off guard as new regulations roll out next year.  But when breaking new rules risks 20 million euro fines, one simple mistake can become very bad news in the blink of an eye.

Possible Problems

Prepping for GDPR is also no easy task.  Not only must current staff be educated on what new legal guidelines to follow, but new staff with relevant technical skills must also be hired to handle new operating requirements.  Under that great big umbrella term known as “misuse” of data, there are many activities which employees and whole departments may unknowingly already be doing that can lead to a fine-worthy breach.  Simply put, inadequate data security can result in hefty charges, even if that data was lost due to being hacked by an outside party.

In such a regulatory environment, everyone is going to step up their competence and their understanding when it comes to securing data sets and every company is different in how they can adjust their current protocols. Firms can’t afford to be simply compliant – they have to be adaptable. Because data sets can be spread far and wide, there’s going to be a general need for consolidation.  This means assigning the right people resources to the right areas and making sure your IT teams especially have a reliable and continuously updated understanding of a company’s data landscape – from efficient warehousing to clear data visualization. EU citizens data aren’t just held by European firms, so no-one can afford to be complacent. Enhancing capabilities when it comes to accessing and deleting data for consumers will be critical.

All in all, there is plenty to do, and very little room for error.

Possible Opportunities

The good news is that staying ahead of the curb is as much of an obstacle as it is an opportunity.  There are many simple and straightforward ways to organize and prepare your entire enterprise for GDPR as well as many beneficial tools that can assist you along the way. If done properly, preparing for upcoming regulations should not only lead to avoided mistakes but better insights about your data and how to manage it.

Knowing your available tools is of particular importance.  There is no reason to train and assign new staff for tasks that the latest cloud computing tech can streamline for you.   Even if you think you’re up to date with the latest tech, ensuring you know how to most efficiently use it comes down to time management and resourcefulness. Companies like Cloudera can do a lot to make sure that your technology isn’t only up to date, but also being applied properly. 

Conclusion

GDPR is going to fundamentally change the environment for big data in Europe.  But like any sudden change in an ecosystem, those who most efficiently adapt don’t only survive but thrive.  Adjusting to GDPR will not be easy for anyone.  But there’s no reason that these changes have to be a grimacing ordeal.  Where old business cycles end, new ones begin. With the right attention and the right approach, it may just be the perfect chance to get ahead.

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Now that business is moving nearly as fast as data does, the tech world is constantly forging new and exciting professional paths in a range of different industries – that is, if we know where to look for them. Timing is everything and disruption is still stronger in some areas than others. If you’re working in one of the industries below, Data Natives 2017 will be unpacking the major trends – and opportunities to come – in these fields and more.

FinTech: Bitcoin

There is always something new to touch on these days about Bitcoin.  Be over great successes or huge scandals, the cryptocurrency has been making waves in the news as much as in the FinTech world.  But if you’re seeking solid insights that sift out reality from underneath the sensationalism, we suggest sitting down with our expert Bitcoin panel, featuring Nasir Zubairi and Trent McConaughy. They will be discussing key aspects of Bitcoin’s success, as well as commenting on what the future holds for blockchain’s biggest financial story.

Learn more of the latest on Bitcoin by getting your Data Natives ticket here.

HealthTech: Public Data in Hospitals

Publically Generated Hospital Data (PGHD) was once limited to patients reporting their lifestyle choices, disease and treatment history.  Nowadays, advances in data science and a surge in wearable device sales has led the amount and the quality of patient data to skyrocket – reporting information to doctors at the same pace that people live their lives.  Also on the rise is AI’s capacity to process that data for the betterment of primary care. To shed light on this and other pressing topics in the field, expect a fascinating talk from  Bart Dewitte, director of Digital Health DACH at IBM Germany and Hannes Dahnke Head of Data Analytics at Philips Healthcare DACH based on anonymous public PGHD defining the future of diseases, hospitals and the patient/doctor relationship.

For these and other helpful insights into HealthTech, get your Data Natives ticket here.

Mobility: Data-Driven Businesses

Data is literally driving the future of mobility.  Everywhere you look, data science is reshaping car models as much as it’s reshaping business models – and German engineers and automakers have taken notice. With that in mind, Data Natives has set up a robust panel of experts from Porsche, Audi, BMW and Bosch to discuss “How to build a data driven business” for those seeking to satisfy both their inner engineer and their inner entrepreneur.  Startups like predict.io and German Autolabs  will also have much to discuss – including AI’s relationship with the automobile.  Reaching skyward, Fabian Werner and Stanlislaw Schmal from Lufthansa’s adept data analytics team will be exploring what many of those same ideas look like up in the air.

See what else is in motion at Data Natives.  Get your ticket here

GovTech: GDPR

General data privacy regulation will have a huge impact on an array of companies in the coming years.  Will you be ready when it’s rolled out in May, 2018? As the European parliament’s largest effort yet to protect the privacy of individual citizens, there is a lot to unpack, as well as a lot of opportunity for those who understand how to move forward. Those interested in what’s coming up for GDPR and other fascinating corners of GovTech should check out the Data Natives content from the impressively prolific Alexandra Deschamps Sonsino and Katharine Jarmul.

These are, (of course), only a few of the many game-changing trends out there.  To discover more,  get your Data Natives ticket here.

Data Natives workshops are always poised to be major career-enhancers – but especially this year.  Besides highlighting pathways for professional growth in fields like Machine Learning, IoT, AI, and entrepreneurship, DN2017’s workshops are at the top of their game when it comes to helping attendees identify the most advantageous opportunities out there for them. To ensure that you’re attending the best possible workshop for you, see below.

Workshop 1: Some Atypical Applications of Typical Machine Learning Algorithms

Kirk Borne is one of world’s most celebrated data scientists.  Regardless of whether focused on FinTech, or even predicting hurricanes,  Kirk brilliantly explains how algorithms serving one function can have huge benefits when solving problems in seemingly unrelated fields. Emphasizing design thinking, Kirk zeros in on “translating data into insights, into action.” That’s great news for any aspiring consultants out there.

People working in Analytics, Machine Learning and Data Science are especially well-positioned to get the most out of this enlightening workshop. Get your ticket here. 

Workshop 2: AI for Enhancing Customer Experience

Agnieszka Walorska leads this enlightening look at product innovation based on the critical ways in which humans and AI interact with one another. Issues of privacy and even algorithm bias can be big barriers to a great customer experience, but Angnieszka’s unique background offers on-point methods for how to respond to these potential pitfalls.  Her’s is a fantastic approach for developing and maintaining an engaging digital experience.  This can lead to Forging new career paths, such as “AI Design Strategy or AI Innovation Management.”

Chief Product Officers, Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Product Owners, UX Designers and Innovation Managers are going to find this workshop especially informative. Get your ticket here.

Workshop 3: How to use a Contract Intelligence Software

Reading through lengthy legal contracts is no fun, but now that those language processors have gotten good enough to read them faster and more accurately than humans, the potential for businesses is through the roof.  Join Francisco Webber, founder of Coritical.io as he unpacks what language processing software can do for legal professionals and technical teams that assist them.  The biggest takeaway for anyone: “There are Machine-Learning approaches that don’t depend on statistics.”

Webber suggests this workshop, in particular, is for software engineers who “want to take the next step in artificial intelligence, beyond statistics.”Registered participants can even submit contracts for live data extraction during the workshop.  Get your ticket here.

Workshop 4:  GDPR for Designers and an Ethical Framework for Internet of Things

For insights that very well might save you 20 million euros, this workshop is where Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino shines as your guide to understanding the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and how to prepare for its May 2018 rollout.  It’s critical to be informed about all of the design and security steps that companies can still take in order to reliably secure both their products and their finances for what lies ahead. 

Startup founders and product owners both stand to benefit greatly from this workshop.  So too will CEOs, CTOs, marketing managers, data scientists and anyone working in IoT.  Get your ticket here. 

Workshop 5:  Dataconomy Careers

As the Director at Data Science Retreat, Chris Armbruster knows the impact of AI backwards and forwards.  His workshop offers a clear pathway for dealing with data in order to have a more specific data science and Machine-Learning role at any company.  To that end, workshop attendees learn how to “move up in Machine Learning in order to move up in your field.” Upon completion, everyone walks away with a 6-9 month roadmap for achieving their AI goals.

Those familiar with data warehousing, data analytics, and business intelligence will love this workshop. So too will S.T.E.M graduates (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine) seeking to specialize.  Get your ticket here.

A global community of data science and technology enthusiasts will gather in Berlin in November for the third Data Natives conference.

Europe’s premier event for the data-driven generation, Data Natives is the meeting point for some of the greatest minds in data science, technology, and business.

More than 1500 people will gather, from November 15-17, to hear from some of the world’s leading experts and influencers in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“The purpose of Data Natives is to unite the data-driven generation, to spark conversations about the power of technology and to empower people to use it,” says conference founder Elena Poughia.

This year, Data Natives has 110 speakers, 18 panel discussions, 12 workshops and more than 70 talks with a focus on data-driven technologies and how they are driving innovation in society.

Data Natives Berlin 2017 will be close to double the size of last year’s event, which is a positive sign for Europe’s burgeoning data science and start-up scenes.

“We are trying to unite the European data science, tech, and start-up ecosystems to foster and support the level of innovation we see coming out of Silicon Valley and the wider United States,” Poughia says.

“This is why we have more intimate workshops and encourage networking and collaboration. It’s about building community.”

The conference will explore how big data is driving innovation and disruption in mobility, government, health, and automotive technologies, which impact on our lives every day.

“Technology is penetrating our lives more and more,” Poughia says.

“It’s important to understand how our data is used online, how hospitals will be revolutionized with keyboardless systems, how drones will be used in healthcare, how governments are going to digitalize all public information, and how blockchain will change the world with paperless money.

“These are the issues that will be explored at Data Natives 2017.”

Data Natives invited four renowned industry leaders to curate the content and choose the line-up of visionary speakers for this year’s conference.

One of the keynote speakers is data scientist and astrophysicist, Kirk Borne, who is considered one of the world’s foremost influencers in big data, AI, and machine learning.

Borne is currently the principal data scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management and technology consulting firm that provides services to Fortune 500 companies, governments and non-profits.

He also spent close to 20 years supporting NASA projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Astronomy Data Center, and the Space Science Data Operations Office.

Influencer, entrepreneur, and start-up consultant Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, director of Designswarm, will speak about the Internet of Things and how it’s redefining our relationship with the world around us.

And Suzy Moat, associate professor of behavioral science at Warwick Business School (recently featured on Wired) will talk about her research into the ability of AI to understand human subjectivity.

Data Natives Berlin 2017 will build on successful conferences in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Berlin, Germany, last year, delivering more forward-thinking ideas to inspire innovation and disrupt the status quo.

You can get your tickets to Data Natives Berlin right  here.

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Every year, data science experts, practitioners, and enthusiasts are known to flock to a variety of exciting and informative conferences around the world.  At these conferences, experts and luminaries in the field of data science will congregate to share experiences and ideas and inspire their colleagues in the industry. There are many interesting conferences scheduled for this summer, and these are our top picks.  

The Australia Sports Analytics Conference – Melbourne

The Australia Sports Analytics Conference in Melbourne will take place on the 4th of August. It will offer over 30 presentations with 3 key tracks that attendees will be able to choose from, with the 3 tracks being Sports Teams/Leagues, Brands/Fans/Engagement, and Sports Technology/Data Science. Ultimately attendees will have many options for finding presentations of interest revolving around analytics in sports.

TDWI 2017 – Anaheim

AUGUST 6—11, 2017

The TDWI Anaheim conference is one of the leading events for analytics, big data, and science training. It takes place from August 6th to August 11th at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California.

KDD 2017

AUGUST 13 – 17, 2017

KDD 2017 is a premier interdisciplinary conference bringing together researchers and practitioners from data science, data mining, knowledge discovery, large-scale data analytics, and big data.

SSTD 2017 – Washington D.C.

AUGUST 21-23, 2017

The 15th International Symposium on Spatial and Temporal Databases will convene in Washington D.C. from August 21st to the 23rd at George Mason University. It will discuss the newest developments in spatial and temporal databases and related technologies.

Big Data and Analytics Innovation Summit – Shanghai

SEPTEMBER 6-7, 2017

The Big Data and Analytics Innovation Summit in Shanghai will take place on the 6th and 7th of September and will cover the latest innovations and strategies in the business applications of big data and analytics. It will also feature talks from data and analytics experts from companies such as Adidas, Alibaba, and Chery Jaguar Landrover.

However, if you couldn’t get enough Data Science after these summer conferences, we look forward to meeting you in Berlin for the third annual Data Natives

Data Natives – Berlin

NOVEMBER 16-17, 2017

Data is part of our new cultural identity, transforming the way we communicate, learn and interact. Data Natives is the meeting point for industry experts, entrepreneurs, tech and business professionals to inspire each other and disrupt the status quo.

The third edition of Data Natives will welcome over 2,000 attendees and more than 80 speakers across the spectrum of the most exciting of technology today

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This article is part of a media partnership with Data Analytics and Behavioural Science Applied to Retail and Consumer Markets conference, an event featuring high quality case studies, networking sessions and discussions full of insights on the Retail and Consumer Markets. It takes place June 28 at Millennium Hotel Mayfair, London. To learn more about how to gain business insights with Artificial Intelligence, you can’t miss Mandie Quartly’s session. Come and learn how to take advantage of rapidly evolving and innovating technologies.

The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has filtered all the way up to top management in businesses around the world. Artificial Intelligence has many upsides for organizations, such as lower costs, better service quality, and the promise of fast, actionable business insights. The question is how can decision-makers lead their organizations towards harnessing the true power of AI-powered technology.

The market for AI technologies is booming, fueled in part by rising adoption by the enterprise. Results from a study by Narrative Science found that 38% of enterprises are already using AI, and that number is set to grow to 62% by 2018. In this Forbes article from earlier this year, Gil Press found that this is but one of many encouraging surveys:

• Forrester Research predicted a greater than 300% increase in investment in artificial intelligence in 2017 compared with 2016.
• IDC estimates that the AI market will grow from $8 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020.

AI is a complex field. Executives cannot just think of it as a process of applying isolated technical knowledge to a specific problem. Real value comes from understanding the vast array of technologies that underpin Artificial Intelligence, and how they can be used to develop full-service products.

How to think about AI-aided technologies for your business

Accenture’s comprehensive report on the potential of AI technologies for businesses, Turning Artificial Intelligence into Business Value. Today, sheds light on how to better understand the AI-aided solutions to your business goals. The report separates them in terms of automating and augmenting. For either category, companies need to asses solutions based on two criteria: work complexity, and data complexity.

Work complexity can span from routine, rule-based work (i.e. the work of a clerk officer), to ad-hoc tasks that require human judgement (i.e. the work of a research scientist). Similarly, data complexity can range from low-volume, structured data sets, such as sales reports, to high-volume, volatile data coming from social media, for example.

The four activity models for business AI solutions

Analyzing the above mentioned criteria results in a framework, from which four primary types of activity models arise:

• Efficiency

This model aims to provide consistent, cost-effective performance solutions with technology that senses and acts. Humans monitor accuracy and adjust rules based on business conditions. The systems translate these decisions into action quickly, accurately and efficiently.

• Expert

This model includes so-called “expert systems”. These are able to survey massive data sets to make recommendations based on that knowledge. The system functions either autonomously, or provides input for human judgement.

• Effectiveness

The effectiveness model aims to enhance workers’ overall ability to produce a particular desired result. Technology then acts as personal assistant; humans use the cognitive tools to assist in scheduling, communicating, monitoring and executing activities. Consumer-facing agents such as Siri, Cortana and Google Now are perfect examples.

• Innovation

In this model, AI enhances human creativity and ideation—for example, for artists, entrepreneurs, researchers, and designers. Technology acts as a support system that offers recommendations and identifies alternatives, while humans make decisions and act.

These are just a few examples of how Artificial Intelligence technologies can be integrated into compelling business solutions

• Computer Vision – Insights into shopper behavior;  Business operations analytics
• Audio Processing – Call center automation
• Speech recognition –  Interactive voice response systems
• Sensor Processing – Precision agriculture
• NLP – Personal assistants
• Knowledge Representation – Web search and linking
• Inference Engines – Loan & credit approval
• Expert Systems – Medical diagnosis
• Machine Learning – Software tools

Any business looking towards AI to optimize its processes has to keep many options open. Executives cannot completely focus on any particular technology. The truth is, technology by itself is not the answer. The first step is thinking about the type of work that needs to be done, and then, about how integrating AI technology can become a solution to that problem.

The AI-development mindset

Developing Artificial Intelligence systems requires different methodologies than are needed for developing traditional IT-systems. For example – training a cognitive system resembles training a new employee, as both have to be trained in a particular domain of expertise before they can add value. On the other hand, developing expert systems primarily focuses on identifying relevant data sources and then gathering and curating content. This new development paradigm comprises training and supervising an AI solution.

Getting to business insights when you need them – how to make it happen?

There’s a lot of talk about using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to gain business insights, but there are a number of key ingredients required to actually make it happen in a timely fashion. A vital element is the technology which underpins AI and machine learning applications. Come and hear more about “making it happen” for your organisation; learn how to take advantage of rapidly evolving and innovating technologies. The Data Analytics and Behavioural Science Applied to Retail and Consumer Markets conference, takes place on 28 June at Millennium Hotel Mayfair, London. Mandie Quartly will be the plenary speaker.

Mandie Quartly is the worldwide lead for Machine Learning and High Performance Analytics software in the IBM OpenPOWER Ecosystem team. In essence, her focus is the creation and growth of strategic relationships with key software organisations looking to enable end users to gain timely insights from their big data using IBM’s POWER hardware platform. Her background is Linux, Power Systems and High Performance Computing focused, specialising in the design and implementation of high performance Linux-based systems. Mandie has an MBA and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics.

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Image: Engineering at Cambridge, Jean de la Verpilliere, CC BY NC-ND 2.0

Sónar+D, the congress dedicated to creative technologies which will take place in Barcelona on June 14, 15, 16 and 17, announces today the program for its 2017 edition. The congress will bring together more than 100 activities, 180 speakers and around 5,000 accredited professionals from 2,100 companies and 60 countries. During 4 days, key figures and projects shaping the future of design, music and creative technologies will assemble in Barcelona.

For the first time, Sónar+D will host a Networking Day on Wednesday, June 14, exclusive to Sónar+D pass holders, opening one day before the main festival begins. The day will be dedicated to professionals, creators, companies and entities, and will include blocks of conferences and workshops with an extended duration specifically designed to encourage deeper debate and the exchange of knowledge. Immersive environments, Artificial Intelligence and music industry metadata will be central themes at the Networking Day.

Kenric McDowell, who leads the Artists + Machine Intelligence program at Google Research, Freya Murray, program manager director of Google Arts & Culture Lab, and Edu Pou, executive creative director of the multi-award-winning US Virtual Reality studio Here be Dragons, are just some of the experts who will participate in the 4-day congress.

Sonar360º is among this year’s new innovations, a curated space in collaboration with Montréal Society SAT (Societé des Arts Technologiques), featuring projections and workshops of immersive audiovisual “fulldome” pieces.

The business area Startup Garden powered by MIGRATION specializes in and fosters 30 startups focused on selected creative industries around the world. Mentors such as Joyce Lu, ex memeber of the MacBook Air design team; Jon Eades, head of the startup incubator for the legendary Abbey Road recording studio; and investment funds such as Edge Fund, one of the UK’s key cultural and entertainment funds; and Entrée Capital, which includes Snapchat among its successes.

Sónar+D will host the international Open Music Initiative meeting. Open Music Initiative is an ambitious project led by the Berklee Music College, the MIT Medialab research centre and the IDEO consultancy. The initiative aims to create new standardised practices to unify digital music distribution and will bring together dozens of industry experts from companies including YouTube, Spotify and Universal.

“Entropy”, a scientific lecture by the astronomer and cosmologist Dr. Dida Markovic together with duo DopplerEffekt and visualists Antivj, is a transmedia show about the origin and end of the Universe. It has been conceived as an immersive experience somewhere between a conference, an audiovisual concert and a live documentary. It will be presented at the SónarComplex auditorium on Thursday, June 15 for all Sónar by Day attendees.

Creators such as Memo Akten, one of Europe’s leading digital artists, or the bot programmer and Twitter artist Darius Kazemi round out a program that looks to a future where our ideas of intelligence and creativity will have been radically transformed.

THE SÓNAR+D 2017 PROGRAM CONTINUES TO GROW

Sónar+D 2017, Sónar’s 5th International Congress for Digital Culture and Creative Technologies, will be held on June 14, 15, 16 and 17, with more than 180 speakers and around 5,000 accredited professionals, from 2,100 companies and 60 countries.

Sónar+D Barcelona continues to grow in size and content. This year the congress starts one day before the main festival, on Wednesday, June 14 with a Networking Day, exclusive to accredited professionals, which will focus on multiple work disciplines and further promote relationships among attendees.

Key projects that are shaping the future of design, music and creative technologies will convene in Barcelona for a period of four days. Creators, technologists, research centres, entrepreneurs and startups will share their ideas and works with attendees, through demos, technology shows, exclusive premieres, debates, workshops and networking spaces.

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For people in the know, machine learning is old hat. Even so, it’s set to become the data buzzword of the year — for a rather mundane reason. When things get complex, people expect technology to ‘automagically’ solve the problem. Whether it’s automated financial product consultation or shopping in the supermarket of the future — machine learning is the answer. Data scientists are jumping on the bandwagon, trying to outdo each other in the race for the coolest algorithm. But is algorithm porn bringing us progress, or just a lot of showboating?

SAS Forum Germany in Bonn: how machine learning is used in practice / special offer for Dataconomy readers

Machine learning is no magic bullet. In fact, what’s behind it is basically conventional analytics technology. Analytic models are trained using example data sets. The training is supervised, for instance by specifying the desired output value such as the risk class of a bank customer. The machine is also given the input, in this case master data, demographics, and past transactions. Another example would be providing an error category, with maintenance reports as the input. Non-supervised learning, in contrast, is used to find new patterns in data and learn to distinguish categories.

In other words, the system learns from examples and is able to generalize after the learning phase is completed. What is happening here is not the simple memorization of the examples, but rather the recognition of patterns and laws in the example set. This allows the system to also correctly assess previously unseen instances by transferring what has been learned.

So machine learning helps us develop good models. But a data scientist is still needed to get those models ready for real-world use.

Let’s consider for example the maintenance routine for a CT machine which needs to be optimized to reduce downtime.  First, good models are needed that are capable of taking sensor data and event codes to predict the probability of a component failing to a high degree of accuracy and with minimal false alarms. Machine learning can help here.

The next step is operationalizing, which involves business rules that pair analytic predictions with recommended actions. What should I do if the probability of the motorized patient bed failing is high? How fast do I need to respond if the customer has a premium service agreement? How does the procedure differ if the device is located in a hospital versus a radiology clinic?

The application of the models and the rules must then be continuously monitored. This requires model governance which ensures auditability and the efficiency of the process used to register the models. It also enables automatic accuracy evaluation for of the statistical models and sends out an alert if an analytic model needs to be replaced. And that is something that the data scientist takes care of, not the device technician.

The procedure described above illustrates why machine learning by itself is no magic bullet. In the real world, what counts is the professional integration of analytics into business processes. The goal is not to have the coolest algorithm. Well, at least it’s not the only goal.

At the 2017 SAS Forum Germany on June 29 in Bonn, machine learning will be one of the featured topics — presented from the perspective of both data scientists and the enterprise. Take a look at the program. Use the attractive discount to attend the conference for just €180 (instead of €380). Just select the “Special offer” when you register and then enter the code DCY-SF17 at the end of the registration process.

Register now!

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Image: TxDonor

On a sunny Friday morning, the IoT-EPI Challenge started bright and early at 9 AM (which is quite early, for Berlin standards) with an introductory talk for the participants and the media to get the rundown of the day.

This wasn’t a typical idea-hackathon. Collaboration was key. The goal was to work on challenges in the fields that the projects are already active in, with an emphasis on integrating their existing technology into the solutions, and exchanging ideas with the mentors (who were IoT-EPI members). Around 30 participants from 12 teams had a go at one of three challenges – ‘Trust’, ‘Mobility’, and ‘Retail’. The Trust challenge was run by INTERIoT and bIoTope; Mobility was run by symbIoTe; and Retail by BIGIoT, TagITSmart!, and AGILE.

The challenge wasn’t so much about developing technical frameworks, because the projects were building and providing those themselves. The purpose of the challenge was motivating teams to create feasible, applicable, business ideas that could turn into real-world solutions. How did the judges pick the winners? Teams could get a maximum of 9 points, divided into three categories:

1. Feasibility
2. Team dynamic
3. Potential for future collaboration with IoT EPI platforms

Trust

InterIoT and bIoTope were the mentors of the 6 teams that participated in this challenge. It was the most sought-after challenge, with the highest number of applicants. In it, the teams were confronted with an issue that might sound abstract at first. What does ‘trust’ mean for IoT? Trusting platforms? Trusting partners? Trusting technologies? Trusting data? Trusting people? In this challenge, participants could chose between two scenarios:

• ‘Port’, where 2 teams were tasked to find solutions for trust issues among different IoT platforms responsible for handling different day-to-day elements of port functioning e.g. port authority, cargo loaders, docks, etc;
• and ‘University’,  where 4 additional teams worked with the same task, but applied to different day-to-day elements of identity-based University benefits e.g. library access, food court access, etc.

Mobility

The Mobility challenge was unlike the Trust challenge, in that it gave participants some more freedom to experiment, since there were no defined scenarios within the smart mobility topic. SymbIoTe mentored three teams, two of which were already established startups – Innroute (Spain), and Inovatica (Poland).

Retail

The biggest challenge in terms of mentoring projects (BIGIoT, TagITSmart!, and AGILE), it was similar to the mobility challenge in its experimental freedom. It was also the one where the jury found the winner of the overall IoT-EPI Challenge. One team, lead by Rahul Tomar, focused on developing a solution to urban food waste, and the other, thingk-design, built an IoT solution for tool sharing.

To sum up the day’s work, each team had 3 minutes to pitch in front of an audience of other teams, mentors, project leaders, media, and IoT-EPI. The only rule – no self-promotion. This was all about the problems and their solutions.

“The challenge wasn’t only exhilarating because of the time limit. It was exciting because of the fact that we get to work with something new, and with great technology”.

• Florian Pichler, team Essentim

Since a lion’s share of participants have experience (or are active) in startups and pitching, the round was very entertaining, lighting fast, and had some truly excellent speakers. This, of course, did not make the jury’s decision any easier. The pitch round was done, and it was time for the judges to decide who won each category, and who was the best team overall.

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In the end, the proposals that made the smartest use of IoT to solve the task at hand, ended up being the winners.

The judges found that:

• thingk-design‘s ‘toolstation’ (Retail)
• Innroute (Mobility)
• and Digital Partners‘s ‘Legal Harbor'(Trust)

were the projects with the highest potential for ‘real-life’ success.

If you’ve been reading carefully, by now, you’ll know that thingk-design was the overall winner of the IoT-EPI Challenge 2017!  They are developing toolstation, a smart sharing system which provides professional grade tools for everyone, round the clock. It provides an ecosystem including manufacturers of tools and wearparts; a social network for DIY-instructions with crowd-sourced info material such as videos, manuals, etc; a cross-selling-platform for construction materials, as well as a smartphone app for end users. This team was the one that, on one hand, who could leverage the most synergies with existing IoT-EPI projects, and on the other, offered to seamlessly integrate BIGIoT‘s, TagITSmart!‘s, and AGILE‘s technology.

Open doors for future collaboration

The work of other teams did not go unnoticed. Several runners-up across categories were encouraged to further develop their projects and make use of the resources that are available through the various Open Calls throughout the year.

“We’ve had a great time in Berlin, gathering feedback for our projects, making new connections, and getting such amazing mentorship from the IoT-EPI projects. It’s really exciting to be challenged in this way”

• Adam Cavallari, team nooncare

IoT brings accessible solutions to day-to-day problems, bringing high-tech to the home, and to society in general. The efforts to make the IoT-connected world a reality are multilateral and therefore based on collaboration and trust, which is the basis to every long-lasting, fruitful, and productive relationship.

The latter is both what the IoT-EPI Challenge (and the IoT-EPI Week as a whole) is all about, and exactly what came out of it – successfully implementing a “from-lab-to-market” approach, that enabled collaboration amongst the IoT-EPI projects, as well as the future collaboration with ecosystem partners, such as entrepreneurs, developers, corporates, VCs and other multipliers in the field of IoT. The projects’ technologies paired with the teams’ curiosity and willingness to join forces to make viable solutions, were, in the end, the driving forces behind the event’s atmosphere of trust, collaboration, and boundless potential for open innovation.

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Collaboration and innovation go hand in hand, and are based in transcending frontiers – physical, technological, economical, you name it. Open innovation is one of the ways in which Europe can secure global competitiveness. The H2020 research and innovation program is the EU’s financial instrument to achieve this, and within this framework, the IoT-European Platforms Initiative (IoT-EPI) was formed to build a vibrant and sustainable IoT-ecosystem in Europe – one that is based on interconnectedness.

In March 2017, the IoT-EPI met for one week in Berlin, to attend business-building and community-building workshops, to share their projects with the Berlin tech and startup scenes, to host the IoT-EPI challenge 2017, and to strengthen the bonds of this growing network in its effort to unify a very fragmented European IoT platform ecosystem.

Berlin has been one of Europe’s most attractive destinations of the 2000’s. It has become synonymous with avant-garde art, electronic music, and a flourishing startup scene. What it is not synonymous with, however, is well-functioning infrastructure – at least when air travel is concerned (definitely hinting at the infamous BER-airport project here.) Because of an ill-timed airport workers strike in Berlin, a considerable part of the IoT-EPI members were not able to make it to the first meeting days. However, even though the group was smaller than planned, the first workshop days turned out to be very productive. The second part of the week (the Meet & Greet, and the Challenge) went on as planned.

IoT is about connecting

Media outlets, startups, SMEs, and corporates met at Ahoy! for this IoT-EPI Meet & Greet, to get to know the initiative and learn about its projects. Laura Kohler, etventure Startup Hub’s Managing Director, set off the evening with a talk that went to the core of the problem of the siloed IoT platform ecosystem in Europe, and that clearly showed the importance of IoT-EPI’s mission – IoT platforms help organizing an increasingly connected world, but they are not connected amongst themselves. Because there can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution for all the existing and upcoming platforms, collaboration is key within the IoT space, in order to create an ecosystem where platforms and services can talk, and thus connect the world.

“An IoT ecosystem based on interoperability and communication can be the driver of truly smart cities, and a connected world”

• Eneko Olivares, Universitat Politècnica de València, INTERIoT project coordinator

Startup pitch coach Bianca Praetorius took the stage from Laura, to give attendees a clearer picture of the stakeholders of the European IoT ecosystem, in the form of 10 archetypical figures in the space. From The fresh out of university founder to The EU funded R&D project, she highlighted the labyrinthine network of symbiotic relationships within this very interconnected space. Her talk led the way to the more lighthearted part of the evening.

Drawing inspiration from the long-running German dating show Herzblatt, IoT-EPI took on the task of matching innroute, a logistics startup from Barcelona, with a partner that could help reach the next stage of development as a company. The three candidates were an innovative corporate partner (Deutsche Bahn), a VC (Videesha Kunkulagunta), or a mentor (Srdjan Krco, project coordinator of the IoT-EPI project TagITSmart!). Depending on how the candidates answered the questions innoroute posed, one of them would be picked to work closely with the spanish startup. After the candidates answered questions about building and ending working relationships, market fluctuations, cooperation, and other key aspects of a business cleverly disguised as romantic issues, innroute saw themselves in a crossroads. How do you pick only one out of three promising candidates? Eventually, the startup saw a perfect match in Deutsche Bahn.

IoT is about sharing

IoT-EPI consists of seven research and innovation projects spanning the whole continent, designed to make their technology accessible to 3rd parties – Inter-IoT, BIG IoT, AGILE, symbIoTe, TagItSmart!, VICINITY and bIoTope. These projects draw upon the principles of open innovation and collaboration to create opportunities for platform development, interoperability and information sharing.

BIG IoT // big-iot.eu
This project is a seven-partner network with a team of around 40. Their aim is to create an API and a marketplace for IoT data and platform providers to serve as a one-stop-shop for monetizing, finding and acquiring IoT data & platforms for IoT projects. They focus on the smart mobility space, but decided to try something different in the IoT-EPI challenge, and went for the Retail challenge instead.

AGILE // agile-project.eu
Agile is building a gateway to control data sharing (in the cloud), that supports protocol interoperability, device and data management, design and execution of IoT apps and external cloud communication. In a nutshell – building an architecture to support communication between IoT devices

INTER IoT // inter-iot-project.eu
InterIoT is a partner network of 14 universities and big TelCos. Their goal is to build an open framework to integrate new and existing IoT platforms, enabling voluntary interoperability among IoT platforms and across multiple layers – from devices, through middleware to a semantic layer. In layman’s terms – On one hand, they’re building bridges between IoT platforms, so they can communicate; on the other, they’re also building the tools for others to be able to build these bridges between themselves.

bIoTope // biotope-project.eu
bIoTope is leveraging the know-how of their 20 partners, to lay the foundation for open innovation systems to enable horizontal interoperability across IoT systems. As they described it during the meet and greet, basically, they’re offering “everything-as-a-service”.

symbIoTe // symbiote-h2020.eu
symbIoTe wants to help solve the fragmentation problem of the EU IoT landscape by building orchestration middleware for transparent interoperability of IoT platforms and sensing/actuating resources.

TagITSmart! // tagitsmart.eu
TagIT Smart create smart tags for retail products, to enable ecosystems of connected products that are otherwise still out of reach due to technological limitations.

VICINITY // iot-epi.eu/project/vicinity
The VICINITY project will build and demonstrate a platform and ecosystem that provides “interoperability as a service” for infrastructures in the Internet of Things. Unfortunately, the project was not able to be present at the IoT-EPI Week because of the airport strike.

The projects welcomed visitors from large, innovative institutions like BMW, EnBV, and Siemens, to discuss their work, their goals, and to talk about finding ways to build the strong ecosystems and communities that an interconnected European future needs. For BIG IoT, interconnectedness takes on a very physical meaning. With an emphasis on smart mobility, the BIG IoT project is conducting 2 open calls to enable external organizations to join the project with their own ideas and contributions, within a larger IoT-EPI program of 11 open calls, offering funding totalling €5.5 million.

What’s there to win? Aside from getting to work within the BigIoT ecosystem, they are offering a total of 750.000 € for new partners, taking on the role of either IoT service, application, or platform providers.

“There real value-add for businesses and other organizations in the versatility of IoT data”

• Jelena Mitic, Siemens, BIGIoT project coordinator
  

The first next open call, by BIG IoT, starts in April 2017. It will focus on IoT platform & service providers who are willing to provide new data to the project through the BIG IoT API and offer the data on the BIG IoT Marketplace. The second open call will be published in January 2018, targeting also IoT applications providers. Head to BIG IoT’s website to fill in the application form, and to get more information on the project and specific details about the open calls.

IoT is about challenges

The lively networking session was far from the end for this IoT-EPI week. As the evening drew to a close, everybody’s eyes were on the following day and its prize. On the next blog of the series, we’ll share our impressions of Friday’s IoT-EPI Challenge 2017, where 12 teams from all over Europe got together to find the IoT solutions of the future.

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Data is one of the most prized commodities of the 21st. century. As companies face the challenges arising from a surge in the number of customer interactions and data, it can be difficult to successfully manage the vast quantities of information and still provide a positive customer experience. Businesses need to create a consumer-centric experience that is powered by (predictive) analytics.

Adopting a data-driven approach through a corporate self-service analytics (SSA) environment is integral to strengthening your data and analytics strategy.

During the webinar, speakers Ronald van Loon & Dirk Jung will:

• Expand upon on the benefits of a corporate SSA environment
• Define how your business can successfully manage a corporate SSA environment
• Present supportive case studies
• Demonstrate practical examples of analytic governance in an SSA environment using BI Office from Pyramid Analytics.
• Discuss practical tips on how to get started
• Cover how to avoid common pitfalls associated with a SSA environment

This webinar has been tailored to meet the needs of corporations in the DACH region, and will be offered in German.

What? Free Webinar: Wie Sie eine Corporate Self-Service Analytics-Umgebung aufsetzen & verwalten

When? Thursday, March 23, 4 PM CET.

Who should join? Professionals in the following fields – Business Intelligence, Marketing solutions, IT, Operations, Finance

Hosted by Top Big Data and IoT influencer Ronald van Loon and Dirk Jung, Solution Architect at Pyramid Analytics.

Register Now!

 Convince Your Boss! 5 Reasons to Attend the IoT Weekend

You really want to come to our IoT workshop but you are not sure how to convince your boss to pay your ticket? Say no more. We’ve prepared some pretty good reasons for you (not that you do not know them already) to pass on to your higher-ups.

1. Learn from an expert

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an entrepreneur and a designer with over 12 years’ hands-on experience in the IoT space. She knows how much money you need to invest, how much time you have to spend, and who you want to work with to get your project going. She is not yet another consultant who will throw you buzzwords and provide you with high level content. She gets things done. The workshop is an intensive course where she will provide guidance and share everything she knows about how to build a business that offers software and internet-enabled product experiences from the ground up.

2. Full focus on commercial IoT

Of the projected 8.4 billion IoT-enabled devices in the world in 2017, the consumer segment represents a staggering 65%. Yet, we’re seeing industrial IoT get all the shine, while the consumer side gets pushed to the side lines. In reality, the space for consumer-facing IoT applications is flourishing and offers unrivaled opportunities for innovation. We want to attract the edgiest product visionaries out there by bringing our focus on commercial IoT to Berlin, Europe’s most exciting tech hub.

3. Do it for the network(ing)

We want you to be able to focus on what’s important. We’ve limited capacity to 30 attendees, so there’s ample time to ask questions, discuss plans and exchange ideas with Alexandra and with fellow participants. The list of attendees participants includes the who’s who of the IoT scene including senior employees from Ernst&Young, R&D engineers, and Managing Directors of established retailers moving to make their mark in the digital world.

The workshop was conceived with an excitingly mixed audience in mind. The model attendee is a professional who promotes innovative product development and marketing, within a company or independently as a consultant or an entrepreneur.

Ideally geared towards Intrapreneurs, the course is also designed to provide Consultants, Product Managers, Developers, and Founders, with the tools they need to manufacture products and fully understand the commercial IoT space.

4. Exclusive Content

The workshop covers these four key areas:

• Planning and Prototyping
• Beta testing and Production
• Engaging with wholesale and retailers
• Intellectual property, business structures & investment

Want to go for the nitpicky details? Then check out the Schedule; Alexandra’s post about how what lies at the heart of building an IoT product; or her talk at Data Natives 2016

5. The SAP Data Space

DATA SPACE, SAP’s flagship space in Berlin, is the place to meet innovators, change makers, partners, startups, artists, Berlin’s multifaceted community, and all people interested in Digital Transformation.

Go ahead and send this article to your boss. You’ll thank us later. Discover your company’s unlimited potential to innovate, and facilitate the journey of digitalization for you and your clients.

What? 3-day intensive IoT workshop

When? February 24-26, 2017

Where? SAP Data Space, Berlin

JOIN US

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Images: Ars Electronica, CC2.0

Ajit Jaokar is a leading expert working at the intersection of Data Science, IoT, AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, Mobile, and Smart Cities. He teaches IoT and Data Science at Oxford and also is a director of Smart Cities Lab in Madrid. Ajit’s work involves applying machine learning techniques to complex  problems in the IoT and Telecoms domains. You can follow him on twitter @AjitJaokar and his blogs at Future Text.

We are beyond thrilled to announce that Ajit will not only be speaking at our Big Data, Berlin meetup February 17, but he will also be at the head of the second workshop of our ‘Dataconomy Presents’ series. In the same vein as our 3-day intensive IoT workshop with thought leader Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Ajit’s will be a four-part course that aims at laying the foundation for those who want to steer their professional path in the right direction.

The Artificial Intelligence for the Enterprise workshop targets developers and architects who want to transition their career to Enterprise AI. The course correlates the new AI ideas with familiar concepts like ERP, data warehousing etc. and helps to make the transition easier. The course is based on a logical concept called an ‘Enterprise AI layer’. This AI layer is focused on solving domain specific problems for an Enterprise. We could see such a layer as an extension to the Data Warehouse or the ERP system (an Intelligent Data Warehouse/ Cognitive ERP system). Thus, the approach provides tangible and practical benefits for the Enterprise with a clear business model.

The course consists of four parts. The first one will take place in March 2017, and will touch on the following topics-

I. March 2017

• Understanding the Enterprise AI layer
• Introduction to Machine Learning
• Unsupervised Learning
• Supervised Learning
• Generalized Linear Modeling
• Gradient Boosting Machine
• Ensembles
• Random Forest
• Programming foundations

The next three parts will take place from April through August, divided into two more workshops and a ‘Projects and Deployment’ section.

II. April 2017

• Introduction to Deep Learning
• Multilayer Perception
• Auto encoders
• Deep Convolutional Networks
• Recurrent Neural Networks
• Reinforcement learning
• Programming foundations

III. May/June 2017

• Natural language processing
• Basics of Text Analytics
• POS Tagging
• Sentiment Analysis
• Text Classification
• Intelligent bots
• Programming foundations

IV. June/August 2017 – Projects and deployment

Deploying Enterprise AI

• Acquiring Data and Training the Algorithm
• Processing and hardware considerations
• Business Models – High Performance Computing – Scaling and AI system
• Costing an AI system
• Creating a competitive advantage from AI
• Industry Barriers for AI

Implementation of Enterprise AI use cases (in groups)

• Healthcare
• Insurance
• Adtech
• Fraud detection
• Anomaly detection
• Churn, classification
• Customer analytics
• Natural Language Processing, Bots and Virtual Assistants

Keep in mind:

• The course covers Design of Enterprise AI, Technology foundations of Enterprise AI systems, Specific AI use cases, Development of AI services and Deployment and Business models
• The implementation / development for the course is done using R, Python and Spark using the H2O APIs
• For Deep learning, we will work with GPUs, tensoflow, Mxnet and Caffe
• We focus on large scale problems
• Notes on Programming foundations: We assume that you have significant Programming knowledge. However, we do not assume that you are familiar with Python, R or Spark.
• The syllabus is subject to change

The course will give you a background in these languages over the first three months. You will then use this knowledge to work on the use cases in the Project phase. H2O.ai will be in charge of validating the group projects. Certification of completion of the whole course is based on completing a quiz related to modules worked on during the course.

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Image: Thomas Hawk, CC 2.0

About us

We are Europe’s leading media & events portal serving techies and entrepreneurs with in-depth insight, cutting-edge research, and established thought leadership on data-driven technology. We’ve worked on creating and cultivating a strong community of data enthusiasts both online and offline.

Our Values & Goals:

We pride ourselves in doing things very differently, catering to  tech-savvy, young-minded, forward-thinking individuals with a passion for tech and business. These are the core values that drive our passion for producing extraordinary tech media and events:

1. Bridging the gap between technology and business: Dataconomy offers a platform for readers to develop their understanding of technology, business, and the intersection between the two. We are home to commentary from industry leading practitioners of all data-driven technologies, career guidance for aspiring scientists, and fascinating case studies from the companies on the cutting edge of data science.
2. Educating the data-driven generation: We share inspiring stories from a wide range of industries, including Healthcare, Retail, Automotive, Finance, and Energy. We like to talk about everything cutting edge, and educating the data-driven generation
3. Thinking outside the box: We like confirming science fiction theories, and embrace with optimism the exciting future of technologies. Our primary focus lies on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and big (or small) data. We think science and tech are inherently cool and we are allergic to basic and old fashioned ways of thinking.
4. Connecting a worldwide community of data lovers. Headquartered in Berlin, with ties to Israel, the US and India, and meetups in over 40 cities around the world, Dataconomy has the unique position of being a leading media organization with access to booming tech industries on both sides of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Dataconomy runs regular industry events, uniting local tech communities in an effort to share knowledge and expand networks.
5. Create a global network of influencers and industry leaders: by becoming a member in our network you get exclusive access and discounts to workshops, networking events, conferences, consultancy sessions and recruitment opportunities with industry leaders, tech experts, thought leaders, influential thinkers.
6. We believe that a diverse tech industry is a strong tech industry – Our goal is to include women, LGBTIQ, POC, and other communities who have been fighting for inclusion in the tech world in our events.

We are looking for data enthusiasts who share our vision and understand our mission to take the lead in their respective cities and share great content, share knowledge, grow, unite and educate our communities, together.

Brand Ambassador’s Guide: 

Great content

Content is King. Help us create a program that “wows” the guests. That takes creativity and work! So be prepared to be both an organizer and producer of the Meetup. You would need great content and great support from the community to bring to the crowd a high quality event with all the perks and comforts our audience has so much got accustomed to. You will need to maintain the same level of professionalism and quality and take the event to the next level. We believe in you, champ!  As a Dataconomy Big Data Meetup organizer you’ll have the option to feature talks at your Meetup that bring attention to undiscovered voices in your community. You can have an impact of choosing extraordinary people that have a unique story to tell, new perspective to share or a fresh approach in their field.

Intrigue your audience

Making your audience happy is imperative for creating a successful event that people would want to return to. They should feel that they’re experiencing something compelling, from the moment the meetup is announced to the moment they step out of the event. You need to ensure the smooth operation of the events and make sure everyone leaves happy and satisfied.

Guidelines & rules need to be followed

Rules are not always fun. But there’s a reason they’re part of the Dataconomy guidelines – to make your job easier. The better you know the rules and guidelines throughout your progress, the less you will have to correct later.

Protect & Celebrate Dataconomy’s vision

By granting you the title of being a Dataconomy organizer, we’re entrusting you with spreading our vision. Which means that your job is to protect and fiercely celebrate the vision and responsibilities of Dataconomy. Understand the idea and the spirit of Dataconomy and spread it to the community with pride. You represent the brand which means that you share our vision, mission and promote us and the event as much as possible.

Passion & Work

Enjoy the work you are doing and bring passion and eagerness to it. At the same time, make sure you have the time and dedication necessary to organize a successful event. This will ensure that, aside from having a great time building your network at the meetup, you will be able to add a new successful event to your record that you can be proud of.

If the above sounds appealing to you and you think you’re the right person for the job, please, complete the typeform.

Last chance to buy tickets! Go to datanatives.io and register, and get instant access to speaker and schedule information on Data Natives Berlin 2016.

5 days away from the conference, we have arrived at the fifth and last of the Reasons to Attend Data Natives – After Building A Strong Professional Network, the Schedule, Recruiting, and the Workshops, the end of the series marks the beginning of the countdown to the conference. Here, you will read about the best kept secrets of the schedule – the panels, fireside chats, and the Startup Battle.

The Panels and Fireside Chats are the places where conversation will flourish. Alongside the keynotes and deep-diving tech talks, these thought-provoking discussions cover both current issues, such as the refugee crisis and the ongoing debates and experiments on universal basic income, and hands-on approaches to Big Data in different fields: in health, in finance, and in entrepreneurship. The Startup Battle is where we give the stage to the next generation of innovators in booming fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things, but also blossoming industries like HealthTech, and PropTech.

Day 1 (Data Science) – The Future of AI and Universal Basic Income + Big Data in Health

On Day 1 (Data Science), Prof.Dr. Hans Uszkoreit, Scientific Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, will moderate the a discussion between NiMA Asghari, Senior UAV Applications Expert at Drone Industry Insights, and Dr. Abdourahmane Faye, Big Data SME Lead DACH at HPE, as the Panel The Future of AI and Universal Basic Income.  

Afterwards, we will have two very big names in the industry discuss Big Data in Health: Dan Sheldon, Lead Tech Strategist at NHS UK, and Bart de Witte, Director Digital Health DACH at IBM Deutschland

Day 2 (Tech Trends) – How to Build a Data-Driven Business + Startup Battle + Data and Migration + Big Data in FinTech

Day 2 (Tech Trends), has four events lined up. The first is an exciting panel discussion between Steven Lemm, Head of Data Science at Outfittery, Alex Rahin, VP Data and ML Platforms at Zalando, Andrew Clegg, Data Scientist at Etsy, and Alexander Weiss Head of Data Science at GetYourGuide. This panel, titled How to Build a Data-Driven Business, will be moderated by Jason Radisson, VP of Internal Innovation & Operations at Target Corporation.

Next up is the Startup Battle, where startups that focus on ML, AI, IoT will pitch in front of the audience and our judges Kathleen Olstedt, Manager Innovation & Cooperation at European Innovation Hub, Christoph Raethke, Director of Education at GTEC, Daria Markova, MD at Space Shack.

The following fireside chat deals with one of the prevailing topics in today’s political and social agendas: the refugee crisis. The fireside chat Data and Migration will feature Jasper Dag Tjaden, Data Analyst for Global Migration Data Analysis Center, and Lukas Streiff from the Steering Group for Strategic Communication at the German Federal Foreign Office / Auswärtiges Amt.

Last, but not least, comes the Big Data in FinTech panel, which features a mixture of newcomers to the FinTech space, represented by Devie Mohan, CEO of Burnmark, and Jacqueline Faridani, Associate Director of Quantitative Analytics & Credit Risk at VendorMach, and big, established players (from Berlin!) such as Dr. Steffen Wachenfeld, Managing Director at Savedo, and Christian Rebernik, CTO of Berlin’s FinTech darling N26

I, for one, wish I could see all of them. Instead, I will be running around, making sure everything’s running smoothly, and also doing interviews with our amazing speakers. Come to think about it, that doesn’t sound like a bad deal now. Anyways, I hope these five (very convincing) reasons, got you to head to datanatives.io/tickets, and register to attend Berlin’s most exciting tech event of the year. See you there.

Go to datanatives.io and get instant access to speaker and ticket discount information on Data Natives Berlin 2016

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Last chance to buy tickets! Go to datanatives.io and register, and get instant access to speaker and schedule information on Data Natives Berlin 2016.

Data Natives is just around the corner now, and so is the end of this series of Reasons Why You Should Attend Data Natives. If you are just joining, go ahead and take a look at the previous three posts: Building A Strong Professional Network, The Schedule, and Recruiting. This time around, the focus lies on the Workshops, day 1 of the conference.

One of the ways in which we thought of expanding Data Natives, was through offering practical insights into the exciting subjects that our conference is dealing with. The idea of offering Workshops came up, so we decided to dedicate the first day of the conference to them. Now, we have three workshops divided into two tracks – Tech, and Business – given by truly outstanding professionals.

Tech – Mastering data analysis, manipulation, and machine learning with Python and Mathematica

On Wednesday, October 26, the Workshops day officially starts with Katharine Jarmul’s course Learn Python for Data Analysis. Katharine is an experienced Python developer and technical educator located in Berlin. She has worked on data analysis in Python throughout her career as a developer since 2008. She runs a data analysis consulting and education company here in Berlin, and recently coauthored O’Reilly’s Data Wrangling with Python book teaching new pythonistas how to use data in Python. You can find her recent course offerings and writings at kjamistan.com.

The workshop will cover Python basics as well as an introduction to Python data analysis tools for charting and data wrangling. We will introduce you to how to import, interact, clean and export data using Pandas (a well-known and respected Python library). By the end of this half-day course you will feel comfortable importing and running simple Python analysis on your datasets, large or small.

After the lunch break comes Getting to grips with Mathematica for data manipulation, and machine learning, a 4-hour workshop lead by Dr. Robert Cook, Technical Consultant at Wolfram Europe. Dr. Robert Cook is one of Wolfram Europe’s technical consultants, specializing in projects related to descriptive and predictive analytics. Before joining Wolfram, Robert completed a PhD in condensed matter physics and a Masters degree in Chemistry at the University of Warwick, England, and brings the pragmatic approach of an experimental scientist to his roles within Wolfram.

In this session you will get a hands on start with the Wolfram Language – a multi-discipline symbolic, functional programming language that underpins the power of Wolfram|Alpha, Wolfram System Modeler and Mathematica. Building from the fundamental principles of the language and the powerful pattern-matching engine we will explore various data analysis and machine learning tasks – including the new deep learning Neural Net Framework. Whether you are new to the Wolfram Language or an existing user looking to firm up your grasp of the underlying functional framework – this session will give you the knowledge to start functional development.

Business – Monetizing Data effectively and at scale

For the Business side of things, we have a single, all-day workshop happening at Ahoy!’s Jaffa room: Creating Innovative Data-as-a-Service Products, facilitated by Elizabeth Press, Co-Founder and Principal of D3M Labs. Organizations D3M Labs has worked with include Mondelez, Betahaus, Accelerate Korea, IAV and global players in financial services and GovTech. As an intrapreneur at Dell, Elizabeth built up and managed advanced analytics functions globally. Before Dell, she worked in top-tier strategy consulting and quantitative finance. Elizabeth mentors at the ReDI school of Digital Integration.

This workshop will be a one-day jump-start for your next DaaS product. Through activations and real-world case studies, you will learn step-by-step how different companies monetize their digital & information assets. Simulations and feedback will be used to teach you hands-on how to use Lean Canvas and other tools to formulate and validate your ideas. Professionals and teams from companies, non-profits and governmental organizations are welcome. We ask BI & business consultants not to apply.

Elizabeth wrote a fantastic blog post that delves deeply into what Data-as-a-Service even is, and how you can start creating your own DaaS product. Check it out if you want to get a test of what the workshop will be.

Register now

Don’t miss the chance to learn first-hand from industry leaders the tools you need to get ahead as a data scientist. Click here and register for DaaS, Python, and Mathematica. Now is your last chance to buy tickets to the conference, so register here

Stay tuned for the last instalment of the series!

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Ticket prices go up this Friday, October 14! Go to datanatives.io and register for a ticket, or get instant access to speaker and schedule information on Data Natives Berlin 2016.

Welcome back to the 5 Reasons to Attend Data Natives Series. We started with Building a Strong Professional Network, went on to mention the Conference Schedule, and now, the next reason to attend Data Natives 2016 is (drumroll, please): Recruiting and being recruited.

The boom of Data Science as a discipline has also made it boom as an industry. Seemingly every company out there is trying to fuel its decision-making process with the effective use of data, which, in turn, creates a need for highly-skilled, well-trained data science professionals. Companies are looking everywhere for people with the right backgrounds, who could either fit in directly, or who need some training and direction. We have made an effort to make Data Natives 2016 a meeting point for employers and prospective employees.

Recruiting (and being recruited)

There are three main ways you can make use of the Data Natives platform if you are looking to recruit, or to get employment.

1. Networking Sessions
   First, of course, are the networking sessions. Each day, there will be 4 dedicated networking sessions (not including lunches, the Data Natives After Party, and other post-conference activities). In these, you will be able to get in direct contact with attendees from a wide array of companies, such as Deutsche Bahn, foodora, PwC, Delivery Hero, ING-DiBa, Helpling, Bank of Scotland, Catawiki, moovel, Bank of Scotland, Clue by Biowink, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Trifacta, King.com, among many others. We have guests active in almost all professional fields, including HR, Data Science, Business Intelligence and Analytics, Finance, Software Development, Consultancy, among many others, representing all professional levels, from entry-level to C-suite. 
2. Student Conference Ticket
   The second career development opportunity we offer at Data Natives, is the Student conference ticket. Valid for undergraduate (BSc./BA.), graduate (MSc./MA.), and post-graduate (PhD.) students, this ticket enables you to immerse yourself in the newest applications of technology, to get to know companies looking for talent, and to connect with institutions doing cutting-edge research. 
3. Job Seeker Ticket [Apply here]
   The third way of making the most out of your search for employment opportunities at Data Natives, is the Job Seeker Ticket. This new ticket option allows those looking to develop their careers within Data Science, to apply for a ticket at a discounted price. We’ll share your details directly with companies looking for applicants with your profile, and applying for a ticket is as easy as filling in your details in this typeform, and crossing your fingers!

Don’t forget that ticket prices go up this Friday, October 14! Go to datanatives.io and register for a ticket, or get instant access to speaker and schedule information on Data Natives Berlin 2016

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Angela Bassa is in charge of the data science team at Energy software intelligence provider EnerNOC — ultimately helping over 1,100 software subscription customers serving over US$1 billion in customer savings to date. With an impressive career trajectory discovering data science while studying math at MIT, Angela also serves as Data Science Technical Advisor to Boston-based MedTech startup Mirah focusing on making mental healthcare more objective and data-driven. Angela will be speaking at AI With The Best, online tech conference about “Machine Learning in Production: integrating with the software stack”

In the energy sector how do you identify which is useful data?

In our job, data is everything. It’s the cacao bean to our chocolate! EnerNOC is involved in the data business from ground up, using our own energy data collection devices and APIs, forging unique partnerships with utilities and solar providers, running our own state-of-the-art Network Operations Centers (the NOC in EnerNOC), and sending real-time alerts to our customers with predictive recommendations on how to manage their energy.

The challenge is making sense out of the unbelievable complexity that is the energy sector. Our data is made up of weather models, consumption tracking, tariff structures, billing details, geographic nuances, local and global regulations, sector and industry benchmarks, macro trends, and much more. The data science team is responsible for turning all of that “messy data” into information that is useful, valuable, and actionable for each and every customer, every day.

Once actionable, how do clients use the data?

The best example I can think of is the implementation of the patent-pending novel weather-normalization feature we have in our energy intelligence software (EIS) allowing like-for-like comparison of energy consumption for different time periods with differing weather conditions, enabling you to track a facility’s relative performance over time without worrying about the impact of varying outside air temperatures.

E.g., what if it’s particularly hot during the second week of August and our facility manager wants to see whether her building is operating inefficiently or just meeting demand for more air conditioning? With one button, she can turn the weather normalization feature on in our application and see that when the effects of temperature are removed, her building actually consumed 5% less energy during the hotter week than it did during the cooler week (see graph), meaning that her building was performing optimally and simply using more energy because it was exceptionally warm.

Communicating the complexity of weather impacts on energy consumption with a simple and intuitive visual is incredibly valuable to our customers, and in turn to our company.

Which Computing platform do you use?

We have invested more than US $200 million in technology to date. Our data pipelines are built using Kinesis queues and Lambda processing units and our core interval database utilizes both DynamoDB and Redshift to power our feature-rich interactive analytics applications, which are built using AngularJS.

We are also re-building our NoSQL-based time-series analytics platform with the latest server-less architecture technologies available on AWS. Other services can deliver custom datasets to the analytics platform through our data lake, and deep analytics are performed in parallel using Spark and R, leveraging the built-in scalable nature of the server-less architecture. Our entire system is built as a set of micro services, whose API’s are published and discoverable through a central services catalog.

What advice would you give to budding AI developers?

The pace at which our field keeps growing is wonderful and amazing and a testament to how much can be achieved, but it is also seductively distracting. It is easy to become enamoured with the latest trend or tool, and the more complex models may not be the most appropriate for every application. My advice would be to start simple: break a problem down to its atomic components, then build it back up towards a solution, and only ever add complexity if a simpler model doesn’t get the job done.

 What’s the most exciting part of your job?

When I come into the office, the elevator doors open up on the 5th floor at One Marina Park to a beautiful bright wall showcasing the granted patents and applications that EnerNOC has filed to date (check it out here). When I started, my goal was to get someone on our team featured on that wall. I see dozens of patents now, and almost a third of them are from our team! It’s a constant reminder of the importance, value, and innovativeness of the remarkable people I work with, and it fills me with pride.

Additionally the speed of innovation in the field is vertiginous, and that’s really a function of how young the discipline really is. I’m excited to see what the next chapter in data science brings.

Are you excited about speaking at AI With The Best?

I am very excited to participate in the AI With The Best conference. I love the concept of connecting with hundreds of developers from around the world who are looking to share knowledge and may not otherwise be able to attend a conference of this caliber in person. It’s a brilliant project, and I can’t wait to for it!

Angela will be speaking on Saturday 24th Sept at ai.withthebest.com

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AI With The Best is the biggest online conference for data scientist, developers, tech teams and startups happening the 24th & 25th September 2016 bringing you 100 incredible speakers through a novel, online conference platform. Meet Aerin Kim, Data Scientist turned Founder of startup BYOR  (Build Your Own Resume) speaking at AI With The Best, online tech conference about her Phrase2Vec technology. Aerin is building an AI-based resume helper using NLP parsing. When a user uploads her resume on the webapp, it gives suggestions on how to improve your resume regarding its wording or phrases.

Please tell us a bit about your background prior to BYOR and how did you get into data?

I was a NLP data scientist at a startup called Boxfish. I did a lot of Twitter text modeling there and had been fascinated every day by the amount of information that could be gleaned from all the text that people were generating. Because it was a startup, our team was building the product from scratch over many iterations. That training helped me later when I turned my idea into a product (BYOR).

What propelled you to push NLP parsing technology for Resumés?

My co-founder and I have been volunteering as resume reviewers and mentors for Columbia University since 2014. Every year, we found there is a pattern for weak resumes and we found ourselves giving students the same advice year after year. We saw an opportunity for some automation in this resume reviewing process.

Also at college career centers, it’s hard to get a one-on-one session with career advisors because the student-to-advisor ratio is hundreds to one. We decided to create a tool that could be used by students to review their resume prior to meeting their career advisors, or as a substitute.

The BYOR project started as the class project for the CS 224d (Dr. Richard Socher) at Stanford. Rohit and I took that class online.

How do you train the word embedding neural networks to find similarities and relations between phrases?

The main way to find similarities and relations between two different phrases is converting them to phrase vectors and then finding the distance between these vectors. There are many different ways to calculate phrase vectors. The simplest way that anyone can try is to first train the word vectors and then weight average those word vectors used in the phrases.

What can BYOR do compared to other CV checkers?

Currently, there is no company that suggests result phrases on a specific sentence. Even AI companies with good amount of funding don’t open their platforms like us. Inviting people to upload any kind of resume and give them suggestions is a challenging problem on many levels and taking it on requires a little bravery.

What traditional CV checkers do is simple keyword extraction or keyword counting to check whether certain words are used or not. They don’t understand the user’s resume line by line semantically.

What’s been the most exciting part of your startup adventure?

The most exciting part is when we improve the “phrase suggestion algorithm” day by day and succeed in generating phrases that make sense.

Also, before the startup, I used to work for a big bank. If you are an employee of a big company, your job description is very narrowly focused. But in a startup, I can experiment with all parts of the product. It has been very exciting for me so far.

Also, it’s amazing to see many people contributing to BYOR voluntarily.

If it’s not a secret, which is your favourite technological setup?   

It’s not a secret. We use python django for web. All NLP/deep learning code is written in python.

To train word vectors, we use code written in C.

What advice would you give to budding AI developers?

If you are AI developer, Applied Math basics are very important for you. Invest some of your time to go over Linear Algebra, Optimization, Probability that you learned during college.

Are you excited about speaking at AI With The Best?

Yes! I like that it’s priced under 100 bucks so that general public can attend. And it’s on the internet!!! People/students shouldn’t need to have sponsors to attend such tech conferences. With The Best line-up is as good as a $3000 conference.

Aerin will be speaking on Sunday 25th 6pm at ai.withthebest.com

Co-Founder Rohit Pandey (ex-LinkedIn) on the Microsoft Azure team will also be speaking at the conference about “Using entropy as a metric for anomaly detection in categorical histogram”

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Meet Ami Gal, Data Natives Tel Aviv 2016 Speaker

Ami Gal is the CEO and Founder of SQream Technologies, a big data startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ami is an expert when it comes to big data and will serve as a speaker during Data Natives Tel Aviv 2016.

Ami will be discussing how SQream’s technology leverages GPUs for large-scale data crunching. Here is what Ami has to say about how big data is being applied to drive innovation:

Q: What motivated you to start SQream Technologies?

 I’ve been working on high computing performance challenges for more than 20 years. CPU-based computing has always been limited, expensive and complex in scale. I’ve always been fascinated by the option of scaling with GPUs as they offer so many cores and parallel computing capabilities.

Before SQream, I tried to accomplish high-compute with GPUs a few times without succeeding. When the opportunity to establish a GPU database company came along, it was clear to me that I had to go for it, and turn years of brainstorming into actions and reality.

At the time SQream was founded in 2010, the common industry view was that we [SQream] were completely insane for trying to compete with big players like Oracle, with a GPU database. Today, however, it’s evident that next generation databases are running on GPUs with leading companies such as SQream and others.

Q: What is SQream doing differently from other big data companies?

 SQream’s core technology and innovation leverages GPUs for large scale data crunching. SQream brings simplicity to big data through next generation robust solutions that can tackle challenges so big, which are often considered out of scope.

Adding simplicity to such high volume challenges in the business world is one thing SQream does well, but our technology also has an impact on humankind. SQream is being utilized in areas such as:

• Homeland Security – Where speed and scale are critical
• Cyber Defense – For risk and threat allocation in real time
• Research and Healthcare – Enabling an outcome of more precise and knowledgeable clinical treatments, more bandwidth and precision to genome research that will enable an educated, more precise clinical treatment in areas such as cancer and Parkinson.

Q: How is big data advancing healthcare in 2016?

Based on what we know from our clients and from the market, cancer research based on big data analysis has advanced tremendously this past year and is anticipated to accelerate even more going forward. Predictive analysis for exposing a possible disease outbreak is advancing, along with more precise, personalized medicine. These are just two examples of how big data is affecting healthcare.

SQream Technologies and other big data technology companies enable the handling and correlation of large-scale datasets originating from a wide range of sources, in order to get to insights that are more accurate and are based on a larger statistic sampling. In addition, SQream and its GPU capabilities enable much more advanced machine and deep learning algorithms on top of those datasets, accelerating research around the aforementioned by leaps and bounds.

Q: Explain Big Data’s role in genome research?

Genome research includes heavy analytical workloads that cannot be analyzed on a human level. In order to find patterns and reach educational and actionable conclusions, big data technologies are necessary. It is surprising that even today, genome research institutions are doing manual, highly time consuming singular comparisons of post-sequenced data, using a file base (yes, a file base!). This is one of the reasons why genomic research is taking years to complete.

At SQream, we addressed this problem by developing GenomeStack, a database solution that enables bioinformatics researchers to pre upload commonly used genomic databases such as 1000 Genome to SQream’s database, upload the genomic post sequence data from the research, and with a click of a button perform a simultaneous large-scale database search lasting a few seconds or minutes – as opposed to weeks or months when using a file base.

Summarizing it into one sentence – SQream can cut research time and significantly shorten time to cure – by months and even years.

Q: How will big data’s role impact the future?

 The impact of big data is already being felt in almost every aspect of our lives and its role is only growing. Thanks to big data we are able to watch television with less disruptions (network optimization), shop more effectively (with personalized ads and discounts that match our shopping history, needs and preferences) and work more effectively (with more comprehensive reports and information analyzed and delivered quickly).

Big data’s role in the future will have a major effect in areas such as our driving experience – with self-driving cars and systems that manage traffic more effectively, we will spend less time in traffic jams and hopefully be able to decrease the number of accidents.

As a result of less traffic, we will breath air that is less polluted. Instead of physically going to stores or wasting long hours online searching for the right products at optimized prices, we will have it delivered to us directly – saving us time and money.

We will be medically diagnosed and treated in a more tuned and precise manner, perhaps even alerted enough time in advance to prevent a life threatening condition. Nature disasters will be predicted and human lives will be saved as a result. These are only a few examples of how big data technologies and digitalization are changing the world.

This is exactly what’s driving SQream to continue delivering a next generation GPU database able to handle such previously unseen amounts of data constantly being generated in an accelerating speed. When I say “accelerating speed”, I am referring to the following facts – From the beginning of recorded time until 2003, the world created 5 billion gigabytes (exabytes) of data. In 2011, that exact same amount of data was created every two days. In 2013, the same amount was created every ten minutes.

In other words – the quantities of data being generated don’t only accumulate over time – as time goes on, the amounts being generated only expand. The world is spinning faster and faster and we have designed a database from scratch addressing exactly the implications and challenges that arise with it. In every challenge lies opportunity.

Join us for Data Natives Tel Aviv 2016. Save your spot by registering today!

Data Natives Berlin 2016: A Conference for the Data-Driven Generation

Data is part of our new cultural identity, transforming the way we communicate, learn and interact. Join us as we explore key areas of technology driving innovation and the next wave of billion dollar startups, and meet the people at the forefront of world changing technology

Where: Bolle Festsäle, Berlin, Germany

When: October 26th-28th 2016

datanatives.io

Data Natives is a vibrant, innovative and successful conference that attracts the best data scientists, industry experts, techies, entrepreneurs, students and influencers from around the world. We’ll be talking about everything from IoT and Machine Learning to emerging tech trends such as FinTech and HealthTech.

Data Natives will be joined by over 70 industry experts and startups from around the world, who will host sessions, workshops, and parties over the course of three days, for 800+ attending entrepreneurs, founders, data scientists, engineers, and students.

We are proud to host thought leaders from across the globe, such as:

Fernando Lucini – Chief Technology Officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Steven Lemm – Head of Data Science at Outfittery

Daniel Molnar – Senior Data & Applied Scientist at Microsoft

Katharine Jarmul – Co-Author of O’Reilly’s Data Wrangling with Python, and Founder at kjamistan

Data Natives 2015 attracted some of the world’s greatest Big Data influencers and industry leaders. This year, Data Natives will raise the bar with even more cutting edge technology from innovators, influencers and industry leaders as well as the best of the Berlin tech scene from rising and promising European startups. Now is your chance to come and learn from leading data scientists, startup founders, analysts, investors, economists and other industry thought leaders from across the globe.

Each day, Data Natives 2016 will offer a different conference track:

Workshops – Day 1

Intimate sessions led by Data Science and Business experts. There will be ample time to ask questions and have one-on-one discussions with speakers and attendees

Data Science – Day 2

From Big Data, Machine Learning, to AI and IoT, you’ll hear both business and technical presentations to gain a better understanding of the Data Science ecosystem.

Tech Trends – Day 3

Let’s discuss the latest buzzworthy tech trends you’ve heard from booming industries such as FinTech, HealthTech and PropTech.

“Data Natives was the community event in Germany this year. Bleeding edge topics, top-notch speakers from all over the world, a fully international crowd of — as the event states — data natives and a perfect location for getting together and sharing thoughts and visions for 2016 to come.” – Klaas Bollhofer, Chief Data Scientist at unbelievable Machine Company GmbH Data Scientist at unbelievable Machine Company GmbH

About Dataconomy

Dataconomy is the leading portal for news, events and expert opinion from the world of data-driven technology. Founded in Berlin, a hub for data science innovation, we provide a global network of industry-renowned contributors and local communities all across Europe. We focus on industry giants and disruptive startups alike, looking at only the most interesting applications of data technology. A top 100 Big Data brand according to Onalytica, and a top 5 Berlin startup as rated by Mattermark.

Meet the people at the forefront of Big Data and world changing technology

Where: Rise Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel

When: September 25th 2016

datanatives.io

Taking place in one of the world’s largest startup nations, Data Natives Tel Aviv celebrates four areas of technology that are driving business innovation and the next wave of billion dollar startups. Join industry leaders specializing in Big Data, IoT, AI and Machine Learning.

Amongst 30 of the brightest minds, we are proud to be joined by thought leaders from across the globe:

Aldo de Jong: Co-Founder at Claro Partners, the #1 accelerator in Europe

Crystal Valentine: VP of Technology Strategy, MapR Technologies

Thomas Renault: Université Paris, Ph.D. Student and Research Assistant

Four key areas of innovation – IoT, AI, Machine Learning and Big Data

Taking place in one of the world’s largest startup nations, Data Natives Tel Aviv focuses on four key areas of innovation: Big Data, IoT, AI and Machine Learning. Data Natives Tel Aviv is a vibrant, innovative and international daylong conference for the data-driven generation. The conference is hosted by Dataconomy, Europe’s leading media and events platform in data science, with a loyal community of more than 32,000 data enthusiasts online and offline.

Inspired by the successful 2015 Data Natives conference in Berlin, Germany, Data Natives Tel Aviv was created to spur the interaction between startups and businesses within the growing fields of Big Data, AI, Machine Learning and IoT – on a truly international scale within a country built on innovation and startups.

Data Natives 2015 attracted some of the world’s greatest Big Data influencers and industry leaders. Now is your chance to come and learn from theleading data scientists, startup founders, analysts, investors, economists and other industry thought leaders from across the globe.

Big Data – Data natives are complex.

Big Data technologies – particularly machine learning – are at the heart of much of the innovation we see today. At Data Natives we will host industry experts discussing how data science is disrupting a variety of industries, and the business value of data.

IoT – Data natives are hyperconnected.

The growth of the Internet of Things ensures that every aspect of our lives, on personal and industrial scales, is trackable and optimizable. This technological evolution represents a huge opportunity for business.

Machine Learning – Data Natives can predict certain outcomes.

Machine learning algorithms are being applied more frequently to predict certain outcomes and behaviors. At Data Natives Tel Aviv, we will demonstrate and discuss how machine learning is being applied to technology to predict user behavior and business intelligence.

AI – Data Natives rely on smart technologies.

AI enables the development of computers to take on human tasks, particularly those associated with human intelligence. Self-driving cars, smart homes and other revolutionary technologies rely on AI to function. Learn more about how AI is driving technology during Data Natives Tel Aviv.

Join us for Data Natives Tel Aviv 2016. Save your spot by registering today!

About Dataconomy

Dataconomy is the leading portal for news, events and expert opinion from the world of data-driven technology. Founded in Berlin, a hub for data science innovation, we provide a global network of industry-renowned contributors and local communities all across Europe. We focus on industry giants and disruptive startups alike, looking at only the most interesting applications of data technology. A top 100 Big Data brand according to Onalytica, and a top 5 Berlin startup as rated by Mattermark.

Image: Sebastian Geisel

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Tech Open Air (TOA) Berlin took place over three days (July 13-July 15). With more than 150 speakers and 11,221 attendees, the event shaped up to be one of Europe’s leading interdisciplinary technology festivals. Attendees participated in a two day conference and more than 175 satellite events took place where collaborations led to growth and innovation.

The Location

With its creative feel and history, Funkhaus Berlin gave TOA the perfect venue. Designed by Bauhaus architect, Franz Ehrlich, the building served as a broadcasting station for radio programs with several studios and recording rooms. Many artists, musicians, and producers found their inspiration through the unique spacious interiors of the venue.

The Conference

In 2012, Berlin startups came together with a vision to create a festival which bridges the tech, music, art and science worlds together. TOA has now emerged as the world’s first crowdfunded festival which serves as a platform for others to build on. Through collaboration inside the startup community and technological changemakers, the event has been given the opportunity to help disrupted industries anticipate the future and to make technologists understand the world they change. Over the first two days, artists, scientists and entrepreneurs gathered to experience stories, panels, art, music and more at TOA. Both days consisted of talks about a variety of topics ranging from blockchain,entrepreneurship to music which took over Funkhaus Berlin. The organisers had accounted for both indoor and outdoor activities including speeches, discussions, and art exhibitions. Speakers from companies such as Flickr, Guardian, Max-Planck-Institute, KAYAK, Kickstarter, Airbnb, and FinLeap presented at the event.

Notable Satellite Events

As TOA provided a combination of a conference and festival, a variety of satellite events were planned to create an interactive hub for technology. The events had a goal to bring together like-minded individuals and present inspirational talks from numerous diverse companies.

Women in Tech Breakfast – With the support of FinLeap, Carolin Gabor hosted a breakfast to connect and foster female entrepreneurs to combat the lack of female employees in the tech sphere.

Kayak Pitch Challenge and Party – The pitch challenge gave entrepreneurs the chance to present their ideas to global tech executives and investors for the chance to win a residency at KAYAK Berlin. At the party, the pitch winners were announced and everyone had the opportunity to celebrate!

European Innovation Hub & Universal Music: “Music X Tech X Creators” – The special satellite event was designed to showcase leading audio tech startups who presented their products to an audience of music creators, audio-techies, and the startup community.

Adidas x Urban Sports Club Run & Rave – The 5k run through the streets of Berlin-Kreuzberg finished with a workout session on the dancefloor of the electronic club IPSE.

Reply Moonshot Party – Some of the best and brightest minds from Berlin’s tech community got together for some networking and some dancing. Among the attendees were some incubators and accelerators.

Slush X Jobspotting Festival – With over 20 DJs and great food, the festival was one of the best tech parties of the year.

Kickstarter Block Party – As a celebration of creativity, Kickstarter hosted a networking event where one could see some of their projects, meet the creators and the team, and enjoy the entertainment.

Ars Electronica exhibition “Human Factor” – The exhibition aimed to show ways in which creative humans can encounter entrepreneurs and executives to confront issues and challenges that call for alternative approaches.

Big Data Berlin, v 8.0 – An evening with exciting talks from Data Science industry leaders and experts followed by some food and networking.

Hangover breakfast by Axel Springer – With a venue with an amazing view of Berlin, Axel Springer invited TOA participants for some good talk and food.

Meet & Pitch – Diversity Edition – Speakers focused on the issue of improving diversity in the Berlin startup scene, discussed their work, and answered some questions from the audience.

Startupboat – Startupboat hosted an intensive workshop session in open water where they discussed problems of everyday life of migrants and how the tech scene can solve social challenges.

TechCrunch Meetup + Pitch-Off – TechCrunch’s legendary event included food, great conversations, and entrepreneur pitches in front of a judges panel.

Overall, TOA turned out to be a great event focused on collaboration and innovation. The event allowed highly experimental startups from all spheres to get together and not only discuss the future, but also enjoy each other’s creativity. Musictech startups such as Weav turned heads with a dynamic and fresh way of approaching the industry. The disruption of the financial world was shaped as a ground breaking revolution while virtual reality demonstrated to all attendees the future of media. Last, but not least, for the first time ever TOA configured a way to combine the tech world with humanitarian aid that will help people in need. With its unique atmosphere, TOA represented Berlin as a tech-hub ready for its next challenge!

image credit: TOA 16 Highlights

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Money 2020 Europe took place over three days in Copenhagen, Denmark ( April 4 -April 7). With more than 3,500 attendees, 420 speakers, 200+ sponsors and 100+ media partners representing over 70 countries, the conference shaped up to be one of the biggest Fintech events of the year. Europe was showcased as a place where innovation and creativity are in abundance.

Notable Trends

The main theme carried through the conference was companies changing their approach to focus more on customers or consumers. The financial industry showed a craving for services that have identity and authentication in them as every booth and brochure included customization. Through processes and new solutions that are specifically tailored to a customer’s needs, companies are trying to change the industry to benefit individuals.

Neobanks, a mobile-first banking experience that believes in moving away from traditional banking, were deemed another major trend at the event. Fidor Bank, a neobank based in Germany explained that the future of banking lays within the online market. Through innovative online banking, neobanks challenge the old-fashioned financial industry and make banking solutions easily-accessible and integrated.

Fintech hubs were another surprise at Money 2020. Cities that were originally thought of as hubs for the Fintech industry showed little dominance, showing that places all over the world are open to innovation and development of financial services. The difference between hubs and other places, however, remains – not every city has the capabilities to sustain the fast-growing, dynamic Fintech world. Thus, the top five locations emerged to be London, New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and the Silicon Valley with Singapore, Berlin, and Sydney running close behind.

Bitcoin and blockchain were also greatly supported as the Fintechs in those sectors try to tackle newly emerged issues with financial fraud and security.

Interesting External Events

FinLeap, a Fintech company builder based in Berlin, hosted an exclusive Fintech dinner on Tuesday night of the conference to discuss FinTech in Berlin and also create an opportunity where influencers within the Fintech realm could meet and discuss new ideas in an intimate and open setting.

The startup pitch at Money2020 Europe was also a huge success and was won by a Portugal startup:Crowdprocess. The contest featured 12 of the best startups across Europe and a panel of expert judges chose three companies to pitch on the stage on Tuesday and compete for 22,000 euro prize.

Biggest news at the conference

As mentioned above, Money 2020 provided a stage for those who wanted to announce news. From collaborations and mergers to general Fintech updates, many companies took part in the initiative to spread the word. US online lender Kabbage, for example, announced its deal with Santander to help them out with fast online loans for small businesses. Another company, TransferWise, announced the integration of the largest bank in Estonia LHV and Berlin-based company Number 26. JP Morgan reported on a collaboration with OnDeck. Atom Bank just launched their iPhone and iPad app while AliPay, China’s leading third-party online payment solution provider, is launching its services in Europe.

As for the banking industry, BBVA is beginning work with various Fintech providers to improve the customer onboarding experience by verifying more customers faster and more securely. The announcements however did not end with just companies. One of the biggest statements did not concern a merger or a collaboration but rather a list of of the 2016 Fintech 50. This list comprises of 50 European businesses that are leading the transformation in the Fintech world. The fourth edition of the list included Berlin companies Barzahlen, Mambu, Number 26, Raisin, and SpotCap. The rest of the Fintechs in the list were from the UK, Netherlands, Israel, Switzerland, Iceland, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden. In another section of the Fintech 50 ranking, the panel of judges named ten companies to look out for including Berlin’s Savedo and OptioPay. Fintech 50 also featured India and Hong Kong as the plan is to launch a The Fintech50 Asia later in 2016. The list was constructed based on year-long research and included expertise from over 30 industry experts across Europe.

What we learned from the conference

At Money 2020, Fintech showed its matureside. The growing industry is no longer the hype it used to be, but instead, focuses on execution and quality. With big figures in investment, Fintechs are ready to collaborate with others in the industry, including banks to make their product not only scalable, but also sustainable. Through collaborative discussions, young startups gained insight from experts in the financial industry with useful feedback on how to develop, innovate, and succeed. However, still only a handful of banks truly understand what digitalization means. Some of the standout banks at Money2020 included BBVA, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and Barclays. Those banks showed willingness to combine their financial expertise with the drive of the younger generation to change the financial industry.

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Continuing our ambitious European journey to spread our Big Data knowledge, we stopped for the fifth time in Munich, where on the 7th of April we hosted another great event for our Bavarian community.

This time, the event took place at Wayra Deutschland, a startup accelerator owned by Telefonica, who invest in and accelerate early stage tech startups. A few notable startups in their portfolio include Foodora, Neokami and Parkpocket and they currently have an open call for tech startups that focus on Big Data, IoT and Mobile Networks, for more information click here.

The event kicked off with a great presentation delivered by Dr. Mihael Ankerst, Manager Customer Data Analytics at Allianz Deutschland. His presentation, entitled “The Need for Visualisation in the Big Data Era”, had the added tech delight of an open source demo, which intrigued the audience.The second speaker of the evening was Leo Quigley, the Project Manager at Kx, who gave an intro to Kx, with a focus on streaming analytics and in-memory computing. And lastly, the final speaker, Alexander Blattmann, the Principal Big Data & Analytics- Business Consulting at CSC, gave an innovative talk entitled “What does Helene Fischer have to do with Big Data?”.

After the presentations ended, our speakers were flooded with questions and conversations with captivated data enthusiasts. Not to mention, the evening was filled with knowledge sharing and networking amongst attendees.

We are very excited to continue growing our community in Munich and Europe, so keep an eye on our Meetup page and our Events Calendar to stay in the loop with all the updates about our upcoming event in Munich, taking place in September. For those interested in further reading, check out the presentation slides on our SlideShare page.

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Continuing our ambitious European trip to share the Big Data knowledge, we stopped for the third time in Paris, where on the 10th of March, we hosted another great event for our Parisian community.

This time, the event took place at Usine IO, a 1500 sqm innovation and hardware prototyping platform located in the heart of Paris, equipped with machines, design areas, coworking spaces & offices for inventors, entrepreneurs, startups and larger corporations around the world.

It is a resourceful place dedicated to hardware technologies and startups and the launchpad for any hardware product (hardware, furniture, IoT, cleantech, healthcare, robotics). Check out the list of their current members, startups worth keeping an eye on.

The event kicked off with yet another amazing presentation from Francisco Webber, the Inventor and Co-Founder of Cortical.io, a Vienna based startup which allows its clients to develop intelligent applications that analyse text in real time, in any language, through the power of the Retina Engine. His presentation, Applications of Semantic Folding intrigued the audience and raised multiple questions which resulted into a very engaged interaction with the public.

The second speaker of the evening was Laurent Marchou, the IoT and Robotics Open Innovation Director at Orange. His inspiring talk, How the IoT Market may change our Digital Life due to the Data Tsunami it may involve emphasized the importance of all connected devices and how making use of the available data, alongside the continuous technological progress will completely change our lives for the better. Their strategy and future plans have just been recently announced at their 4th annual Hello Show.

As soon as the presentations were over, our speakers were surrounded by captivated minds who wanted to enrich their knowledge, whilst the other attendees started networking with each other, sharing their opinions and stories.

We are very excited to continue growing our community in Paris and Europe, so keep an eye on our Meetup Page and our Events Calendar in order to find out all the updates about our upcoming event in Paris, on the 26th of May. For those interested, you can find the presentation slides on Dataconomy’s Slideshare Page.

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On Thursday, December 10th, we hosted our second Big Data meetup in Budapest, Hungary. The event was held at the Colabs Startup Centre and ran from 7 to 10 pm, allowing for the audience to get some key networking time in after. We had a great lineup of speakers who captivated the crowd with insightful and innovative talks about Hadoop and applications of Big Data.

The Colabs Startup Centre has been pivotal in the Budapest startup scene, with a mission to “improve the Hungarian early-stage funding scene and create a more accessible and flexible capital environment in which the region’s best and brightest entrepreneurs can prosper”. Their co-founder, Zsolt Bako, proudly welcomed us at their headquarters on the Pest side, and gave us insight on how much support they are offering to the community.

The first speaker of the evening was Marcell Szabo, the Customer Operations Engineer at Cloudera, who described useful ways of simplifying Hadoop. His approach revolves around Record Service, a unified role-based policy enforcement for the Apache hadoop Ecosystem. Following, Nam Levente Vu, the Software Developer from SpyMoz, a promising startup, explained how market niche research can be done through Big Data analysis. And last, but not least, Akos Kapui, the Head of Apps Technology at Skyscanner, made some valuable points on how Big Data is revolutionising mobile products. After the presentations, we were happy to engage the participants with a networking session, accompanied, of course, by pizza and drinks.

We are very excited to continue growing our community in Budapest and Europe, so keep an eye on our Meetup Page, in order to be amongst the first to find out about our next event in Budapest. For those interested, you can find the presentation slides on Dataconomy’s Slideshare Page.

To see the first four rounds of conference speakers we announced, check the Data Natives 2015 website!

Data Natives, a first-of-its-kind conference for the data-driven generation, is set to bring together the brightest minds in data science and related technologies for a 2-day event in Berlin November 19-20.

What’s on the agenda

Data Natives features a packed agenda designed for those looking to push the boundaries of their ideas and work in data science and beyond. With 40+ industry talks and unlimited networking opportunities, the conference aims to break down barriers in the industry and forge lasting relationships among its participants. Talks will focus on three buzzing areas of data science – Machine Learning, Internet of Things and FinTech.

The conference will also host a Startup Battle, showcasing some of the most exciting companies poised to do big things in big data. Young startups will have the chance to pitch to influencers and investors in the tech community and compete for the prize of Best Big Data Startup in 2015.

Confirmed Speakers

Louisa Heinrich, Founder at Superhuman

Louisa is all about making connections for humans – with other people, with content, with products, services, brands and businesses. She believes that enabling and empowering people to do the things they need and love to do is the only way to achieve sustainable success. Her company, Superhuman Limited, works with businesses and governments to design strategies, products, services and organisational structures that use digital technology to improve individual lives, make a positive contribution to society, and achieve commercial results. She has been working in the consumer-facing digital world more or less as long as there’s been such a thing. She’s held many titles over the past 20 years, including Design Director in the first dotcom boom, Executive for Future Platforms at the BBC, and Head of Strategy for international Service Design agency Fjord.

Suzy Moat, Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School

Suzy Moat is an Associate Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, where she co-directs the Data Science Lab. Her research investigates whether data on our usage of the Internet, from sources such as Google, Wikipedia and Flickr, can help us measure and even predict human behaviour in the real world. Moat’s work touches on problems as diverse as anticipating stock market moves (with Preis, Curme, Stanley, et al.), estimating crowd sizes (with Botta and Preis) and evaluating whether the beauty of the environment we live in affects our health (with Seresinhe and Preis). The results of her research have been featured by television, radio and press worldwide, by outlets such as CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, New Scientist and Wired. Moat studied Computer Science at UCL, where she was awarded the Faculty of Engineering Medal, and received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. With her collaborator and Data Science Lab co-director Tobias Preis, she recently led an online course on using big data to measure and predict human behaviour which attracted over 15,000 learners. Suzy has also acted as an advisor to government and public bodies on the predictive capabilities of big data.

Matthias Korn, Technical Consultant at datavirtuality

Matthias Korn, Technical Consultant at datavirtuality. His talk, “Beyond the Data Lake” will talk about the shift in digital era, which harnesses large amounts of data to make astute business decisions and improve operations, which is now an imperative. While our ability to generate data still far outstrips our ability to analyze it, we are making strides. Exciting new approaches are merging big data solutions with traditional enterprise data strategies. Logical data warehouses, in which there is no single data repository, hold enormous promise. By offering an ecosystem of multiple best-fit repositories, technologies, and tools, business can effectively analyze data for powerful insight.

Duena Blomstrom, FinTech & Innovation Consultant

Duena is an independent Digital Banking consultant, FinTech specialist, an entrepreneur and an Angel Investor, a mentor for Startupbootcamp and Techstars, a blogger with cutting edge opinion style, a public speakers at industry events, the inventor of the EX concept and for the past 18 years has been in the the Telco and the Finance world on the strategy and consulting side, be it for sales or marketing. Most recently, Duena has been the Head of Sales and Marketing for Meniga from when it was a tiny Icelandic start-up to winning Finovate 3 times and becoming market leader in customer engagement in finance and have therefore “seen it all” in digital. With a background in Psychology as well as Business, Duena is on a crusade to teach the industry that Big-4-wooden-language will get us nowhere; she is passionate about getting FIs to think of the concept of “Emotional Banking” or how to stop thinking feature set and start thinking customer’s feelings; and she is interested in all things at the intersection of technology, innovation and behavioural science.

Interested in sponsoring opportunities? Please get in touch at info@datanatives.io

Are you game for the Big Data event of the year? Mark your calendars now, and snag your tickets here!

Data Natives is coming soon! The conference focuses on three key areas of innovation: Big Data, IoT and FinTech. The intersection of these fields is home to the most exciting technology innovation happening today.

Whether it’s for individual consumers or multi-billion dollar industries, the opportunity is immense. Come and learn more from leading scientists, founders, analysts, investors and economists.

Early bird tickets are still available – don’t miss out on a great opportunity for yourself, your colleagues or your employees! If you need a little more convincing:

Data Natives has 7 Key Goals

We will leave you:

1 – Inspired for the future

Data Natives focuses on real-world applications of cutting edge technology to paint an exciting picture of the future. We aim to help attendees understand either the potential impact of the technology they are creating as technical professionals, or the scale of the opportunity that technology is providing for the rest of us.

When technological advancements are shaping the way we work in fundamental ways, it’s important to stay inspired, optimistic, and open-minded about finding more effective ways to operate.

2 – Empowered to seek business opportunities

This conference is a chance to look at some of the most innovative applications of technology, and the business value they have unlocked. Whether it’s hearing how an industry giant leveraged data to increase their margins, or how a scrappy startup is using connected devices to offer something revolutionary – you will leave the conference looking at problems in new ways, inspired to solve problems that previously you were resigned to simply coping with.

There will be plenty of opportunities to network with companies offering – or looking for – innovative solutions, or experts who could help add value to your business.

3 – Encouraged to be data-driven

As more and more data is available to us, an analytical mindset is a more and more valuable mindset. Whether you’re in marketing, HR, product design, project management or a technical field, chances are you work with data every day. Learning to ask the right questions and how to interpret data correctly is key to success.

By looking at how industry leading companies are using data in all aspects of their business, you will come away from Data Natives with a clear picture of how your companies processes may be improved. There will also be a workshop available from Alistair Croll on Lean Analytics.

4 – Learning from other industries

It is easy to exist within a bubble, networking and knowledge sharing within your own industry, when an exciting and crucial development may be happing in an adjacent industry. Don’t miss the chance to broaden your mind.

Our speakers will describe the transformation of major verticals, as well as the horizontal applications of data-driven technology. Whether your background is advertising, e-commerce, finance, transportation… There are valuable lessons to be learned from how other industries are finding value in their data, utilizing connected devices, or managing their finances.

5 – Experienced with hands-on workshops and expert guidance

In additional to a packed schedule of insightful talks from 50 guest speakers, we will also be hosting four workshop sessions with experts, covering key areas of interest and giving our audience a chance to get hands-on with the subjects that matter to you.

See the full schedule for details on those workshops as they are announced!

6 – Enjoying the ultimate curation of data driven content

The schedule of Data Natives has not been pulled out of thin-air – it comes from the lessons learned from >1,800 articles, and >100 past presentations at our events all over Europe.

Not just a standard, boring industry conference, it is a curation of the most valuable and interesting content we have found over the last two years. Many of our speakers come from long standing relationships and past collaborations, with talks that have been applied and refined over multiple events.

7 – Absorbing diverse input and fresh perspectives

This is not a conference to come and hear the same talking heads saying the same things you’ve been reading about online for months already.

We are hosting talks from data scientists, investors, analysts, consultants, academics and economists. It is our aim to provide a complete view of the technology innovations and opportunities. Inspiring, informative and accessible. Most of all, useful.

See the schedule (so far) and get your tickets here:
datanatives.io

(image credit: Christian Scholz, CC2.0)

Data Natives, a first-of-its-kind conference for the data-driven generation, is set to bring together the brightest minds in data science and related technologies for a 2-day event in Berlin November 19-20.

What’s on the agenda

Data Natives features a packed agenda designed for those looking to push the boundaries of their ideas and work in data science and beyond. With 40+ industry talks and unlimited networking opportunities, the conference aims to break down barriers in the industry and forge lasting relationships among its participants. Talks will focus on three buzzing areas of data science – Machine Learning, Internet of Things and FinTech.

The conference will also host a Startup Battle, showcasing some of the most exciting companies poised to do big things in big data. Young startups will have the chance to pitch to influencers and investors in the tech community and compete for the prize of Best Big Data Startup in 2015.

Confirmed Speakers

Alexandra D-S, Director Designswarm Industries

Named #2 in the Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino brings a wealth of experience in building consumer-facing internet of things products, services and communities for clients such as BBC R&D, Nokia, British Gas, EDF and British Telecom. She’s altogether an interaction & product designer, entrepreneur, speaker & curator focused on the limitless potential of IoT.

Nasir Zubairi, Venture Partner FinLeap

With 17 years of Financial Services experience under his belt in places such as London, New York, Tokyo, and Singapore, Nasir Zubairi has brought his own touch of innovation and value to numerous organizations and startups. His current role at FinLeap sees him advising and building the next generation of FinTech companies to ultimately change the face of the financial industry.

Yuval Dvir, Global Product Operations Google

Yuval Dvir utilizes years of international consulting experience gained in large multinationals and startups to head up Global Strategy & Product Operations at Google. With a background in corporate development and transformation at Skype and Microsoft, Yuval is a leading expert in guiding teams through challenges involving digital transformations, innovation and scaling.

Alexander Graubner-Müller, CTO Kreditech

As the founder and CTO of Kreditech, Alexander strongly believes that algorithms and statistical data are the building blocks for the next Industrial Revolution. Kreditech, now one of Germany’s most data-driven FinTech companies, is a testament to that belief. Before founding Kreditech alongside Sebastian Diemer, Alexander managed engineering and product development at Rocket Internet and worked in the investment and banking sectors.

Interested in sponsoring opportunities? Please get in touch at info@datanatives.io

Are you game for the Big Data event of the year? Mark your calendars now, and snag your earlybird tickets here!

Strata + Hadoop World, happening September 29 – October 1 in New York, is where cutting-edge science and new business fundamentals intersect. It’s a deep-immersion event where data scientists, analysts, and executives explore the latest in emerging techniques and technologies by dissecting case studies, developing new skills through in-depth tutorials, and sharing best practices.

Strata + Hadoop World is now the largest conference of its kind in the world, yet it’s kept the informal, collegial spirit that makes it one of the best places to connect and collaborate. Save 20% with discount code DATACON. Check out the impressive agenda and speaker lineup here.

We’re proud to partner with Strata + Hadoop. Register HERE and save 20% w/code DATACON!

(image credit: cloudera)

On June 6th, 2015 Big Data Utah and the Boulder/Denver Big Data Users Group (BDBDUG) kicked off the Global Data Competition, an inaugural event focused on climate change and split into 22 regions around the world.

The competition has two phases, each with a scoring system that allows solutions to be compared within the region it is submitted. Competitors can compete on an individual, group (2-10 people), or organization (10+) level.

Phase 1, centered on Learning Image Classification, is now underway. Participants are tasked with taking a set of 4,766 images of Mars and predicting whether or not a volcano is depicted in each image. All the data and tips necessary to get started can be found at http://www.global-data-competition.com/code-and-submissions/.

Beginning in late August, Phase 2 will include sessions, videos and tutorials on getting started with data science, reviewing exploratory data analysis techniques, data visualization and web scraping. The competition during this phase will tie the training into acquiring data from a variety of sources, including NASA’s newly released 11 Terabytes of data.

Visit www.global-data-competition.com for more information including registration, code and data.

This fall, Apache Flink will host a two-day conference in Berlin, featuring content for both the existing Flink user community and potential users hoping to get a feel for the tool. Flink Forward will feature parallel presentation and training sessions – tackling both the informational and hands-on aspects of working with large-scale data analysis.

Flink Forward participants can expect an enriching experience as part of a growing ecosystem and community of developers and data scientists worldwide. Highlights will include:

• Technical presentations on Apache Flink
• Use case presentations for Big Data projects using Apache Flink
• Presentations about related Big Data projects in the Apache ecosystem and beyond

Prior knowledge of Flink isn’t required for attendance at Flink Forward. In fact, Apache assumes attendees don’t have knowledge about the programming environment and intends to provide the ideal introduction to harnessing its benefits.

Among the confirmed keynote speakers are Kostas Tzoumas, co-founder and CEO of data Artisans, Stephan Ewen, co-founder and CTO of data Artisans, and William Vambenepe, lead of the product management team responsible for Big Data services on Google Cloud Platform.

Flink Forward will take place on October 12-13 at KulturBrauerei in Berlin – the city where the Flink project began.

For an exclusive 10% discount on your ticket purchase for Flink Forward, use the code “FFmeetsDC” at flink-forward.org – or simply click on the banner above.

(Photo source: tom_stromer via Creative Commons)

The re:publica is one of the largest and most exciting conferences about digital culture in the world. Since its foundation in 2007, it has grown from a cozy blogger meeting with 700 participants into a wide-ranging “society conference”, with more than 6000 visitors annually. Representatives of digital culture share their knowledge and decision-making tools, and discuss the future of the information society. Here they can mingle with activists, scientists, hackers, entrepreneurs, NGOs, journalists, social media and marketing experts, and many others. This fosters innovation and creates synergies between net politics, online marketing, network technology, digital society, and (pop) culture. What is more, around 40 percent of re:publicaparticipants are female – far more than at many other similar events.

So this year’s edition is going to be exciting again: We are expecting some 800 speakers from more than 45 countries for re:publica 2015 – three days of celebration and debate with some of the most important trailblazers and forward thinkers of the Internet, packed with 450 hours ofprogramme from a wide range of topics from politics, economy, science, society and culture on 17 stages.

Of course, our broad focus on issues related to the digital society – from net politics and technological innovations, music, culture and media, to health and education – has convinced sponsors and partners alike. Again, we’ve formed a close partnership with the MEDIA CONVENTION Berlin, the defining congress for the international media industry, which started with the same event space last year. For this year, the collaboration is intensified with one ticket for both events.

re:publica hosts various sub-conferences: In 2015 there is a renewed collaboration with the German Science Year 2015 with “City of the Future”. The Global Innovation Gathering (GIG) sub-conference is already in its third year, this time supported by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, GIZ, and the Vodafone Institute. And there is even more to be explored in two new sub- conferences, the one-day Wearables sub-conference #FASHIONTECH BERLIN in collaboration with PREMIUM International Fashion Trade Show, and our Music Day, re:cord. The German Federal Center for Political Education, BPB, and the Media Board Berlin- Brandenburg, mabb, are also esteemed supporters of the re:publica.

And finally, re:publica maintains close relationships with its sponsors. In the past, sponsors have included: Daimler AG, comdirect bank AG, Microsoft, Sony, WDR, Deutsche Bank, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Deutsche Telekom, Google Germany, WWF, Hewlett-Packard, sipgate, ARD, Vodafone, and many more.

A selection of our speakers from the past years:
Neelie Kroes (European Commission), Jeff Jarvis (BuzzMachine), Saskia Sassen (Columbia University), Steffen Seibert (German government spokesman), Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation), Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing), Miriam Meckel, Jim Wales (Wikipedia), Bianca Jagger, Sascha Lobo, Jillian C. Yorck (EFF), The Yes Men, Kathrin Passig, David Hasselhoff, Gesche Joost (UdK Berlin), Gunter Dueck (CEO Omnisophie), Yoani Sánchez (Entrepreneur and blogger, Generación Y), Erik Hersman (Founder of iHub and Ushahidi), Sarah Harrison (Wikileaks), Dieter Zetsche (Daimler AG executive board), Jutta Allmendinger (President of the WZB Berlin Center for Social Science), Andreas Schleicher (Head of the Education and Skills Directorate, OECD), Lawrence Lessig (Creative Commons)

#Unit festival is a new tech event with a message, promoting the power of unicorns in the technology community. 40+ top tech speakers delivering insights from a range of backgrounds. Music performances, interactive installations and thought-provoking entertainment. A dynamic networking experience with the opportunity to make an abundance of new connections; one of the biggest networking sessions you have ever experienced in your life. All in a space where you are free to be yourself while getting inspired and gaining new perspectives. An inclusive atmosphere that fosters endless opportunities. #unit Festival is the only tech event, as part of Berlin Web Week, that actively promotes the visibility of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans individuals in the tech world.

Dataconomy Content & Events Managers Eileen McNulty-Holmes and Elena Poughia will be giving a talk entitled “Here, Queer & Data-Driven”. In our work forging data science communities and creating articles infused with data, we’ve learnt a lot about how data shapes modern consciousness. It touches every part of our life, from how our information is being shared, to how it’s touching our experiences as retail consumers, hospital patients and citizens within urban environments. As well as serving as a primer to data science and “big data”, this talk will specifically address the intersection between data science and queer identity. From how data can blast certain stereotypes of queer identity (and how it adds weight to others), to how data privacy is a particularly burning issue for the LGBT* community.

Full speaker information and tickets can be found here.

We have exclusive discounted tickets for Dataconomy readers. Want to find out more? Email eileen@dataconomy.ru for details.

If you are responsible for bringing “Internet of Things” products to market, you need to separate the IoT hype from reality. The IoT vision is vast, but there’s little consensus around best practices and common tech stacks. Most of today’s Internet of Things projects are highly custom, brittle, and IoT project teams are forced to choose between proprietary platforms or re-invent the wheel each time.

Participate with technology thought leaders with the goal of defining the IoT technology stack and the interoperability requirements that will help to drive IoT forward. If you want to collaborate with hands-on people solving real IoT challenges, IOT Stream Conf is the place to be.

Full speaker line-up and registration details can be found here.

Learn how to dig deeper into customer feedback and online opinion at this exclusive summit. Over 20 industry speakers will share case studies and discuss how to better enhance your text analytics & sentiment analysis practises.

The Sentiment Analysis track will cover the most relevant topics for your firm today, including:

• Artificial Intelligence on the Consumer Journey
• Extracting Sentiment Using Natural Language Processing
• Sentiment Analysis with Machine Learning & Polystructured Data
• Machine Learning to Drive Customer Analytics
• Multi-Lingual Text Analytics
• Text Mining in the Digital Services Strategy

Find out how to request an invitation & discover more details here.

Multimedia is increasingly becoming the “biggest big data” as the most important and valuable source for insights and information. It covers from everyone’s experiences to everything happening in the world. As such, multimedia big data is spurring on tremendous amounts of research and development of related technologies and applications.

The IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Big Data (BigMM), jointly sponsored by IEEE-TCMC (Technical Committee on Multimedia Computing) and IEEE-TCSEM (Technical Committee on Semantic Computing), is the world’s premier forum of leading scholars in the highly active multimedia big data research, development and applications. The first BigMM conference, with the theme “Multimedia: The Biggest Big Data”, will be held in Beijing, China, from April 20 to 22, 2015, hosted by Peking University.

Full details can be found here.

 
Photo credit: Jonathan Kos-Read / Foter / CC BY-ND

Hadoop Summit, the leading conference for the Apache Hadoop community, is coming to Europe. This two-day event will feature many of the Apache Hadoop thought leaders who will showcase successful Hadoop use cases, share development and administration tips and tricks, and educate organizations about how best to leverage Apache Hadoop as a key component in their enterprise data architecture. It will also be an excellent networking event for developers, architects, administrators, data analysts, data scientists and vendors interested in advancing, extending or implementing Apache Hadoop.

What makes Hadoop Summit different

Community Focused – Sessions voted on by the public and selected by a committee of industry luminaries.

Deep Dive Technical Content – Come hear it from the elephant’s mouth. You’ll get deep-dive technical content from committers across a wide range of advanced/basic topics and projects

Business and Technical Topics – Sessions will be rated on how technical vs business focused they are intended allowing you to pick the right content based on your background.

Community Activities – Hadoop Summit will host community meet-ups, birds of a feather sessions and the first “unconference” within a conference.

One of a Kind – The only Hadoop Community event in Europe.

A Rockin Party – Of course, no conference would be complete without a party. Don’t miss the Hadoop Summit party held the first evening of Hadoop Summit.

Full details can be found here.

The Wearable Tech industry is still searching for its killer app and the killer device. Wearables TechCon brings everyone working “under the hood”, the expert engineers, developers, designers, and enthusiasts all together in one place at one time!

March 6th is last day to get $600 off registration- sign up here.

A Great Opportunity to Network and Learn about Behavioural Analytics at the Barclay’s Escalator (Mile End, London) about creating the ultimate behavioural funnel (RSVP here).

What is funnel analysis? Well, it is a useful tool for analyzing user success in completing a certain flow or process, understanding where users are churning and seeing the effects of improvements integrated into processes. In this Meetup, CoolaData will talk about taking funnel analysis to the next level and learning how to make funnels behavioral and actionable together with its customer 90min.

The Meetup will include two insightful sessions:

Tomer Ben Moshe, CEO at CoolaData will explain how to take funnel analysis to the next level. CoolaData provides eCommerce, content and gaming platforms with actionable insights from event-based data. CoolaData customers use it to analyze millions and billions of events every month.

Asaf Peled, CEO at 90min – with over 200 million monthly pageviews, 90min is a leading football media platform that allows brands, publishers and fans to create rich, engaging content. Asaf will join CoolaData to talk about how behavioural analytics helped 90min become truly data driven.

Note that limited seating is available, so to see the exact agenda and RSVP go to: http://www.meetup.com/London-Actionable-Behavioral-Analytics/events/219911000/

(Image credit: Barclay’s Accelerator, The Escalator)

The fourth Big Data Berlin took place on Thursday at Instituto Cervantes with insightful talks by four industry professionals and plenty of time to network before and after over beer and pizza kindly provided by Criteo.

The talks kicked off at about 7:20 in a packed exhibition room at the Instituto Cervantes, which has certainly added a value to the evening with the Spanish art exhibition currently on display and the lovely atmosphere created by the space.

I started by giving a small background on who we are as Dataconomy, and how we are trying to build this data lovers community online and offline. It seems like a natural step forward to us to take that community that follows our news stories and reads tech-oriented content on the website either to inform or to educate themselves, all together in real time, real space in order to get to know each other, connect and hear and learn from industry professionals with long time experience in the field.

Our first speaker for the evening was Brian Bulkowski, CTO at Aerospike, a company that operates real time Web and mobile applications with the aim to create a more interactive and global front edge database. Brian discussed new models that could optimize advertising results, get more data and better models through NoSQL.

Carsten Petzold took the floor to demonstrate how big data can optimize online dating experience. He shared some fun facts about the dating industry such as that there are about 300 million searches per month around buzz words such as love, dating, flirting etc., that 33% of married people have met online (and I am certain that number will double very soon), 50% of singles use online dating and in a nutshell, it is a huge industry. Carsten talked about optimizing users experience to get better and more integrated results and how data can optimize search engines. Carsten’s talk certainly gave some good ideas putting all that good data into use and turned a business talk into a good flirting opportunity.

Franz Scwab from Exasol AG followed with a much more technical talk providing solutions to chasing that pareto frontier, or else, how to achieve in-database multi criteria optimization with Skyline Querries. Every company thinks of its customer and tries to find optimal solutions for both the customer and the company. Skyline queries can compute the Pareto Frontier which gives back non-dominated solutions and consequently reduce data volumes by filtering only relevant content and accelerate the decision making process.

Our last speaker for the evening was Charles Radclyffe who asked a rather philosophical question that I am also pondered by for quite a while now – are analytics, ioT and Artificial Intelligence a convergence, a threat or an opportunity? Well, one should certainly use the right tools to solve whatever business or non-business related issues arise but the question persists as to how the future will evolve and the humane or inhumane result that will bring.

After the talk finished, we all had the time to get to know each other and network, approach the speakers, ask questions and find career opportunities over free pizza. Overall, it was a great evening and we are very pleased with your attendance and encouragement – looking forward to our next Berlin event at Instituto Cervantes on April 30th!

“Data is the heart of a thriving business.  But the complexity of managing, integrating and analyzing all of that data can cause friction between IT and the business users.  Dell Software challenges you to find your data partner and let us show you how we can simplify information management so you can get down to business.

Are you a DBA?  We challenge you to find your Business Analysts or your analytics detective.

Are you the Business Analyst?  We challenge you to find you friendly neighborhood DBA.

We are delighted to welcome as a keynote speaker Dr. Carsten Bange, CEO of BARC Business Application Research Center, who will talk about current challenges in the area of Business Intelligence. Stefan Theuerkauf of EOS Germany will discuss his use of Statistica in the asset management, and demonstrate how better decisions are made by EOS.

Learn how Dell software allows you to work better together.”

Register here.

Do you have an idea for a digital innovation in travel? Can you code a working mobile or web application in 24 hours that helps travelers discover, enhance or share their journey?

Does your original idea have the “wow factor” to win a share of Euro 3,000 in cash prizes … or potentially grow into a stand-alone business?

Then you – and your developer team of up to five hackers – have the chance to disrupt travel at THack @ ITB Berlin, a weekend hackathon February 28 and March 1.

THack is presented by Tnooz, the leading source of global news and analysis about travel tech. Our partners at ITB Berlin produce the world’s largest trade show held annually in March.

THack @ ITB brings together more than 100 developers and leading travel and travel tech companies for a creative competition that seeks solutions to these four travel challenges:

• Inspiration, discovery, memories – Create an application that helps travelers decide where to go and how to share their experiences and journeys
• Local concierge – Make a product that explores options for tours, activities and services in-destination
• Accommodation finder – Hotel? Hostel? Back-country camping? Home-sharing? Build a recommendation engine for personalized accommodations
• Route planner – Create an travel application for transportation choices that are time-efficient, cost-effective or creatively scenic … or all of the above.

Tnooz’s Tier 1 sponsoring companies (including Lufthansa, GetYourGuide and others to be announced) will provide access to their proprietary APIs to use in programing solutions to the four challenges.

Sponsors will open their APIs to registered developers approximately one week before the event, plus provide on-site or online support for their APIs.

In addition to the cash prizes for winning hacks, a developer or team will be selected to attend a one-week mentoring camp at 33entrepreneurs start-up accelerator in Bordeaux, France.

More details here.

Sponsorship opportunities available.

Follow @DataconomyMedia

(Image credit: Tnooz)

Conference Themes

• Technologies for Human Use
  On human uses of technologies, human uses, and the social impacts of technologies.
• Technologies in Community
  On the roles of technologies in community formation, maintenance and change.
• Technologies for Learning
  On learning through and about technologies.
• Technologies for Common Knowledge
  On the use of technologies in knowledge creation and access.

Full information can be found here.

“Don’t Be Afraid of the Elephant in the Room”

In the most cutting edge market of Big Data, modern businesses are faced with the challenge of storage, management, analysis, visualization and security. New technologies, solutions and challenges are exploding outwards as Big Data continues to grow exponentially.

Hadoop, a huge piece of the puzzle, continues to present both exciting opportunities and engineering challenges. Can you become cloud native? What new alternative paradigms are available with Hadoop? What are the limitations of sole Hadoop use? How can you use it for machine learning. What about Integration? Corporate Accessibility? Ethics? These burning issues are what the summit looks to address.

Topics to be covered include:

• Best Practises for Hadoop
• Architectural considerations for Hadoop Applications
• MapReduce & Spark
• Building Privacy Protected Data Systems
• Building a Data Platform
• Scalable Data Curation

See more here.

“Immerse yourself in the world of big data at Strata + Hadoop World.
Explore solutions to your most challenging problems, connect with the brightest minds in data, find out what’s new in emerging technologies and Apache Hadoop—and see for yourself what data can do.”

Full speaker information, programme and registration can be found here.

Image courtesy of O’Reilly. 

Developer Event, Berlin, Germany: Apps World; the leading global event series in its 6th year that has grown to be the leading set of events in the app industry is launching a new show in Berlin – the city fast being recognised as a thriving hub for technology and start-ups, this April. Apps World Germany will be bringing together over 150+ exhibitors and 6,000+ attendees from across the app ecosystem in Germany, Eastern Europe and beyond. The event will attract developers, mobile marketers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, platform owners and industry professionals for two days of high level insight and discussion. The exhibition floor will be buzzing with some of the most innovative new start-ups showcasing alongside industry giants, live hackathons and interactive workshop sessions. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of it – secure your pass today!

See more details here!

The world’s most profound event for wearables will once again gather all important players of the wearable tech ecosystem at the 14th WT | Wearable Technologies Conference in Munich on February 2 and 3.

Check out our video from last year’s conference.

With more than 80,000 visitors, about 100 exhibitors, huge media interest the WT I Wearable Week is certainly next year’s most important event around wearables featuring world-class speakers, an extensive conference exhibition a special fashion event, and our WT design booth at the leading sporting goods tradeshow ISPO.

Register today and be part of the WT I Wearable Week 2015!

Big Data & Analytics Innovation is back in Australia for two days of inspiring, insightful & educational presentations, panel sessions, interactive discussions and world-class networking.

Big Data & Analytics Innovation will bring you right up to speed to assist you with your every need covering an array of topics, themes and problem points.

Topics to Include:

• Data Analytics
• Data Science
• Advanced Analytics
• Predictive Analytics
• Machine Learning & Algorithms
• Cloud Computing
• & much more…

Registration, speakers and schedule can be found here.

The beginning of interconnected co-creation. End of Silos.

• Breaking away from the silos of intelligent technologies and evolving a connected intelligence ecosystem
• Bringing together a $10B business opportunity across industry verticals:
  • Home & Building Automation Security & Surveillance, Lighting and HVAC
  • E Mobility, People Movers & Energy Storage Solution
  • Renewable, Off grid, Micro-grid & Rural Smart Electrification
  • Infotech & Software Development, Cloud Computing & Data Centers
  • Efficient Distribution Systems
  • Industry 3.0, Machine to Machine communication
  • Sustainable living in growing digitalization and urbanized societies

Special Offer: 2 for 1 Registration.
Register for Intelect and get a second registration free!
Act Now, limited time offer.

Special Offer
IEEE Student Members receive Complimentary Registration for PES Tutorials + Conference + Expo!

 Register attendance or register as an exhibitor here.

Big Data: It’s Everywhere. And So Are We.

Big Data Everywhere is an all-day Hadoop event aimed at helping organizations understand the technical, business and practical aspects of Hadoop and related technologies. After extremely successful events in Israel and Chicago, we’re proud to announce our next event in Atlanta.

View the full agenda and register for attendance here. 

The Business Analytics Innovation Summit provides 30+ industry case studies and over 20 hours of networking opportunities across 2 days. Make sure to check back regularly for schedule additions and changes.

If you are interested in presenting at this event then please contact David Barton today to submit your proposal.

Topics covered include:

• Business Analytics Use Cases from Industry Speakers
• Capitalizing on the Power of Big Data
• Predictive Analytics
• Logical Data Warehousing
• Analytics for the Future
• Real Time Analytics
• Consumer Analytics

Further information and registration can be found here

(Image Credit: Steven Depolo)

The NetSci-X is the first Network Science Conference outside the USA-Europe axis. It will bring together leading researchers and practitioners working in the emerging area of network science.

The conference fosters interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, with focus on novel directions in network research within the biological and environmental sciences, computer and information sciences, social sciences, finance and business, among others.

The NetSci-X Conference will be held in January 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the Getulio Vargas Foundation—one of the main Think Tanks in the world and leading educational and research institution in Brazil.

Join us in Rio de Janeiro for this important conference in Network Science!

The Computational Science and Engineering area has earned prominence through advances in electronic and integrated technologies beginning in the 1940s. Current times are very exciting and the years to come will witness a proliferation in the use of various advanced computing systems. It is increasingly becoming an emerging and promising discipline in shaping future research and development activities in academia and industry, ranging from engineering, science, finance, economics, arts and humanitarian fields, especially when the solution of large and complex problems must cope with tight timing schedules.

CSE2014 will be held in Chengdu, China on December 19-21, 2014. It is to bring together computer scientists, industrial engineers, and researchers to discuss and exchange experimental and theoretical results, novel designs, work-in-progress, experience, case studies, and trend-setting ideas in the areas of advanced computing for problems in science and engineering applications and inter-disciplinary.

Full speaker line-up and registration can be found here.

The Internet of Things Summit gathers together thought leaders working towards an interconnected world.

Hear presentations on the most important topics influencing IoT development, including:

• Standardization & Partnerships
• Business Models to Embrace IoT
• Privacy & Security in the Consumer IoT
• Interaction Between Devices
• Diversity of Devices Available
• Collecting & Analysing Data
• Smart Homes
• Smart Cities
• Industrial Internet of Things

Full speaker line-up and registration details can be found here.

Come and pitch your startup while having a coffee with us!

• What is all of this about?

Europe’s leading accelerator Startupbootcamp is coming to Hamburg for a Pitch day. We’re looking for startups with innovative ideas that improve cities & the way we live in them.  Startupbootcamp has a brand new  program for Smart City & Living startups. Make sure you don’t miss out on this opportunity to be amongst the first to make an impression on our hunting team!

We’re looking for startups in the following industries:

>  Smart home | Automated living | Smart home appliances | Smart city appliances
>  Smart mobility | Smart parking | Traffic management | Smart society | Open data | FI-WARE
>  Internet of Things & M2M solutions | Smart connections | Smart wifi
>  Smart energy | Smart metering | Smart grid | Smart lighting
>  Smart building | Urban planning | Waste management
>  Smart care | Emergency response | Smart health solutions
>  Smart agriculture | Smart food solutions

• How does a Pitch 4 Coffee work?

You’ll pitch your startup twice

We give you feedback

You’ll buy us a coffee or anything else to keep us going..;)

• Who will you pitch to?

–Marc Wesselink: Selection & Alumni Manager @ Startupbootcamp Amsterdam

–Tienko Rasker: Founder Leapfunder. Startupbootcamp alumni.

Details of how to register & attend can be found here.

Data is the most competitive tool that your organization has in order to maintain relevance and growth in today’s complex environment.

The ground-breaking Chief Data Officer Summit covers the latest innovations you need to advance your organization’s data strategy and management. In addition to the wealth of insight into data development, data governance and innovation, the summit will dissect the role of the Chief Data Officer like never before.

Excellence in data management is key to both entry and sustainability in the market. Investing in a Chief Data Officer could be transformational for your company. With this in mind, the world’s leading Chief Data Officers will be in attendance to discuss the organizational structures within which they exist, and the benefits their companies have seen from adding a Data Officer to the C-suite. Organizations looking to compete with data simpy cannot afford to miss the Chief Data Officer Summit.

Information on speakers, attendees and registration can be found here.

The development of the digital home technology is a trend of information penetration and fusion in life. Numerous digital media equipments and contents have been applied into home and life. The growth of media contents and broadband-width stimulates the problems of producing, editing, transmitting, and displaying of media contents. It brings enormous opportunities as well as challenges for the researchers and application developers.

The 5th International Conference on Digital Home (ICDH 2014), with the theme of “Digital Home, Better Life”, technically co-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, is a premier forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of digital application in daily life. It will bring together leading engineers and scientists in graphics and image processing, network communications, and computer technologies from around the world. It will be a platform for communication and share of the cutting-edge ideas and technologies in digital home development.

ICDH 2014 is hosted by Sun Yat-sen University and Dalian University of Technology, chaired by Prof. Xiao-Nan Luo and Prof. Zhong-Xuan Luo. The conference sets International Technical Committee and Organizing Committee. The International Technical Committee is in charge of paper review, and the Organizing Committee is in charge of the preparation, organization and operation of the conference.

Speakers, programme and registration can be found here.

We’re creating and collecting more data each year than ever before, but how do we derive value from it?

Few of us have first-hand experience of mining insight out of our data, and yet increasingly our markets demand such insight, and often in real-time. There are practitioners out there in technology and allied fields who have been data-centric for years and they have the skills and insights in how to adopt modern big data technology and use it to great effect. Those are the people we now look at to help bridge the looming gap between data and insight.

Would you like to help evolve & discover technologies & practices to derive value from big data with the world’s leading experts in this field?

Join us at the Big Data eXchange on November 26th!
Join the world’s leading data practitioners and some 100 members of the UK data science community to learn and share insights, skills and tools and help evolve the technologies and practices in this field.

Great minds on stage
Keynoted by Robert Witoff, Head of Data Science at Coinbase, this year’s Big Data eXchange will welcome world leading experts Yodit Stanton (Founder of Atomic data labs), Dr Abigail Lebrecht (Statistical Analyst at uSwitch.com),Andrew Clegg, Felienne Hermans, Tareq Abedrabbo and Jim Webber.

Throught discussions and talks, we’ll gain a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges we face when adopting modern big data technology.

Highly experienced community
You’ll be able to discover, help evolve and adopt new technologies and ideas, sharing your experience and perspective with some 100 other members in our community who are tackling the challenges and opportunities of big data technology in their jobs eery day.

Registration open!
Click here to be a part of it.

The best minds in data will gather in Barcelona this November for Strata + Hadoop World to learn, connect, and explore the complex issues and exciting opportunities brought to business by big data, data science, and pervasive computing.

Just in time for the event in Barcelona, O’Reilly and Cloudera have partnered to bring Hadoop World to all Strata Conferences worldwide. Doug Cutting, Cloudera’s Chief Architect and founder of Apache Hadoop, joins Roger Magoulas and Alistair Croll as chairs of Strata + Hadoop World to help shape the content. The Hadoop & Beyond track not only covers the Hadoop platform, but also tools like Cassandra, Storm, Spark/Shark, and Drill—and how they extend the data science toolkit.

The future belongs to those who understand how to collect and use their data successfully. And that future happens at Strata + Hadoop World.

You can find the full programme and event details here

(Image Credit: Moyan Brenn)

Apache products power over half the Internet, petabytes of data, teraflops of operations, billions of objects, and enhance the lives of countless users and developers. ApacheCon brings developers and users together to explore key issues in building Open Source solutions “The Apache Way”. With hundreds of thousands of applications deploying ASF products and code contributions by more than 3,500 Committers from around the world, the Apache community is recognized as among the most robust, successful, and respected in Open Source.

Apache products power more than 400 million Websites and countless mission-critical applications worldwide, from financial services to publishing to radioastronomy to social networking to biomedicine research data stores to mobile medical applications. More than a dozen Apache projects form the foundation of today’s Cloud computing, and Apache software continues to play a key role in the evolution of Big Data. Five of the top 10 Open Source downloads are Apache projects: understanding their breadth and capabilities has never been more important in today’s marketplace.

ApacheCon brings together the open source community to learn about and collaborate on the technologies and projects driving the future of open source, big data and cloud computing. Apache projects have and continue to be hugely influential in the innovation and development of software development across a plethora of categories from content, databases and servers, to big data, cloud, mobile and virtual machine. The developers, programmers, committers and users driving this innovation and utilizing these tools will meet in Budapest, November 17-21, for collaboration, education and community building.

First held in 1999 for developers and users of the Apache Server to meet face-to-face, ApacheCon is the official conference, trainings, and expo series of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), and is the public showcase for Apache innovations.This three day technical conference will bring together 500+ attendees and offer over 100 conference sessions across a variety of open source topics covering all Apache projects, as well as visionary keynotes, lightning talks, hackathons, meetups and more.

You can find the full events schedule here

(Image Credit: Peter)

IEEE VIS 2014 is the premier forum for advances in visualization. The event-packed week brings together researchers and practitioners from academia, government, and industry to explore their shared interests in tools, techniques, and technology.

We invite you to participate in IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Technology, IEEE Information Visualization, and IEEE Scientific Visualization by sharing your research, insights, experience, and enthusiasm.

These events bring together researchers and practitioners in the visualization field with a shared interest in tools, techniques and technology. A full complement of research presentations, tutorials, workshops, panels, demonstrations, posters, and exhibitions make this conference one of the largest and most important gatherings of researchers and professionals who specialize in the visual analysis of data.

Each of the three main conferences (VAST, InfoVis, and SciVis) will run from Tuesday morning until Friday lunch. Our keynote speaker (Alberto Cairo,University of Miami) will open the conferences on Tuesday morning and our capstone speaker (Barbara Tversky, Stanford University & Columbia University) will close the meeting on Friday.  Additionally, the LDAV Symposium occurs on Sunday and Monday before the conferences, as do a number of other workshops and tutorials. In particular, the BELIV and VizSec workshops will also take place on Monday. The main VIS banquet is Wednesday evening. The full program should be available at the start of September.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2014, IEEE VIS comes for the first time in its history to Europe and the city of Paris, acknowledging the growing role of European research on visualization. Paris is a spectacular setting, combining the dynamic character of multicultural modern Europe with historical relics and monuments spanning over 2000 years. Curious visitors can explore the city’s countless museums, galleries, and public spaces, while gastronomes will delight in Paris’s extraordinary selection of restaurants. Located at the center of Western Europe, Paris is reachable from all major international airports. The conference venue is also conveniently located next to public transportation and accessible from all of the city’s main airports and train stations.

Full programme and registration for IEEE VIS 2014 can be found here.