Big Data Comes to Belfast, October 2018

When and where is it on?

Big Data Belfast takes place on Thursday October 18 in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.  It’s a one-day conference exploring the trends and opportunities emerging in healthcare, Smart Cities & IoT, fintech, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cyber security and business analytics.

How many years has it been going?

This is the sixth year, and it’s now an integral part of the tech calendar. In the past, we’ve had presentations from IBM, Channel 4, Philips, HP and Skyscanner amongst others. We’ve mixed these in with insights from local companies like StatSports, Allstate and Almac – so it’s great to bring a blend of international best practice and marry it up with local innovation.

What was the inspiration to start the conference in Belfast?

The event originally launched as part of the Big Data Week movement which was created to unite the global data communities. Big Data Week meetups are taking place in Europe, Americas, Australia and Pacific Asia throughout the year. Like Big Data Belfast, they are designed to focus on the latest next-generation data solutions and innovations.

What exciting things can people look forward to at Big Data 2018?

Big Data Belfast 2018 will see a different format to previous years, with six different sessions allowing a “two track” conference – the ‘Business Track’ and the ‘Techie Track’. The new format will offer sessions for the experts to get their teeth into and will also be more interactive than ever with live demos and a live showcase on the Artificial Intelligence stage. We also have plans to run a 12-hour live Hackathon in tandem with the conference, showcasing some of the local talent we have here in Northern Ireland.

What opportunities are on offer for those attending?

We’re bringing together some of the world’s leading data analytics experts and the aim is to offer attendees opportunities practical advice they can apply to their own data analytics projects. Across the six key themes, we will be discussing use cases, algorithms, tools, skills, policy, data sources and other lessons learned from experience. Ideally, the discussions will stimulate new ideas and potentially open up new opportunities for collaboration.

Who will be speaking?
Speakers include founder of WhiteHat Security and current CEO of Bit Discovery Jerimiah Grossman, Lead Data Scientist at Liverpool Football Club William Spearman, and Programme Director from the Alan Turing Institute Mark Briers. Also speaking will be Thom Kenney, CEO of recruitment marketing platform SmashFly which recently announced a major investment in Belfast creating 70 new jobs. We have lots more speaker announcements to make so watch this space!

How can people book tickets and when does it usually sell out?

The event sells out every year which is why we’ve moved to a bigger venue. Best advice is to book early by logging on to http://www.bigdatabelfast.com/

What tips would you give to people attending to get the most out of it?

We aim to alternate tech and business led talks within tracks so if you want to go all techie, you can. But we’d urge attendees to jump out of their comfort zone and seek out some of the talks outside of your immediate interests. The speakers and content we have lined up across all of the stages are set to be hugely interesting, interactive and thought-provoking. Keep up to date with the latest conference news via http://www.bigdatabelfast.com/take-action/ and @BigDataBelfast