“What do you like better, Christmas or wedding season?”  We all know the answer to this iconic scene in Wedding Crashers where Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn hype each other up because their favorite season is upon them.  That is what comes to mind for me when I sat down to write this.  Right now, in December, we are in a conference lull but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be preparing for the 2019 conference season. 

For us data nerds out there, conferences are a major part of our year.  They provide us opportunities to enhance our education, learn more about emerging technologies and trends, increase our network; all while having a good time. Each year around this time, I like to start planning my conference schedule for the upcoming year.  I have a list of conferences where I’m a regular at and then I try to add a couple each year.   

One thing I noticed last year was an increase in the number and notoriety of conferences dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learningor Deep Learning.  Even the conferences that are still dedicated to Data Analytics in general or to a specific technology within the space had more noticeable AI presence.  

So here is a list of conferences that I am excited about for 2019.  I am going to try and make this a one stop shop for all the information you need for these conferences. 

Full disclosure, Big Data Beard is a partner for a lot of these conferences.  Some of them we have had partnerships in the past (O’Reilly & Disney) but the rest were because we realized how awesome these conferrences were and wanted to be a part of them.  

Strata Data

Location/Date(s)

Cost

Bronze Pass – $1,445; Silver Pass – $1,845; Gold Pass – $2,245 (Until Jan 11) 

Use Promo code PCBEARD to receive 20% off your pass.            

Call for Speakers

Closed for San Francisco & London; NYC closes in March 2019

For Strata Data in 2019, it’s all about data, business and their convergence to drive transformation. Attendees will get a first look at the emerging trends and technologies that are transformating data and business. As always there is an all-star line-up of featured speakers from leaders in the industry and businesses that have transformed their business using data.  The focus of this conference has greatly broadened over the last couple years to include more of an emphasis on ML, AI and other emerging technologies. 

Artificial Intelligence Conference

Location/Date(s)

Cost

Bronze Pass – $1,445; Silver Pass – $1,845; Gold Pass – $2,245 (Through Jan 25)

Use Promo code PCBEARD to receive 20% off your pass.

Call for Speakers

  • San Jose – January – March 2019
  • London – February – April 2019\

This is a conference that has exploded as AI has moved from the university labs and has become mainstream across all business no matter what industry or size.  O’Reilly started this conference to help fill the gap for the urgent need for information, training and insights into the technologies driving AI.  This conference is where cutting-edge technology meets implementation meets business. It provides both technical deep dives into AI techniques and the tech but it also shows how businesses are applying it to drive real value.  If you are getting more and more into AI (which we all should be) this is a conference you want to attend. 

Disney Data Analytics Conference

Location/Date(s)

Cost

Early bird; $1995
Early bird group: $1895
General: $2495
General Group: $2195

Use Promo Code DATABEARD-2019 for $400 off you conference pass ( Not applicable with early bird or group pricing)

Call for Speakers

Speakers are selected from partners or Disney employees

I attended this conference for the first-time last year with Cory Minton and we were blown away by the line-up of speakers, sessions and overall experience of the event.  Last year’s theme was “Make Analytics Roar” and before we even got to the plethora of interesting and educational speakers, the conference kicked off as only Disney can do… a live 30 minute medley of the Lion King.  It was freaking awesome and set the mood for the two days perfectly.  Disney’s theme for this year is Avengers.  They have not released their tag line yet but I beat its going to be awesome! This conference does a great job of mixing technical with business application and caters to a wide audience.  This is a MUST ATTEND!   

Splunk .Conf 2019

Location/Date

Cost

Registration for .conf19 has not opened yet. Sign up to receive .conf19 event notifications so you can stay up-to-date on .conf event announcements

Call for Speakers

Call for speakers hasn’t been announced but last year it opened in February and closed in March. 

Splunk is one of the fastest growing data analytics workloads out there today.  Most organization have some type of Splunk deployment so this conference is a must for those looking to enhance their Splunk knowledge or join the Splunk community and be the hero for their organization.  For two of the past three years, Splunk has held its conference in Orlando and the attendees got access to some of the Disney and Universal Studios parks for the conference party which was always a blast. However, with the attendance growth for this conference being around 20%, Splunk has officially out grown the Disney infrastructure and is heading to Vegas.  I for one am happy to have somemore room as last year was a tad crowded and am extremely excited to see what cool event Splunk will host in Vegas. 

Data Science Salon

Location/Date(s)

Cost

Student – $275

Individual – $475

Use Promo Code BDBEARD19 for 15% of your conference pass

Call for Speakers

Follow this link to sign up to be a speaker.  

This is the first year I have heard about the Data Science Salon conference and after researching it more, I am super glad I found it.  Data Science Salon unites the brightest leaders in the data science field to share best practices and foster the innovationof new solutions.  Being data-driven myself, my favorite part about their “about” section is that they collected extensive data to figure out the right mix of content, entertainment and people to make the conference awesome.  What’s not to like about a conference that eats their own cake! Looking at their speaker line up, I have never seen so many Data Scientists in one location… things are bound to get CRAAAZY.  There are four of these across the US this year so make sure you hit up the one closest to you.   

DataWorks Summit

Location/Date(s)

Cost

Melbourne – Early Bird (Dec 31, 2018) – A$399; Standard – A$500; Onsite – A$699; Alumni (Feb 6, 2019) – A$399

Barcelona – Early Bird (Dec 31, 2018) – €750; Standard – €900; Onsite – €975; Alumni (Mar 18, 2019) – €450

Washington DC – Early Bird (Dec 31, 2018) – $1,000; Standard – $1,400; Onsite – $1,600; Alumni (May 20, 2019) – $800; Federal – $800

DataWorks Summit presented by Hortonworks is one of the bigger Big Data conferences of the year and touts some of the biggest names from the industry like Alan Gates and Scott Gnau in addition to leaders from major businesses.  The conference has eight different tracks that range from more cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and IOT to Data Warehouse and Big Data Architecture tracks.  Regardless of where you are in the industry this is a great conference to enhance your knowledge.

NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference

Location/Date

Silicon Valley – March 17 – 19, 2019

Cost

Conference Pass – $1,580 (Early Bird Rate ends February 8th, 2019); $1,820 (Regular Rate); Deep Learning Workshop – $350

Call for Speakers

Closed on September 21st 2018

Deep Learning has become the biggest trend for data analytics and NVIDIA with their GPU technology has captured a lot of the attention with this trend.  With over 500 sessions around AI, deep learning and more this conference is a great opportunity to advance deep learning education, learn more about GPU accelerators and get a glimpse ofemerging NVIDIA technology.

There are by far many other interesting conferences out there but these are the ones that I am most excited about this year.   Have another one that you like?  Let us know in the comments and if you are attending one that the Big Data Beard team will be at make sure you stop by to get some swag!

Your Bearded Friend, 

Brett