1st Big Data Insight Group Forum: Review

Big Data Insight Group hosted its inaugural forum yesterday (17 April) with 150 knowledge thirsty delegates in attendance.

The 1^st Big Data Insight Group Forum took place in the familiar settings of the Park Plaza Victoria, London, a venue at which our sister community The Cloud Circle has hosted many of its forums over the years. The day-long event proved to be a great success with an audience of senior decision makers eager to learn more about 2012’s hottest technological trend: big data.

Those in attendance represented a broad spectrum of job functions – including IT, business, and marketing as well as data analysts – from organisations operating in a wide range of industry sectors, private and public.

The sponsors on the day were EMC, Microsoft with IMGROUP, MarkLogic, Cognizant and MicroStrategy. Each provided some fantastic speakers who shared their experiences and insight with the delegates, fielding questions and offering advice on how organisations can overcome their big data hurdles along the way.

There were also some excellent end user case study presentations by Peter Crayfourd from France Telecom (Orange), Kurt Lane from Domino Records, Tony Jaskeran of Havas Media, and the self confessed data geek David Boyle from EMI Music and zeebox. The practical, first-hand experience they could offer on how to make the most of the data you have at your disposal was something that delegates relished the opportunity to hear about.

Other speakers on the day included Simon Briskman, a partner at the law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, who explained the legal issues surrounding data security and analytics, and David Chan, a leading big data academic who is the director of the Centre for Information Leadership at City University London.

First to speak on the day was Emma Taylor, founder and managing director of Big Data Insight Group. Taylor presented the results of the community’s own independent research to establish the state of the big data marketplace. This research formed the basis of the 1^st Big Data Industry Trends Report which was released on the day. Delegates at the forum were the first to get their hands on the exclusive print copies of the report which contains the in-depth analysis of our 300-respondent survey, expert columns, interviews with leading big data adopters as well as case studies and an editorial feature on the democratisation of data. The report is now available to read online here.

The rest of the morning was filled with visionary keynotes by sponsor representatives, a plenary case study by Peter Crayfourd, and the usual opportunity for coffee and networking with peers over what they are looking to gain from big data and the problems they are facing in doing so.

After a highly-praised lunch the agenda was split into two simultaneous streams – one around strategy and planning considerations and the other around gaining actionable insight from your data. This gave delegates the opportunity to pick and choose between the two streams over three different sessions depending on what they deemed to be of the greatest interest and importance to them.

The day ended with the attendees merging together once again for a final case study presentation from David Boyle which was extremely well received. Boyle, who is senior VP of consumer insight at EMI Music and director of insight at zeebox, shared his thoughts on how to best use data to inform decisions, better understand your customer and create new revenue streams.

Some of the key messages to emerge from the presentations and general discussion at the forum were:

• Big data is not just about size, it is about analysing data in new ways to get faster, more reliable and more insightful results.
• Do not become overly fixated on the tools and technologies, big data must be about achieving clear business objectives and the most important aspect is people.
• New skills and personnel will most likely be needed to execute a successful big data strategy, what they are and how you go about finding them will vary from organisation to organisation.
• Big data will not lie within the remit of just one person or department, to get buy-in you will need input from across the organisation – it is a team sport.

Emma Taylor said: “I’m delighted with the success of today’s event. We know that people are still in the very early stages of understanding what big data is and everything it has to offer and I think that the forum offered a great chance for people to learn a lot more.

“Even in the immature market there are already some great examples of just what you can do with big data and to hear the likes of David Boyle present on just that was great.

“The early feedback from delegates has been overwhelmingly positive and the growing interest in the subject shows just how important big data is going to be for so many organisations.”

Such was the demand of people keen to get to grips with big data that we are repeating the event on 19 June. For more information about the Forum, including the speakers and full agenda, please click here.

To register for a free place for you and your colleague(s), please contact Bella Mead on 0207 960 6551 or bella.mead@nimbusninety.com

Videos of the presentations, as well interviews with speakers and big data experts, will be made available soon.