Name: 4th Annual Big Data & Analytics West Summit
Start: 14/11/2023 03:30 PM +00:00
End: 16/11/2023 01:30 AM +00:00

BMC works with 86% of the Forbes Global 50 and customers and partners around the world to create their future. With our history of innovation, industry-leading automation, operations, and service management solutions, combined with unmatched flexibility, we help organizations free up time and space to become an Autonomous Digital Enterprise that conquers the opportunities ahead.

BMC 

Denodo is a leader in data management. The award-winning Denodo Platform is the leading data integration, management, and delivery platform using a logical approach to enable self-service BI, data science, hybrid/multi-cloud data integration, and enterprise data services.&nbsp;
Realizing more than 400% ROI and millions of dollars in benefits, Denodo&rsquo;s customers across large enterprises and mid-market companies in 30+ industries have received payback in less than 6 months. For more information, visit www.denodo.com or call +1 877 556 2531 or email: info.ca@denodo.com

Denodo

Snowflake enables every organization to mobilize their data with Snowflake&rsquo;s Data Cloud. Customers use the Data Cloud to unite siloed data, discover and securely share data, power data applications, and execute diverse AI/ML and analytic workloads. Wherever data or users live, Snowflake delivers a single data experience that spans multiple clouds and geographies. Thousands of customers across many industries, including 590 of the 2022 Forbes Global 2000 (G2K) as of April 30, 2023, use Snowflake Data Cloud to power their businesses.

Snowflake

From smartphones to connected cars, location data is changing the way we live and the way we run businesses. Everything happens somewhere, but visualizing data to see where things are isn&rsquo;t the same as understanding why they happen there. CARTO is the world&rsquo;s leading cloud native Location Intelligence platform, enabling organizations like TELUS, Groupe Dynamite, CIBC and the NHL to use spatial data and analysis for more efficient delivery routes, better behavioral marketing, strategic store placements, and much more.
Data Scientists, Developers, and Analysts use CARTO to optimize business processes, and predict future outcomes through the power of Spatial Data Science.

CARTO

Adastra transforms businesses into digital leaders. Since 2000, Adastra has been helping global organizations accelerate innovation, improve operational excellence, and create unforgettable customer experiences, all with the power of their data. By providing cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud, Digital and Governance services and solutions, Adastra helps enterprises leverage data that they can control and trust, connecting them to their customers &ndash; and their customers to the world. Adastra North America has offices in Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Miami, and Los Angeles. &nbsp;

Adastra

In today's AI-driven world, people increasingly rely on real-time data in their daily activities &mdash; from ride-sharing updates to digital learning. But what happens when your BI tool lags or you miss a fraudulent payment? Such setbacks aren't just personal inconveniences; they deteriorate the user experience you promise to your customers.
Users now demand immediate insights for informed, swift decisions. Enter SingleStore's SingleStoreDB, the world&rsquo;s leading distributed SQL database for real-time analytical applications. Seamlessly blending transactions with analytics, it ensures minimal latency for vast datasets.
But there's more. SingleStoreDB stands out with its vector capabilities and vector similarity search, essential for facial recognition and text-based semantic search in AI applications.
Industry leaders like Hulu, Siemens, and Comcast trust SingleStore to supercharge their data, guaranteeing exceptional, real-time experiences every time.

SingleStore

Converge&rsquo;s global approach delivers advanced analytics, application modernization, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and digital workplace offerings to clients across various industries. Converge supports these solutions with advisory, implementation, and managed services expertise across the entire IT portfolio. This multifaceted approach enables Converge to address the unique business and technology requirements for all clients in the public and private sectors. Our goal is to provide a trusted partner that brings together world-class solutions and services to help reduce costs, increase efficiency, and create competitive advantages.For more information, visit <a href="https://convergetp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convergetp.com</a>.

Converge Technology Solutions

Versatil is a leading provider of business intelligence, analytics, artificial intelligence, automation, security and infrastructure consulting services and solutions. Our leadership, business and technical expertise in the IBM solutions space enables our clients to achieve greater business performance for more aligned, faster, and better decisions. Our company is certified "Women Business Enterprise", "Aboriginal Business" and LGBTBE. Our values and our expertise are at the heart of our customer approach.

Versatil 

Dataiku is the platform for Everyday AI, enabling data experts and domain experts to work together to build AI into their daily operations. Together, they design, develop and deploy new AI capabilities, at all scales and in all industries. Organizations that use Dataiku enable their people to be extraordinary, creating the AI that will power their company into the future.&nbsp;
More than 500 companies worldwide use Dataiku, driving diverse use cases from predictive maintenance and supply chain optimization, to quality control in precision engineering, to marketing optimization, and everything in between.&nbsp;
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Dataiku

Informatica, an Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader, brings data to life by empowering businesses to realize the transformative power of their most critical assets. We have pioneered a new category of software, the Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud&trade; (IDMC), powered by AI and an end-to-end data management platform that connects, manages and unifies data across any multi-cloud, hybrid system, democratizing data to modernize their business strategies. Customers in over 100 countries and 85 of the Fortune 100 rely on Informatica to drive data-led digital transformation. www.informatica.com.&nbsp;

Informatica

Since 2008, Collibra has been uniting organizations by delivering trusted data for every use, for every user, and across every source. Our Data Intelligence Cloud brings flexible governance, continuous quality and built-in privacy to all types of data. The Global 2000 relies on Collibra to create the critical alignment that accelerates workflows and delivers better results faster. &nbsp;

Collibra

Anomalo helps enterprises trust the data they use to make decisions and build products. Enterprises can simply connect Anomalo&rsquo;s complete data quality platform to their data warehouse and begin monitoring their data in less than 5 minutes, all with minimal configuration and without a single line of code. Anomalo is backed by Norwest Venture Partners, Foundation Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Village Global and First Round Capital. For more information, visit https://www.anomalo.com/ or follow @anomalo_hq.from https://www.anomalo.com/post/read-our-series-a-announcement

Anomalo

IBM is the global leader in business transformation through an open hybrid cloud platform and AI, serving clients in more than 170 countries around the world. Today 47 of the Fortune 50 Companies rely on the IBM Cloud to run their business, and IBM Watson enterprise AI is hard at work in more than 30,000 engagements. IBM is also one of the world's most vital corporate research organizations, with 28 consecutive years of patent leadership. Above all, guided by principles for trust and transparency and support for a more inclusive society, IBM is committed to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world. For more information about IBM visit: <a href="http://www.ibm.com/">www.ibm.com</a>.&nbsp;
IBM est le leader mondial de la transformation organisationnelle avec sa plateforme infonuagique hybride ouverte et l&rsquo;IA, et elle dessert des clients dans plus de 170 pays. Aujourd&rsquo;hui, 47 des entreprises sur la liste Fortune 50 comptent sur IBM Cloud pour g&eacute;rer leurs activit&eacute;s et I&rsquo;IA pour l&rsquo;entreprise d&rsquo;IBM Watson est utilis&eacute;e dans plus de 30 000 mandats. IBM est aussi une des plus indispensables organisations de recherche pour les entreprises, forte de 28 ann&eacute;es cons&eacute;cutives comme chef de file en mati&egrave;re de brevets. Guid&eacute;e par les principes de confiance, de transparence et de soutien pour b&acirc;tir une soci&eacute;t&eacute; plus inclusive, IBM s&rsquo;engage &agrave; &ecirc;tre un innovateur technologique responsable et une force oeuvrant pour le bien dans le monde. Pour en savoir plus : www.ibm.com.

The Alteryx Analytics Automation Platform delivers end-to-end automation of analytics, machine learning, and data science processes that accelerate digital transformation. Develop faster results, deeper insights, better decisions, and ultimately, a cultural shift where anyone can drive business outcomes through self-service analytics and data science.

Alteryx

Safe Software is an all-data integration solution company that helps organizations bring life to their data. With almost 30 years of expertise and 25,000+ enterprise customers across 125+ countries, whatever your data challenge is, we can help you.  Safe Software has been recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools for 3 consecutive years. In the January 2023 Gartner Peer Insights ‘Voice of the Customer’ for Data Integration Tools, Safe Software was named Customers’ Choice  and was the only recognized vendor as North America’s Customers’ Choice.

Safe Software

Generative AI and language model services, such as Azure OpenAI Service, are enabling customers to use and create everyday AI experiences that are reinventing how employees spend their time. Powering organization-specific AI experiences requires a constant supply of clean data from a well-managed and highly integrated analytics system. But most organizations&rsquo; analytics systems are a labyrinth of specialized and disconnected services.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Introducing Microsoft Fabric - an end-to-end, unified analytics platform that brings together all the data and analytics tools that organizations need. Fabric integrates technologies like Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI into a single unified product, empowering data and business professionals alike to unlock the potential of their data and lay the foundation for the era of AI.

Microsoft Azure

SAS is a global leader in AI and analytics, software, including industry-specific solutions. SAS helps organizations transform data into trusted decisions by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW.

8:20 AM OPENING COMMENTS FROM YOUR HOST  &nbsp; Jim Love, CIO &amp; Chief Content Officer, ITWC&nbsp; Gain insight into today&rsquo;s sessions so you can get the most out of your conference experience.&nbsp;

Jim Love

OPENING COMMENTS FROM YOUR HOST

8.30 AM OPENING KEYNOTE: CITY OF RED DEER &nbsp; Cultivating Team Cognitive Flexibility in the Era of Continuous Disruptions&nbsp; In our rapidly (de-)evolving era, adaptability is crucial. We need to improve our ability to course-correct - even without the advent of generative AI, the radically shifting nature of our world is causing strains on our systems, processes, and people. This talk focuses on enhancing cognitive flexibility within teams&mdash;a facet of neuroplasticity. It's vital for IT professionals facing nonstop shifts in technology, business, and culture. Create a blueprint to:&nbsp; Boost problem-solving, spur innovation, and manage uncertainty for cognitive flexibility &nbsp; Become a cornerstone skill embracing practical strategies for leaders and teams to cultivate this skill, from brain cross-training and tackling challenges to encouraging varied team interactions. &nbsp; Excel amidst change in an era marked by continuous disruption, with our own and our team's mental adaptability as a platform for us &nbsp; &nbsp; Gaetano Mazzuca, Chief Information Officer, City of Red Deer&nbsp;

Gaetano Mazzuca

OPENING KEYNOTE: CITY OF RED DEER 

9:00 AM CASE STUDY: FROM SPREADSHEETS TO STRATEGIES&nbsp; Engineering the Next Generation of Quantitative Investment &nbsp; In the beginning, there was Excel. When Viewpoint Investment Partners was a freshly minted investment management firm back in 2016, the first versions of their models were built in massive Microsoft Excel workbooks held together by sweat and grit. Now, in 2023, Viewpoint&rsquo;s team of engineers and data scientists seamlessly build and deploy containerized python models leveraging cloud-native infrastructure and advanced ML technologies. Powering these models are suites of services providing end-to-end automation of all phases of the investment process including data ingestion, feature engineering, optimization, trading, and reporting. &nbsp; &nbsp; Unravel the challenges, lessons, and achievements experienced during the evolution of Viewpoint&rsquo;s cutting-edge global quant investing platform.&nbsp; &nbsp; Benjamin Reeves, SVP Data Science &amp; Engineering, Viewpoint Investment Partners&nbsp;

Benjamin Reeves

CASE STUDY: FROM SPREADSHEETS TO STRATEGIES

9:30 AM INDUSTRY EXPERT: ANALYTICS TRANSFORMATIONS&nbsp; Achieving Meaningful Business Impact with AI/ML &nbsp; AI, machine learning and analytics are key enablers for organizational transformation. Enterprises want to be driven by data, and leaders want to know how articulate the value of their analytic transformations. Gain insight into:&nbsp; Discovering how AI and machine learning can drive meaningful business impact. You will learn how to equip your organization to accelerate decision intelligence and achieve advanced analytics transformations.&nbsp; &nbsp; Heather Harris, Field Chief Data &amp; Analytics Officer, Alteryx&nbsp;

Heather Harris

INDUSTRY EXPERT: ANALYTICS TRANSFORMATIONS 

10:00 AM INNOVATION PANEL: TALENT &amp; SKILLS &nbsp; Preparing Young Professionals for a Successful Career in Data  &nbsp; Demand for data professionals is strong, both in Canada and globally, while the supply remains limited. To bridge the data skills gap, it is essential to explore effective ways of uncovering new talent. Achieve this by exposing your students to real-world business problems, providing practical experience through academic partnerships and training alternatives. Master the success factors to:   &nbsp; Leverage academic partnerships and pursue training alternatives, strengthening communication between industry and universities  &nbsp; Consolidate your AI and analytics tools to keep your organization competitive&nbsp; Cultivate a positive work environment to motivate and engage employees  &nbsp;  &nbsp; Perfect your talent strategy for young professionals to reduce the data skills gap. &nbsp; &nbsp; Qahir Rajwani, Director of Data Science and Analytics Solutions, HOOPP &nbsp; Matt Waynert, Director, Strategic Data &amp; Analytics, connectFirst Credit Union&nbsp; Fahad Zaidi, Director, Engineering (Data &amp; Full- Stack), Neo Financial&nbsp; Dr. Fred Popowich, Scientific Director, Simon Frasor Univeristy&nbsp; Moderator- Daniel Capriles, Director of Advanced Analytics &amp; AI, BDC&nbsp;

Qahir Rajwani

Matt Waynert

Fahad Zaidi

Dr.Fred Popowich

Daniel Capriles

INNOVATION PANEL: TALENT & SKILLS   

10:45 AM INDUSTRY EXPERT: SQL DATABASE&nbsp; Building Real-Time Applications Fuelled by a Modern Data Infrastructure&nbsp; Today's most innovative use cases in every industry require a modern data infrastructure that delivers the speed and scale to fuel real-time applications. SingleStoreDB is a real-time distributed SQL database that combines transactions and analytics, in one powerful engine, delivering the ultra-fast queries needed for limitless, breakthrough experiences. Gain Insight into:&nbsp; Organizations of different sizes, across different industries have developed innovative solutions.&nbsp; Explore how customers simplify their data platforms, reducing TCO and improving performance.&nbsp; Prepare effectively as your company adopt new technologies like Generative AI and be ready to support these new workloads.&nbsp; &nbsp; H&eacute;ctor Tapia, Director, Sales Engineering, SingleStore&nbsp;

Héctor Tapia

INDUSTRY EXPERT: SQL DATABASE 

12:30 PM INDUSTRY EXPERT: DATA RELIABILITY ENGINEERING&nbsp; A Modern Approach to Data Quality&nbsp; Every year, poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million. Why? Growing demand for data puts data engineers under pressure to move quickly and data quality falls by the wayside. Join Egor Gryaznov, CTO of Bigeye and former staff engineer at Uber, to learn how to move faster and have more trust in your data with data reliability engineering. Want to learn about how data engineering is evolving, how companies you know, and love are managing data quality, and how to create processes for scalable and highly reliable data systems? This talk is for you.&nbsp; &nbsp; Kyle Kirwan, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, Big Eye&nbsp;

Kyle Kirwan

Bigeye

INDUSTRY EXPERT: DATA RELIABILITY ENGINEERING 

2:00 PM INDUSTRY EXPERT: GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS&nbsp; Analyzing Weather Risk for 129,591,852 Buildings Every Hour: A Practical Approach to Geospatial Analysis for Big Data&nbsp; Geospatial data is getting bigger and more relevant and understanding the impact of climate change on customers, assets, and locations is increasing in need and relevance. &nbsp; Explore use cases for big geospatial data through the lens of analyzing current and future risk for every building in the United States. &nbsp; Discuss a practical approach to using big geospatial data at your organization with your current tools and teams.&nbsp; Matt Forrest, Field CTO, CARTO&nbsp;

Matt Forrest

INDUSTRY EXPERT: GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS

TRACK 1: TECHNICAL&nbsp; 2:30 PM CASE STUDY: PERFORMANCE FORECASTING&nbsp; Large Scale Forecasting of Promotional Performance Using Deep Learning&nbsp; Many retail companies use promotions to drive sales for specific items. The efficacy of these promotions is measured using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales lift. Trying to predict the future performance of certain promotions requires producing forecasts for these KPIs, which is typically a very challenging problem. This is due to:&nbsp; The large number and diversity of the promoted items, and the counterfactual (i.e. reasoning about how many sales would be generated if an item were not on promotion) nature of the problem at hand. &nbsp; In this presentation we explore how recent advancements in Deep Learning can be applied to solve this problem, and we summarize some of our findings from implementing a custom deep learning solution at the Pattison Food Group.&nbsp; &nbsp; Mirko Moeller, Data Scientist, Save-On-Foods &nbsp; Zipan He, Machine Learning Engineer, Save-On-Foods&nbsp;

Zipan He

Mirko Moeller

CASE STUDY: PERFORMANCE FORECASTING 

TRACK 2: BUSINESS&nbsp; 2.30 PM CASE STUDY: MONEYBALL IN THE REAL WORLD&nbsp; Lessons from Building an Effective Data Science Department in Professional Soccer&nbsp; At Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club, we want to take a data-informed approach to as many decisions as possible. This vision catalyzed the creation of an internal Performance Data Science Department that is at the forefront of soccer analytics in North America. In this session, I will overview the general landscape of sports analytics today, what it&rsquo;s looked like to build our data science department, the ways that we&rsquo;ve integrated with all departments within soccer operations, and the key lessons we&rsquo;ve learned along the way.&nbsp; Johann Windt, Senior Director, Analytics, Insights &amp; Research, Whitecaps FC&nbsp;

Johann Windt

CASE STUDY: MONEYBALL IN THE REAL WORLD 

3:30 PM CASE STUDY: ARCHITECTURE&nbsp; Value Driven Architecture&nbsp; This session will provide examples of making architecture decisions to mitigate technology debt and risks, delivering business value with interim architecture and planning that delivers business value while maturing to the target state that often takes much more time and effort.&nbsp; &nbsp; Di Wu, Director Engineering, Coastal Community Bank&nbsp;

Di Wu

CASE STUDY: ARCHITECTURE

4:00 PM CLOSING KEYNOTE: CUSTOMER INSIGHTS&nbsp; Harnessing Customer Insights to Support Processes&nbsp; In an era where data is a pivotal asset, understanding customer behavior and preferences is crucial for growth and sustainability. Discover how customer insights can help companies improve their processes, illustrated with real examples and preliminary findings from a recent pilot study by First West Credit Union. Take back to your office strategies to:&nbsp; Leverage data to personalize services, manage risks, and enhance member experiences. &nbsp; Develop best practices for emerging trends such as AI-driven personalization and real-time analytics.&nbsp; &nbsp; Melisa Albas, Director Enterprise Insights, First West Credit Union&nbsp;

Melisa Albas

CLOSING KEYNOTE: CUSTOMER INSIGHTS 

4:30 PM CLOSING COMMENTS FROM YOUR HOST  &nbsp; Review the key solutions and takeaways from the conference. Source a summary of action points to implement in your work.

4th Annual Big Data & Analytics West Summit

Agenda

Speakers.css-2zwi6c{margin:0;font-size:1.4rem;font-weight:500;line-height:1.5;color:#494949;font-family:'Poppins',sans-serif;margin-left:0.8rem;}42 Speakers

Heather Harris

Sebastian Richters

Nigel Newton

Dominic Sartorio

Eric Lanoix

Daniel Capriles

Qahir Rajwani

Andrew Hall

Jim Love

Dirk DeRoos

Bob Messier

Taly Kanfi

Owais Hashimi

Riaan Tischendorf

Mark Quigg

Matt Forrest

Paul Twigg

Jeremy Coughlin

Sam Elliott

Melisa Albas

Di Wu

Fahad Zaidi

Don Murray

Sarah Marshall

Sangeetha Varghese

Benjamin Reeves

Matt Waynert

Johann Windt

Zipan He

Aman Sidhu

Rajat Chugh

Héctor Tapia

Gursharan Sidhu

Harold Leusink

Andrew Boudreau

Cleber Souza

Laura Gillespie