Big Data 13, 30 Sep to 1 Oct, Dubai

The Big Data 13 conference will run from 30 Sep to the 1 Oct in Dubai, the agenda is now available.  Its focused on the practical application of Big Data and Real-Time Analytics with a particular emphasis on the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region.

To kick off the conference we’ll have a fun live interactive voting session where all attendees have a chance to get involved and shape the direction of the conference. The audience will be asked a series of questions based on the day’s agenda.  As you can see in the questions below the focus is quite practical, cutting through the hype to what it really means to the attendees.

  • Is big data just hype?
  • Do you think big data is a challenge or threat or both?
  • What applications of big data are you most interested in?
  • What are your biggest concerns with big data?

Then we’ll focus on the GCC with a senior keynote panel discussing “What Is Big Data And How Can Organizations In The GCC Effectively Harness Their Big Data To Support Better Business Decisions?” The panel will include Dr. Jassim Haji, Director Information Technology, Gulf Air; Ahmed Al Mulla, VP Information Technology, Dubai Aluminum; and Eng. Ali Al Soma, Director General, E-government Programme – Yesser.

Vikram Singh, CEO, Evision Worldwide will present on “The Function Of Big Data: Assessing Big Data Analytics Across Sectors And Business Units” and I will follow that with a 90 minute tutorial on Big Data and Real-Time Analytics, this will be a complete update of what was presented at the Telco Big Data conference last year.

  • History and Overview: Understanding Big Data and Real-Time Analytics in Context
    • What do we mean by Big Data?
    • Why does Big Data matter?
    • The “3Vs”: Volume, variety and velocity
    • Big Data technologies
    • What enterprises think of Big Data
    • How enterprise verticals are impacted by Big Data
    • Taxonomy of Big Data companies
  • Quick Technology Review: Diving into detail on a few of the key technologies (only as deep as the architecture) to understand their history and capabilities / limitations
    • Hadoop
    • Hadoop and Hbase in the Cloud (Amazon)
    • NoSQL and Cassandra + some use cases
    • Hbase versus Cassandra
  • Case Studies
    • Real Time Analytics for Big Data Lessons from Facebook and Twitter
    • AT&T, Orbitz, Hertz, Yelp, Bankinter, Etsy, Razorfish

In the afternoon we will focus on case studies and practical implementation advice across a range of industry verticals including healthcare, finance:

  • Mohamed Al Redha, Director of Health Data and Information Analysis, Dubai Health Authority will discuss “The Role Of Big Data In Driving The Development Of An Integrated, Robust and Effective Healthcare Sector.”
  • Panel discussion on “Gaining Buy-In From Top Down: Creating A Business Case Of Big Data. How Can You Convince Your CEO It’s Not Just “ A Nice To Have,” It Adds Value!”  including Sami Alom, Chief Strategy Officer, Al Noor Hospital, and Victoria Zagorsky, Business Intelligence Manager, Citi Bank.
  • The audience will be able the engage in a buyers debate, between 2 panels – buyers and sellers, where audience can join in to get their questions answers on what to buy and what not to buy.

Through the second day the focus will remain on case studies and practical implementation discussions such as:

  • Sanjay Sharma, Principal Enterprise Architect, Emirates Group IT, will present on “Integrating And Structuring Scattered Data On To A Single, Centralized Platform.”
  • Akram Assaf, CIO, Bayt.com, will present on “Leveraging The Power Of Data As It Is Generated: Real Time Data Capture.”
  • We’ll have a panel discussion on “Big Data And The Cloud” including Sid Bouziane, CIO, Berlin Health Consultancy; Loai E. Garelnabi, VP of Digital Services, Etisalat; Ahmed Aamer, Head of Group Applications, Al Faisaliah Group.
  • As well as a “Vendor Shoot Out” 7 Minutes, 5 Slides, 3 USPs, 1 Winner.

I find many conferences great wrapped up with the visionary stuff and marketing fluff as well as obsessing on the technology.  When in most cases the technology is the easy bit, its realizing the business benefits that proves to be the hardest part, and that’s what Big Data 13 is focused upon for the GCC region and beyond.