TiEcon 2013 Overview – Focus on Big Data, Mobile, SDN & Entrepreneurship

TiEcon 2013, the biggest conference of its kind, with a mission to nurture entrepreneurship, has an impressive lineup of excellent speakers and panels, in the hottest industry segments of Big Data, Mobile, Software Defined Infrastructure, and in Entrepreneurship.

Big Data track will feature speakers that include, Dr. D J Patil http://bit.ly/YYyOxd, data scientist at Greylock Partners, and Rayid Ghani, http://bit.ly/16Ys2iI , Mr. Obama’s Chief Scientist who converted vast amount of data collected through large commercial databases, boutique lists, voter files, and social media sites, into a source of valuable data that galvanized the election campaign and the rest is history.

Mobile track will hold panels on “mobile ecosystems” to “where they are VCs investing”, in this fast growing market.  The track will feature top notch speakers like Anand Chandrasekhar http://bit.ly/10zEJks, Senior VP and CMO at Qualcomm.

With data centers of the future defined by Software Defined Infrastructure, efficiency is bound to get a boost, as resources get divided.  This track will feature speakers like Dr. Guru Parulkar http://bit.ly/10MyHYw, Executive Director at ONRC and Consulting Professor at Stanford University, with discussions around how OpenFlow might enable networks to evolve by giving power to the remote controller, to modify the behavior of network devices.

Entrepreneurship track has some of the biggest names of inspiring self made entrepreneurs, including famous Ronnie Screwvala http://bit.ly/160LYQB, Syntel’s Bharat Desai http://bit.ly/13HmSrQ, Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics http://bit.ly/ZxDn3f, and Manoj Bhargava  http://bit.ly/17KV6dc, CEO of 5-Hour Energy, possibly the wealthiest Indian entrepreneur, in USA.

Vinod Khosla (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Entrepreneurship is not just a buzzword at TiEcon.  Here future successful entrepreneurs will be showcasing their companies, will get access to mentors like Vinod Khosla and Kanwal Rekhi, and get countless opportunities to network.  The participants will likely include professionals from some of TiE’s 500+ startups and 150+ angel investors.  Come and get energized, in an environment where failures are merely stepping stones to success.

Last few days to register for tiecon, before it is fully sold out – http://www.tiecon.org.

How Big Data helped Mr. Obama Win the Election – Rayid Ghani in Fireside Chat at TiEcon 2013 – Preview

“Share your story”, said Mr. Obama’s website, encouraging visitors to share why they wanted to be involved in his election campaign.  The mastermind behind this project codenamed the Dreamcatcher, was Mr. Obama’s “chief scientist”, Rayid Ghani.  He aimed to convert vast amount of data collected through large commercial databases, boutique lists, voter files, social media sites, and an unprecedented quantity of voter interviews it regularly conducted using paid phone banks and volunteer canvassers, into a source of valuable data to galvanize the campaign, with the use of analytics, algorithms, and machine learning.  The sophisticated algorithms were also used to predict views on particular issues like pro choice and pro life.  Armed with this information, the campaign was more focused in its message and its target and the result was vastly increased efficiency in fund-raising and in volunteer and voter mobilization.

Prior to joining Mr. Obama’s campaign, Ghani was a Senior Research Scientist and Director of Analytics Research at Accenture Labs.  At Accenture, Ghani mined tons of data collected on corporate consumer servers, to find statistical patterns that could forecast the future.  In one instance, he deployed algorithms that replaced health insurers’ random audits, to anticipate which of 50,000 daily claims were most likely to require individual attention.  In another instance, Ghani helped set the terms of price insurance marked to eBay sellers, by developing a model to estimate the end-price for auctions, based on each sale item’s unique characteristics.

Ghani’s interests span a whole gamut from general machine learning and data mining to privacy preserving data mining, text mining, semi-supervised learning, active learning, information retrieval, NLP, and knowledge management.  Most recently, his work has focused on developing and using machine learning and data mining algorithms to solve large-scale practical challenges in business, government organizations, and in politics, like helping Mr. Obama win the re-election.

Come and hear Mr. Ghani discuss the huge potential inherent in Big Data Analytics, in a Fireside Chat at TiEcon 2013 http://www.tiecon.org .

PS – I have a job opening for Machine Learning Professional and details can be found in JOBS category on my blog at http://www.darshanavnadkarni.wordpress.com .

Information about other TiEcon keynotes can be found at following links http://bit.ly/YYyOxd on Data Wizard D. J. Patil,  http://bit.ly/13HmSrQ on Bharat Desai Chairman of Syntel.  Register for TiEcon 2013 at http://www.tiecon.org .