Benzinga | Jul 21, 2021 05:23PM EDT

Harnessing Big Data: 3 Best Free Conferences To Attend This Year

Learn how alternative data can be used for your business' benefits

Big data has been the backbone of the modern economy for a while now. Businesses use traditional and alternative data to make more effective decisions, gain a competitive edge, or even base their whole business models on data gathering. However, with the technologies in this area developing extremely fast, those involved with data management, analytics or engineering, need to constantly update their knowledge to stay on top of the field. There's no better way to do that than attending specialized events.

There are a variety of global events concerning data, however, it's important to pick those that provide the most practical knowledge and valuable insights. These three top conferences provide the best balance between use cases for businesses, technical information crucial for developers, and theoretical insights. Furthermore, they are all free of charge!

OxyCon 2021

Dates: August 25-26

Format Virtual event

For whom business representatives, developers, web scraping professionals

More info and registration https://oxylabs.io/oxycon

OxyCon was first organized in 2019, by a leading public data-gathering solutions provider Oxylabs and was very well received among the professional community. This year, the two-day conference returns with numerous presentations by global business leaders, round-table discussions, Q&A sessions, and seminars.

For those who are relatively new to the topic, the conference speakers will explain how alternative data is changing the business and why companies should use it. Data scientists should check the presentation by data consultant and Microsoft Regional Director Allen O'Neill, who'll talk about data quality in web data - one of the most pressing challenges every data scientist faces. Machine learning enthusiasts will be happy to hear from Stripe's engineer Pujaa Rajan, who has been building ML infrastructure in different companies and will share her experience with the audience.

Meanwhile, developers will enjoy a presentation by Adi Andrei, who has been working with organizations like NASA, Unilever (NYSE:UL), SIXT, and others. He will delve into the topic of entity detection in parsed HTML. Technical topics will also be presented by Oxylabs experts, who tackle web scraping challenges every day.

The event will take place online, providing an opportunity to broaden your knowledge from the comfort of your home.

Data Festival

Dates September 15-16

Format Virtual event

For whom Data scientists, data analytics

More info and registration https://datafestival.de/

Data Festival focuses on the value Data & AI bring to business, thus this event is especially useful for those working in data science or analytics roles. They'll be able to hear the experience of other data scientists - what they have already learned, what works and what does not. The participants will get to dive into numeral use cases, best practices, and discussions on what to consider for data and AI to bring tangible benefits.

The speakers will mainly include leading data scientists from major companies in Germany. They will talk about the specific challenges they had to overcome in their job and the strategies they've chosen. The topics will vary from highly strategic ones, for example, involving organization transformation, to those oriented to daily tasks, like content tagging with AI. There will also be practical topics, like how to build an IT architecture for an advanced data platform.

To get a glimpse of what to expect, you may watch the sessions from the latest Data festival on-demand here.

Big Data LDN

Dates September 22-23

Format physical event

For whom Business delegates

More info and registration https://bigdataldn.com

Big Data LDN is the UK's largest free-to-attend data & analytics conference and exhibition, hosting leading data and analytics experts. The event boasts to match businesses that require data and data solutions with technology vendors and consultants. Compared to the other two events on the list, this is the only event that will take place physically - it will be held in the Olympia London exhibition center.

The conference will be headlined by the keynote speech of Tim Harford, one of the foremost writers in economics. He will be joined on the Keynote stage by other renowned experts that will present intelligence on the industry's hottest topics.

Other conference stages will be dedicated to more specific topics - from the tools and techniques required to collect, distribute and control access to data, to data transformation stories of particular businesses, to customer and marketing analytics.

Besides the conference part, the event will also host an exhibition, where attendees will have an opportunity to meet technology vendors and discuss their needs.

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