Big Data Camp 2014 in Review

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bigdatacamp_logoFIELD REPORT

It was Saturday, June 14 and I was up at the crack of dawn (which is quite an achievement for a late night data hacker like me) to get over to the Big Data Camp 2014 happening at the DirectTV campus in beautiful El Segundo, Calif. (actually a spartan industrial area just south of LAX). I was anticipating a great day of big data technology focusing on three advertised session tracks: Data Science, Hadoop, and NoSQL. I happen to know that the organizers, especially Subash D’Souza, worked extremely hard for nearly 3 months to get this all-day event signed, sealed and delivered – coordinating the keynote addresses, lining up compelling speakers, finding sponsors willing to pitch in some funding, advertising to attendees, finding reliable food services, and so many more details it makes me dizzy to think about. It was well worth the time and effort, however, because the conference went off without a hitch. I could have used more coffee though; although my interest level was high for all the talks I attended, I still needed artificial stimulation to address the duration of the information overload.

BigDataCamp_sessionThe talks were superb, but sadly I only got to take in the Data Science track sessions which ran in parallel to the other tracks. Each session was literally standing room only in rooms that accommodated 100 people. Some of the most recognized leaders in the big data space presented: Amazon, Rackspace, MongoDB, Activision, MapR, Cloudera, Hortonworks, Lynda.com, Neilsen, Meetup.com, Datameer, DataSift, Factual, Activision, Neilsen, Trace3, Wibidata, Shopzilla, VoltDB, Teradata, MaxCDN, Wipro, IBM, and WANDisco.

A few of my favorite sessions were:

  • The Future’s So Bright (you can barely make any predictions about it), by Timothy Shea of DataSift
  • Data Science: Methods & Tools, by Szilard Pafka of Epoch
  • Call of Data: Navigating a Virtual Warzone in Call of Duty, by Dylan Rogerson of Activision

Some of the session slide presentations are available using the links below:

I think the following sponsors should be recognized for their outreach efforts in providing funding for this conference and allowing everyone (900+ signups) to attend free-of-charge: MapR, Cloudera, Lynda.com, BIGG-DATA, Hortonworks, Shopzilla, Internap, Ticketmaster, MaxCDN, DirectTV, International Management Systems, and Wandisco.

BigDataCamp_lunchThe Mediterranean themed lunch was held in the gigantic-sized DirectTV cafeteria. There was ample food, drinks, and seating. The lunch was definitely a delicious side-benefit for this free event. I’ve to give props to the Big Data Camp organization based in Silicon Valley for being the organizing force behind what they call “an unconference for users of Hadoop & related technologies to exchange ideas in an informal format.” Providing big data events of this quality truly serves local technology communities. Be sure to check their calendar for upcoming events. Highly recommended.

Daniel, Managing Editor – insideBIGDATA

 

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