The upcoming event in Los Angeles, Big Data Day LA on June 27, serves as a model for the industry where bringing a quality no-cost conference to the tech community is top priority. I’ve seen first hand how an event like this can come off without a hitch and leave attendees with a sense of getting valuable insights into Big Data technology as I was a volunteer for the same conference last year. It was superb, and I’m looking for the same this year. There are 5 tracks of sessions being offered: Hadoop/Spark, Big Data, Business Use Cases, NoSQL and Data Science. If you’d like to attend this event, you can register HERE. Although the event is free, it will be sold out so registration is required to attend.
For the interview below, I caught up with one of the organizers, Big Data guru Subash D’Souza, to get his thoughts on this conference and what makes it a success.
Daniel – insideBIGDATA, Managing Editor
insideBIGDATA: As one of the organizers of Big Data Day LA 2015, what is your motivation and goals for putting on a free, full-day technology event in Los Angeles?
Subash D’Souza: I founded Big Data Day LA as a way to help gather the LA community around the growing popularity of Big Data. There are several conferences held all over the US and the world but very few happen in the SoCal area which I find sad given that the LA area is second largest metropolitan area in the US in both population and GDP.
Secondly, I see the entry fees to each of these conferences and I think to myself, how does a typical developer or startup/small company afford to send their employees to such events without incurring such high costs. I do believe that a quality conference can still happen without needing to charge a fee to every attendee. We have done that twice before and we are doing it again.
insideBIGDATA: You’re expecting around 800 attendees this year, up from 500 last year. What do you attribute the big growth in interest?
Subash D’Souza: First, I have to attribute that to the buzz words around Big Data, Data Science, Hadoop, Spark & NoSQL. Second, we made sure to have a quality conference with top tier speakers from several top tier companies. Last and most important is that it is free.
insideBIGDATA: The keynote and speakers list for the event is pretty impressive. How did you manage to attract such a high-profile group to take part on a Saturday (presumably their day off)!
Subash D’Souza: I have being doing meetup groups for a few years now and making the rounds at several conferences networking with various people/groups/companies. This has created a great network of people I can request to present at the event. Also working with great organizers like Joe & Szilard helps tap into their respective circles to help drive the quality of speakers we get and getting the attendees . Did I mention the event is free? LOL. We are also providing breakfast, lunch, coffee break and an evening network reception all at no cost. We work with sponsors to help defer the cost. The objective of this event is not to raise money but raise awareness.
insideBIGDATA: What types of attendees do you expect?
Subash D’Souza: We get a wide range of attendees from developers to CEOs and founders but most of our attendees come in trying to learn something from the event.
insideBIGDATA: Any final words to those sitting on the fence about attending? What are the top three benefits for coming out to Big Data Day?
Subash D’Souza: I would say this event is about learning first and foremost. We make this event free because we believe there should be no barrier to learning. If your interest is to learn something new or just getting better at what you do, definitely sign up. The three biggest benefits i see are learning, great speakers, networking and definitely the free aspect. 🙂
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