Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

More than 500 engaged data community members gathered together on March 5 & 6 to celebrate the latest instalment of the global series of data-driven festivals, DATAx Singapore, with the theme “Data Science in the Real World”. With delegates in attendance including technology leaders, financial innovators and smart cities experts, as well as representatives from emerging startups and Singapore government bodies, the event looks to have caught the imagination of Singapore’s booming data sector.

Organized by Innovation Enterprise, DATAx Singapore 2019 featured 70 speakers across four stages, covering Asia’s critical data solutions and valuable business practices, and included leading brands such as Amazon, IBM, Netflix, Oracle, AIA, Axiata, Dyson, Singapore Exchange Limited, Boston Consultant Group, Citibank, American Express and many more. With more than 30 hours of unrivalled content covering topics from machine learning and data analytics, to automation and the cloud, those in attendance learned about cutting-edge technologies and the latest data solutions being implemented at businesses around the globe.

Speaking on the DATAx Leadership and Innovation stage, Dr. Meri Rosich, CDO and Head of Data Science at Visa, spoke about today’s biggest challenges in respect to the scale of data, which she stated were: “Explainability and ensuring there isn’t human bias.” Dr. Rosich also explained to delegates that when hiring, she “looks for people who come from different backgrounds such as airlines, mobile and gaming” as the payments giant looks to address some of the data talent and knowledge issues it faces.

The AI in Finance afternoon session grabbed the attention of the fiscally-focused delegates in attendance with speakers from the likes of Standard Chartered Bank and Singapore Exchange Limited, while the Woman in AI Lunch brought some of the major issues facing gender disparity in the tech world to the fore, and offered solutions on how to solve them.

Speaking on the Data-Driven Marketing stage at DATAx Singapore, Pedro Uria-Recio, Group VP and Head of Analytics at Axiata, declared: “Hey millennials! You’ll be dead before the end of offline marketing.” During his session entitled “Leveraging analytics for more efficient media attribution and allocation”, Uria-Recio reassured delegates that the world of offline marketing remains alive, having measured the impact and performance of offline media such as TV over the last 40 years, with each of Axiata’s companies spending about $10m a month on advertising, of which 50% goes into offline media.

The Smart Cities stage during the second afternoon session of this year’s event, featured presentations from Jim Roovers, Head of Applied Data Science of Dyson, who spoke on “Smart manufacturing — Dyson digital motor” and shared the journey of the development and manufacturing of the Dyson digital motor.

Chris Clarke, Head of Events at DATAx Singapore organizers Innovation Enterprise, remarked: “DATAx Singapore has brought 500 multidiscipline data scientists from across the APAC region to share challenges and work together to push data science forwards through intra-industry collaboration. ”

“Real-life practitioners from Visa, Axiata, World Vision and American Express have been sharing their ground-breaking success stories and we are delighted that DATAx is continuing to shape the data science community.”

Luke Bilton, Managing Director of Innovation Enterprise, commented: “DATAx is a new style of event, designed to arm early adopters with the tools they need to move fast. We are excited to welcome the world’s most innovative brands and partners to build something unique.”

“While AI has now become a real opportunity, it also brings real ‘survival of the fittest’ challenges — only fast-moving businesses are most likely to succeed,” Bilton added.

To continue and extend the success of DATAx Singapore, DATAx is proud to reveal that this global series of data-driven festivals will return to Singapore’s Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre next year. Early registration for DATAx Singapore 2020 is now open.

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