EMC, Actifio, Google Ventures Join “Future of Big Data” Program on Oct. 24

We’ve been overwhelmed with the response to our announcement of the Xconomy forum on “The Future of Big Data” on October 24, at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology in Boston. Tickets have been selling like iPhones—we’re on pace to sell out well before the date.

And everyone and their brother in tech (and healthcare, life sciences, etc.) wants in on the program—because almost everything in the innovation community has a connection to big data or analytics these days. I’ve had to keep a lot of you waiting, which I don’t like to do.

The bad news is you have to wait a little longer while I sort out the agenda. The good news is I’m pleased to announce a few new names in the program. They are all first-time speakers at an Xconomy event, so I am giving them priority here:

—Narayanan “KK” Krishnakumar, vice president and chief IT architect at EMC. I hope KK doesn’t mind being the proverbial 800-pound gorilla. (As EMC goes, so will the Boston area in big data.)

—Ash Ashutosh, founder and CEO of Actifio. This startup is one of the big bets in data management, and an up-and-coming enterprise player.

—Matt Fates, partner at Ascent Venture Partners. Fates has made investments in data analytics and cloud business services. He also recently penned an opinion piece on what’s coming next for big data in Massachusetts.

—Krishna Yeshwant, partner at Google Ventures. Yeshwant is a physician, entrepreneur, and health-tech investor. Will be very interesting to hear his perspective on big data as both a Google VC and front-line doc.

—Richard Dale, founder and managing director of Big Data Boston Ventures (formerly with Sigma Partners). With that new firm’s name, how could we refuse?

These speakers join our cast of characters that includes Brad Feld of Foundry Group, David Friend from Carbonite, Peter Stern of Bitly, Burt Kaliski from VeriSign, and many other luminaries from the Boston area and beyond (some still to come). So join us on Oct. 24; you can still get early-bird tickets (and startup/student rates) here, but they’re going fast.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.