The Future of Data and Devices: The Photos

D2 is in the books. Our “Future of Data and Devices” tech conference on Thursday delivered on its promise to stir up discussion of where big data, the cloud, and connected devices are converging—and how entrepreneurs and innovators can stay ahead of the curve.

What did we learn? Here are four of my broad takeaways:

1. A major shift in IT is occurring (which occurs only once every 10-15 years) whereby analytics technologies are actually starting to solve real business problems. That’s from Jit Saxena, one of the godfathers of big data. (He admitted that back in his Netezza days, the attitude was more like, “I don’t care about your business problems, look at this cool technology.”)

2. The world has become much more distributed in terms of product design, development, marketing, and talent. Smart companies across different industries are figuring out how to tap into cloud connectivity, data sharing, and more efficient ways of making both software and hardware.

3. Watch out for the apps on your phone that harvest your contacts or location without your knowing about it. Digital privacy is all but dead.

4. Customer data is becoming a form of currency—and an entire ecosystem is emerging to support it. This ecosystem touches, and will even drive, sectors such as healthcare, finance, energy, transportation, and government. That’s from MIT’s Sandy Pentland, who has thought very deeply about these trends.

We had a lot of fun organizing the sessions. Thanks to our always fabulous hosts, the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) in Boston. Special thanks to our event sponsors: Cisco, Comcast Business, Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, MFA—Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, and Roundtable (R.R. Donnelley). And thanks, of course, to all of our speakers and attendees, who made the event amazing.

Last but certainly not least, big thanks to our longtime photographer, Keith Spiro, for the event pictures—check out more of his work at KeithSpiroPhoto courtesy of Kendall PRess.

Enjoy the photo recap above, and see you all next time.

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.