“D2: The Future of Data and Devices” Coming to Boston Nov. 21

Big data, schmig data.

Let’s talk about how the field has really evolved in the past year. Big data has morphed from visionary hype to economic reality. As more companies and industries try to make sense of ever-expanding worlds of information—with mixed results so far—a few key sectors are winning mindshare and investment: product design, development, and marketing in the cloud; connected devices and hardware for health, energy, and social applications; and more traditional large-scale infrastructure for data storage, sharing, and analytics. Looming over everything, though, are huge issues of cybersecurity and consumer privacy.

Xconomy is convening a top group of business and technology leaders for a half-day conference on Nov. 21 that will dive into these areas and much more. It’s called “D2: The Future of Data and Devices” (how’s that for a broad theme), and it’s all taking place at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology at 245 Summer Street in Boston.

The emphasis will be on identifying the real opportunities and challenges of the future—and how New England companies can lead the way in different sectors. In a series of interactive talks and chats, mixed with plenty of networking time, business leaders from the Boston area and beyond will address where big data, the cloud, and devices are converging—and how innovators can stay ahead of the curve.

Our speakers so far include (stay tuned for more):

—Dharmesh Shah, the startup guru and co-founder and chief technology officer of HubSpot, the inbound marketing software company.

—Ash Ashutosh, co-founder and CEO of Actifio, the fast-growing enterprise data management company.

—Justin Borgman, co-founder and CEO of analytics startup Hadapt.

—Bob Brennan, CEO of software security firm Veracode and former CEO of Iron Mountain.

—Ben Einstein, managing director at Bolt, the hardware-startup accelerator and resource shop.

—Rob Gonzalez, co-founder of cloud-based product content startup Salsify (formerly with Endeca).

—Chip Hazard, general partner with Flybridge Capital Partners (involved with MongoDB, Stackdriver, and others).

—Bob Hower, co-founder of G20 Ventures, known for his investments with Advanced Technology Ventures.

—John Joseph, co-founder and president of DataGravity, the enterprise intelligence startup (formerly with EqualLogic).

—Chris Lynch, partner with Atlas Venture and former CEO of Vertica Systems.

—Hardi Meybaum, co-founder and CEO of GrabCAD, the cloud-based design collaboration startup.

—Patrick Morley, CEO of cybersecurity company Bit9.

—Brian Shin, co-founder and CEO of Visible Measures, the video-ad analytics company.

I am working on the detailed program, and you can register here. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Nov. 21 in Boston.

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.