The success of the Big Data Congress in Saint John on Thursday was driven home to me not just be the crowds but by James Stewart shouldering his way through the packed foyer and saying in passing just three words.
“We got approval,” he said
I wrote earlier this week about Stewart’s startup Repeat Target Vehicles, which analyses data from police departments to pinpoint repeated drunk drivers and warn them not to use their car after drinking.
Stewart yesterday said the Saint John Police Department had just received approval to work with RTV on developing the project. Aside from the lives it will likely save, it’s good news because Atlantic Canada needs public bodies to adopt new technology analysing data.
The first Big Data Congress delved into the meaning and potential of this hot new business, in which specialists analyse reams of data to determine how people will act, what they’ll buy and the like. It’s a field that’s growing so strongly that the U.S. is expected to be short 190,000 analytics specialists by 2018.
That poses an opportunity for Atlantic Canada, and Geoff Flood,
“They say there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” said Flood at the conclusion of the conference, which was attended by 500 delegates, despite January usually being a weak season for conferences.
Flood said the turnout was “a recognition that this can be a data centre of excellence. … It’s about winning the war for talent and getting the right people to come here.”
The sessions were dominated by leading thinkers in technology discussing trends in the field, such as Andrew McAfee, author of Race Against the Machines, and Steven Johnson, author of Future Perfect. But the discussion keyed in on what the region needs to develop into a hub of data analytics.
The broadest discussion was on the attraction and development of specialists in the field. This is not easy because data analysts have to first forage through raw data to find what’s important and then have a deep enough understanding of statistics to analyse it. Then they have to have the sociological powers to understand what the data means and the business or management experience to apply it.
What caught a lot of attention was Harvard Professor Tom Davenport’s statement that no university in the U.S. now offers a degree in data analytics (though there are 59 that offer courses in analytics).
The universities in the region did say after
One session demonstrated that the region has developed one needed ingredient and that is data analytics startups. Tapajyoti Das of LeadSift, Jeff Thompson of UserEvents and Chris Baker of IPSNP all described how their businesses are moving forward in the field.
Flood said the thing that is needed now is for Atlantic Canadian governments and large companies to recognize the power of analytics and begin analytics projects. In line with that, NB Power CEO Gaetan Thomas announced that the utility will spend about $150 million on a smart grid project that could save as much as $1 billion in energy costs.
The need for early adopters is why Stewart’s three-word comment struck home with me – governments are beginning to understand the opportunity of Big Data.
