The fourth annual Big Data Congress opens in Saint John on Monday, once again bringing some of the world’s leading thinkers on technology to the region.

The tech consultancy T4G began the conference in Saint John in the winter of 2013, and last year the event was held in Halifax. It returns to Saint John next week, where it is likely to draw hundreds of participants.

The program will delve into data analytics and the Internet of Things, or IoT, especially as they relate to specific industries. There will be panel discussions on how these technological developments affect such economic and social segments as healthcare, resources and the ocean industries.

One keynote speaker this year will be Sandy Pentland, Director of MIT’s Human Dynamics and Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program. Forbes has called Pentland, who will speak Monday afternoon, one of the seven most powerful data thinkers in the world.

“During his keynote discussion at BDC2016, Dr. Pentland will discuss a critical question to regional development in Atlantic Canada: How can we create organizations and governments that are cooperative, productive, and creative?” said the BDC organizers in a statement. “Dr. Pentland’s work, which he dubs “social physics”, brings together computer science, sociology and psychology to better understand human behavior. He believes, ‘the most important thing about big data is the people.’”

On Tuesday, author Alec Ross will examine the trends that will shape the global and local economy in the next decade. He believes that by embracing big data, Atlantic Canada’s fishing, agriculture, and forestry industries can continue to evolve.

“I think that every business needs to have a data strategy,” Ross, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. “I don’t care if you’re a carpenter who makes chairs by hand. You should still have a data strategy for how you identify the people to whom you’re going to sell those chairs.”

The other speakers include Vivek Kundra, former CIO of the U.S. Government and Executive Vice President of Industries at Salesforce; and Kate Darling, Researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Taavi Kotka, Chief Information Officer of Estonia.

On Wednesday, the Big Data Congress will throw the doors open to hundreds of high school students, who will work with some of the convention’s thought leaders to learn about how technology can change their lives.

Tickets for the Big Data Congress are available here.