Keynotes.

Captain B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III
"Miracle on the Hudson" Pilot; Contributor to CBS News and Best-selling Author

Captain B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III has been dedicated to the pursuit of safety for his entire adult life. While he is best known for serving as Captain during what has been called the "Miracle on the Hudson," Sullenberger is an aviation safety expert and accident investigator, serves as the CBS News Aviation and Safety Expert, and is the founder and chief executive officer of Safety Reliability Methods, Inc., a company dedicated to management, safety, performance and reliability consulting.

Presenting:

Shane Battier
Vice President, Analytics and Basketball Development, Miami Heat; 2012 and 2013 NBA Champion, Miami Heat

Where Shane Battier went, winning followed. After graduating with honors from Duke University with two Final Four appearances, one national championship, two All-American awards, and Naismith and John Wooden National Player of the Year awards, he was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2001 NBA draft. Battier went on to be part of the back-to-back 2012 and 2013 NBA championship Miami Heat team and a member of the USA Basketball national team.

Presenting:

Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek
CMO of IBM Watson AI

Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek (BB) serves as the CMO of IBM Watson AI. A thought leader at the intersection of data, technology, and strategy, Michelle leads a global marketing team that helps companies unlock the value of AI within their organizations to make more informed decisions and drive better outcomes.

Previously, Michelle served as the global head of marketing for Watson Media and Weather, including a portfolio of products from The Weather Company, an IBM Business. A brand evangelist, Michelle helped businesses understand how to anticipate, plan for, and make better decisions - with greater confidence - in the face of weather.

Presenting:

Spencer Burke
VP of Growth, Braze

Spencer Burke is the VP of Growth at Braze, customer engagement platform that delivers messaging experiences across push, email, in-app, and more. Braze powers cross-channel marketing for the world's largest enterprise and digital-first brands in 40 countries across six continents. He joined the Appboy team in 2011 and over the past six years has helped leading brands develop digital marketing and growth strategies. Previously, Spencer worked at PwC as a management consultant and has his Master's in Information Systems from the London School of Economics.

Presenting:

Susan Cook
Executive Vice President - North American Sales, Microstrategy

In October 2014, Susan Payne Cook joined MicroStrategy as Executive Vice President, North American Sales. In this role, Cook leads sales operations in North America.

Susan Payne Cook brings nearly two decades of experience in analytics in large global technology companies. Most recently, she was a Vice President of Sales in both global and North American roles in the Business Analytics software brand at IBM, which included the Cognos, TM1 and SPSS products. She joined IBM as a Partner and global leader in the Business Analytics and Optimization practice within IBM GlobalBusiness Services.

Presenting:

Rachel Cordrey
Pharmacy Supervisor of Inpatient Operations at Peninsula Regional Medical Center

Rachel Cordrey serves as the Pharmacy Supervisor of Inpatient Operations at Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Dr. Cordrey was heavily involved in the beta testing of Micromedex with IBM’s Watson Assistant at Peninsula. She was also a team member supporting the first integration of Watson into the electronic health record, Epic.

Presenting:

Julie Fleischer
SVP, Head of Customer Intelligence, WW (Weight Watchers)

Julie Fleischer leads Customer Intelligence for WW, a global wellness company and the world’s leading commercial weight-management program. At WW, Customer Intelligence supports the company’s millions of members in their wellness journey and enables WW to touch and impact more people around the world.

Prior to joining WW, Ms. Fleischer led marketing at Neustar, and previously served as Senior Director of Data, Content and Media at Kraft Foods Group. Ms. Fleischer is a proud Board Member of She Runs It, a nonprofit that strives to pave the way for women to lead at every level of marketing and media.

Presenting:

Jon Hyman
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Braze

Jon Hyman is the cofounder and chief technology officer of Braze, customer engagement platform that delivers messaging experiences across push, email, in-app, and more. He leads the charge for building the platform's technical systems and infrastructure as well as overseeing the company's technical operations and engineering team. Prior to Braze, Jon served as lead engineer for the Core Technology group at Bridgewater Associates, the world's largest hedge fund. There, he managed a team that maintained 80+ software assets and was responsible for the security and stability of critical trading systems.

Presenting:

Hugh Owen
Senior Vice President - Product Marketing, Microstrategy

Hugh Owen is the Senior Vice President in charge of Product Marketing for MicroStrategy. He is responsible for the product marketing of MicroStrategy's Enterprise Analytics and Mobile Software platforms. He has been with MicroStrategy since 2000. Prior to running Product Marketing, he launched and ran MicroStrategy's Mobile Product business (launch in 2010). From 2006-2010 he worked as a Senior Product Manager, during which he launched multiple new MicroStrategy Business Intelligence products. From 2000-2006 he cut his BI teeth in MicroStrategy Technology Services. Mr Owen received a Bsc (Hons) degree in Business from The University of Bath, England.

Presenting:

Michael Schoen
Neustar SVP / GM, Marketing Solutions

At Neustar, Michael is developing and perfecting an integrated platform that enables companies to win in the connected age. Michael oversees the end-to-end system of identity that gives marketers a complete, real-time portrait of their customers and prospects based on accurate data, enabling a personalized dialogue across all marketing channels. His leadership has been instrumental in architecting the industry’s most authoritative and real-time marketing platform, built on trusted identity across people, places, and things.

Prior to joining Neustar in 2014, Michael was the EVP, Product at Cadreon, IPG’s cross-channel audience measurement, management and buying platform.

Presenting:

Rob Thomas
General Manager of IBM Data and Artificial Intelligence, IBM

Robert Thomas is the General Manager of IBM Data and Artificial Intelligence. He directs IBM's product investment strategy, sales and marketing, labs, and software product development.

With a portfolio of over 1000 products, IBM has emerged as a leader in data and AI, spanning databases, data integration and governance, business intelligence, planning, data science and AI tools, and AI applications. Major product brands under Rob's leadership include Watson, Db2, Cognos, SPSS, and InfoSphere. He has overseen 4 acquisitions representing over $2.5B in transaction value.

Presenting:

Presentations.

"Miracle on the Hudson" Pilot; Contributor to CBS News and Best-selling Author
208 Seconds: A Lifetime of Lessons

Capt. Sully's story is one of dedication, hope, and preparedness, revealing the important lessons he learned through his life, in his military service, and in his work as an airline pilot. In this riveting presentation, he shares details from the 208 seconds that put his entire career on the line. He reminds audiences, even in these days of conflict, tragedy and uncertainty, there are values still worth fighting for—that life's challenges can be met if we're ready for them. Are you ready to aspire to new levels of excellence in life and business?

Vice President, Analytics and Basketball Development, Miami Heat; 2012 and 2013 NBA Champion, Miami Heat
Lessons From the Intersection of Sports and Technology

While statistics have always been a huge part of professional sports, a focus-shift occurred in recent years: the traditional measurements of athletic success have increasingly been surpassed by more analytical approaches. From Major League Baseball’s sabermetrics to the use of data analysis by a growing number of NBA teams, Shane Battier breaks down how athletes can leverage every point of data available to achieve success, even if they do not live up to many of the traditional metrics.

Audiences will learn: How tech industry trends have intersected with professional athletics, and what every athlete should know if they want to fine-tune their abilities. Strategic takeaways any organization can use to mine the data available to them in order to improve on key performance indicators. The technology available, from wearables to digital analytics, to improve athletic performance.

Senior Vice President - Product Marketing, Microstrategy
Executive Vice President - North American Sales, Microstrategy
Your Real-Life Superpower: HyperIntelligence

When the hero of the moment suits up, she’s aided by a computer that superimposes intelligence on things she sees, such as buildings and vehicles, friends and foes. Is this type of technology just fantasy? Or is it now possible to inject AI, advanced analytics, and ML-generated insights on top of what you see every day to run your business—all in zero clicks? With MicroStrategy, you can instantly view intelligence on physical objects like merchandise, restaurants, and attractions. We deliver context to emails, webpages, applications, and more. Join us for an introduction to HyperIntelligence and experience the superpower that will change how you run your business.

CTO, HPE Pointnext, AI & Data Science Practice
A Story Of Data Bias: Where it Comes From and How to Deal with It

As CTO of HPE Pointnext Services’ AI & Data Science Practice, Glyn Bowden focuses on simplifying complex IT solutions through automation and standardization. In this breakout session, Glyn will explore the challenges around AI and examine the impact of bias, where it comes from and some interesting new approaches to detecting and mitigating bias in our models. He will also explore process, framework and tools you can count on to save you time and help you realize results.

Millard E Gladfelter Professor of Statistics & Data Science; Director of Fox Data Science Center, Fox School of Business, Temple University
Practical A/B Testing Strategies for Complex Socio-Economic Systems

Classical approaches to A/B testing largely rely on assumptions about the absence of network effects, according to which measured outcomes on an individual do not depend on the treatment assigned to other individuals, as well as on other simplifying assumptions including the absence of strategic behavior. In many applications, however, from testing crowd management policies in large amusement parks, to evaluating the effectiveness of health interventions that leverage social structure, the classical simplifying assumptions are untenable. Moreover, network effects are often a quantity of interest, rather than a nuisance. In this talk, we will review some technical issues that arise when we wish to design A/B tests that account for a social network, or correlated behaviors, among the individuals in the population of interest. We will describe a simple strategy for experimental design that leverages statistical models predictive of individuals' behavior.

Vice President, Talent and Workforce Research Leader, Deloitte
Creating a Data-Oriented Culture

As companies harvest the tsunami of available data and drive increasingly more sophisticated analytics, culture becomes a critical enabler of scale and adoption. This breakout will deep dive into four key practices that create a data culture, leveraging research from over 900 companies globally. We will explain what these practices are, give examples of organizations that demonstrates them, show the impact these practices have on business and workforce outcomes, and share lessons learned to capture the broader promise of human potential.

Vice President Product, Einstein Analytics
Be as Smart as Einstein: AI + Analytics for Every Business Hero

AI solutions at Salesforce promise to make companies more productive by augmenting the decisions they make with relevant information. But in practice, how can you deliver algorithmic insights at scale for your business at the moment of action? Join this session to see real-world examples of data and analytics intelligence embedded in any app and hear from our experts on how Salesforce is optimizing business processes for mass media and entertainment companies with intelligence. #EinsteinForAnyApp

Director, Clorox Shopper Science & Experimentation, The Clorox Company
Using “Human” Context to Create Influence

We live & work in a world driven by data and analytics, but we must never lose sight of the fact that in almost every data set we look at, there is a human being trying to tell us something. It’s the “human” elements in our data that create powerful and compelling stories with which to influence decisions. In this session, you’ll learn why “human” context is so important and how to use it to influence decisions.

Strategic Accounts Lead, Dataiku
Solutions Architect, Dataiku
Top 3 Mistakes Enterprises Make With Machine Learning and How to Avoid Them

There is tremendous excitement around data science and machine learning but many teams don’t know where to start. At Dataiku we have a lot of experience working through data science projects with customers from a wide variety of industries. Along the way, we have learned a ton about what works and what doesn’t.

Attend this talk to learn what not to do when getting started with data science and machine learning in the enterprise (and what you should do instead).

Key insights include: -How to identify data sources for your projects and deal with large data volumes -How to process large data volumes so your jobs actually finish -How to build a project team with the right skill sets

Armed with this knowledge you will have the tools to make your next data science project a success.

Director of Technology and Analysis at Disney Design and Engineering (DPEP/FOS)
Vice President of Analytics and IoT Portfolio Marketing, Hitachi Vantara
Unlocking Data Agility with Data Ops

Analytics, ML, and AI are transforming industries. But most organizations still lack the data agility required to take full advantage. Data engineering challenges make it time-consuming to discover, blend, and deliver data. Data governance requirements place new demands on how data is shared and managed. And IoT and distributed edge-to-cloud infrastructures require new ways of working. DataOps has emerged as a collaborative data management discipline focused on improving communication, integration, and automation of data flows. In this session, you’ll learn how Hitachi Vantara is working with innovative customers to leverage DataOps to unlock data agility and turn data into actionable insights.

Marketing Analyst Data Science Strategy & Visualization, Acxiom
Principal Analyst Data Science Strategy & Visualization, Acxiom
Director of Data Science Strategy & Visualization, Acxiom
Machine Learning: It's Not the Black Box You've Been Led to Believe It To Be

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are all the rage in analytic and marketing circles of late. Clearly, this is due to the increased power of these techniques. Their rise to popularity is also due to the new challenges brought about by high-dimensional data sources which were largely unheard of a few short years ago. While exceptionally powerful, ML/AI is not without its criticisms which include solution complexity, believing that it can solve all problems and a lack of transparency and insight generation. This session will explore some of these criticisms, and dive deeper into the insights that can be gleaned from high-dimensionality data sources using ML/AI techniques with the proper diligence. Real examples will be offered that demonstrate the benefit of the power of ML/AI in combination with insights that help marketers bridge the gap between numbers and their target consumers.

Data Science Training Lead, Bayer
Upskilling the Community - Data Fluency at Scale

Business decisions are increasingly driven by data analytics, but training for data fluency has not kept pace with demand. Here I discuss the multi-faceted approach that Bayer has developed to up-skill our colleagues at all levels of the business.

For our "data curious" colleagues we offer regular "learn to code" opportunities including in-person workshops taught in the Software Carpentry style. For our "data fluent" colleagues, we have developed a set of "best practices" for enterprise data scientists. For our management level colleagues, we have developed a reverse-mentoring program that educates our people managers about the roles that data science can play in a modern business environment.

Together, these efforts have helped our colleagues learn to code, become more effective contributors, generated new collaborations, and increased the speed of project iteration. I will share Bayer's experience and the lessons we have learned while iterating through this process.

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Braze
VP of Growth, Braze
The Growth Sweet Spot

Bringing teams, technology, and data together for greater agility Innovations are reshaping industries and today's businesses have to think about how they're building an approach that will ensure they can adapt to new opportunities and solve ever increasingly complex problems. Born agile companies have rewritten how we think about work and the growth of our businesses. In this presentation, we explore how we can find the sweet spot that brings our teams, data, and technologies together to produce innovations

SVP, Head of Customer Intelligence, WW (Weight Watchers)
Neustar SVP / GM, Marketing Solutions
You’ll Never View TV the Same Way Again

TV as we know it, will be altered forever. That is, our new found ability to precisely measure TV changes the game for brand marketers, creating a step-change improvement in insights about the medium. Planning and buying of TV and video formats will be viewed differently from here on out, providing a marked shift in brands’ ability to control reach and frequency across channels, ultimately improving the customer journey.

Principal Data Scientist, Atos
Senior Hardware & HPC Expert, Atos
Quantum Computing: Future Proofing What Lies Beyond Super Computing

The race is on, as more computing power is required to solve some of the most complex, data-intensive problems in existence today. How will quantum computing overcome its inherent challenges - cost, footprint, power consumption, temperature requirements, instability - to leapfrog super computers as the platform for the future? See how quantum simulators are helping to overcome those challenges and enabling researchers and end users alike the ability to develop quantum algorithms that will solve problems faster leading to new pharmaceuticals and medical treatments, improved financial modeling and weather forecasting, cheaper energy production and much more.

Head of Media, Entertainment, & Advertising, Snowflake
Key Trends in the Media and Entertainment Industry and What Role Data will Play

Hear about the three biggest trends occurring in the media and entertainment industry and how your organization can remain competitive. Get expert insights on: 1) The great unbundling of cable and the rise of over-the-top (OTT), 2) How data can drive the ad marketplace to deliver positive business outcomes, and 3) How personalized content and privacy can co-exist. Attendees will understand how these major trends are shifting the role of data from being descriptive to playing a critical role in how media and entertainment companies operate their businesses today

Vice President – HiTech and Media
Vice President, Global Leader, Finance & Accounting Consulting Business, Genpact
Senior Vice President, Finance & Accounting Service Line, Genpact
Digital Finance: Harnessing Agility and Foresight

Finance and accounting teams are responsible for far more than reporting and compliance: they must provide greater strategic insight to build a future-ready enterprise. To enable the shift from cost to value, they are evolving their skillsets and culture to deliver results and stay relevant.

As the role for finance changes, how can you build an agile function? Learn how digital technologies and analytics bring faster, more accurate insights to the business and how teams are embedding hybrid workforces of man and machine to become strategic partners to the business.

Head of North American Sales, Workfusion
Shaping the Future of Work Using Intelligent Automation

Intelligent AI-Powered Automation can deliver meaningful results to the enterprise. Learn how top global companies are using Intelligent Automation as a lever to grow productivity and revenue without growing costs across business operations. In this session you will learn the following:

• How humans and bots work together to automate end to end business processes • Why AI Powered RPA can deliver real results and why RPA alone is not a total solution • How to unchain cost from growth as you deploy your next generation digital workforce

Vice President of Product, Amplitude
Powering the Next Generation of Products

Today, we live in the age of product. Digital products are fully integrated into people’s lives; the best teams are product-led, focused on creating experiences that build customer retention. In this session, Amplitude VP of Product, Justin Bauer, will discuss what the next 2-3 years of product will look like. Justin will share three key product trends: first, a redefinition of product as a full, end-to-end experience; second, a shift to focus on lifetime value; and third, how teams will reshuffle and rethink their priorities to be product-led. We will then walk through real-world examples and end with why product intelligence — not just product analytics — is what will power the next generation of products.

Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Director of the Intelligent Agents Lab
Analyzing the Performance of Software Development Teams on Social Coding Platforms

Many software engineering efforts are conducted by distributed teams working on social coding platforms. These platforms are not only valuable for helping teams collaborate more effectively, but also the data from them can aid our understanding of team cognitive processes. The aim of my research is to use machine learning to model and predict the performance of virtual teams over long time periods. We use data from software developers who collaborate using GitHub, a popular software repository and collaborative development tool. I will talk about three research projects: 1) predicting the productivity of human teams 2) analyzing teamwork collaboration styles 3) studying the impact of automated build process management tools on human teams.

Solutions Lead, InterWorks
Strategic Account Manager, Tableau
Director of BI Markets and Deliver, InterWorks
Solution Consultant, Tableau
Strategic Customer Success Manager, Tableau
The Future of Analytics is Here

Enhance your analytics with a boost from Tableau. The InterWorks and Tableau team will help you get the most value from your data at every step of the process. We’ll start by connecting to datasets to assemble, clean and prep data for analysis. Then, we’ll find the data we want to question, explore how to keep it fresh and, finally, unleash Ask Data to gain additional insights. When it’s all said and done, you’ll be able to chart a new future for your analytics practice.

Session Takeaways • Use natural language to ask questions of your data with Ask Data • Better understand outliers with smart analytics by leveraging smart algorithms to explain a mark • Prepare your data for analysis with Tableau Prep Builder • Utilize Tableau Prep Conductor to schedule flows and search for data to question

Research Director, Retail Analytics Council and Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University
Applied Retail Analytics Use Cases

According to Juniper Research, retailers globally will spend a projected $12 billion on AI services by 2023, up 230 percent versus 2018. As retailers explore AI, various applications are being advanced. In this season, Steven Keith Platt will detail various cutting-edge applications and the results from various experiments his team is undertaking. Models presented and discussed will include store traffic predictions, store labor optimization, demand planning and pricing for perishables, and rolling store sales time-series models.

Senior Director of Marketing, ESPN
Senior Director, Executive Programs, Salesforce
Vice President, Finance – WDW Operations, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
Decoding the Black Box of Your Career

Navigating your career can sometimes be challenging, but you don’t need specialized training to achieve your professional goals. Please join Kathi Riddle (Vice President, Finance – WDW Operations, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products), Rachel Epstein (Sr Director, Emerging Properties & Brands, espnW), and Cindy Tyeskey-Gage (Senior Director, Executive Programs, Salesforce) as they talk with moderator Karin Kricorian (Director, Disney Decision Science and Integration) about how they have successfully piloted their careers.

CMO of IBM Watson AI
Pharmacy Supervisor of Inpatient Operations at Peninsula Regional Medical Center
General Manager of IBM Data and Artificial Intelligence, IBM
The AI Ladder

Rob Thomas, General Manager for IBM Data and AI will discuss and how organizations are looking for new ways to accelerate their journey to AI and applications of AI. While 80% of companies view AI as a strategic opportunity, only 19% of organizations understand the data required for AI, and only 5% have actually adopted AI in a meaningful way. Michelle Boockoff Bajdek, CMO IBM Watson, and Rachel Cordrey, Pharmacy Supervisor at Peninsula Regional, will then discuss how women are shaping the development and use of AI, in applications like patient safety.

Other / National Geographic
EVP, Insights, Analytics & Data Strategy, National Geographic Partners
VP, Analytics, National Geographic Partners
How National Geographic Became the Most Followed Brand on Instagram

Learn about what @NatGeo has done to reach more than 110 million followers (and counting) on Instagram.

The Insights and Analytics team at National Geographic Partners will share some key insights on how they use data to drive strategic and tactical decisions to increase engagement on the platform.

In this presentation, you will gain a better understanding of how to:

* Use insights and analytics to connect with fans on the platform * Cut through the clutter of vanity social metrics to focus on what matters * Champion collaboration between analytics and social media teams to increase engagement and monetization on the platform.

Parks, Experiences, and Products / Other
Manager, WDW Commercial Optimization Platform & Insight, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
Your Organization Wants Analytics, But Needs Insights: How to Transition to Insightful Thinking

Organizations value insight. They build teams with "insight" in their title. They invest in technology that promises to deliver insight. They hire and promote people who think insightfully. But it's more than just a synonym for analytics. So what is exactly is insight? More importantly, what brings about insightfulness? This talk will provide a perspective on what it means to be insightful, what insightfulness means in the context of a data-driven organization, and how you can stimulate insight in your own work and in your partner engagements.

Parks, Experiences, and Products / RM&A
Managing Consultant, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
Director of Data Integration, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
Decision Science Consultant, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
Final Showdown! Python vs "R" -- Which Language Will Rule as THE Analytic Syntax?

In recent decades, there has been grumbling within the realm of analytic practitioners. These practitioners have been forced to make a choice--a choice of which programming language they should use for their analytic solutions. This has caused analysts to choose sides and draw lines on which language is THE right language to use for their solution. Welcome to the war of Python versus "R". In this session, we will present a moderated debate giving both sides a chance to debate their function, their truth, their reason for being the choice for analytics.

With stakes this high, the representatives of Python and R will have to use all their senses, skill, and creativity, as they prepare artistic answers to questions never asked before. The winner will gain the people's ovation and fame forever. In this final battle, the reputation of both the software and the contestants is on the line.

Corporate / Other
Staff Security Automation Engineer, The Walt Disney Company
Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer, The Walt Disney Company
Executive Director of Security Automation and Orchestration, The Walt Disney Company
Machine Learning : An Attacker's Perspective

As more applications rely on machine learning for automated decisions, concerns have emerged about potential vulnerabilities introduced by machine learning algorithms. Sophisticated attackers could target those vulnerabilities and manipulate machine learning algorithms to their advantage. This presentation will explore attacks against machine learning, how to think about the risks, and what should be done to mitigate them. Using real-world scenarios, and a healthy dose of python, this presentation walks the audience through this emerging cyber security risk. Should we be concerned or is this just another doom and gloom story; you decide!

Media Networks / Disney Channel
Executive Director, Consumer Insights, Disney Channels Worldwide
Just Around The Riverbend: The Future Of Content Discovery

Throw your assumptions out the door - what does the future really hold?

In this presentation, Disney Channel Consumer Insights will let you in on the truth about the next generation of viewers - fluent in technology, craving the new and unexpected, being pulled in dozens of directions, kids today are discovering and interacting with media in ways that will impact every business and brand they encounter in the future.

By analyzing daily behavior diaries, interviewing kids in-home with their families, and capturing the steps along their content discovery journey, Disney Channel Consumer Insights uncovered how kids find, try and stick with content; comparisons to last year's study can show us how things are already changing and what truly lies just around the next river bend.

Join us to learn how your content to capture young consumers on their journey of discovery and prepare yourself and your business for what comes next.

Parks, Experiences, and Products / Technology
Vice President, Technology, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
Everyday Magic – From Data to Serendipity

Disney’s Parks are famous for experiences that surprise and delight, from character meet & greets to the sheer wonder of entering Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. While delivering these moments is a deeply human and creative process, there is also an ocean of data to help inform our decisions. How do we ensure that that data is actually producing the results we are looking for? How do we avoid getting stalled in analysis, or incremental improvements, and choose the projects that will truly move the needle? Kathy de Paolo, VP Technology from Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, will share perspective on how the Parks Emerging Tech team decides which problems to tackle, and how to position the results to deliver the magic.

Parks, Experiences, and Products / Disney Research
Researcher, Disney Research
Natural Language Understanding (NLU) Technologies at Disney Research

In this talk, I will be presenting the latest technologies in the field of Artificial Intelligence that we have been developing at Disney Research. The talk covers two main areas: Dialog Systems and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) systems.

The first part of the talk is about our latest research in the area of dialog systems. Human conversations are not just driven by the content of the language but are also influenced by the emotions of the conversers. I will present Emoticon, which is an affect driven end to end dialog system. Emoticon is based on deep learning architecture and takes into account the emotion of the user while generating the response.


In the later part of the talk, I will show how one can develop NLU systems in absence of sufficient training data. I will showcase how the use of linguistic patterns can help to extract relevant information from text.

Studios / The Walt Disney Studios
Director, Business Planning & Analysis, The Walt Disney Studios
Vice President, Data Strategy, Planning and Analytics, The Walt Disney Studios Consumer Experience, Insights & Analytics
Movies Analytics : The Infinity Quest

Avengers: Endgame opened to unprecedented excitement and shattered box office records across the world. Nick Lewerke and Farnaz Shorake from The Walt Disney Studios will share an insider’s view of the movie industry and describe their team uses analytics to drive the theatrical launch success of blockbuster movies. They will discuss how they advance the adoption of analytics with creative partners and will provide a look forward on the continued expansion of analytics in the rapidly changing world of entertainment.

Media Networks / Disney Channel
Director, Consumer Insights, Disney Channels Worldwide
Manager of Consumer Insights, Disney Channels Worldwide
Raise Your Voice: Exploring how Kids and Families Use Voice Technology

Smart Speakers are the most rapidly growing technology in the US, especially in Households with Kids, where ownership has increased 5x in 2 years! Voice Technology is integrated into kids' everyday media consumption through TV/TV connected devices and mobile. There is a growing need to understand this expanding category, all the opportunities and challenges it presents, and how to make compelling content.

This presentation will cover the following:

1. The Role of Voice Technology in the household - how "voice" provides "hands-free infotainment" and serves as a navigational tool 2. Usage and Discoverability - how families discover skills and the most common use cases 3. Breaking through Barriers - identifying the frustrations and pitfalls that families encounter 4. Superstar skills - guidelines for making engaging skills for kids

This presentation is a must-see for content creators who are experimenting in the voice category and anyone in Marketing, Strategy, Insights and Technology.

Parks, Experiences, and Products / RM&A
Sr. Principal, Decision Science, Disney Parks, Experiences & Products
How to Fool Yourself With Statistics and Machine Learning

As data scientists, we like to pride ourselves on making recommendations that are grounded in the data—in the truth! Unfortunately, we can make decisions in our analyses that produce faulty conclusions. In essence, we fool ourselves with statistics. I'll discuss how our data analyses can go wrong, how we can be fooled by the latest buzz words in data science, and how understanding these pitfalls can help us be more honest with ourselves about our data and models.

Studios / Other
Manager, Data Science, The Walt Disney Studios Consumer Experience, Insights & Analytics
Data Scientist, The Walt Disney Studios Consumer Experience, Insights & Analytics
Discovering Audience Preferences through Machine Learning

Understanding audiences is key to a film's success. Movies that capture the imaginations of moviegoers rarely fail at the box office. Yet, intuiting audience preferences is hardly straight forward: moviegoers are a diverse group and their interests vary.

Historically, studios relied on subject matter expertise to predict who a film would appeal to, often leaning on the perennial "it's X meets Y" method. More recently, studios have augmented expertise-based predictions with customer segmentation, panel-based tracking, and other data driven methodologies. However, granular, customer-level predictions have remained elusive, largely due to technological constraints and limited access to quality data. Pairing advanced machine learning techniques with an ever-increasing pool of customer data offers an opportunity to change that.

In this presentation, Matt Nickens and Mitkumar Pandya will discuss the machine learning platform developed by the 20th Century Fox theatrical data science team to enhance our understanding of audiences.

Corporate / Other
Director, Corporate Brand Development, The Walt Disney Company
Vice President, Corporate Brand Development, The Walt Disney Company
From 'Once Upon a Time' to 'Happily Ever After' - How to Deliver Unforgettable Data-Driven Stories

Would we care about Simba's journey to reclaim the throne if his father didn't die so tragically at the beginning of Lion King? Or would Snow White be such an iconic tale without that final magical kiss from a prince? Disney knows better than anyone that the key to great storytelling is a compelling beginning, middle, and end. We can apply the same approach to our research/analytics. The journey starts with the end in mind, by aligning with stakeholders on the purpose of the project, examining outcomes, and understanding any obstacles/biases. The middle is a deliberate execution of customized research and data analysis that can withstand challenges. The end of your journey is a powerful solution that you can present to stakeholders with clear takeaways and recommendations. In this session, you'll learn essential tips from internal experts so that you, too, can shape your projects into outstanding data-driven stories.

Product Demos.

Become a Customer Journey Superhero

The customer journey is as complex as it's ever been. People jump from channel to channel, often multiple times before they convert. But the heart of this customer journey dilemma isn't data itself. It's that data is scattered, and you may not have the tools to act on cross-channel insights. In this session we'll discuss how to:

  • Understand each customer's journey to create an experience that feels like one interaction, even across channels.
  • Increase engagement and build loyalty that will pay off.
  • Know which data is important and how to let the insights improve how you engage with your customers.
Meet Einstein: Salesforce Intelligent Solutions For Every Business App

Join us for this Live Demo to discover the story your data is telling you so you can make the right decision with every interaction using AI + analytics that go beyond business intelligence. #EinsteinForAnyApp

Using Data to Improve Customer Experience and Increasing Revenue with Databricks

Learn how various teams are leveraging the Databricks unified analytics platform to enable data engineering and data science at scale.

Enabling the AI-Driven Enterprise with DataRobot's Automated Machine Learning

DataRobot helps enterprises embrace artificial intelligence (AI). Its automated machine learning platform harnesses hundreds of cutting-edge open source algorithms to discover the best machine learning models for every situation, empowering users of all skill levels to consistently make smarter and faster business decisions. The DataRobot platform automates, trains, and evaluates models in parallel, delivering AI applications at scale. DataRobot captures the knowledge, experience, and best practices of the world’s leading data scientists, delivering unmatched levels of automation and ease-of-use for machine learning initiatives. Learn how companies all over the world are transforming into AI-driven organizations.

MTTR: Maximum Time to Relax with New Relic One

You help customers make the most of magical moments. But what happens when it’s your turn to take time away? On vacation, the only MTTR you should be worried about is your maximum time to relax! Attend this session to learn how New Relic One uses real-time analytics to help teams with complex environments quickly find, visualize, and understand their data so they can take immediate action, deliver better digital experiences to customers, and drive revenue.

Activating TV Viewership Data to Connect TV Across the Media Landscape

TiVo will present a session that will dive into the details of television data and how media and entertainment companies are using it to connect to touchpoints across the content and advertising ecosystems. We’ll inform the audience on what exactly TV viewership data is and can be, how to differentiate it from other types of media data that are frequently used, and some tips and tricks for activating it within your organization to solve for a myriad of challenges. Join us, and learn more about the connective tissue that will join how we do business in the future.

“CouchMovies”

Couchbase combines the performance, scalability and availability of a NoSQL architecture with support for JSON documents, SQL queries, full text search, mobile apps w/ cloud synchronization, cross data center replication and real-time, ad hoc analytics without the need for ETL. We will highlight a number of these capabilities in a hands-on demo featuring a streaming movie library scenario.

Unleashing the Magic in Your Data to Transform the Business

Reimagine how business can be done with data. Find the magic hidden in your complex network of data, people, and systems to create more value from your established infrastructure. This session will provide practical guidance for developing and enhancing your cultural, technological and data strategies to deliver a measurable competitive advantage.

Implementing a Scalable Data Analytics Platform - The DAS42 Way

Planning and implementing a scalable Business Intelligence solution can be a daunting task. This is especially true in an industry where your analytics rely on high-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety streaming data. DAS42 will show you how we help companies implement these data solutions, encourage strong data governance and empower business users. We will explore the benefits of Snowflake and Looker, which questions to ask before beginning work, and how to effectively adopt and roll out the new platform.

AI in Operations: Data Science is Better Together

Data Science is a team sport. Business users, data engineers and data scientists need a collaboration platform to combine their ideas to achieve a business goal. Attend this talk to see how a cross functional team applies their skills to increase purchases of a new smartphone through a data driven marketing campaign at a mobile service provider. A full spectrum demonstration will cover how they learn from the data, use the data to train a machine learning model, and ultimately deploy and monitor model predictions using real time systems.

AT&T IoT Smart Analytics

Time to make your IoT data work harder for your business. Combining IoT device data with external data sources, AT&T uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help gain actionable insights faster. Insights help accelerate results and reduce implementation complexity of your IoT projects. AT&T IoT Smart Analytics helps businesses work smarter with quick, easy, and cost-effective tools to gain predictive and prescriptive insights from IoT device data. IoT Smart Analytics is a set of data science solutions built specifically for IoT with pre-packaged analytics modules, libraries, and visualization tools for building custom analytics to help solve business challenges.

Embark on Self Service Analytics with Alteryx

Say good-bye to the pain of data prep and start spending your time discovering actionable insights. Join us to experience easier data exploration where we combine and enrich a variety of data sources while seeing each preparation step along the way. We’ll show you how to discover new insights with advanced predictive, prescriptive and location analytics. After finding that insight in the data haystack, we will effectively communicate our answers in every format – all from one workflow.

Be Our Guests: How Data Orchestration Provides a Single Source of Customer Truth

What makes a customer feel like a guest? When companies provide a seamless, personalized experience with the brand in real-time. But technological and departmental silos prevent many companies from delivering the experiences guests expect. In order to bring all relevant data together for a complete picture of a guest, your organization needs to effectively resolve identities and stitch together disparate sources of data. Join Jaime Wells, Tealium Solutions Consultant Manager, as he shares the keys to orchestrating data across touchpoints and departments to provide a universal data foundation that will allow you to treat customers like guests.

Single Source of Truth Decision Making for IT and Business

SAP is revolutionizing the way IT and business work together to enable trusted data-driven decision making. Whether you are a business user looking for a user friendly environment, with easy access to data sets, pre-built business models and built-in visualization tooling, or IT wanting a feature rich, customizable data management environment for analytics– SAP Data Warehouse Cloud is for you. Be among the first to see what is possible with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, the only business ready data warehouse in the cloud.

Faster Data Science with PureTools