Data Summit / rvatech

Register for DataSummit '21

Join the technology community on September 16, 2021, as we come full circle with our first in-person conference since Data Summit '20!

Get back into live events + explore a day of incredible presentations given by a diverse line-up of expert data thought-leaders!

Purchase Your Conference Pass

About

Tech is continuously evolving and innovating, making it essential to stay ahead of the curve. So join the Richmond Data community on September 16th, as we come together to exchange ideas, explore data career opportunities + advance your technology skillset!

Date

September 16, 2021

Location

The Virginia War Memorial

621 S Belvidere St, Richmond, VA 23220

Schedule

8:30 AM | Networking + Sponsor Exhibition

Welcoming remarks by rvatech/Data Summit Chair, Lori Jennnings + introduction of our Emcee, Vida Williams

9 AM | Keynote Abhijit Bose

Running time: 9:05 – 10 AM

“Machine Learning at Capital One – An Overview of the Advancements of Machine Learning at Capital One”

10:15 AM | Data Career + Growth Panel

Running time: 10:15 – 11 AM

In this panel discussion, you will hear from real folks who are hiring right now, what they are seeking, what is holding back candidates, and ideas on how to optimize your search.

Moderated by Todd Dube | Cloud Solutions Architect at CarMax

Featured Panelists:

Reginald Leonard II | Associate Director of Career Connections and Community Engagement at University of Virginia

Susan Gorney | Sr. Director Data Strategy & Technology at Altria

Rob Phillips | Director of Technology at CarMax

11 AM | 2020: COVID, Politics and Civil Unrest - What did it Mean for a Data Scientist?

Running time: 11:00 – 11:35 AM

Featured Speaker: Vida Williams | Chief Data Officer/Chief Diversity Officer at SingleStone

11:35 AM | Lunch + LIVE! Podcast with feat. guest David Der of Spring Oaks Capital

Running time: 11:35 AM – 1:00 PM

Hosted by Ford Prior with featured guest, David Der | Head of Engineering at Spring Oaks Capital

1 PM | Data Mesh - Scalable Data Architecture

Running time: 1:00 – 1:35 PM

Organizations have long leveraged centralized data teams to design and build analytic data solutions such as data lakes and data warehouses. As these data platforms expand in scope and usage, these centralized teams often reach a point where they can no longer keep pace with business needs.

Data Mesh is a new approach that directly addresses this challenge. It represents a paradigm shift away from legacy best practices and established enterprise data architecture frameworks, and towards federating data product development across business domains.

As part of this presentation, we aim to provide organizations with:

A fundamental understanding of Data Mesh concepts and value proposition
Benefits the Data Mesh has brought to Mission Lane
How to navigate the “people” aspect of making a shift to Data Mesh Architecture

Featured Speakers:

Rick Vasko | Data Architect at Impact Makers

Mike Carpenter | Data Steward + Reporting Specialist at Mission Lane

1:35 PM | VA's Consumer Data Protection Act - Following California Into the Privacy Frontier

Running time: 1:35 – 2:05 PM

Explore the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. Discuss exemptions, tasks, security mandates
under the Act alongside the new rights that are unfolding for consumers under both Virginia’s CDPA
along with the myriad of other state laws percolating. This session will also delve deep into developing
a battle plan for future-proofing against the onslaught of new privacy regulations nationwide.

Featured Speaker: Beth Burgin Waller | Chair Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Practice at WOODS ROGERS

2:20 PM | Encrypted Traffic Analysis with Machine Learning: Cybersecurity for all Network Traffic

Running time: 2:20 – 2:55 PM

Featured Speaker: Andrew Fast | Chief Data Scientist & Co-founder at CounterFlow AI, Inc.

2:55 PM | Machine Learning in Production

Running time: 2:55 – 3:30 PM

Featured Speaker: Paul Hurlocker | Chief Technology Officer at Spring Oaks Capital

3:30 PM | Happy Hour + Networking

This is your must attend conference if you're a....

Student

This is the perfect opportunity for students, new graduates, or anyone interested in a data career.

Data Practitioner

Anyone who is interested in networking, learning new data applications/tools, and advancing their career by changing careers within the data field or exploring leadership roles.

Data, Tech, or Business Leader

Those who are interested in networking and hearing about innovative data applications and how to derive the most value out of data.

Data Summit '21 Speakers

Abhijit Bose

Managing Vice President Center for Machine Learning

Capital One

Learn More

Andrew Fast

Chief Data Scientist and Co-Founder

CounterFlow AI

Learn More

Rob Phillips

Director Of Technology

CarMax

Learn More

Paul Hurlocker

Chief Technology Officer

Spring Oaks Capital

Learn More

Todd Dube

Cloud Solutions Architect

CarMax

Learn More

Reginald Leonard II

Associate Director of Career Connections and Community Engagement

University of Virginia

Learn More

Vida Williams

Chief Data Officer/Chief Diversity Officer

SingleStone

Learn More

Susan Gorney

Sr. Director Data Strategy & Technology

Altria

Learn More

Beth Burgin Waller

Chair, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Practice / Principal Attorney

Woods Rogers

Learn More

Rick Vasko

Data Architect

Impact Makers

Learn More

Mike Carpenter

Data Steward + Reporting Specialist

Mission Lane

Learn More

About the Event

Welcome to the first full-day DigitalRVA conference. Here Richmond’s digital marketing community will come together to learn, share, and network.

Who Should Attend:

The DigitalRVA conference was designed for digital marketers, by digital marketers. No matter where you are in your career you’ll gain insights from industry leaders at organizations like CarMax, The Martin Agency and Meta.

What You’ll Learn:

Throughout the day speakers will share the latest in cutting-edge digital marketing tactics and strategies with an eye towards AI and automation, marketing technology, and analytics. You’ll leave with a better understanding of the tools and techniques you can apply to your daily work to move the needle.

Date + Time

September 7, 2023

9:00 – 9:30 AM – Doors open & light breakfast

9:30 AM – 5:00 PM – Conference

5:00 – 5:30 PM – Happy Hour

Venue

The Park RVA

2601 Durham St., Richmond, VA 23220

Registration

2023's Featured Keynote Speaker Jaclyn Ruelle

About Jaclyn
Work that transcends culture. That’s what you get with the lightening-in-a-bottle mind and personality of Jaclyn Ruelle, a 16+ year industry vet with an earned-first brand approach that’s catapulting brands into consumers’ hearts and minds. Still talked about, Jaclyn was the strategic storyteller behind one of the most famous viral campaigns: “World’s Toughest Job,” by American Greetings during her time at MullenLowe. She created the first-ever Cultural Impact Lab at the Martin Agency, deploying earned media to the forefront of innovative, cultural storytelling for brands like Buffalo Wild Wings, CarMax, DoorDash, Old Navy and GEICO— to name a few. The Cultural Impact Lab was a fusion of specialists, including comms strategy and paid media experts who create magnetic campaigns engineered for global impact. Now in her first brand-side role at Papa Johns, Ruelle is paving the way for a more humanity driven, pizza-eating occasion brand platform.

What's On Tap

9:30 – 9:45 a.m.

Intro + Welcome

More Details

Kick off the conference with a welcome from Workshop Digital’s Andrew Miller.

9:45 – 10:15 a.m.

Embracing Change: An Optimistic Future for Digital Marketers in a Data-Driven World

Andrew Miller, Workshop Digital

More Details

Andrew will explore how machine learning and analytics are not just shaping, but revolutionizing, the field of digital marketing and how marketers can adapt to stay relevant. Can our strategies evolve fast enough to stay ahead of the tide? Or will we be left behind? The future might be built on silicon chips and algorithms, but it’s also brimming with promise for humans that can embrace the change.

10:15 – 11:00 a.m.

The Tipping Point of Social: How the Landscape is Shifting for Brands and Creators

Meg Craig and Bradley Wells, The Martin Agency

More Details

Unmasking the Challenges
In an era where digital transformation is the norm, we find ourselves at the tipping point of social media. As culture rapidly evolves, algorithms do too. We’re seeing content saturation and creator fatigue like never before. But in the midst of these challenges, how do brands and creators adapt and flourish?

The Martin Agency’s Edge
At CIL, we view these challenges not as obstacles, but as cues for innovation. We take on the battle against invisibility, injecting audience insights and cultural moments to bring brands to the top of the feed.

The Future of Social Media Engagement
The next evolution of social is an exciting realm of possibility, one that’s set to redefine brand and audience connection. We’re seeing audiences and influencers command a larger seat at the table, requiring in-depth audience segmentation, and continued integration of public relations and storytelling.

11:00 – 11:15 a.m.

Break

More Details

Grab some coffee and catch up with friends, old and new.

11:15 – 12:00 p.m.

Auditorium Stage: Know When Strangers Need to Buy

Chris Gatewood, Name Warden

More Details

Use public data to identify strangers’ specific moments of need. Specific events drive specific demand. Unsolicited marketing can be a nuisance, unless it is actually something you need, when you need it. Many of those events can be found in public records, once they are captured and organized.

Business events drive demand. Knowing about those events will drive revenue. Years ago, we started an automatic deadline-tracking service for lawyers. We don’t do that anymore. We now only sell event-driven demand. This is based on publicly reported events that we capture and organize so that a service provider only addresses a current and real need. This is our example. Across many industries, data from other licensing bodies and regulators show events that create demand. We will talk through a few examples such as professional service providers, auto dealers, equipment leasing companies, and high-growth startups.

11:15 – 12:00 p.m.

Beer Garden Stage: AI/Automation Panel

Chris Busse, Terazo, Subhash Jaini, Keiter, Ren Lacerda, CarMax, Patrick Cusumano, Workshop Digital

More Details

Details coming soon!

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Lunch

More Details

Need we say more? Grab some lunch and enjoy the good food, great networking, and awesome venue.

1:00 – 1:45 p.m.

Auditorium Stage: Whole Human-Centered Marketing: Personalizing the Customer Journey Using Modern Data Platforms and Sales Tactics that Return a More Holistic Customer View

Amee Mungo, Terazo

Victoria Flood, Terazo

More Details

The world is steadily continuing its shift from reliance on third- to first-party customer data, and new privacy legislation, including Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), have created unique and sometimes business-altering obstacles for marketers. With these challenges, however, come great new opportunities that, if leveraged correctly, can increase sales, trust, and customer loyalty.

In this session with Terazo’s Chief Strategy Officer Amee Mungo, you’ll gain insights on developing a whole human-centered marketing engagement strategy. Customize your modern data platform to gain a holistic view of your customers, track them across their sales journey, and personalize marketing touchpoints while meeting them where they are on their terms.

1:00 – 1:45 p.m.

Beer Garden Stage: The Future Of SEO Content: How To Rank & Stay On Top Of The SERPs

Bernard Huang, Clearscope

More Details

Google wants to serve users helpful content. What are the characteristics that make content relevant to searchers? And what does this mean for your SEO content strategy moving forward? We’ll cover the evolution of Google’s stance on SEO content and where we’re heading. Come prepared to learn about topical authority, information gain, ranch-style SEO, and the implications of AI generated content.

1:45 – 2:30 p.m.

Auditorium Stage: Influencers 2.0

Rosalie Morton, Padilla

More Details

Just a few years ago, trust in online influencers was at an all-time low, as many were exposed for boosting their follower counts with bots. Initially this led to backlash for the burgeoning industry, but eventually created an opportunity for micro-influencers to take centerstage. These authentic, often locally-focused influencers not only have highly engaged followers, they are usually more cost effective for brands. Their content easily can be repurposed as ads, sharing brand messages more meaningfully than typical advertising. Rosalie will show first-hand case studies of how Padilla has used influencers effectively to drive results, whether it’s for signatures on a petition, creating content that goes viral (yes, actually viral), or simply driving brand engagement.

1:45 – 2:30 p.m.

Beer Garden Stage: Go Beyond Reporting and Uncover the True Impact of Marketing

Brad Goldschmidt, KJ Travis, Zeke Brody, CarMax

More Details

The customer journey is only getting more complicated. Media consumption as at an all-time high and Marketers are tasked with identifying the most optimal way to allocate their spend to drive a true impact to sales. Join Brad Goldschmidt, KJ Travis and Zeke Brody from CarMax, the largest used car retailer in the Nation and find out how their Marketing Analytics team leverages data and Advanced Analytics techniques to measure the effectiveness of Marketing and drive spend decisions.

2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Break

More Details

Stretch your legs and share your takeaways from the sessions during the afternoon break.

2:45 – 3:30 p.m.

Auditorium Stage: Herding Cats: Getting Organized for an Omnichannel MarComm Strategy

Casey Prentice, The Hodges Partnership

More Details

Gone are the days where marketers could get away with focusing on just a channel or two to get their message across. Now, there are half a dozen social media networks, a website or two, maybe even a mobile app or brick-and-mortar to account for. Whether you’re in-house or agency, when it comes to managing an omnichannel MarComm strategy, you’re juggling about a 1,000 parts and pieces. This presentation will cover off on three steps to getting organized and building a foundation before you write your first line of copy or bid on your first digital ad.

2:45 – 3:30 p.m.

Beer Garden Stage: Engage Your Audience Creatively with Instagram

Gibran Jones, Meta

More Details

Engage Your Audience with Meta

In Engage Your Audience with Meta, you’ll learn how to craft and optimize engaging content on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll discover best practices for communicating with your audience and creating content to maximize your business presence online.

In this session, participants will:

Identify what tools and creative formats to use to form a community on Facebook and Instagram.
Learn best practices for creating engaging content on Facebook and Instagram.
Learn best practices for communicating with your audience on Facebook and Instagram.

3:30 – 4:00 p.m.

The Bright Future of Black Boxes: Navigating Paid Media in the Age of AI and Invisible Attribution

Susan Wenograd

More Details

This talk will cover:

The warning signs no one wanted to see, and how it’s culled the pack for successful brands.
How we know more than we think about doing more with media and less data.
The inflection points of where computers outperform us – and how it empowers media buying humans to do our jobs even better.
Why this is all actually good for the future of marketing as a whole.

4:00 – 4:45 p.m.

Keynote: Innovation in Pizza: Creating Brand Differentiation

Jaclyn Ruelle

More Details

We’ll take a look at the innovative marketing efforts by Papa Johns, who is one of the brands leading the way in the mass pizza category.
How does product + consumer + marketing innovations create unique points of differentiation for the brand to stand out and breakthrough.

4:45 – 4:50 p.m.

Conclusion

Nick Serfass, CEO, rvatech/

More Details

Let’s close out the conference together.

4:50 – 5:30 p.m.

Happy Hour

More Details

Need we say more? Let’s end with a great happy hour and networking!

About DigitalRVA

DigitalRVA was founded in 2017 as a series of community meet-up events aimed at bringing together data-driven marketers of all levels of experience, from freelancers to Fortune 500, to create a welcoming, inclusive, diverse set of voices and perspectives to boost Richmond's growing digital marketing community.

This Event Is Currently Accepting Sponsors

Download Sponsor Details

Click Here to Contact Mary Case for Sponsorship Details

RVA's leading Data Conference Returns March 28, 2024

Join the technology community on March 28, for our next conference full of innovation, in-depth workshops, and incredible presentations given by a diverse line-up of expert speakers + thought leaders at rvatech/DataSummit. Get immersed in the world of Data & discover the trends, and innovations shaping the future of technology!

About the Event

Tech is continuously evolving and innovating, making it essential to stay ahead of the curve and explore the year’s trending technology. Artificial intelligence and data science are continuing to move from the realm of university research to be a critical part of a software developers’ toolkit and a key differentiator for forward-leaning companies.

Whether you’re a seasoned software developer, a forward-thinking leader, or someone eager to explore career opportunities in the realm of data science, this conference promises invaluable insights and networking opportunities. Don’t miss your chance to secure your place at the forefront of the data and AI revolution.

Event Details

March 28, 2024

Doors Open 8:00 AM

8:30 AM – 5:oo PM

Hosted at the Science Museum of Virginia – Dewey Gottwald Center

2301 W Leigh Street Richmond, VA 23220

Common Questions

Where exactly am I going?

The Dewey Gottwald Center is located behind the museum. Parking lot entrance is located off West Leigh Street or DMV Drive.

Where do I park?

Science Museum parking is ample and free. Spaces near the front of the building are designated for guests with mobility challenges. All other guests should park in the lot located directly behind the Science Museum, off West Leigh Street, DMV Drive, or the Science Museum’s parking garage off Broad Street. We are anticipating a large number of attendees along with inclement weather. Please plan accordingly.

You may also view a detailed parking map here.

2024 Speakers

Sharon Gai

Author & Speaker

Bayan Bruss

VP, Applied AI Research

Capital One

Nick Agliano

Software Engineer

Simple Thread

Learn More

Karen Akens

Lead Data Consultant

Merakata, Inc.

Kelly Bell

Senior Procurement Analyst

Defense Logistics Agency

Ace Callwood

Director

Envoy

Christopher Chin

Data Storytelling and Presentation Trainer

The Hidden Speaker

Shailesh Deshpande

Senior Vice President, Data Management

Bank of America

Tom Estella

AlphaAdvisors

Founding Partner

Andrew Fast

VP of Technology

DataShapes

Danica Fine

Staff Developer Advocate

Confluent

Ashley Ford

Data Science Director

CarMax

Rahim Islam

Solutions Delivery Manager

MAXX Potential

Subhash Jaini

Managing Director- Innovative Data Solutions

Cristopher Kuehl

VP, AI & Data Science

Akkodis

Matt Leary

Analytics Manager

Markel

Aravindh Manickavasagam

Sr. Technical Program Manager

Instacart

Jason Merrick

Professor

Virginia Commonwealth University

Vishal Patel

Founder & Chief Data Scientist

Derive, LLC

Ina Poecher

Data Science Manager

World Wide Technology

Daniel Pries

Engineering Manager

M&T Bank

Malik Pullela

Head, Global Enterprise Analytics & Enterprise Reporting

Hamilton Beach Brands Inc.

Neelam Singh

Director of Data Analytics

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)

Jason Snook

Fellow

CapTech

Becky Tippett

Chief Accountability Officer

Virginia Early Childhood Foundation

Ankit Virmani

Sr. Cloud Data Architect

Google

Conference Sponsors

Academic Sponsors

This Event Is Currently Accepting Sponsors

Download Sponsor Details

Click Here to Contact Mary Case for Sponsorship Details

Session Details

View the Agenda | Meet our Speakers | Learn about our Sponsors

RVA's leading Data Conference Returns March 2022.

Join the technology community March 2022, for our next conference full of innovation, in-depth workshops, and incredible presentations given by a diverse line-up of expert speakers + thought leaders at rvatech/DataSummit. Get immersed in the world of Data & discover the trends, and innovations shaping the future of technology!

About the Event

Tech is continuously evolving and innovating, making it essential to stay ahead of the curve and explore the year’s trending technology. In 2022, artificial intelligence and data science are continuing to move from the realm of university research to be a critical part of a software developers toolkit and a key differentiator for forward-leaning companies.

Schedule

9:30 AM – 5:oo PM

Student Tickets

Discount Rate – The special discounted rate for student tickets is 25% off. That’s $50 off the regular ticket price!

Discount code: DATA22STUDENT

**All student tickets must provide a student .edu email address when registering**

Conference Registration

Purchase Your Tickets

Venue

Science Museum of Virginia – Dewey Gottwald Center

2301 W Leigh Street Richmond, VA 23220

Common Questions

Where exactly am I going?

The Dewey Gottwald Center is located behind the museum. Parking lot entrance located off of West Leigh Street or DMV Drive.

Where do I park?

You may also view a detailed parking map here.

Meet the Keynotes

Dr. Scott Penberthy

Director, Applied AI, Office of the CTO

at Google

Session: Thinking like Newton

Dr. Scott will share his perspective and personal experience on the journey from being a kid playing baseball and writing code in Midlothian Va, to the rise of AI and Machine Learning, its use in business and most recently the discovery of the source code to life. He’ll show how simple curiosities can lead to grand discoveries, often by making naive observations and asking what at first appear to be stupid questions. These are now leading to the vaccination of millions against terrible disease, the prevention of cancer, and soon perhaps a cure for gray hair.

Dr. Timothy Haas

Professor of Statistics and Wildlife Conservation

Author at University of Wisconsin

Session: How Firms can Apply Data Science to Save Species

Ecosystem loss, extinctions and climate change are ongoing challenges to life on Earth, and coming up with a plan to tackle their effects requires an accurate picture of what’s happening where, and who is involved.

Prof Tim Haas, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, has taught and refined such models for years. In his latest paper, he lays out the case for a model unifying human behaviour, climate and ecosystem data, the computational power required to run it, and the credibility criteria any model should meet to prove its worth.

Conference Agenda

9:30 - 10 AM
Registration + Morning Networking

10 - 10:50 AM | Keynote - Dr. Timothy Haas
"How Firms can Apply Data Science to Save Species"

Speaker: Dr. Timothy Haas – Univ. of Wisconsin

10:50 - 11:20 AM | Keynote - Ovetta Sampson
V.P Machine Learning Experience Design & Responsible AI at Capital One

11:25 AM - 12:05 PM | Breakout Session #1
"Machine Learning Orchestration with Airflow"
Data Ethics Panel

Session: Machine Learning Orchestration with Airflow

Speaker: Dr. Santona Tuli – Astronomer

While more popular as a ETL and data engineering tool, Airflow is also extremely powerful at orchestrating machine learning pipelines. In this talk, I show how you can write complete end-to-end pipelines starting with retrieving raw data to serving ML predictions to end-users, entirely in Airflow.

A plethora of tools have flooded the field of data science, many of which have overlapping functionality. As a data scientist‚ especially as one from a traditionally disenfranchised background with limited resources‚ selecting and learning the right tools in order to maximize one’s competitiveness in the job market, can be intimidating and, possibly, challenging. In this talk, I will walk through an end-to-end data science workflow using only easily accessible open-source software (OSS). Many of these OSS in fact form the basis of the enterprise products that companies purchase as tools for their data professionals to use. Knowing the underlying software can give data scientists the competitive advantage of being tool-agnostic and quick at picking up new tools in an ever-evolving landscape. We will use OSS for data featurization, machine learning model training and serving as well as validation and visualization of results.

Session: Panel on Data Ethics

Speakers:

Abigail Byram – Data Engineer at SingleStone Consulting

Jodi Kuhn – Director, Office of Data Quality and Visualization at Commonwealth of Virginia

Zachary Knitter – Data Engineer, Office of Data Quality and Visualization at Commonwealth of Virginia

12:05 - 1 PM
Lunch Break + Networking
Live Data Privacy Podcast Session

Lunch provided by Groovin’ Gourmet

Live Podcast on Data Privacy and Governance

Featured Guests:

Marcus Thornton, Deputy Chief Data Officer – Virginia Office of Data Governance and Analytics

Souj Narasimhacharya, Senior Vice President of Engineering – Koalafi

Ford Prior, Principal Cloud Engineer – CarMax

1- 1:45 PM | Breakout Session #2
"From Model to Micro-service - ML Deployments At Scale"
"Achieving Data Acumen: Improving Workforce Literacy"

Session: From Model to Micro-service – ML Deployments At Scale

Speaker: Ed Shee, Head of Developer Relations at Seldon

Until recently, the data science / machine learning field has been pretty immature in it’s adoption of DevOps tools and processes. That’s now changing rapidly as engineering teams realise that, in order to gain any value from their ML models, they need to get them into production.

In this talk, Ed will introduce the open source Seldon Core library and show how it simplifies the steps required to containerise, serve, log and monitor an ML model during deployment. Ed will demonstrate live how to build a model using popular machine learning tools, save and store the model artefact and then deploy it to Kubernetes to handle production traffic.

You will learn how to turn an ML model into a production microservice that handles REST/gRPC traffic and how to scale your deployment. You’ll also learn how to use complex model deployment techniques and how to monitor both the infrastructure and the models themselves, spotting drift and outliers as they take place.

Session: Achieving Data Acumen: Improving Workforce Literacy

Speaker: Peter Aiken – VCU & Anything Awesome

1:50- 2:25 PM | Breakout Session #3
"Sculpting Data for Machine Learning"
"Principles of Building Greenfield Data Platforms"

Session: Sculpting Data for Machine Learning

Speakers:

Jigyasa Grover, Machine Learning Engineer at Twitter

Rishabh Misra, Machine Learning Engineer at Twitter

In the contemporary world of machine learning algorithms – “data is the new oil”. For the state-of-the-art ML algorithms to work their magic it’s important to lay a strong foundation with access to relevant data. Volumes of crude data are available on the web nowadays, and all we need are the skills to identify and extract meaningful datasets. This talk aims to present the power of the most fundamental aspect of Machine Learning – Dataset Curation, which often does not get its due limelight. It will also walk the audience through the process of constructing good quality datasets as done in formal settings with a simple hands-on Pythonic example. The goal is to institute the importance of data, especially in its worthy format, and the spell it casts on fabricating smart learning algorithms.

Session: Principles of Building Greenfield Data Platforms

Speaker: Sam Portillo, Data Engineer at Ippon

2:30 - 3:15 PM | Breakout Session #4
"The Pre-cloud to Multi-Cloud journey with Cassandra on Kubernetes"
"Not-so-good-vibrations: Electric Grid Oscillations and Unearned Data Wisdom"

Session: The Pre-cloud to Multi-Cloud journey with Cassandra on Kubernetes

Speaker: Raghavan “Rags” Srinivas, Lead multi-cloud Developer Advocate at Datastax

Although some of today’s cloud properties, like elasticity, scalability, self-healing, durability, DR, etc. seemed revolutionary during the pre-cloud days, Cassandra had many of these properties already. With the ever growing popularity of Kubernetes, the k8ssandra open source project is intended to bring Cassandra’s advantages to the cloud and help simplify operations.

The biggest challenge in the Kubernetes world today is multi-cloud. Although it is easy to conceptualize, it is hard to implement. Attend this session for a quick overview of Cassandra, k8ssandra and Astra (DBaas). You will see how the worlds of Cassandra and Kubernetes on the cloud collide in a remarkably cohesive way to incorporate the best of both.

After attending this primarily demo driven session, attendees will walk away with a good understanding of the k8ssandra project and how it is evolving to support multi-region and multi-cloud. Along this journey we will look at one-off deployments on GKE, EKS including multi-cloud (GKE and EKS). On EKS, we leverage EKS Kubefed.

Session: Not-so-good-vibrations: Electric Grid Oscillations and Unearned Data Wisdom

Speaker: Kevin Jones, Manager – Electric Transmission Operations Engineering Support at Dominion Energy

This will be a fun and novel session that will expose participants to new flavors of data as well as electric grid use cases that address some of the more pernicious challenges of decarbonization. The talk will be grounded (no pun intended) for the practitioner audience by then exploring the perils of applying unearned wisdom on data-focused digital transformation through the lens of this unique set of use cases and data types. It will conclude by providing a (possible) alternative framework, as well as its contemporary significance and necessity, for the transfer and application of such wisdom.

3:20 - 3:55 PM | Keynote - Dr. Scott Penberthy - Director of Applied AI, Office of the CTO at Google
"Thinking like Newton"

Session: Thinking like Newton

Speaker: Dr. Scott Penberthy, Director of Applied AI, Office of the CTO at Google

2022 Speakers

Dr. Scott Penberthy

Director, Applied AI, Office of the CTO

Google

Learn More

Dr. Timothy Haas

Professor

University of Wisconsin

Learn More

Ed Shee

Head of Developer Relations

Seldon

Learn More

Dr. Santona Tuli

Staff Data Scientist

Astronomer

Learn More

Sam Portillo

Data Engineer

Ippon

Learn More

Peter Aiken

Associate Professor of Information Systems

VCU + Anything Awesome

Learn More

Abigail Byram

Data Engineer

SingleStone Consulting

Learn More

Jigyasa Grover

Machine Learning Engineer

Twitter

Learn More

Rishabh Misra

Machine Learning Engineer

Twitter

Learn More

Raghavan Srinivas

Lead multi-cloud Developer Advocate

Datastax

Learn More

Kevin Jones

Engineering Analytics & Modeling

Dominion Energy

Learn More

Marcus Thornton

Deputy Chief Data Officer

Virginia Office of Data Governance and Analytics

Learn More

Souj Narasimhacharya

Senior Vice President of Engineering

Koalafi

Learn More

Jodi Kuhn

Director, Office of Data Quality and Visualization

at Commonwealth of Virginia

Learn More

Zachary Knitter

Data Engineer, Office of Data Quality and Visualization

at Commonwealth of Virginia

Learn More

rvatech/Data Summit Series Happy Hour

Register For This Event

Register for DataSummit '21

Join the technology community on September 16, 2021, as we come full circle with our first in-person conference since Data Summit '20! Get back into live events + explore a day of incredible presentations given by a diverse line-up of expert data thought-leaders!

About

Tech is continuously evolving and innovating, making it essential to stay ahead of the curve. So join the Richmond Data community on September 16th, as we come together to exchange ideas, explore data career opportunities + advance your technology skillset!

Date

September 16, 2021

Location

The Virginia War Memorial

621 S Belvidere St, Richmond, VA 23220

Schedule

8:30 AM | Networking + Sponsor Exhibition

9 AM | Keynote Abhijit Bose

10:15 AM | Data Career + Growth Panel

11 AM | 2020: COVID, Politics and Civil Unrest - What did it Mean for a Data Scientist?

11:35 AM | Lunch + LIVE! Podcast with feat. guest David Der of Spring Oaks Capital

1 PM | Data Mesh - Scalable Data Architecture

1:35 PM | VA's Consumer Data Protection Act - Following California Into the Privacy Frontier

2:20 PM | Encrypted Traffic Analysis with Machine Learning: Cybersecurity for all Network Traffic

2:55 PM | Machine Learning in Production

3:30 PM | Happy Hour + Networking

This is your must attend conference if you're a....

Student

Data Practitioner

Data, Tech, or Business Leader

Data Summit '21 Speakers

Abhijit Bose

Andrew Fast

Rob Phillips

Paul Hurlocker

Todd Dube

Reginald Leonard II

Vida Williams

Susan Gorney

Beth Burgin Waller

Rick Vasko

Mike Carpenter

Title Sponsors

Conference Sponsors

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What We're Looking For

Past Speakers

Hilary Mason

Carlos Rivero

Adam Wenchel

Chris Peterson

Ranju Das

Renee M. P. Teate

Vida Williams

David Der

Rob Finnegan

Miriam Friedel, Ph.D

Ben Harden

Beth Waller

Keynote - Dr. Laurie Forlano

Keynote - Tim Powell

Renee Teate

Mentor - Gabriel Rushin

Mentor - Courtney Layman

Mentor - Kerry Jones

Mentor - Todd Dube

Mentor - Vida Williams

Mentor - Andrew Fast

Mentor - Paul Hurlocker

Mentor - David Der

Mentor - David Moxley

Mentor - Malcolm Charles

Mentor - Zach Anglin

Mentor - Dr. Miriam Friedel

Mentor - Julia Barnhart

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rvatech/Data Virtual Kickoff

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Replay the Webinar

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Time

About the Event

Webinar Speakers

Join the technology community on September 16, 2021, as we come full circle with our first in-person conference since Data Summit '20!

Get back into live events + explore a day of incredible presentations given by a diverse line-up of expert data thought-leaders!