In a joint press conference, MDEC, HRDF and Knowledge Group officially announced the launch of Big Data Week 2017. Following the success of previous editions, this year’s week long celebration of data will kick off on the 2nd – 3rd October with the anchor conference Next Big Tech Asia alongside with Smart Cities Asia in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
The anchor event will bring together over 60 global experts and chief data scientists from leading organisations like Google, Facebook, San Diego City, Helsinki City, New South Wales Government, Fusionex and iFlix to share their experience in turning data into insights.
Dr. Karl Ng, Director, Data Economy said “MDEC sees Big Data Week as an ideal avenue to promote Data Science as a career as well as to highlight the successes obtained by organisations adoption Big Data Analytics. And, for the first time, we will be introducing the topic of Artificial Intelligence to ensure that Malaysians are able to leverage off this up and coming, market-ready technology.”
In efforts to ensure that the insights are accessible to everyone, HRDF has agreed to sponsor 150 SMEs to participate in the main conference. Knowledge Group along with MDEC and ADAX will also be jointly organising free big data trainings throughout the week.
Dato’ CM Vignaesvaran, Chief Executive of HRDF explained, “Training is expensive especially for Small and Medium Enterprises, but SMEs made up most businesses in Malaysia. This is one of the initiatives by HRDF to help our local SMEs so they can be part of substantial programmes such as the Next Big Tech Asia 2017. An investment for their companies, and for the country.”
Selva Nagappan, Managing Director of Knowledge Group commented, “The close collaboration between Malaysia’s key players like HRDF, MDEC and Fusionex is certainly a very encouraging sign for the data economy movement. MDEC’s continued support as a co-organiser throughout the entire process is a testament of their commitment towards MDEC’s role as the custodian of the Data Economy initiative.”
“The festivities will then be wrapped up with TechJam in APW Bangsar which is intended to be a more casual event. In keeping with the theme “It’s Data Science, Not Rocket Science.” he added.
TechJam will showcase big data in a way that the public can appreciate how it’s being used to improve our daily lives. It will also feature food trucks, music, drone performances and insightful discourse about data science.
