Big Data Conference, StampedeCon, Heads Back To St. Louis Featuring Walmart, Ford & More

If you’re in a big data startup, the StampedeCon big data conference in St.Louis is a can’t miss event. Last year we partnered with StampedeCon as their official media sponsor. Speaker after speaker explained this fast growing technology sector, that’s spawning new, great startups every day.

Last year’s inaugural event featured speakers from Facebook, Read Write Web, Kraft foods and more.

This year’s event will be held July 30-31st at the Washington University School of Medicine and will feature speakers from; Walmart, Ford Motor Company, Deloitte, Riot Games and more.

“Big Data is growing exponentially. Understanding how to control the amount of data available and create a strategy to leverage it is vital to today’s workplace,” said Gary Stiehr, StampedeCon organizer. “Companies without an understanding of Big Data are at a severe disadvantage in today’s marketplace. StampedeCon’s goal is to provide that knowledge to everyone.”

StampedeCon runs July 30-31. The first day will provide insight into developing data and analytics strategies. The second day presents a view into the technologies available to implement data and analytics strategies.

StampedeCon 2013 training partners include Cloudera and Inferology. On July 29^th, Inferology is offering a pre-conference course on NoSQL databases. On August 1^st, Cloudera is offering post-conference training workshops on Hadoop, Hive and Pig.

StampedeCon features presentations benefiting both seasoned IT professionals and those getting started with Big Data. The agenda includes twelve speakers and a panel discussion, with the following agenda highlights:Big Data Analytics: Inside and Out
Michael Cavaretta, Ford Motor Company
Cavaretta will present three areas of opportunity for Big Data Analytics: improving internal processing, understanding customers though external data (including social) and vehicle sensor networks. The presentation will include tips for starting your own Big Data projects.

Big Data at Riot Games

Jerome Boulon, Riot Games

Riot Games sought to understand and improve the player experience for its 32 million users. Boulon will review the challenges they faced creating a Big Data infrastructure that delivers the ability to provide continued insight.

Five Trends in Analytics… How to Take Advantage Today

John Lucker, Deloitte Consulting

Lucker will discuss the latest advancements in the world of analytics and offer strategies for tapping into their potential. The topic areas include visualization and design, mobile analytics and strategy analytics.

Big Data, Big Law

Anthony Martin, Walmart

This presentation will tell the story of one global, multi-channel company’s walk through the increasingly complicated legal, compliance security maze while trying to recognize the implicit value of Big Data programs.

For more information visit Stampedecon.com

St. Louis is one of the fastest growing tech cities in the U.S., here’s why.

StampedeCon 2012 – Kraft Food’s Frank Cotignola on Understanding Consumer Behavior

St. Louis, MO – StampedeCon 2012 – Kraft Food’s Frank Cotignola presented Using Social Media Conversations and Search to Understand Consumer Behavior. His bio reads

As part of Kraft Food’s CIS (Consumer Insight and Strategy Group), Frank focuses on three key areas: (1) Global Analytics; (2) Social Media Listening and Measurement, and; (2) Community Management and Knowledge Sharing. He also authors the Kraft “Randomness” blog, which focuses on digital and analytic topics. His efforts to develop both free and paid listening platforms and insights have led to the integration and usage of such research into traditional “asking” research and shopper insights at the company.

Throughout the presentation there were zero mentions (or very few) of searching for the “brand” instead he discussed searching for relevant terms. Using twitter and or Facebook to identify sentiment about dessert, cookies, and hot peppers and Pinterest to see the pinned recipes. He highlighted two factors that make this such a powerful tool.

First is immediacy. There is practically no wait to see what people are talking about. Twitter and Facebook bring never-ending streams of information directly to him. Instead of waiting for survey results or “going out to talk to people” many queries can be done within an hour. Second is cost. It is ostensibly free.

An additional benefit is being able to gauge response – desserts typically elicits a positive response whereas snacking is something considered a need. Hot peppers presented an interesting variable – in North America the popularity of hot peppers peaks in mid-summer. Being Kraft Foods something like this is invaluable, allowing them to see when they should release a new flavor or when they might release an ad campaign or special.

One of the takeaways, for me, was that many businesses are missing the benefits that come from social media are focusing solely on their brand sentiment. Kraft seems to have figured out one of the largest benefits of social media and search as well. It is not necessarily about the brand at all. Many times, in the food industry certainly, the discussion is not necessarily about the brand itself. Using what customers are talking about nationally and globally Kraft is able to glean insights from the chatter and can use that to plan for products in the near-future.

StampedeCon Big Data Conference In St.Louis Next Week, Interview Here

We’re very glad to be involved with next week’s StampedeCon Big Data conference in fact Nibletz.com is the official national media sponsor of the event that happens August 1st in St.Louis.

The StampedeCon Big Data Conference will feature a whole day of great speakers about one of the fastest growing segments of technology, big data.

StampedeCon founder Gary Stiehr, has put together a great program featuring ReadWriteWeb’s David Storm, Rob Peglar of EMC/Isilon, Bill Eldredge of Nokia, Frank Cotignola of Kraft Foods, Eric Hochmuth of Monsanto, Scott Fines of NISC, Alex Miller of Revelytix, and Jim Duey of Lonocloud.

In addition to the content packed feature speakers there will be a vendor exhibit area and a ton of great people to network with. People are coming from across the country to participate in the first ever StampedeCon and Stiehr tells us he hopes to do more of them. We got to talk to Stiehr in the interview below: