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- Written by Cody O'Neil
- Category: Blog
Upcoming Events
DigiFest Toronto 2018
Running from April 26-28
An annual innovation event that features guest speakers, cutting edge topics, and student events.
This year's event will follow the theme of: Hello Tomorrow: Our Creative Cities highlighting emerging technology, and global stories of using tech to address issues affecting growing cities and other urban spaces like mobility, food priorities, and education.
Speakers and Guests include:
The event Kick Off Speaker will be, Giorgia Lupi, Accurat Studio (NYC/Milan)
And, discussing Smart Cities will be a panel of:
Rick Huijbregts (George Brown College)
Mayor Frank Scarpitti (Markham)
Paula Kwan (Civic Innovation Office)
Jenna Pilgrim (Blockchain Research Institute)
Geoff Cape (Evergreen)
and Linda Vlassenrood (Netherlands)
Saturday DigiFest is open to the public from 10 to 4 with activities planned for all ages.
DigiFest is organized by the Digital Media & Gaming Incubator at George Brown College.
Find more at:
http://torontodigifest.ca/2018/
http://torontodigifest.ca/2018/speakers2018/
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North America CACS 2018 Conference: Computer Audit, Control and Security
30 April-2 May in Chicago, Illinois
It is more crucial than ever for you to stay ahead of trends and tools. Join us at North America CACS 2018, 30 April-2 May in Chicago, Illinois, and be a part of the top conference for IS audit and security professionals!
North America CACS 2017 was another record-breaking event. Don't miss next year's exciting encore with:
- More than 100 sessions to customize for your goals
- More in-depth options for advanced learning
- Enhanced networking opportunities
| May 01, 2018 | Montreal , QC | 2018 Fundica Roadshow: Pitch and Network for Startups & Entrepreneurs |
A live pitch competition for entrepreneurs looking for funding, insightful speaker sessions, amazing product demos, and valuable networking opportunities with investors, accelerators, and advisors are all in store for this one-of-a-kind, 2018 Fundica Roadshow.
Keynotes & Fireside chats will include:
- Blockchain and the future of early-stage investing
- Startups: the good, the bad, and the ugly
- Startup Failures: Hard lessons learned
- Strategies to leverage 'free money' opportunities
- How do you pitch to a VC?
- How do you attract A-players to join your startup?
- The philosophy behind branding for start-ups
- Legal tips for tech start-ups
| Contact: | For general information please get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. |
| URL: | https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/fundica-roadshow-montreal-rialto-tickets-42246320883?aff=erelpanelorg |
| Where: | Rialto Theatre (5723 Parc Avenue) |
| Time: | 8:30am-7:00pm |
Leadercast Live
May 04, 2018
Cineplex will broadcast Leadercast Live, the world's largest one-day leadership event, to select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 4, 2018. The event, which Forbes calls 'A leadership conference you don't want to miss,' will be simulcast to 700 locations in 20 countries. The theme of this year's conference is 'Lead Yourself', focusing on questions such as: 'What does it look like to lead yourself?', 'How can you intentionally develop your own leadership skills and style?' and 'What qualities do you hope to embody as a leader? Top Leadership experts participating in this year's conference will answer these questions and explain the power and importance of leading yourself first in order to lead others. Leadercast Live will also explore the leadership issues most relevant in today's business environment.
Fireside chat on May 10, with Marc Brouillard, CTO of the Government of Canada, on Digital Transfo
May 10, 2018 Ottawa, ON
Fireside chat on May 10, with Marc Brouillard, CTO of the Government of Canada, on Digital Transformation and Cloud Adoption Marc provides government-wide vision and strategic leadership in pursuing world class excellence in digital integration, information management and technology, and cyber security.
| URL: | http://www.citpa.ca |
Psychology for Digital Behavior Change - Ottawa (2-3 day Workshop)
May 14 - 16, 2018 Ottawa, ON
URL: https://www.alterspark.com/training/psychology-for-digital-behavior-change
Gain new knowledge and skills that will help you improve users' comprehension, motivation, trust, and decision making, to achieve short-term action, and long-term loyalty.
During the workshop, you will learn to recognize and apply over 40 principles of persuasive psychology, and to focus on the mission critical principles that 'make or break' any digital projects.
You'll develop new skills in using psychology for wireframing, digital strategy, and conducting psychological design audits. You'll also learn how to recognize psychological backfires and how to fix them through simple user testing techniques, and optimization approaches.
The content is science-based, but presented in plain language, with visual examples, and practical exercises. You'll enjoy group design projects, live polling, UX/design discussions, hands-on exercises, scenario-based learning and creative group processes.
| URL: | https://www.alterspark.com/training/psychology-for-digital-behavior-change |
| Where: | University of Ottawa. 550 Cumberland St. |
| Time: | 9:00AM to 5:00PM |
| Cost: | $699 with discounts available |
DigiMarCon Toronto 2018 - Digital Marketing Conference
May 17 - 18, 2018 Toronto, ON
DigiMarCon Toronto 2018 is your chance to ... - Hear from the most audacious and provocative speakers in the digital marketing industry. - Gain insight into emerging strategies, the latest innovative technologies, and best practices. - Network with thought leaders, build your network and collaborate with your peers. Come to DigiMarCon Toronto 2018 and discover how to thrive as a marketer in a world where everything is digital.
| Contact: | 8008055385 |
| URL: | https://digimarcontoronto.ca |
| Where: | 525 Bay St |
| Time: | 9am-7pm |
| Cost: | cad597 |
| Hosted by: | DigMarCon Toronto |
Leading Change in the face of AI and Robotics - The Change Leadership Conference 2018
May 30, 2018 Toronto, ON
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the brink of revolutionizing how people live and work across diverse industries and globally, and it is expected to disrupt many work functions. he Change Leadership 2018 conference is bringing together an amazing line-up of industry experts and leaders who are implementing and driving AI and Robotics in their own organizations; this conference will prepare you to lead change in the face of AI and Robotics, and arm you with practical strategies, knowledge and tools! Get ready to Change. Lead. Innovate. Join other professionals and industry leaders from across various industries and the AI ecosystem in this one-day networking, learning and discovery event.
| Contact: | Visit www.thechangeleadership.com |
| URL: | http://www.thechangeleadership.com |
| Where: | MaRS Discovery District |
| Time: | 8:30am - 5:00pm |
| Cost: | from $497 |
| Hosted by: | The Change Leadership |
Customer Success Summit Canada
June 26 - 27, 2018 Toronto, ON
The most effective way to keep your customers is to ensure they are as successful as possible in using your products and services. Get ahead on the newest trend in customer relations to get the most out of your sales. Boost customer lifetime value, reduce and prevent churn, and impact your bottom line.
- Foster a customer-centric culture within your company
- Support and retain your customers
- Customize engagement across diverse channels and segments
- Use customer feedback to improve your products or services
- Bolster customer satisfaction Engage with North America's leading Customer Success experts to transform your customer relations.
| Contact: | 4169449200 |
| URL: | https://customersuccesscanada.com/ |
| Where: | The Old Mill |
| Cost: | https://customersuccesscanada.com/attending/pricin |
| Hosted by: | Strategy Institute |
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- Details
- Written by Rick
- Category: Blog
What is Data Science and Big Data?
The new big thing in business, the buzzword that everyone is throwing left and right in the industry still remains a mystery to many. In this post and many to follow, I will attempt to explain Data Science and Big Data, and their usefulness to many industries in layman's terms.
Why did Big Data and Data Science only emerge now?
Data is becoming increasingly more available, detailed, and affordable. Large amounts of data is being collected by a myriad of methods and devices that every person is using on a continuous basis. Data from web searches and histories, mobile and smartphone devices, sensors, instruments, transactions, and many more. At the same time, technology has boomed in the past few decades to easily organize, manipulate, and explore vast amounts of data in small amounts of time. This marriage between immense data availability and technological advancement naturally gave birth to the field of Big Data and Data Science.
Why not just use the scientific method?
Our technological advancements can easily be attributed to the spread of the scientific method when it comes to solving problems. The scientific method is mostly associated with the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, whereby a problem arises, and to solve it one would follow the following steps:
- Identify the problem through observations
- Create a hypothesis that is based on previous knowledge and observations
- Experiment and collect the relevant data, while keeping repeatability and lack of external factors in mind
- Analyze the data and test if the hypothesis was correct
- If correct, the problem is solved. and you now have a working theory. If not, revise the hypothesis with the knowledge obtained from the collected data, rewrite the hypothesis and repeat until the problem is solved
This method worked perfectly well for STEM fields, which is evident by the ever increasing rate of technological advancement with the spread of the scientific method. However, human, social, and economic fields did not benefit as much from it as scientists and engineers did. The many hindrances to using the scientific method for fields that seek to quantify human behaviour include the inability to do large scale experiments, the lack of repeatability, the inability to control for the innumerable outside factors that can influence the results, and the speed at which cultures change from generation to generation and through the years.
The dawn of Big Data
Here is where big data made its name. There is no need to conduct costly and time consuming experiments to collect data when all of it is available to you immediately and is being updated in real time. The sheer size of the data collected constantly from a plethora of sources has facilitated the use of logic and data driven decisions in traditionally qualitative fields. The large data acts as the subject of experiments, where hypotheses can be tested using the now already collected data for validation.
Moreover, one of Big Data's greatest advantages is that it opened the door for exploratory research. Not only can the data answer questions that couldn't be previously tested, it also contains answers to questions that haven't been asked yet. Diving into the data and trying to find hints of correlations is now made possible with Big Data. Virtually every sector of the economy now has access to tons of data, and businesses are accumulating new data at a rate that exceeds their capacity to extract value from it. Here is where Data Scientists truly shine, they are explorers who dig deep and find those pesky correlations that no one saw before. Using statistically significant correlations in business strategy and decision making is now easier than ever.
