Big Data BBQ 2019

The "Big Data BBQ" is an IT conference initiated by KÖNIGSWEG. Leading data scientists, software developers, IT companies and economic decision-makers are gathering annually together in Mannheim to discuss the latest and upcoming business cases of artificial intelligence and data science. Among others, the conference deals with questions such as how complicated mechanisms of artificial intelligence can be made transparent and comprehensible.

In July 2019, more than 150 participants and speakers from the data science sector followed the invitation of KÖNIGSWEG and the co-host STARTUP MANNHEIM.

"The greatest added value from data and artificial intelligence comes from people, driven by curiosity and know-how. Data science projects are often misclassified as IT projects - they are research and development. That's why we examine all aspects at the "Big Data BBQ": People, team, technology, knowledge and quality."

Alexander HendorfManaging Partner of KÖNIGSWEG and initiator of the event

The "Big Data BBQ" conference series addresses data science professionals, beginners and innovators equally. Once a year, interested people from practice and theory come together to share their knowledge and create synergies.

Programmers and project managers gave first-hand presentations on challenges and practical solutions in the field of artificial intelligence and big data. In addition to technical talks, for example on the efficient selection of data by Alisa Dammer of Free Now, solutions for the creation of an inclusive and agile work infrastructure by Yenny Cheung (yelp) were also explained. Shailen Sobhee, AI Technical Consulting Engineer at Intel, on the other hand, explained the efficient and targeted use of computer power, using the illustrative example of tumor diagnosis. Miren Urteaga Aldalur, linguist and product manager at Samsung, explained how domain expertise and technical know-how interact in the realization of a data science-based project using the example of the new Samsung language assistant Bixby. Further talks on the transparency and comprehensibility of machine learning predictions (Marcel Spitzer, inovex) and on the relevance of interdisciplinary communication between data scientists and managers (Alexander Hendorf, KÖNIGSWEG) rounded off the evening. The slides on the talks are available on the Meetup page of the Big Data BBQ.

"Big data and artificial intelligence are currently on everyone's lips and confront companies with major challenges. The real dilemma in coping with these is that decision-makers often lack the appropriate understanding of technology. You can't manage anything you don't understand," comments Sieer Angar, referring to the talk of his colleague Alexander Hendorf.

Sieer AngarManaging Director of KÖNIGSWEG

"With our management consultancy we help customers to master these challenges. For years now, we have been an active part of the data science community and can therefore effectively close the knowledge gap between data scientists and data science project managers. We are very proud to have established a successful conference with international speakers and guests in the region and are pleased with the highly positive response of attendees and participation of numerous companies".

Sieer AngarManaging Director of KÖNIGSWEG

This event in its diversity and intellectual depth was only possible because of the active participation of corporates and companies such as Intel, Samsung and yelp. This also applies in particular to the sponsor SZA - an established law firm with a focus on corporate law, IT law, start-ups and cyber security - and the co-host STARTUP MANNHEIM, which is dedicated to promote the start-ups in Mannheim. Guests such as Dr. Jens Brandenburg, member of the Bundestag, and the local councillors Melis Sekmen and Deniz Gedik show the social and political interest in innovations in the data science sector.

Slides and talks of the events can be found here:

Slides of the talks