Big Data LDN 2023
DataVengers proof-of-concept
As I fly back home to New Jersey on Sept 22, 2023, I wanted to reflect on my first journey to London. I attended the 2023 Big Data London event (Sept 20-21).
I arrived at the airport in Newark on Sept 18th for a 9pm flight – and got to experience my ‘Bernard Marr’ moment of flying first class and sipping champagne. Scott Taylor and I were joking about posting a pic of this - so here it is:
The flight was about 6-7 hours long and I tried my best to get some sleep in the reclinable seat. I knew I had a fun day ahead so it was hard to fall asleep (plus the nothing compares to an actual bed!).
Once I landed – around 9am London time, I caught a taxi and headed on over to my hotel (St. Paul’s)
I met up with Kristen Kehrer (she was staying in the same hotel and allowed me to share her room while I awaited my own). After a quick outfit change, we were both out the door to meet up with the rest of the DataVengers and the Deep Vibe video crew.
We first headed over to the Big Data London venue – Olympia London – to check out the exhibits and presentation halls. I got to see the stages that were being built and the exhibit booths that were in the process of being set up.
The plan was to meet up a the Hammersmith Tattoo shop around noon - for our fun recording of us getting ‘DataVenger’ tattoos on our forearms.
This was one of the most hilarious experiences and I’m glad I got to share the adventure with my data friends.
Thanks again to (Robin) the tattoo artist that put up with our shenanigans 😊
After a few hours of this fun adventure, we were off to have lunch with the group at a Thai food place.
It was fun getting to know the DataVengers and meeting some of them in-person for the first time (Ravit & Andrew). It was also great to get to meet some of the DataVenger partners (like the Data Whisperer ‘Whisperer’ and others).
Later that evening, a few of us ended up at the Q Bar to watch a fellow DataVenger (Joe Reis) DJ and got to meet some folks that we’ve spoken to on LinkedIn (like Mehdi, Chris Tabb, and others).
Day 1 of Big Data London – Sept 20, 2023 – this was the BIG DAY for most of us – we had some time on stage, book signings, and other fun activities planned for the day. After a few hours of walking around the exhibit hall, we went on to listen to the talks from the other DataVengers – the goal was to try and catch everyone’s talk while we were there. Everyone was awesome and brought great energy to the crowd – Jordan talked about Data Literacy, Susan discussed the importance of cleaning data, Scott showed off his puppet skills, Joe talked about data modeling, George had a panel on data governance, and I got to chat about the last inch of data analytics – the importance of the intentional use of color in data visualization.
Huge thank you to everyone that joined my talk – I really appreciate the support.
10 min after my talk wrapped up, I was off to the Book Store (Carruther’s and Jackson) to sign some ColorWise books! I was told that the book was the second best selling of the event – which makes me happy beyond belief!!! I was honestly worried NO ONE was going to buy my book and I’d be sitting there awkwardly when it was time for the book signing – fortunately for me, there were lots of folks wanting to get their books signed – and I had my colorful pens ready to go!
Just seeing ColorWise in other people’s hands made me so excited, I was snapping photos left and right.
I even got to take a photo with some other DataVengers and their books!
One of the BEST surprises of the trip was the amazing custom Funko toys that were awarded to each DataVenger – mine had a pair of running shoes and a DATAcated medal, and was holding a copy of the ColorWise book!
Here’s a photo of all of us with our figurines:
After the event wrapped up,  a few of us went to Flame & Fire for dinner – I had an awesome Wagyu burger with fries.
Day 2 of Big Data London – Sept 21, 2023 – now that my talk was completed, I was able to relax and enjoy the conference. As DataVengers, we partnered up with Ontotext Graph DB to help raise awareness of the importance of knowledge graphs.
As part of this offering, we agreed to have all ten DataVengers take part in a photo shoot – at the Ontotext book – for 30 minutes. It was extremely fun, and we had a great turnout.
A huge thank you to Doug Kimball and the rest of the Ontotext team for believing in the mission of the DataVengers and partnering with us on this proof-of-concept.
Later in the day, we had more DataVengers up on stage as a panel discussion that covered the importance of personal branding, knowledge graphs, AI, social media, and more!
As day 2 came to a close, I walked around as many vendor booths as I could (in a matter of an hour or so) and offered to take selfies with the vendor team. I got to take 28 selfies before my phone battery was close to crashing. Thanks to everyone that took part in my selfie adventure - here are the results:
After this, most of us walked over to the Hand & Flower to catch up with other data friends before heading off to dinner.
We went to Crowne & Sceptre for dinner – I had the fish & chips followed by one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever had! It was great to spend a few hours with the DataVenger + Deep Vibe team.
I want to note that we also had great help from our event manager – Laura Quelch – she helped wrangle the 10 DataVengers and took care of things I didn’t even think about! She even walked around with a DataVenger sign so folks would know where to go after each talk!
It was an AMAZING experience to work with the Deep Vibe team - a professional video + audio crew that joined us on the trip. Thank you for the amazing partnership Michael Gilday + team.
That was a wrap for the Big Data London event, but I still wanted to see a bit of London before my flight home the next day. Luckily, I was able to take the Tube with Kristen around 7am to see some sights in Westminster – including Big Ben, the Big Eye, and other attractions.
We were back in the room by 9:30am to pack and relax before the flight later that afternoon. The flight home felt LONG because I couldn’t wait to see my family AND I was tired!
This was a super fun event and I’m very glad I had the opportunity to be a part of the DataVenger ADVENTURE!
