2016 saw an unprecedented number of artificial intelligence focused events across the world.  We are part of this growing industry and, even though we are more focused on the DevOps/Tech ops industry, we track all things A.I. all the time.  In this article, we offer our perspective on some of the most worthwhile events focused on A.I., machine learning and machine intelligence in 2017. 

When: 19-21, January

Where: Santa Clara, USA

This conference is described as a ‘vendor agnostic’ conference and is dedicated to open discourse on A.I. as applied across all industry verticals.  There are over 50 speakers at the conference and you will have an opportunity to speak to some of the brightest minds in the industry.  The conference focuses on real-world applications of A.I. and a number of use cases will be presented.  Interesting tracks include: “Machine Learning at Scale”; “AI and the automation of the business back office”; and “The role of security assistants to protect corporations and individuals in a cloud, mobile and IoT world”. 

When: 26-27, January 2017

Where: San Francisco, USA

WIth an impressive line-up of expert speakers from the business and academic sectors, the 9th annual Deep Learning Summit is an opportunity to explore the ‘smart artificial intelligence revolution’.  The event invites data scientists from all professional levels to discover emerging trends and applications of A.I. alongside the chance to rub shoulders with industry movers-and-shakers.  We are really looking forward to the keynote, ‘Reprogramming the Human Genome: Why AI is Needed’, that will be delivered by machine learning expert, Dr. Brendan Frey.  International sponsors like leading enterprises Apple, Hitachi, PWC and Alphasense, hint that this event is not for the faint-hearted. 

When: 4-9, February

Where: San Francisco, USA

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence or AAAI offers a long standing and well respected conference on Artificial Intelligence.  This event is where the researchers and scientists meet the engineers and technicians.  Sponsors include Amazon, IBM, and Capital One. 

One of the highlights of this year’s conference is the special event on “A.I. in Practice” which presents key successes of AI within a commercial context.  Interesting workshops at the 2017 event include: “Knowledge-Based Techniques for Problem Solving and Reasoning”; “Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security”; and “Developing Artificial Intelligence Startup Companies”.  This conference also offers tutorials in subjects such as “Deep Learning Implementations and Frameworks”; “Eliciting High-Quality Information”; and “Predicting Human Decision-Making: Tools of the Trade”.  The conference will also have a number of exhibitors from companies within the industry. 

When: 6-8, March

Where: San Francisco, USA

The annual AI by the Bay is perhaps the most unique conference because there are no sponsored talks and every talk is accepted on the technical merit of the speaker and the content. 

Speakers and panelists include data scientists, entrepreneurs and developers that have vision and who have built their businesses, concepts and technologies from scratch.  The cream of the crop. 

Each day of the conference is themed and, therefore, presentations, workshops, etc.  will be based on these themes.  Industry experts such as, Chris Fregly, Research Scientist at PipelineIO; Wolfgang Juchmann, ‎VP of Sales & Business Development at AutonomouStuff; Carlos Guestrin, Director of Machine Learning, Apple; and Shubha Nabar Director, Data Science at Salesforce, are just a few of the impressive speakers already on the roster. 

When: 13-16, March

Where: St. Raphael Resort, Cyprus

The Association for Computing Machinery host the ACM IUI conference which is described as “where A.I. meets Human-Computer Interface (HCI)”.  This conference has some of the foremost cutting edge developments in the world of A.I., with a focus on interfacing with that technology.  The conference has both workshops and tutorials.  An interesting workshop for DevOps is “Exploratory Search and Interactive Data Analytics” which focuses on data visualization for exploratory and investigative analysis. 

When: 3, May

Where: Boston, USA

Co-located with ODSC East 2017, the CxO Summit will allow you to advance your knowledge in applied artificial intelligence.  This years event is still in the planning stages, but last year’s conference did bring out heavy hitters like Bob Rogers, Chief Data Scientists for Analytics and AI Solutions for Intel and Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer of Barclays.  The summit delves into how AI and data science is changing industries like healthcare, finance, transportation and so much more. 

There is no doubt that this year’s event will prepare your company to begin implementing a wide range of tools and methods like machine learning, data visualization, automation, while adopting the latest practices in law, ethics and governance.  Stay tuned for more details. 

When: 9-10, May

Where: London, UK

The A.I. Summit is a large show with over 7,000 sponsors and exhibitors, so plenty of companies to discuss your DevOps and Tech ops needs with.  The conference will present real-world case studies from across most industry sectors – something for everyone!  Speakers at this year’s event are people at the forefront of using A.I. in business and include, Google, Facebook, Allianz, Microsoft, and Procter and Gamble.  Watch out for A.I. Summit events focused on industry verticals such as finance. 

When: 11, May

Where: San Francisco, USA

Hosts, BootstrapLabs, launched the Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference in 2016.  The event was decent and, with about 400 registered attendees, was reasonably well-attended.  Last year’s speakers included representatives from IBM Watson, FaceBook, Uber, and Accenture.  The conference intends to gather researchers and scientist as well as A.I. practitioners.  It felt like a first time event last year for sure, but we can see this event growing in stature in 2017 given the location and the fact that the theme is becoming more popular.  The production value should also increase, the team behind is intent on growing this event as their main brand building initiative.  Expect lots of start-ups, executives and investors, it should be a good networking event as well as a good learning opportunity. 

When: 26-29, June

Where: New York, USA

Artificial Intelligence 2017 sponsors include Intel and NVIDIA.  This conference is all about the application of Artificial Intelligence and looks at the engineering principles of doing so.  One of the key things about this conference is that it looks at the tools of the trade, and the algorithms and architectures as applied to real world scenarios such as those within finance.  This year, some of the verticals of interest for DevOps include anomaly detection and enterprise adoption/acceptance of the technology.  Tech Ops will find interest in their focus on implementing A.I. across enterprise infrastructure and workshops on real-world use cases.  There will be lots of crossover attendees and participants from Strata which is held around the same dates in NYC as well.  With VCs and corporates galore, this one is a good bet in general. 

When: 28-29, June

Where: San Diego, USA

This year the conference is based around the theme: Surging into the future of Artificial Intelligence.  Conference organizers encourage attendees to collaborate and build partnerships through engaging presentations and interactive discussions.  DevOps professionals will benefit from sessions led by leading researchers from academia.  The full schedule has not yet been released. 

When: 6-11, August

Where: Sydney, Australia

While programming for the thirty-fourth International Conference on Machine Learning is not yet complete, the conference has opened registration for submissions on topics of importance to machine learning be it core topics or more mature areas of research or practice. 



The organizing committee is comprised of representatives from major institutions and companies like Netflix, Oxford, UC Irvine, Harvard and many others, leaving little doubt of the superiority of the soon to be released schedule.  So stay tuned. 

When: 19-25, August

Where: Melbourne, Australia

If you would like a trip to Melbourne, Australia this year, then the Artificial Intelligence event to go to is the IJCAI, 2017.  This conference has been going since 1969 and is the main gathering for A.I. researchers across the globe.  This year events that would interest DevOps and TechOps include an invited talk by Georg Gottlob, from the University of Oxford, on the commercial applications of big data extraction and knowledge creation.  Interesting workshops include: “Artificial Intelligence in Physical and Digital Security”; “Representation Learning for Graphs”; “Semantic Machine Learning”; and “Heterogeneous Information Network Analysis (HINA)”.  Premium points to the location as well, it’s always a treat to spend a few days in Australia. 

When: 7-8, September

Where: London, UK

IntelliSys 2017 focuses on the real world applications of Artificial Intelligence.  The conference tracks for 2017 include ‘Machine Vision’ with a focus on Signal Processing.  The Artificial Intelligence stream covers areas such as genetic algorithms and expert systems.  The full event agenda has not yet been released but this conference is well respected and has sessions from eminent industry experts looking at how to use A.I. in a real world context. 

When: October 11 – 12, 2017

Where: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

With an impressive variety of partners, sponsors, attendees and much more, the World Summit AI prides itself in being the world’s only ‘industry-organized’ event of its kind.  The action-packed two day conference features keynote speakers from internationally acclaimed research centers and multinational companies, such as, Amazon, Netflix, NASA, University of Cambridge and The U.N., along with focus groups, workshops & innovation showcases that take a deep dive into the many facets and applications of A.I.

The full agenda has not yet been released but with sponsors and partners like, Intel and IBM Watson, we are sure you do not want to miss this! 

When: 10, November

Where: San Francisco, USA

Entering its 6th year, MLConf is a leader in Machine Learning and Data Science conferences based in San Francisco.  Since it’s inception, it has become a series of events throughout the USA, with 4 separate conferences being held this year alone.  This might have something to do with its top-notch speakers, influential guests and high-quality, innovative presentations.  Organizers encourage attendees to network as much as possible.  The full agenda has not yet been published. 

Don’t forget to check out the agendas for events taking place in New York, Seattle and Atlanta earlier in the year. 

When: 4-9, December

Where: Long Beach, CA, USA

NIPS is a long running Artificial Intelligence event, now in its 31st year.  Lists of keynotes and other talks are still in the submission stage, but watch out for more information and updates.  NIPS offer workshops in emerging thinking in A.I. and examples from 2016 include ‘Adaptive Data Analysis’ and a ‘Time Series’ workshop looking at the development of new algorithms in processing sequential data.  This event, we think, gathers the most renowned academics and most advanced professionals.  It was held in Barcelona, Spain last year.  As a startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are excited that it is closer to home this time. 

When: 12-14, December

Where: Cambridge, UK

The SGAI conference on A.I. is has a packed schedule with both technical and applications streams.  The technical stream focuses on emerging trends and developments in A.I. and includes workshops on knowledge based systems; data mining and knowledge discovery in databases; and model based reasoning.  The applications stream will focus on real world uses of A.I. and includes workshops on: “data mining and intelligent agents” and “rule based systems”. 

We hope to see you at some of those events – don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @SignifAICEO, @guyfig and @SignifAI to find out which events we are attending, where to meet us and our take-aways! 

Thanks again for reading our blog. 

Cheers,

JP