Last week I had the opportunity to attend the annual IBM conference in Las Vegas. The World of Watson conference, formally known as Insight, provided me with an opportunity to meet new interesting people, talk to colleagues and customers, learn new things and share some ideas with like-minded people. As you can imagine, with Watson being at the centre stage of the event, there were a large number of presentations, stands and marketing featuring Watson-related things: from cognitive chocolate and brews through to cognitive computing and beyond.
My session took place on Monday October 24th and I was very pleased to see a full room, and even later standing-room only just minuted before the start. We covered some of the fundamentals of data science and machine learning and took the pulse of their use in the insurance industry in particular. I then had the opportunity of sharing some of the results of the work we have been doing over the past 12 months at the Data Science Studio in London. The case studies showcased included examples in insurance, banking, wealth management and retail.
All in all, it was a very successful and enjoyable trip, in spite of the constant flashing lights of the slot machines around Las Vegas different venues.