OR55 day two

Everyone seems to have appreciated the second plenary at the conference.  Colin Shearer spoke on ".The Analytical Revolution", speaking from his experience at IBM and other companies dealing with data in large amounts.  He gave us several bullet points to describe the current flood of data and how we deal with it.  So: the world has data which is Instrumented, Interconnected and Intelligent.  And it is characterised by Volume, Variety and Velocity.  Later in the talk he added the need to question the Veracity of the data.  After a wide-ranging talk he expressed concern about those who claim with big data that "You are sure to find something interesting in your data" and the claim that being a data scientist is the sexiest job of the 21st century is a misleading one.  The essentials for doing good analytics are (1) problem solving skills, (2) communication skills, (3) open-mindedness.

In summary we are at a crucial stage in the evolution of advanced analysis as a discipline applied to real-world problems.

I went on to hear a stream on sports modelling, and after lunch we had the three presentations for the president's medal.  British Airways, New Zealand Post, Ministry of Justice.

In the afternoon there was a choice of the Making an Impact sessions, or the "networking" trips out.  A small coach took us to Yearlstone Vineyard, for a tour of the vines and the wine-making process, and then tasting of five wines from the vineyard.  Excellent!