Venturi's Voice: Technology | Leadership | Staffing | Career | Innovation

Erik Christiansen is Head of AI and Data Science at Datadrivers GmbH, a consulting company for business intelligence, big data, data-driven infrastructures, data analytics and technology consulting. We spoke about some of the pitfalls to be aware of when integrating a Data Science team into an organisation, and how to avoid these common issues. Keeping up with the ever-evolving technology and trends within Data Science and AI, and what some of these trends are, as well as what works and what doesn’t work when integrating data to scale.

Pete Casson is CTO of Collctiv, the group payments app, designed to take the hassle out of collecting money for a group purchase or booking.  With over 15 years of transforming technology within business, removing complications, and pioneering new products Pete is a sought-after expert and speaker. Having launched a World's First Multiplayer Augmented Reality app for Education and featured as 'App of the Day' on the App Store, Pete has built a reputation for tackling seemingly impossible tasks. As a trusted expert in Technology he often speaks at events, such as Google Next '19, discussing how technology is shaping our lives, what to expect in the future and how businesses need to place technology first when developing strategies. As CTO & Co-founder of Collctiv, Pete has developed a new simple and seamless way of allowing people to collect money from a group. In an industry that's typically slow to change Pete developed a solution from an idea to live in 8 weeks. Already Collctiv has managed hundreds of thousands of pounds and has the interest of large firms.

Modern Cloud Data Platforms: How using such platforms and innovations in the cloud can help you create insights faster with less risk and less cost. We caught up with David Rice, CEO and Co-founder and Tom Bruce, Delivery Lead and Co-founder of Snap Analytics. Snap Analytics deliver solutions that simplify and accelerate data projects, focusing on ensuring that technology and data helps you to clearly achieve your strategic goals whatever they may be. Never before has the power of data and analytics been greater, however there is also an ever-increasing amount of data being created. The key for businesses is being able to unlock the power of their data to gain a competitive advantage. We discussed common pitfalls to be aware of when implementing a new data strategy into your business, and with Gartner estimating that 60% of Big Data projects failing, what’s going wrong?

David Minarsch holds a PhD in Applied Game Theory from the University of Cambridge, is a researcher at Fetch.AI where he researches and prototypes consensus mechanisms and smart markets, combining game theory expertise with engineering and product experience in machine learning and blockchain. He has conducted cutting-edge research on the Economics of Networks, strategy of conflict and political competition and is a co-founder of Panopy. Fetch.ai is building an open access, tokenized, decentralized machine learning network to enable smart infrastructure built around a decentralized digital economy.

Cindy Gordon is Chief People Officer at Policygenius, and Nadia Danford, who is Senior Director of People at www.policygenius.com Policygenius is America's leading online insurance marketplace. Their mission is to help people get insurance right by making it easy for them to understand their options, compare quotes, and buy a policy, all in one place. Since 2014, they've placed $35 billion in coverage and helped over 100,000 families get the financial protection they need. We hear about their unique "partnership" model of recruiting, and how the recruitment strategy has changed with the challenge of remote working and how Policygenius has quickly adapted to remotely hiring new people into the business.

Lisa Allen is Head of Data and Analytical Services at Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey is Britain's mapping agency. We make the most up-to-date and accurate maps of the country. They're also a digital business, and use their content to help governments, companies and individuals to be more effective both here and around the world. Lisa is a data leader and data expert and has gained experience across many data disciplines from data strategy, data governance, open data, data quality to data protection to name a few. We hear how Ordnance Survey has developed from when it was founded in 1751, and how location-based data is more important in society than it ever has been before.

Anna Derinova-Hartmann is Charter Tech Domain Lead at FlixBus. Anna is an M.A. educated Programme Manager, Project Manager and Change Manager with a track record of achievement within International Relations and Global Politics. We spoke about the importance of leveraging tech in society and the impact this can have. Anna shares advice on how it's best to attract talent as an aspiring entrepreneur, and advice for developers looking to put together a pitch to potential investors, along with some of the common pitfalls to be aware of.

Chris Bolin serves as the VP of Engineering for Formidable Denver and is an accomplished speaker and instructor. Prior to joining Formidable, Chris was the first engineer at Jumpshell, the lead data scientist at Autotegrity, and an engineer at National Instruments. Chris serves as technical lead on high-profile projects while also directing the Formidable Denver office. Chris holds a Master’s in Computational Engineering from MIT, and loves teaching, mentoring, and presenting. He has taught at MIT, University of Denver, Girl Develop It, and Startup Institute, tutored high school students in mathematics and environmental studies, and is the Founding Editor of The Disconnect. In addition, his projects have been featured in Vice, Lifehacker, the CBC, CJR, Le Monde, and The Next Web. We discussed how to build a good engineering culture and how to keep the joy of software engineering.

Sanket Agarwal has an impressive career history working with Google in Silicon Valley followed by a stint at a start-up and now finds himself as an Engineering Manager at Postmates. Founded in 2011, Postmates was one of the first to let customers in the U.S. order meal delivery using a mobile app. In the latest development, Uber has announced that it has acquired Postmates in a $2.65 billion, all-stock deal. We spoke about what the company was like in its early stages and how the app has developed into what it is today. We also spoke about the cultural differences of Tech Giants and small, intense Tech startups, and how these differences can impact a person's mental health, and how burnout in the Tech industry is a very common reality.

We were joined by Dan Cryer and Amelia Carey from Gear4Music to hear how the UK's No. 1 online music store has transitioned to remote working and how they have overcome some of the unforeseen issues that have arisen whilst still taking on new employees. Dan Cryer is a web development and technology specialist who helps manage the technical team at Gear4music.com as the Head of Technical Operations. He is a full stack developer with a focus on PHP, MySQL and related technologies, with primary interest  in back-end development, server management, APIs and PHP optimisation. Amelia Carey is Operations Manager at Gear4Music and the glue that holds the wider team together, responsible for people, operations and strategy. During the difficult time of lockdown, we hear what strategies were put in place to ensure this was a smooth transition to remote working in a business of such a vast amount of employees.