In this post we will discuss how:
- In-person data sessions empowered data specialists from across different industries
- Professionals were excited to meet the engineers behind the world’s largest data collection network
- It wasn’t just about the data
In-person data sessions empowered data specialists from across different industries
October witnessed Bright Data making a big comeback in terms of international, in-person events. As much as we loved working with companies over Zoom, there is something about face-to-face meetings that cannot be recreated online.
We held in-depth sessions with:
- Software developers
- Data engineers
- Product managers
- Data analysts
And were really able to touch at the core of their data collection/analysis projects. Many of the participants came from the Data as a Service (DaaS) industries including:
- Social network/ business data
- eCommerce data
- Financial data
Professionals were excited to meet the engineers behind the world’s largest data collection network
The directors of Bright Datas’ proxy products, Aviv Besinsky together with Josh Vanderwilck, were both able to engage with the audience in a creative way. They delved deep into the back-end of our products, as well as the different unique applications of tools such as Web Scraper IDE, and Web Unlocker.
For example, we discussed the impact that Hurricane Henry had a couple of weeks back on the East Coast of the U.S. This was a great example of a major event that generated petabytes upon petabytes of information in an instant.
A lot of the new information created is categorized as ‘alternative data’ which can be collected automatically by tools like Web Scraper IDE. They include datasets such as:
- Satellite imagery of the storm, and affected shipping routes
- Public sentiment on social media regarding travelling
- News stories being published on the matter
And can be indicative of:
- Changes in fuel supply chains impacting prices
- Fluctuating travel prices/consumer demand and availability
- Shifting patterns of electricity usage and/or outages
This information can be extremely useful when looking to make real-time business decisions based on live events.
We also discussed other creative ways in which data collection is driving different industries such as manpower agencies or in-house diversity hiring. A good example of this is Mathison, a company that uses Bright Data in order to:
- Drive their platform that centralizes hundreds of inclusive talent networks
- Provide employers a single place to manage their diversity hiring activities
Instead of having to manually scan the web for uniquely positioned talent, they are able to completely automate this process, feeding their systems with relevanT, real-time ‘people data’ / ‘company data’.
It wasn’t just about the data
It is important to mention that these workshops were not just about the data but rather a celebration of coming offline and returning to in-person events. The weather was beautiful, and:
- In New York we discussed our industry challenges with the Empire State building in the background and cocktails in hand
- In Boston we mingled, and spoke about the opportunities that data collection is creating across the board with a view of the shimmering harbour, and historic Tea Party Museum lingering behind us
The bottom line
Beyond bringing concrete value to participants, these workshops were symbolic of the shift to our new post-lockdown reality, learning to live with, and prosper in spite of COVID. We are excited to be among the first in the industry to hold such in-person events globally, and are cautiously optimistic of seeing them as a beacon of hope for the year to come.
