Discover the EBDVF 2024 report!
We are both happy and proud to share with you the EBDVF 2024 report! The European Big Data Value Forum is BDVA’s flagship event, bringing the whole European data-driven AI research and innovation community together to share knowledge, collaborate a...
We are both happy and proud to share with you the EBDVF 2024 report! The European Big Data Value Forum is BDVA’s flagship event, bringing the whole European data-driven AI research and innovation community together to share knowledge, collaborate and celebrate achievements. This year’s event took place from 2-4 October 2024 in Budapest, Hungary. EBDVF 2024 was organised in collaboration with local partners Eötvös Loránd University, Ideal-ist, Neumann Technology Platform, The Institute for Computer Science and Control (SZTAKI) and AI & Aut Expo, alongside the European Commission. EBDVF brought together industry professionals, business developers, researchers and policy-makers from all over Europe and other regions of the world to advance policy actions and industrial and research activities in the areas of Data and AI.
The programme included the most important topics for the community, presented by our members, collaboration partners and representatives from European research and innovation projects. Together we delivered sessions and workshops shaping the way forward for big data and data spaces, illuminating how businesses can harness the power of Trustworthy AI and discuss the role of high-performance computing as an enabler for digital transformation. We took a comprehensive view of these topics from the perspective of many European economic sectors not forgetting the societal implications of the rapidly advancing technologies.
EBDVF was part of TechDays Hungary, a series of autonomously-organised events that took place from 30 September to 8 October in Budapest.
468 participants took part in 43 high-level plenaries, sessions, panels and parallel sessions over three days. 180 speakers were featured in the programme, which was organised based on themes from a sectorial and cross-sectorial angle. EBDVF benefited from the support of 71 sponsors.
The event was moderated by the Secretary General of BDVA, Ana García Robles.
You are kindly invited to download the EBDVF 2024 report HERE.
EBDVF 2024 promoted initiatives and set the ground for growing collaborations and partnerships, through a close and powerful industry-research-policy collaboration with a focus on challenges and opportunities of Data and AI considering the technological, societal and economical aspects. To achieve those purposes, we gathered in Budapest high-level industry professionals, top business developers, researchers and policymakers from all over Europe and other regions of the world to support policy actions and industrial and research activities on the cutting edge of technological advancements.
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EBDVF 2024 Highlights
- BDVA President Thomas Hahn offered an industry perspective over our event’s main theme, regarding Europe as a driving force in AI and Data, while also covering the main topics and underlining the valuable role of BDVA, its members and collaboration partners for the entire Data and AI ecosystem.
- Lucilla Sioli (European Commission, Director European AI Office – DG Connect) offered a highly important update on the current state of play of the AI Office.
- A panel focused on the AI Act implementation, “New frontiers in AI Act operationalisation”, featuring Lucilla Sioli, Patrick van der Smagt (Head of etami and Professor, ELTE University and Volkswagen Machine Learning Research Lab), Irene López de Vallejo (Head of EU Affairs at CTIC Technology Centre) and Krisztina Balazs (PMO Associate at OTP Bank), covered the governance principles needed to ensure the use of ethics at all stages.
- Roland Jakab (President of the AI Coalition Hungary) offered a keynote speech focused on Hungary’s artificial intelligence strategy until 2030.
- Katrin Marheinecke (DFKI Project Manager – Speech and Language Technology) and Annika Grützner-Zahn (DFKI Junior Researcher) showcased the “Language Data Space – European Language Data”.
- Edward Curry (Professor at Insight Centre) and Martin Kaltenböck (co-founder of the Semantic Web Company) switched the discussion to the “Semantic Interoperability: key takeaways and recommendations”.
- During the i-Spaces ceremony, BDVA announced the 2024 i-Spaces.
- Laure Le Bars (BDVA Vice-president), Edina Nemeth (National Contact Point, Horizon Europe, Digital & EIC), Ferenc Kása (Neumann Ltd. Professional Diplomat for AI & Data), András Benczúr (Head of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at SZTAKI) and Imre Hamar (Eötvös Loránd University Vice-Rector for International Affairs) highlighted the importance of collaboration to support development, sharing knowledge, gathering industry professionals, business developers, researchers and policy-makers to help advance policy actions and industrial and research activities in the areas of Data and AI.
- Yvo Volman (Director of the Data Directorate in the Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission) offered a keynote speech, in which he underlined the importance of the data and AI community both for the past and future. He also mentioned the key role that BDVA had in the progress of the data and AI ecosystem.
- Frédéric Bellaiche (Vice president for Technology & Research at Dawex) offered a keynote speech called “Leveraging Standards to Foster Trust and Interoperability in Data Spaces“.
- Roberto González (Program Manager at NEC Laboratories Europe), offered a keynote speech focused on advancing information and communications through research excellence and open innovation, titled “Using Generative AI agents in the real world“.
- During the panel titled “Europe for Global leadership in AI & Data – A policy and research perspective” panel, moderated by Edward Curry (Professor at Insight Centre), a number of policy and research professionals shared their views on the topic. The policy perspective was provided by Cecile Huet (Head of Unit Excellence in Artificial Intelligence & Robotics at the European Commission) and Peter Szegedi (Policy Officer at the European Commission), while researchers’ views were presented by Andras Benczur (Head, Artificial Intellgence Laboratory at SZTAKI), Elena Simperl (Professor of Computer at King’s College London and the Director of Research for the Open Data Institute) and Sylvia Ilieva (Gate Institute Director).
- “Europe for Global leadership in AI & Data – an industrial perspective” gathered a group of experts who presented their unique perspective on the European global leadership in AI and Data. The panel was moderated by Valerio Frascolla (BDVA Vice president and Director of Research and Innovation at Intel), with Naja von Schmude (Co-Founder at Peregrine.ai), Zoltan Bodor-Toth (Head of Digital Platforms & Solutions and Business Development Manager at evosoft), Zsigmond Varga (Head of Industry and Customer Advisory – CEE at SAP AG), Patrick van der Smagt (Head of etami and Professor, ELTE University and Volkswagen Machine Learning Research Lab) and Andrejs Vasiļjevs (Executive Chairman at Tilde) as speakers.
- Mihalis Kefalogiannis (Head of IT Innovation Center at OTE Group), gave a keynote speech titled “AI in Telecoms: The Data Challenge”, reflecting that Generative AI (GenAI) is rapidly becoming a game-changer in the telecommunications industry.
- Timon Brussaard (Novatrust founding partner) presented “Let’s build Data Spaces together!”, showcasing the company’s support of the data spaces ecosystem, with a strong focus on sustainable business models and governance, as it is creating semantical standards for domain-specific solutions.
- Savvas Rogotis (BDVA Data Ecosystem Senior Project Manager) and Eimear Farrell (European Commission – Joint Research Centre Scientific expert) introduced us to the latest developments in “GenAI and Data Spaces”.
- Matthijs Punter (TNO researcher and consultant), presented “The blueprint for data spaces – DSSC blueprint v1.5”, an updated version for which BDVA has contributed significantly.
- The final plenary panel of EBDVF 2024 gathered speakers Edward Curry (Professor at Insight Centre), Thomas Hahn (BDVA President and Chief Expert Software at Siemens), Ulrich Ahle (CEO of Gaia-X), Gábor Érdi-Krausz (Project Coordinator at SZTAKI – Institute for Computer Science and Control) and Julien Adelberger (Senior Project Coordinator at International Data Spaces Association), alongside panel moderator Nuria De Lama (Consulting Director at IDC), as they went through the event’s key points.