Lee Hutchinson
Are you an Ars Technica reader? (I hope so, because otherwise, how are you reading these words?) Are you somewhere in or around the greater Houston area, or maybe even somewhere reasonably Houston-adjacent, like Austin or San Antonio? Are you free on the afternoon of November 1, from about 2 pm to about 6 pm? And, if so, would you like to hang out?
If the answers to these questions are mostly “yes,” then you could do much worse with your time than attending the event we’re hosting on November 1! Ars Technica has partnered up with IBM to bring you a set of panel discussions lasting a half-day, titled “Harnessing Big Data: Resiliency, AI, and the future of IT.” On the menu for the day is a talk about modern strategies for fighting ransomware and other disasters; a discussion on managing machine-learning data flows; and a talk about what the future of big distributed hybrid app development might look like.
Because this is Houston, we opted for just about the most location-specific event venue that we could find: Space Center Houston, right next door to NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the headquarters of Mission Control. Holding the event at SCH gives us access to some really cool stuff!
What kind of neat stuff? No industry event would be complete without cocktails and elbow-rubbing after, so once the panel discussions are concluded we’ll have the requisite drinks and mingling. However, there’s an extra bonus feature: an (entirely optional) private tour of SCH’s Starship Gallery, which features the flown Apollo 17 command module America along with a bunch of other awesome spacecraft and exhibits. Additionally, we’ve convinced senior space editor Eric Berger to attend and sit on one of the panels to talk about some of the unique weather-related disaster challenges that face Gulf Coast companies, and he’ll also be hanging around during cocktail time. It’s going to be fun!
We’d like to keep the size of the event somewhat intimate, so RSVP slots are limited. But if you’re in the area—or if you can get there—we’d love to have you. The full details about each panel are on the registration site, so please hit the sign-up link and come!
