Spark + AI Summit Returns to Amsterdam as the Largest Data and Machine Learning Conference in Europe

Databricks, the leader in Unified Analytics and founded by the original creators of Apache Sparktm, today announced that Spark + AI Summit returns to Amsterdam, October 15 - 17 as the largest data and machine learning conference in Europe. Spark + AI Summit is an event for data teams, including developers, data scientists and data and analytics leaders, to engage in discussions regarding data, analytics, machine learning and practical applications of artificial intelligence (AI).

The keynote lineup features Katie Bouman, a computer scientist who led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes. The main stage will also feature the original creators of open source projects, including Apache Spark, Delta Lake, Koalas, MLflow and scikit-learn. Within the 170+ sessions, real-world use cases will be shared from organizations including Facebook, Microsoft, CERN, Airbnb, Quby, Sociétié Générale, Swedbank and Zalando.

"The first European Spark + AI Summit was held in Amsterdam in 2015 with a group of Apache Spark enthusiast. Fast forward to 2019, we are delighted to return to Amsterdam bringing together a fast-growing community of data and machine learning innovators," said Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO at Databricks. "This year's content and training is tailored to provide data teams, from developers to data scientists, an opportunity to better collaborate and create solutions to solve data problems."

The full keynote lineup for Spark + AI Summit Europe includes:

• Gaël Varoquaux, Creator of scikit-learn and Brain Imaging Research
• Oriol Vinyals, Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind
• Reynold Xin, Top Contributor & Original Creator of Apache Spark
• Matei Zaharia, Co-founder & Chief Technologist at Databricks and Original Creator of Apache Spark & MLflow
• Michael Armbrust, Principal Software Engineer
• Ali Ghodsi, Co-founder and CEO at Databricks & Original Creator of Apache Spark
• Katie Bouman, Assistant Professor of Computational and Mathematical Sciences at the California Institute of Technology

This year's event will take place at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, four years after the first ever Spark +AI Summit Europe was held in the city. This Summit offers nearly 2,000 attendees several one-day training workshops, which include both instruction and hands-on exercises. The Summit offers learning opportunities on the latest bleeding edge open source technologies including Delta Lake, MLflow, and Koalas.

The key theme for this year's Spark + AI Summit is Build. Unify. Scale. Combining data and machine learning topics, this conference is a "one-stop shop" for data teams seeking to apply the best tools in data and AI to build innovative products. Content for this year's Spark + AI Summit includes real-world AI use cases, the latest in deep learning frameworks and Apache Spark integration, best practices for productionizing machine learning models, and how to use Apache Spark at scale.

Find out more information on the full agenda and register to attend this year's Spark + AI Summit 2019.

About Databricks

Databricks' mission is to accelerate innovation for its customers by unifying Data Science, Engineering and Business. Databricks' founders started the Spark research project at UC Berkeley that later became Apache Spark. Databricks provides a Unified Analytics Platform powered by Apache Spark for data science teams to collaborate with data engineering and lines of business to build data products. Users achieve faster time-to-value with Databricks by creating analytic workflows that go from ETL and interactive exploration to production. The company also makes it easier for its users to focus on their data by providing a fully managed, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure that reduces operational complexity and total cost of ownership. Databricks, venture-backed by Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and Battery Ventures, among others, has a global customer base that includes Viacom, Shell and HP. For more information, visit www.databricks.com.

Apache, Apache Spark and Spark are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation.