Boston's annual Big Data Innovation Summit on September 8 and 9 drew exhibitors and attendees from all over the world, including leaders from the GPCC and Commerce Rhode Island. The event at the World Trade Center in the Seaport District gave Rhode Island economic development professionals an opportunity to showcase our capabilities in the fast-growing field of high-volume information assets, machine learning and predictive analytics. 

Our 30-minute keynote presentation to more than 800 professionals -- including industry giants Twitter, Facebook, NetFlix, Dell and Trip Advisor -- dug deeper into the competitive advantages of locating a business unit in Rhode Island. 

Especially popular were Chief Innovation Officer Richard Culatta's remarks on CS4RI, the initiative unveiled earlier this year by Gov. Gina Raimondo to teach computer science in every public school classroom. The crowd broke out in spontaneous applause when the topic emerged, acknowledging that feeding the talent pipeline is the most pressing issue for business success today. To that point, our delegation reinforced that nine local universities offer cybersecurity and/or digital forensics specializations. 

Other promotional messages delivered included Rhode Island's: 

• #1 ranking by Brookings on advanced industry growth in New England 
• #2 ranking by Business Facilities for broadband infrastructure in the U.S.
• #3 ranking by Bloomberg on high-tech density
• #14 ranking by Bloomberg on the State Innovation Index
• $295 million in new investment at RI universities in big data and engineering

Attendees from the GPCC included Chair Peter Andruszkiewicz, President Laurie White and Senior Vice President Janet Raymond. The Commerce RI team included Secretary Stefan Pryor, President Darin Early, Chief Marketing Officer Lara Salamano, Chief Business Development Officer Hilary Fagan and Business Development specialists Jeff Tingley and Jay Johnson.  Students from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University with Subject Matter Expertise in Big Data also joined the effort to staff Rhode Island's exhibition space on the show floor. 

The GPCC's presence at the Big Data Innovation Summit was made possible by donors to the Chamber Foundation who believe in the absolute necessity of new business attraction as a means of growing the jobs base. A dozen more targeted outreach activities are in the works for the balance of Fall.