Outpace Conf is a one-day technology conference for senior practitioners and leaders in the North West, taking place on Thursday 16th October in Manchester city centre.
Built by senior technologists, for senior technologists, it brings together up to 150 experienced practitioners for candid case studies, practical lessons, and quality peer-to-peer connections. Three tracks, 12+ speakers, and all tickets under £100. Learn more.
Data & AI track
Talk #1 | 09:15 - 10:15 | Laura Hughes - "Key lessons from data transformation projects"
Drawing from her experience with clients working on data transformation projects, Laura shares some key learnings and pitfalls in areas such as hosting, tooling, data governance, data modelling and domains, and shows how to build sustainable and maintainable platforms tailored to your business.
Talk #2 | 10:30 - 11:30 | Tania Kalambet - "Data-based decision making: what can go wrong"
Tania examines scenarios when data-based insights can lead to ineffective decision making, sharing lessons learnt based on her experience from large and medium corporations.
Talk #3 | 12:45 - 13:45 | Emily Nousios & Kristina Holt - "Navigating the legal frontier of generative AI"
Generative AI creates limitless possibilities but also raises extensive legal issues, from the data used to train LLMs to problems with the outputs and the intellectual property rights potentially infringed in the process. Emily and Kristina consider these issues and suggest potential solutions and best practices to help businesses to steer a steady course through these murky waters.
Talk #4 | 14:00 - 15:00 | Catherine Dickens & Tania Nandy - "The Road to AI-Generated Descriptions: Insights from Autotrader"
Tania and Catherine uncover the challenges and opportunities of developing Autotrader’s AI-generated advert descriptions product. They go behind the scenes of their implementation, including their approach to deploying an LLM-based solution whilst managing risks such as quality, security, and robustness. They also delve into their use of powerful metrics used to evaluate the generated descriptions, and share insights into the development and significance of these evaluation methods.
The day wraps up with our closing panel and an after-party at Cloud 23, Deansgate. See the full programme.
Event details
Outpace Conf includes three tracks: Data & AI, Product, and Architecture & Dev.
Doors are at 08:30, with a welcome session at 09:00.
Tickets include a light breakfast on arrival, hot buffet lunch, refreshments during the day, and our after-party at Cloud 23 (16:30-18:30).
