DSC DACH opens in Vienna on AI, sustainability and responsibility
The German, Austrian and Swiss edition of the Data Science Conference ran at the Vienna Marriott on 12 and 13 September 2024, under the theme AI-powered sustainability and responsibility.
Tarry Singh chairs the Data Science Conference. Its DACH edition, covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland, ran at the Vienna Marriott. The team arrived on 11 September 2024 and built the room that evening: a sponsor wall in the foyer, roll-up banners either side of the stage, rows of gold banquet chairs facing a single screen. One speaker was still putting her opening slide through the projector at twenty to midnight, to an empty room.
The theme was printed on everything. AI-powered sustainability and responsibility on the opening slide. Join the AI sustainability revolution on one banner, Unite for a greener AI future on another. Two hosts opened the programme on the morning of the 12th.
The talks stayed close to the work. One asked how good a data engineer is at a data science task, and how good a data scientist is at a data engineering task. Another put percentages against the return on generative AI. There were sessions on type detection and on advanced mapping, and a working session spent reading machine state logs off a spreadsheet. A slide headed What is Ethics? set out applied ethics as a tool for mediating between humans and their environment, in three numbered steps. A later speaker put Timnit Gebru and the DAIR institute on screen.
Rooms filled across both days, the main hall to the back row and a glass-walled breakout room alongside it. The banner carried Comtrade System Integration, CROZ, BE-terna, VIS, PST.AG and Velebit AI. The last screen of the conference ran a countdown to DSC Europe 24 in Belgrade, the tenth anniversary edition, and the organising team lined up in front of it for a photograph.
A speaker points at a slide headed The ROI of Gen AI showing percentage figures for business benefits. 
A speaker beside a Big Data Institute slide asking how good a data engineer is at a data science task, and how good a data scientist is at a data engineering task. 
A speaker crosses the stage in front of a slide headed Advanced Mapping, the DSC DACH sponsor banner to his left. 
A speaker stands beside a slide headed Type Detection showing blocks of code, delegates seated in the front rows. 
A speaker gestures at a title slide dated 13.09.2024, headed Why new products still fail. 
A speaker beside a slide headed Trust, listing questions about truth, fiction, censorship and mass manipulation. 
Delegates seated in a smaller glass-walled breakout room facing a speaker and screen. 
Two instructors work from laptops at a table at the side of the room during a hands-on session, a delegate seated in front of them. 
A hands-on session with a spreadsheet of machine state events projected on the screen while two instructors work from laptops at a table. 
A speaker stands beside her opening slide, Fighting Toxicity in Online Games, in an empty session room the night before the conference. 
The main hall set out with rows of gold banquet chairs before the doors open, DSC DACH roll-up banners either side of the stage and a Marriott Vienna lectern at the right. 
A speaker on stage beside the DSC DACH sponsor banner, addressing the room. 
A speaker with a microphone on stage in front of the screen, a DSC DACH banner behind him. 
The DSC DACH sponsor wall being put up at the venue, logos for Comtrade, CROZ, BE-terna, VIS, PST.AG and Velebit AI repeated across it. 
Two attendees photographed in front of the DSC DACH sponsor wall, the theme AI-powered sustainability printed at the left. 
Members of the crew work from laptops around a table off the main hall, badges and lanyards on the table. 
Two organisers work from a laptop and a phone in the hotel lobby the day before the conference opened.
dscdach.com, printed at the foot of the DSC DACH roll-up banners in the hall
Seven .MOV clips shot in the Vienna sessions sit unedited in the engagement folder
