A variety of sessions and opportunities to connect drew a big crowd to Best Buy HQ for the highly rated MinneAnalytics’ Data Tech 2024 Conference

On Friday, June 7th, MinneAnalytics organized its seventh Data Tech conference exploring the intersection of data science and emerging technology. The turnout was high with nearly a thousand people in attendance, and there was a palpable excitement in the air at Best Buy HQ in Richfield, MN.

Participants had more than 50 sessions to choose from, ranging from high-level business oriented talks to the much more technical dives. Generative AI was the hot topic as expected, but it certainly wasn’t the only thing on the menu. You can view many of the conference presentation decks here.

“As hyped as GenAI has been the last few years, the breadth of talks was a breath of fresh air,” said Jake Mason, a vice chair of the conference. “There was still some great GenAI content, but it was good to see whole other data tech domains properly represented.”

The startups showcase session, organized by MinneAnalytics Board Member Graeme Thickins, featured 8 exciting startups, as well as a VC panel on investing in the age of data and AI. You can read his recap of that session here.

Survey results indicate this as one of the highest rated conferences MinneAnalytics has ever put together, with 90% marking it as Excellent or Very Good overall. As usual, the most essential element to the success of Data Tech was the community: 

“Events like Data Tech put everyone—from the C-suite to the folks with boots on the ground—in the same room,” said Mason. “There’s a real sense of access to people with whom you wouldn’t typically interact. Plus, I don’t think there was an unfriendly person in the entire bunch!”

Thank you to everyone who came out to this conference to learn and engage with the community. Special thanks to this year’s volunteer organizers, Conference Chairs (Dan Atkins, John Hogue, Sean Larson), Vice Chairs (Anya Mityushina, Daniel Feldman, Jake Mason), and startup showcase organizer Graeme Thickins.

Huge thanks to Best Buy for hosting, and of course the incredible sponsors who make it possible to make this one-of-a-kind event free of charge. See you at Data Tech 2025!