Events, etc.

[zamir]

I don't hear of any local forecasting events but I got this via email:

Collective Intelligence Cluster and Prediction Markets Summit
18 June 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

San Francisco, CA (PRWeb) Monday, June 1, 2009 -- The Prediction Market Clusters in collaboration with Aurora WDC, Consensus Point, Carlson School of Management, the MIS Research Center and many others announces the Collective Intelligence Cluster and Prediction Markets Summit 18 June 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.


http://www.pmcluster.com/MSP09.htm

The venue is the stunning Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Learn how collective intelligence networks are fundamentally altering the enterprise landscape, driving executive decision making, leading collaborative forecasting and optimizing supply chain management. Engage with experts in knowledge markets that are reshaping all practices of knowledge management (KM) and propelling enterprise knowledge ecologies of the future.

“There is not much that any of us do that is more important than telling the company what we know.” Jeff Severts, EVP, Best Buy

We are thrilled several key scholars and thought leaders will join your cluster including:

Robin Hanson, Professor, Economist, Polymath, George Mason University
George Neumann, George Daly Professor of Economics, University of Iowa

In addition, university collaboration and support originates from these esteemed institutions and organizations:


University of Minnesota: http://umn.edu
MIS Research Center: http://misrc.umn.edu/
Carlson School of Management: http://www.csom.umn.edu/


In 2004 James Surowiecki published his now-famous book, “The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations.” For many this milestone introduced the era of collective intelligence for people, business, institutions, the environment and civil society.



New ways to share, trade and aggregate information using Internet-based markets are exploding. These powerful Web 2.0 network knowledge markets help companies, schools, governments and individuals to acquire and master ever-growing bodies of knowledge. These prediction market capabilities achieve mastery knowledge management (KM) and collective intelligence with stunning speed, efficiency and accuracy.

“Prediction markets are brutally honest and uncannily accurate.” - Geoffrey Colvin, Fortune Magazine

New collaborative market mechanisms and social innovations are driving collective intelligence networks. They resolve questions of science, technology, management, strategy, planning and policy far better than experts or management.

Collective intelligence inhabits the ceaseless flurry of self-correcting social exchanges, value networks and collective knowledge markets. They cover everything from politics and business plans to sports and new product features. Enormously potent, these social networks and markets generate new ideas and amass and refine knowledge and collective wisdom with blinding speed, low cost and accuracy.

As predicted, collective intelligence networks and knowledge markets have become commonplace in the enterprise. Top firms using prediction markets are Best Buy, Google, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Abbott Laboratories and Yahoo! to name a few. Major analysts firms declare prediction markets critical to Enterprise 2.0 information and knowledge management portfolios.


“A company that can predict the future is a company that is going to win.” - Bernardo Huberman, PhD, Senior HP Fellow, HP Labs


Cluster sessions are focused, practical and conversational. They are for executives, directors, mangers, users and practitioners having immediate needs to apply collective intelligence networks and market mechanisms to advance enterprise business outcomes through mastery of collective wisdom.

Pricing and Availability

Registration for the Collective Intelligence Cluster is open and available now. All are welcome. The event participant tuition, full-day experience, meals, refreshments, books, reception and materials is $399.00 Secure online event check-in and registration in advance required.

Collective Intelligence Cluster Sponsors

Sponsors of the Collective Intelligence Cluster are the world's leading producers of prediction market software, services, exchanges and expertise. They supply continuous innovation in prediction markets and collective intelligence networks. Among these leaders are:

Aurora WDC: http://www.aurorawdc.com/
ConsensusPoint: http://consensuspoint.com/
Mercury-RAC: http://blog.mercury-rac.com/
PM Cluster: http://pmcluster.com/


About Consensus Point, LLC

Consensus Point, a Nashville-based company, is the leading provider of enterprise prediction markets serving corporations and government. With over 15 years of experience providing enterprise prediction markets, Consensus Point offers a comprehensive collective intelligence solution, including Software as a Service (SaaS) with on-demand or on-site licenses and consulting services. The company helps their clients reduce the risk of uncertainty, improve revenue through accurate forecasts of products and services, and manage projects with immediate insight into future completion dates and budgets. For more information, please visit www.consensuspoint.com.



About the Prediction Market Clusters

The Prediction Market Clusters, founded in 2004, are the global industry commons and open community for prediction markets and collective intelligence networks worldwide. The open, agnostic network is a focused collaboration of vendors, academia, traders, users, developers, markets, regulators and stakeholders. The goal is to provide awareness, diffusion, adoption and pull-through for enterprise, institutional and consumer prediction markets. The Prediction Markets Cluster is the worldwide Next Practices network for collective intelligence networks practices, tools and theories. For more information, please visit http://www.pmcluster.com/.



For more information, discounts and to sponsor the Collective Intelligence Cluster, please contact Sarah V. Jones for details.

Contact:

Sarah V. Jones, Event Director
Prediction Market Clusters
17 Junction Lane
South Hamilton, MA 01982
Phone: 978-468-0267
Fax: 206-984-2429
Web: http://www.pmcluster.com/

[admin]

Subject: AusDM 09 analytic challenge
Call for Competition Proposals

AusDM, the Australian Data Mining Conference, is devoted to the art and science of intelligent data mining. AusDM2009 will be held at The University of Melbourne from the 1st-4th Dec.

It is planned to stage an analytics competition as part of this years conference and we invite you to submit proposals for such a competition.

The idea is to release a dataset 2-3 months prior to the conference and set a specific task (prediction, optimisation etc.) to be worked on over the following weeks. Results are then submitted which can be objectively measured in order to determine the winner.

There will be a session at the conference where the top placed entrants will be invited to present how they approached the problem. The competition will be open to anyone.

A good competition task will be a "real world" problem that is technically challenging where the extra 1% accuracy is important. The volume of data should be of manageable size and not require too much pre-processing before the task can be started. Domain knowledge should not be an advantage - solutions should be data driven.

Such competitions that use real world data have consistently shown to push the bounds of what data mining can achieve and stimulate new ideas, techniques, methods and research directions.

Please send your proposals to ausdm@tiberius.biz by 17th July 2009. Feel free to contact me on 0416 336 009 to discuss further.

We are also interested in hearing from any organisations that may like to sponsor a competition prize.

The conference web site is
http://ausdm09.togaware.com/

Phil Brierley
AusDM Challenge Chair

[zamir]

From the Smart Data Collective in the US:

Webinar September 9, 2009 12:00 EST / 9:00 AM PST
Register Now

Does your bottom line need a boost? Predictive analytics can provide the knowledge you need to make better business decisions.

Predictive analytics applied to business decision-making represents the cutting edge of strategic innovation, and provides a new level of competitive advantage. SmartData Collective and Teradata present this live, interactive webcast to discuss how predictive analytics can help you make smarter decisions that will boost profits.
Join us and learn how to:

1. Significantly reduce the time needed to answer business questions
2. Gain near-instant insight that will drive personalization and other customer-centric strategies
3. Get information on trends, risks and opportunities and respond swiftly to improve outcomes

Featuring:

• James Taylor, CEO of Decision Management Solutions.
• Korhan Yunak, Global CRM Business Analyst at Vodafone Group.
• Anne Milley, Senior Director of Technology Product Marketing for SAS.
• Mike Rote, Director of the Teradata/SAS Center of Excellence for Teradata.

Register for the Webinar Here