TechCrunch, ODSC, Robot Dogs and Briefcase Computers!
(03:39) We had an incredible week with some amazing tech in San Francisco
Last week, the Expanso team were at two of the leading events in technology in San Francisco: Techcrunch Disrupt, and ODSC West. Now that some time has passed (and the jet lag has finally subsided) we thought we'd give you an update on all of the awesome things we saw and got up to while we were out there.
Techcrunch Disrupt
First up, Techcrunch Disrupt!
We were honored to be invited to present at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield. This part of TechCrunch Disrupt brings together 200 of the world's leading startups to share what they're building with other bleeding-edge technology firms and the wider tech community. Naturally, we put Bacalhau front and center in every conversation and pitch we had.
Our CEO, David Aronchick, gave his 3-minute elevator pitch on the main stage, and you can watch it here:
The Expanso Football
Before we flew out to San Francisco, we thought about what we'd like to display at our booth. We've attended more conferences and walked more expo halls than we could possibly count—and we noticed that 99% of the stands at these expos consist of the same three things: a table, a screen, and a branded banner.
We're all for tried-and-tested here at Expanso, but we prefer to excite and intrigue when the opportunity arises - and what better place to show off something cool than in the heart of Silicon Valley?
So, we built the Expanso Football: a cluster of Bacalhau nodes installed in a smart, portable briefcase inspired by the Nuclear Football. With this new Football, we were able to show off the full capabilities of Bacalhau while looking really, really cool!
Now, you may be wondering why the football is pictured in a hotel room and not on the expo floor in this photo… Well, that’s because we had the idea to build it the day before the conference. So, not only did we have to dash around the Bay Area grabbing everything we needed to build it, but we also had only 24 hours to do so!
We think it turned out rather well, and we'll be writing a blog about building the Football next week and how you can do the same, so watch this space!
ODSC West
While Dave was taking care of the TechCrunch scene, Sean was representing Expanso at ODSC West on the other side of the city.
ODSC West is one of the largest data science-focused events on the West Coast, and as we all know by now, Bacalhau is great at getting data science workloads to any data, anywhere.
But just as we wanted to make a splash at TechCrunch, we thought we'd try something a little different at ODSC West too: we invited our friends at 3D Cowboys to join us on the expo floor and bring along man's best (robotic) friend, "Spot"!
Spot the "Dog"
Boston Dynamics robots are incredible pieces of technology. Their ability to navigate and interpret the world around them is second to none, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for enhancement.
A little while ago, we started speaking with 3D Cowboys about enhancing Spot's capabilities with Bacalhau. While Spot is a fantastic platform for trying out new ML models, deploying those models to Spot isn't always a straightforward process. With Bacalhau installed on a co-computer, we were able to augment Spot's capabilities with customized, cutting-edge vision models to interact and respond to people's gestures in real time.
No matter where Spot was on the conference floor (or even in the world!), pushing new models and capabilities to it is now a single Bacalhau CLI command away.
We'll be writing an in-depth post on Spot and Bacalhau next week, in addition to our Football piece, so keep an eye out for that. There's plenty of good reading ahead!
What's Next?
Events
Conference season is winding down over the next month, but we're still going to be out in the world for the next little while.
From the 18th - 22nd November, you'll be able to find us in Helsinki as we take part in the Sisu Launchpad accelerator program. We can't wait to meet the rest of the cohort, share some of the possibilities of Bacalhau with them, and learn from their own unique experiences and challenges.
On the tail-end of the Launchpad, we'll also be at Slush showing off Bacalhau from the 20th - 21st November. If you're in the area or on the expo floor, let us know, we'd love to catch-up with you!
Webinars
We're planning a webinar in the next few weeks to talk about some of the challenges organizations face around processing large bodies of data, and how Bacalhau can help solve those problems. We'll be announcing the details next week, but if you're interested, pencil the 19th of November into your calendars!
Conclusion
It's been a jam-packed conference season for us and we've thoroughly enjoyed spreading the good word of Bacalhau, and learning all about the day-to-day challenges that people and developers face in their day-to-day. We can't wait to take those learnings back and plug them into the next version of Bacalhau which should be coming in the next few months!
Get Involved!
We welcome your involvement in Bacalhau. There are many ways to contribute, and we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to us at any of the following locations.
Commercial Support
While Bacalhau is open-source software, the Bacalhau binaries go through the security, verification, and signing build process lovingly crafted by Expanso. You can read more about the difference between open-source Bacalhau and commercially supported Bacalhau in our FAQ. If you would like to use our pre-built binaries and receive commercial support, please contact us!
