The future of big data

摘要

Most shipping people attend several conferences over the course of a year. Almost everything you hear is predictable: questions rather than answers - in modern parlance, challenges rather than solutions. You can tell when an audience is hearing something extraordinary not only by a heightened level of applause but also by the enthusiasm of the conversations afterwards. This happened at IHS Maritime and Trade's recent Freight Rate Forum. Session moderator Patrick Thomson, from IHS's advanced analytics team, revealed his inexperience in the role by doing what few chairs - let alone speakers - actually do: he answered the questions I had written as guidance for the panellists. This was a revelation in itself, but over the course of an hour Thomson and his three guests changed the way shipping should approach big data, industry insight, and decision-making. It was revelatory enough to make me listen to the recording several times. We plan to make it widely available.