Good Times and Tech at DES 2019

Last week DES Madrid was hopping. The great minds of digital transformation convened for a few days of insights and experiences, and Globant had the privilege to be among those gathered.
On day one, we heard from speakers like Adrian Brietburd on three technologies that have changed the shape and scale of applications in production: Cloud, microservices, and containers. We saw, too, an IDC perspective on the Future of Work in 2019. Other tracks discussed technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and more Cloud. Many talks centered around the task of incorporating inclusion into the digital organization. After a day of absorbing relevant information in the presentations, we hit the exhibition floor to see all the booths.

Day two of the event brought great opportunities for networking, as well as a continued agenda of techs, tips, and transformations. Especially on this day we got to look at Industry 4.0 from different angles, as well as anecdotes of digital experiences in other verticals like Healthcare, Retail, Travel, Media & Entertainment, and Banking. Augmented organizations and AI ethics were common denominators, and technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and blockchain.
The last day packed a lot in! There were presentations and experiences that made it worth our while to hold out through the entire event. Speakers caught us up on Organizations of the Future, Augmented Intelligence, trust and cybersecurity, technology readiness, and the human aspect of AI in organizations.

Particularly, the takeaways from our co-founders (who spoke at the event) focused on AI, its requirements and potential. Speaking about the transformational power of AI in today’s organizations, Martin Migoya underlined the reliance of AI on data: “Artificial intelligence occurs when we have the data to train a machine to perform a task. Without data there is no Artificial Intelligence.” These technologies that everyone was talking about are so interlinked, it’s important to consider all of them when possible at events like DES. 
Later was Guibert Englebienne’s talk, which united the tech and emotional/human undercurrents at the event. At the nexus of the importance of culture and the power of AI, Guibert explained StarMeUp OS and its effectiveness to “empower people to be guardians of our culture.”
From the Consulting Studio, Rachel Armstrong (Consulting Studio Partner) and Tim Hurley (Consulting Partner) also spoke, addressing the goal of designing solutions that create trust. It is essential not only to understand today’s clients and their expectations, but also to understand their experience, and whether these two things match up, “because that is how we create this trust.”
These are the sort of inspiring examples and insights that leave us ready and waiting for DES 2020!