HALIFAX, CANADA - WTC Halifax is pleased to have secured the 2017 Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), presenting the opportunity to host over 1,000 of the world's leading edge researchers and practitioners in big data in the new Halifax Convention Centre, which will open its doors that year.

The bid was led by the Institute for Big Data Analytics and the Halifax Convention Centre, in collaboration with a local host committee of academic, government and industry representatives.

“Winning the global, competitive bidding process to bring KDD 2017 to Halifax means that Nova Scotia and the Atlantic region have become a hub of excellence in Big Data and Data Science,” said Dr. Stan Matwin, director of the Institute for Big Data Analytics and general conference chair. “It also means that Halifax is an attractive centre, capable of hosting prestigious, large-scale international conventions and meetings.”

Halifax now ranks amongst top cities who have previously hosted the conference, including:

• Sydney, Australia
• New York City, New York
• Beijing, China
• Paris, France

"We're proud to partner and collaborate with our local experts to host this conference and showcase Nova Scotia's strengths in big data to the world," said Scott Ferguson, president and CEO of WTC Halifax. "This is an exciting opportunity for our industry, academic and research communities to highlight their work and connect with their global counterparts."

First established in 1995, the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining conference is the premier international forum for data mining and big data research, bringing together practitioners from academia, industry, and government to share their ideas, research results and experiences. Sponsors of note include Microsoft, Yahoo, Deloitte, Accenture, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and IBM.

Read the full announcement here. For more information on this article, please contact Sadie Toulany, WTC Halifax, at sadie@tclns.com.

PHOTO: The Institute for Big Data Analytics was founded in July 2013 under the Directorship of Canada Research Chair, Dr. St an Matwin. (Photo Credit: Dalhousie University)