The international line-up of expert speakers has been announced for the AtlanTec 2019 conference at NUI Galway on Thursday, May 30. Now in its fifth year, the conference is a cornerstone of the AtlanTec Festival organised by the non-profit IT Association Galway (ITAG). This year’s conference title is ‘The art of artificial intelligence and machine learning, new paradigm or false dawn?’ The event will combine futuristic thinking, real-life case examples, and deep-dives into technologies and trends.

400 business leaders, expert software developers, and technologists

More than 400 business leaders, expert software developers, and technologists are expected to attend the day-long conference. Keynote talks and panel discussions will feature futurist Denis Rivin, IBM expert Steve Tolle, medical innovator Catharine Bowman, Ally Watson from Code Like a Girl and Microsoft’s Gary Short. Three afternoon parallel sessions will cover Artificial Intelligence (AI) Implementation, Tools and Techniques and the MedTech AI Revolution. Caroline Cawley, CEO of ITAG, says: “Great minds are attracted by the AtlanTec conference’s growing popularity year on year, and by the region’s worldwide IT reputation. "We are delighted to welcome such excellent speakers and delegates. The conference will be the endnote to the AtlanTec Festival which kicked off in April. "Other events include, Design Thinking for Teens, Music Technology with the Swansea Laptop Orchestra, Tech Tag World Championships, the Digital Women’s Forum Afternoon Tea and a series of schools events for secondary school students and STEAM Inspiration.” Ireland is at the heart of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in Europe, with eight of the top ten global software companies based here. The industry employs over 37,000 people and generates €35 billion in exports annually. David Murphy, director of knowledge transfer and innovation at NUI Galway’s Innovation Office, said: “The west of Ireland has a range of strong, vibrant technology companies operating in an innovation ecosystem which is supported by world-class education, research, and business supports.

'Companies to have global impact'

"This ecosystem provides a platform for companies to have global impact from the region whether they are individual entrepreneurs, scaling indigenous companies, or large multinational corporations.” For further details on the conference visit: http://atlantec.ie/atlantec-conference/ and follow on Twitter @atlantecfest and on Facebook at AtlanTec Festival. View short AtlanTec video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76lpiUDG428