COLLIDE 2025 will host about 1,000 people this year, and if that number seems small, that’s exactly the point.
“We are heavily focused on Fortune 500, especially data and AI execs,” says co-founder Brian Mink, 36.
Taking over Atlanta’s Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center this fall, the conference will showcase the latest in data science: the use of advanced data and machine learning to improve decision-making.
Data science is the secret engine behind everyday tools like ChatGPT and Google Maps.
“How they calculate what it takes to get from point A to point B, that requires a lot of data and AI to tell you factors like travel times and traffic,” Mink explains.
It follows that COLLIDE’s customer base consists of some of the world’s biggest tech brands. This year’s sponsors include IBM, Snorkel AI, Google Cloud, Acryl Data, and Quest. Meanwhile, about 40 exhibitors will take over the venue’s atrium for a trade show.
“These providers are looking to get in front of this audience,” he told Vendelux. “When these organizations are implementing a solution, it’s a major investment and multi-year process, and there are significant ramifications for which solution they implement. It’s not like going to the store. It’s a very extensive vetting process.”
The curated event is good news for event marketers, who are known to grumble about the lack of decision-makers circling the floor. COLLIDE has cleared a path for them, whittling down its reach to the most relevant people in the field. It all follows the ethos of Data Science Connect, the parent organization behind COLLIDE.
“We don’t really provide content for enthusiasts,” Mink said of DSC. “Our goal is to provide content for Fortune 500 decision-makers that is technical and gives them the information they need to make high-quality decisions about data and AI strategy.”
It’s a far cry from DSC’s roots. The group, founded by Mink’s wife Amelia back in 2012, started out as a hangout for data science practitioners, a little-understood profession just over a decade ago.
“At that point, there weren’t a whole lot of data science teams, so Data Science Atlanta was one of those early practitioner communities,” Mink said.
Amelia was still a data scientist at the Northside Hospital system in Atlanta, while Mink was at law school in Virginia.
The gatherings, organized through Meetup.com, drew a few dozen people to empty rooms in rotating office buildings, where a ragtag group of data geeks could gab about the latest developments in their field over pizza.
“We started outgrowing the spaces that could hold us,” Mink said. “At some point, when you have 200 people, no one’s gonna give you a free space.”
The conference started in 2018 before going virtual during the pandemic. It returned as an in-person event in 2023, by which point a lot of things had changed.
For one, the field of data science in 2012 required way more technical know-how than it does in 2025. Now, “the job relies more on their ability to use advanced software, versus coding and implementing high-end math,” Mink said.
“That’s one big shift. Another shift has been the importance of data to business,” he added. “In 2012, there was no such thing as a data executive. It was all under the CTO or CIO. Very few organizations had a chief data scientist or data engineer or anything like that. You had a handful of practitioners primarily in Atlanta at that point, for us. As Fortune 500 companies have promoted those folks through the ranks, our community has evolved from a practitioner community to more of an executive community.”
In an effort to keep that grassroots spirit alive, DSC now hosts webinars and in-person executive summits throughout the year.
“Once you lose an audience, it’s hard to get them back, so it’s very important for us that our content meet their needs,” Mink said.
This year’s conference will feature panels and presentations with data science executives at Elder Research, Nike, Equifax, Morgan Stanley and AT&T.
The theme is AI for Enterprise, or “how large organizations can get beyond all the hype about AI and start thinking about how to deploy impactful use cases at scale that are secure, accurate, reliable and move the needle from a use standpoint.”
The COLLIDE Data + AI Conference 2025 will be held at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center in Atlanta from September 30 to October 1. Tickets start at $399, with free passes available for senior-level executive or technical employees who meet certain criteria.
