After a two-year hiatus because of the global pandemic, we thoroughly enjoyed having face-to-face meetings again at the Knowledge Graph Conference (KGC) 2022 held 2-6 May at Cornell Tech University in New York City. The hybrid conference had both in-person and virtual presentations and a combination of active live-audience interaction and virtual networking conversations with individuals from industries such as retail and finance. Our colleagues Eelke who attended the in-person conference and Melissa who followed the conference virtually shared their thoughts and impressions in this article.
The sessions were informative and the audience could hear a wide range of experts from all over the world share their experiences and challenges with data management and their successful implementations of knowledge graphs. They discussed how knowledge graphs can help businesses manage their supply chains, enhance data discovery and automate business processes. I, Melissa, enjoyed these five days of inspiring and insightful talks virtually, while Eelke attended the conference in person. We both had in-depth conversations with some of the most influential minds in the Knowledge Graph field.
It was great to see that knowledge graphs (or semantic graphs - depending on how you see it) are continuing to capture the attention of the healthcare and Life Sciences industry. During the conference, much emphasis was given to how it provides a key framework for smart data integration, to generate insights, and improve R&D research outcomes.
As a company specializing in open-source software and FAIR data management, we were delighted to see several talks on open source knowledge graphs and tools. It was also great to see that FAIR had a more prominent place in the sessions - especially during healthcare symposium talks - when compared to last year.
Data specialists at the conference could see a clear business case here and understand how, with the scalability of knowledge graphs, cost savings can be incremental!
More than one speaker at the conference stressed that stakeholders and data strategists in the healthcare sector need to understand the potential of knowledge graphs and should put their full support behind this realignment. One of the fundamental steps towards achieving this is by having the resistance and bureaucratic organization inertia overcome, ontologies modeled, skillset gaps addressed, the cost of physical infrastructure budgeted, and the data pipelines managed.
So, looking back we feel that the KGC organizers did a fantastic job in welcoming anyone who wanted to know more about knowledge graphs, regardless of their expertise and from any industry. The technology enhancements, data governance improvements and demand in this space is constantly evolving so we cannot wait to attend KGC 2023!
