The U.S. Grains Council’s 11th International Marketing Conference and 54th Annual Membership Meeting kicked-off on Monday, Feb. 10, with a riveting presentation about the future of big data, analytics and cloud computing from Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president of business solutions and mathematical sciences at IBM Research.

Sutor walked attendees through the depth of capability and expertise IBM Research offers as well as the evolution of the company’s Global Technology Outlook. When the Global Technology Outlook began in the 1980s, IBM conducted the exercise every 10 years. With that type of time between reports, predictions about the future of technology were not as accurate.

“Unless you were an Apple insider, if you took, say, a ten year view in 2005 you very possibly would not have predicted the iPhone, the introduction and growth of other mobile technologies, and everything else,” Sutor said. “It’s very hard to make predictions too far in advance in the information technology industry, but people should focus on those areas that are of strategic importance to them. For example, if the Council did a ‘Three Year Agricultural Trends Outlook’ what would it include, what would it leave out? How accurate would it be? In any case, it is worth trying to do so to see the big picture and understand how greater industry forces are affecting the work the Council does?”

With the rapid evolution of mobile technology, IBM now issues the report roughly every three years. The outlook currently focuses on cloud computing, cyber security, analytics and the speed of data.

Sutor related the mainframe computers that occupied entire rooms in the 1970s had less actual computing power than the smart phones most carry in their pocket today.

“With the global nature of our organization, it’s important for our members to be engaged with how the world communicates,” said USGC President and CEO Tom Sleight. “Sutor’s discussion perfectly illustrates that as technology evolves, so will the way we all conduct business.”

Sutor also touched on the need for new infrastructure and access to education in high growth market countries, led by India and China; they will contribute a significant proportion of the workforce population in the near future.

“Governments have realized this and are investing big amounts to enable this population with the right education and skills,” Sutor said. “What’s interesting is that the scale of this demand is so huge that traditional brick and mortar institutions cannot keep pace.”

For example, the Brazilian government is already funding students to go abroad and get quality education because of a shortage of infrastructure and quality educators. If the growth story in India continues, India is going to need about 800 more traditional universities and currently has only about 350-odd universities.

“The way out is the use of technology in education,” Suter said. “And we see this happening quite rapidly.”

Click here to view photos from the Council’s winter annual meeting.