Gear Up for NODES 2024: What to Know

NODES is a free, virtual conference run by Neo4j for developers, data scientists, and other technical roles who want to learn more about graph databases and how they can be used to solve complex problems. Join us online November 7!

The NODES 2024 conference is approaching fast, and we have a lot of exciting activities, including talks, workshops, and more. Here’s what you need to know to get ready for NODES 2024.

What is NODES?

NODES is a free, virtual conference run by Neo4j for developers, data scientists, and other technical roles who want to learn more about graph databases and how they can be used to solve complex problems. This year, it’s on November 7th, and we would be so excited to see you there (virtually, of course)!

At NODES, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from the graph community, learning about the latest technology developments and connecting with others. Whether you are new to graphs or an experienced user, NODES has something for all skill levels. It runs across three regions, so you will have live content that suits your schedule. The agenda is packed with 24 hours of technical sessions built around this year’s four tracks:

• Applications - Tools and best practices to create graph-powered applications and APIs with any software stack and programming language.
• AI - The convergence of AI research and practical applications through graph technologies like GraphRAG, orchestration frameworks, evaluation, and generative AI.
• Data Science - Advanced techniques in data curation and maintenance specifically designed to fuel AI models.
• Graphs - Data solutions enriched by graph capabilities and the latest advancements in visualization techniques to bring data to life.

Pre-Conference Workshops

In the weeks leading up to the event, there is also Road to NODES - a series of hands-on workshops to jumpstart or deepen your graph skills. These workshops are designed to help you get hands-on experience with specific graph database topics, and they’re a great way to prepare for the conference.

This year’s topics include an introduction to Neo4j, building applications with integration to a messaging platform, building GraphRAG applications with Neo4j, and graph visualization with Neo4j Bloom. These sessions begin soon, so don’t wait to register!

Session highlights

To kick off each region, we’ll hear an introduction from a technical and community leader within Neo4j. When you think it can’t get better, Ben Lorica will keynote to talk about tracking the pulse of generative AI. Next, Neo4j’s own Chief Product Officer, Sudhir Hasbe, will share all the exciting things being built at Neo4j and provide insight on what’s coming for graphs. Wrapping up the opening ceremonies, a panel will discuss trends they’re seeing in the generative AI space.

These four sessions set the stage for the rest of the day, which will be filled with sessions and lightning talks, interspersed with short breaks for you to refill your beverage of choice, chat about what you’ve learned with fellow attendees, or ask questions.

There are so many sessions to choose from, but here are some highlight sessions that I am most looking forward to seeing!

Asia/Pacific region:

• Developer Productivity for GenAI Apps by Oleg Šelajev - I’m most excited to see how developers can integrate AI tools with their daily workflows to gain value by automating mundane tasks where humans easily make mistakes.
• Demystifying Neo4j with APOC and Java by Parvez Alam - APOC is a powerful utility that is constantly improving, and since it’s also written in Java, I would love to see how Parvez showcases APOC’s features and integrates it into Java projects.
• Why Data Modeling Matters and Why It’s Important to You by Siraj Munir and Rimsha Imran - Data modeling can be challenging, so I’m always interested in hearing how others handle different modeling situations and solve their business problems.
• Easy Metadata Management: Git for Data using Neo4j by Pavan Kumar Narendra - I’m looking forward to seeing how Neo4j is being used to track complex, real-world data, and data’s path from a source to storage to changes to archival.

Europe region:

• My Cypher Query Takes Too Long, What Can I Do? by Véronique Gendner - I’m fascinated to learn more about how Cypher works under the hood and how to understand/optimize it.
• Neo4j for Java Developers by Gerrit Meier - As a Java developer myself, I want to know how Neo4j is improving its Java ecosystem, as well as learn about tools to improve my Java projects.
• Neo4j’s Risk Register: Maximise Your Data Insights by Phil Stott and Will Woodward - The topic of cybersecurity is critical and interesting, and I love learning about ways Neo4j is using its own technology to solve challenging problems.
• Knowledge Graph of Your IT Landscape: Code is Graph Data by Syméon del Marmol and Laurent Chatelanat - I’m excited to see how Neo4j can bring code with many languages, environments, components, dependencies, and hierarchies together to understand overall IT landscapes.

Americas region:

• Generating Faculty-Specific Course Materials with Neo4j and Claude by Joseph Naccarato and Jevonia Harris - I love how the University of Delaware is using Neo4j and AI to help students and faculty learn and creating a more impactful learning environment.
• The GitHub Graph: Open Source Collaboration Patterns and Neo4j by Emilie Ma - Github is a tool many of us use daily, so seeing its projects and contributions could help me better understand how it works and how to use it.
• Just Add an LLM: Creating a New Food Recommendation Engine from an Old Cypher Query-Based One by Alicia Powers - I can’t wait to see how to migrate a Cypher recommendation system to one with LLMs and RAG, and then see how each compares in solving the same problem.
• The Personal Knowledge Vault by Mike Morley - It’s hard to capture and organize information for our own productivity, but I’m curious to see how we can use Neo4j and AI to help us manage our knowledge for personal and professional benefit.

There are so many more amazing speakers and topics, so peruse the NODES 2024 full agenda for your own top picks. I will also be presenting a session with Mark Heckler on Java’s GenAI Era: Getting Spring, AI, and Neo4j Applications to Production.

Each region segment will wrap up with a Q&A session with Neo4j’s CEO, Emil Eifrem. This is a great opportunity to hear insights about the company, products, and history. Neo4j appreciates the outstanding graph community (both inside and outside Neo4j), and this closing session is a great way to recognize the efforts and contributions that allow graph technology to positively impact the world around us.

Wrapping Up!

Now that you have information about NODES 2024 - what it is, track overviews, pre-conference workshop details, exciting keynote topics, and session highlights - what are you waiting for?! Register for NODES 2024 and find out what valuable skills you can learn on November 7.

Happy coding!

Resources

• NODES 2024 event webpage
• Road to NODES: pre-conference workshops
• NODES 2024 full agenda