SMU Professor of Information Systems and Director, Living Analytics Research Centre, Lim Ee Peng, who is also the co-general chair of the International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), commented that in recent years, the fast growth of China’s IT industry and academic research in big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence has led to a surge of interest in top conferences focusing on these research areas. "It is therefore not surprising that CIKM, a leading conference in these areas, attracted a large group of Chinese participants," he said.

CIKM, which was held in Singapore for the first time, formally opened on 7 November with the theme “Smart Cities, Smart Nations. It attracted over 730 attendees from over 40 countries, making the conference the biggest CIKM ever held outside the United States.