Talk 1: Elasticsearch Learning to Rank: Search as a Machine Learning Problem
Speaker: Doug Turnbull

Search relevance is how questions are answered through search. It's the process of changing the ranking of search results for a user query to return what users want. A search for 'iPhone XS' should rank documents highly when the product name matches. But a different query, 'smartphone with two cameras' would require a completely different strategy for ranking candidate results. What gives teams a headache is that all the diverse use cases for search must be handled by a single ranking algorithm.

This is where Learning to Rank comes in. Doug Turnbull, one of the creators of the "Elasticsearch Learning to Rank Plugin" and author of Relevant Search, will discuss how search can be treated as a machine learning problem. 'Learning to Rank' takes the step to returning optimized results to users based on patterns in usage behavior. We will talk through where Learning to Rank has shined, as well as the limitations of a machine learning based solution to improve search relevance.

In conjunction with this meetup, Doug Turnbull is delivering a hands on, small group Elasticsearch relevance workshop. He'd love to invite anyone from the Elastic meetup to participate.

$200 off Discount code: elasticnyc
Event Link: https://o19s.eventbee.com/event?eid=166771153

Doug Turnbell: Search relevance consultant. Author of Relevant Search. Doug empowers some of the world’s best search teams to build smarter discovery solutions that “get” users. Doug leads OSC’s search relevance practice, ensuring quality and deliverables across all client projects.
Doug loves building tools that enable search relevancy delivery, including Quepid, Splainer, Elyzer, and the Elasticsearch Learning to Rank Plugin.

Talk 2: Cross Cluster Search and Cross Cluster Replication (How and why they are relevant).
Speaker: Kutay Kilic

Bio: Kutay Kilic is a Solutions Architect at Elastic, working with Elastic customers to identify and implement solutions for their data-centric use-cases with the Elastic Stack. Prior to Elastic, Kutay worked at software companies such as IBM and SAP, mainly focusing on the capital markets and financial services industry. He is a certified Enterprise Architect. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering (EE) from Istanbul Technical University, and a certificate in Financial Risk Management from PRMIA & Columbia Business School, Executive Education.