Influencers assess 2017 and make predictions for 2018

As the year winds down, questions tend to arise about what the big trends of the past year have been and what the year to come may hold. With those questions in mind, we asked eight key influencers in the world of big data and analytics -- Chris Penn, vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications; Jim Kaskade, CEO of Janrain; IT consultant Duane Baker; Bill Jensen, CEO of The Jensen Group; William McKnight, president of McKnight Consulting Group; Ronald van Loon, director of Adversitement; Dr. Manjeet Rege, associate professor of graduate programs in software at the University of St. Thomas, and Bob E. Hayes Ph.D., founder of Business over Broadway -- to take a look back at 2017 and look ahead at what's to come in 2018. Here's what they had to say. Chris Penn: Of all the associated technologies with big data -- machine learning, IoT, et cetera -- the one that really stormed the barricades was blockchain. I expected much more focus on IoT this year, and blockchain stole the show.