About the event
Real-world applications. Technical challenges. Measurable impact.
Thursday 22nd October 2026 | Tripadvisor, London
What does it actually take to make Machine Learning work in the real world?
Burns Sheehan partnered with Tripadvisor to bring together London's Product, Engineering, AI, ML and Data community for our biggest tech meetup yet.
The evening went beyond the AI hype, exploring the real challenges, technical decisions and practical applications of Machine Learning across some of the UK's leading technology businesses.
Four expert speakers from Tripadvisor, Rightmove, Compare the Market and the Ellison Institute of Technology shared insights into projects they'd worked on, from intelligent property search and ML infrastructure to pricing optimisation and the NHS COVID-19 App.
Each talk explored the technology, thinking and challenges behind real-world applications, offering practical lessons on what it takes to move from experimentation to production.
With a fantastic turnout, engaging technical discussions and plenty of networking, it was a brilliant opportunity to bring London's technology community together.
What we covered
Across four technical talks, our speakers explored how Machine Learning is being applied to real products, customer challenges and business problems.
The evening's key topics included:
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Pricing and revenue optimisation: How Machine Learning supports commercial decision-making through experimentation, uplift modelling, A/B testing and propensity models.
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Intelligent property search: How multimodal neural networks are powering more relevant and intuitive property search experiences through Ask Rightmove.
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Scaling Machine Learning: The shared capabilities, infrastructure and standardised approaches needed to scale from traditional ML models to LLMs and agents.
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Machine Learning in public health: The scientific, data and technical challenges behind developing and deploying the NHS COVID-19 App.
The discussions highlighted the importance of strong technical foundations, thoughtful experimentation and understanding the real-world impact of Machine Learning applications.
Bringing the community together
Beyond the technical talks, the event brought together professionals working across Machine Learning, Data Science, AI, Software Engineering and Product.
Attendees had the opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss shared challenges and connect with others building and scaling AI and ML capabilities.
A huge thank you to our speakers, everyone who attended and Kary Yeung, Aaron McVay and the wider Tripadvisor team for helping us deliver such a fantastic evening.
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Guest speakers
Mark Briers
VP Research Alliances
Behind the NHS COVID-19 App
Mark shared insights from his experience as Chief Scientist for the NHS COVID-19 App, exploring the scientific, data and technical challenges involved in developing technology at a national scale.
Drawing on his background across defence, the Alan Turing Institute and senior data leadership roles, he offered a perspective on applying data science to complex real-world problems.
Matthew Lie
Senior Manager - Machine Learning Engineering
Scaling Machine Learning at Compare the Market
Matthew shared how Compare the Market has approached scaling Machine Learning from a handful of models to a broader ecosystem spanning traditional ML, LLMs and agents.
His talk explored the shared capabilities and standardised approaches needed to support ML at scale, including the paid search models that helped demonstrate their value.
Pantelis Hadjipantelis
Senior ML Scientist
Machine Learning in the Real World: Everything Has a Price
Pantelis explored how Machine Learning can drive pricing and revenue optimisation, covering two-sided markets, uplift models, A/B testing, multi-armed bandits and propensity modelling.
Drawing on his experience across quantitative analytics, gaming and data science, he shared practical applications of ML in commercial decision-making, including examples from retail and aviation.
Wen Wong
Head of AI
How Ask Rightmove Finds the Right Answers
Wen took attendees behind Ask Rightmove, exploring the multimodal neural networks used for property listing classification, embedding and retrieval.
Drawing on his experience at Hotels.com, Expedia Group and Rightmove, he explored the technical approaches behind building more intelligent property search experiences.
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