The symposium provides an international forum for discussing the problems of engineering data-driven systems involving not only database technology but also related areas of artificial intelligence, communication, information retrieval, human-machine interaction, multimedia, natural language processing, privacy, security, and others. IDEAS fosters closer interaction among the industrial, research and user communities and provides an excellent opportunity for them to meet, discuss ideas, examine the current ones and develop new solutions and research directions. Along with the technical sessions, the symposium also features prominent invited speakers.

The IDEAS series of symposiums, held annually in North America, Europe, and Asia since 1997, attracts participants from governmental and non-governmental agencies, industries, and academia to exchange ideas and share experiences.