Conference 2026 Agenda
This agenda is tentative and subject to change.
Click here to view Friday’s Event Agenda
Saturday, October 17, 2026
8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Benson & Edith Ford Conference Center
College for Creative Studies, Detroit
Session 1
9:35 - 10:20 AM
TRACK 1 - Leadership, Culture, and Innovation
You need to be more strategic -
The mantra for the modern data leader
TRACK 2 - Semantics, Governance & Trust
Data Governance as Socio-Technical Infrastructure
TRACK 3 - Analytics, BI & Decision Design
You Didn’t Tell Me There was Going to be Design
TRACK 4 - Data Engineering & Infrastructure
Data Engineering Panel
TRACK 5 - AI Systems
Foundations as a Feature: How Development Teams Are Approaching AI Modernization
Session 2
10:40 - 11:25 AM
TRACK 1 - Leadership, Culture & Innovation
Culture Eats AI for Breakfast: Building Teams That Actually Use the Tools
TRACK 2 - Semantics, Governance & Trust
Data Governance & Trustworthy AI Panel
TRACK 3 - Analytics, BI & Decision Design
Your Adoption Problems are Actually People Problems Panel
TRACK 4 - Data Engineering & Infrastructure
From Iceberg to Intelligence: Your First
Lakehouse Data Pipeline for AI Agents
TRACK 5 - AI Systems
Carving the Ox: Agentic Data Ingestion and the Limits of Imitation
Session 3
12:45 - 1:30 PM
TRACK 1 - Leadership, Culture & Innovation
Panel - Follow the White Rabbit: Launching a New Data-Based Startup Venture
TRACK 2 - Semantics, Governance & Trust
Responsible AI in Practice: What it Takes to Govern Well
TRACK 3 - Analytics, BI & Decision Design
Data for Social Good
TRACK 4 - Data Engineering & Infrastructure
Designing Data Pipelines That Don’t Hate You Six Months Later
TRACK 5 - AI Systems
The Evolution of AI Panel
Session 4
1:50 - 2:35 PM
TRACK 1 - Leadership, Culture & Innovation
Data Leadership Panel
TRACK 2 - Semantics, Governance & Trust
Semantic Layers: The Missing Foundation for Agentic AI in Enterprise
TRACK 3 - Analytics, BI & Decision Design
Book Talk: Building Business Intelligence with AI
TRACK 4 - Data Engineering & Infrastructure
Bringing Optionality to Python Dataframes
TRACK 5 - AI Systems
AI Data Therapy: Confessions from the Trenches
Session 5
2:55 - 3:40 PM
TRACK 1 - Leadership, Culture & Innovation
There is No Single Path in Data: Three Dimensions of a Durable Data Career (an Ensemble Approach)
TRACK 2 - Semantics, Governance & Trust
Stop Rebuilding: Data Contracts for the Mess You Already Have
TRACK 3 - Analytics, BI & Decision Design
No One’s Reading Your Dashboards: How to Design Better Data Visualizations
TRACK 4 - Data Engineering & Infrastructure
Thoughts on the Future of Data
TRACK 5 - AI Systems
4 Months of Work in 6 Weeks:
Spec-Driven Development on an Agile Team
Lightning Rounds
These rounds will take place during breaks between sessions. Each lighting round is scheduled for 15 minutes.
Break 2 - 10:20 AM
AI is not the Hard Part: Lessons from Building AI Enablement in a Large Institution
Break 3 - 1:30 PM
AI Harnesses & Cadence: Building Reliable AI-Powered Workflows
Break 4 - 2:35 PM
MotherDuck Accurate Agentic Analytics: Easy, flexible context in the warehouse