Some of the topics covered at Data Day Texas 2026

This is an informal fuzzy guide to some of the topics covered at the final edition of Data Day Texas.
We are still waiting on data from some of the speakers, and will continue to add sessions to this list.

Lakehouse & Open Table Formats

What Apache Iceberg is Bad At …. For Now - Russell Spitzer
What is really 'Open' in an Open Lakehouse Architecture? (ft. Apache Iceberg, Hudi & Delta Lake) - Dipankar Mazumdar
Designing an Apache Iceberg Lakehouse: From Requirements to a Stakeholder-Ready Architecture - Alex Merced
Iceberg for Agents - Elevating Lakehouse Data Into AI-Ready Context - Andrew Madson

Agentic AI & Autonomous Systems

The Enterprise of the Future Runs on Ontologies: Making AI Agents Actually Work - Adriano Vlad-Starrabba
LLMs Expand Computer Programs by Adding Judgment - Jonathan Mugan
Agents are eating the semantic layer - Paul Blankley
AI wants to do your data engineering work for you. Should you let it? - Ciro Greco
Iceberg for Agents - Elevating Lakehouse Data Into AI-Ready Context - Andrew Madson
How to Hack An Agent in 10 Prompts: and other true stories from 2025 - Matthew Sharp

Context Engineering

Context > Prompts: Context Engineering Deep Dive - Lena Hall
Brokk: Context Engineering for Large Codebases - Jonathan Ellis

Ontologies / Metadata

The Enterprise of the Future Runs on Ontologies: Making AI Agents Actually Work - Adriano Vlad-Starrabba
Meta Grid 2026! - Ole Olesen-Bagneux
Scar Tissue: Lessons from 20 Years of Building Ontologies and Knowledge Graphs - Juan Sequeda
Code: The Untapped Metadata Source Driving Most Data Failures - Mark Freeman II
Think Like a Librarian: Fresh Perspectives for Data Teams from a Time-Honored Tradition - Jenna Jordan / Amalia Child
Agents are eating the semantic layer - Paul Blankley

Graph Databases & Visualization

Building G.V(): Why Graph Databases Desperately Need Better Tools - Arthur Bigeard
"Who Needs a Chart When You Can Just Chat?" - the role of data visualization in a post-LLM world - Christian Miles
Scar Tissue: Lessons from 20 Years of Building Ontologies and Knowledge Graphs - Juan Sequeda

Production Data / AI Engineering

Generative AI and Business Value: Why Corporate Deployment Falls Short - Bill Inmon
The Engineer's Guide to AI Strategy: Bridging the Gap Between Business and Technical Reality - Kierra Dotson
Local AI Saves People (Not Clickbait) - Chris Brousseau
AI wants to do your data engineering work for you. Should you let it? - Ciro Greco

Database - Systems & Performance

Rewriting SQLite in Rust. Here's What We've Learned. - Glauber Costa
Stop Guessing, Start Measuring: A Decade of Database Experimentation and Tuning - Jon Haddad

AI Security & Red-Teaming

How to Hack An Agent in 10 Prompts: and other true stories from 2025 - Matthew Sharp

Better ML

Learning Beyond Language: A New Geometric Paradigm for Better ML - Alexandra Pasi

Data Visualization

"Who Needs a Chart When You Can Just Chat?" - the role of data visualization in a post-LLM world - Christian Miles

Data Products & Contracts

How to gather data requirements in 30 minutes or less - the Information Product Canvas - Shane Gibson
Hands-on Data Product: let's build a data product in 30 minutes (hands-on workshop) - Jean-Georges Perrin
Code: The Untapped Metadata Source Driving Most Data Failures - Mark Freeman II

DataOps

DataOps Is Culture, Not a Toolchain - Matthew Mullins
Hands-on Data Product: let's build a data product in 30 minutes (hands-on workshop) - Jean-Georges Perrin

Software Engineering

Code: The Untapped Metadata Source Driving Most Data Failures - Mark Freeman II
Brokk: Context Engineering for Large Codebases - Jonathan Ellis

Data Governance / Quality

Data Governance Keynote: Existence over Essence? Data Governance in times of AI - Winfried Adalbert Etzel
Hands-on Data Product: let's build a data product in 30 minutes (hands-on workshop) - Jean-Georges Perrin
Beyond the Tech Stack: Navigating the Complete Data Ecosystem - Dylan Anderson

Business / Value

Generative AI and Business Value: Why Corporate Deployment Falls Short - Bill Inmon
2026 Trends: Building Foundations That Endure - Sanjeev Mohan
The Soul of the Machine: How Your Business Philosophy is the Ultimate AI Differentiator - Jordan Morrow
The Engineer's Guide to AI Strategy: Bridging the Gap Between Business and Technical Reality - Kierra Dotson

Career & Professional Development

The $1M Data Professional - Shachar Meir
Your Skills, Your Business: Layoff-Proof Your Career through Solopreneurship - Clair Sullivan
How Ideas Become Books: Inside O'Reilly and Data Thought Leadership - Aaron Black

Data Librarians

Think Like a Librarian: Fresh Perspectives for Data Teams from a Time-Honored Tradition - Jenna Jordan / Amalia Child
Meta Grid 2026! - Ole Olesen-Bagneux

Data Teams and Culture

Think Like a Librarian: Fresh Perspectives for Data Teams from a Time-Honored Tradition - Jenna Jordan / Amalia Child
The Human Layer of Data: Why Trust Lives in the Work Behind the Numbers - Thais Cooke
DataOps Is Culture, Not a Toolchain - Matthew Mullins
Beyond the Tech Stack: Navigating the Complete Data Ecosystem - Dylan Anderson

Data Day Texas 2026 - The Final Edition

Saturday, January 25, 2026 | Austin, Texas