Data + AI World Tour Amsterdam

Top 3 reasons to attend

Discover the latest advances in GenAI, machine learning, analytics and data governance.
Learn how to drive insights with natural language, integrate data management with AI and governance, and support GenAI applications with quality, privacy and control.
See how leading companies are reducing TCO through automatic performance and storage optimization.

Agenda overview

Registration	7:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Expo	8:00 AM - 6:30 PM
Keynotes part 1	9:00 AM - 10:55 AM
Morning Energizer	10:55 AM - 11:15 AM
Keynotes part 2	11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Lunch	12:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Breakout Sessions & Trainings	1:45 PM - 3:50 PM
Afternoon Break	3:50 PM - 4:15 PM
Breakout Sessions & Trainings	4:15 PM - 5:35 PM
Networking Reception	5:35 PM - 6:30 PM
Data After Hours Party	6:30 PM - 10:00 PM

Speakers

SVP Products
Databricks

Director Field Engineering
Databricks

Area Lead Analytics Platform
Rabobank

Head of Evangelism
Databricks

Lead Data Strategist
Databricks

Head of Data & AI
Eneco Energy Trade

Data Engineer - Supply Chain
Albert Heijn

Head of Global Data Science
Heineken

System Architect
ASML

Field CTO
Databricks

Solutions Architect
Databricks

Senior Solutions Architect
Databricks

Expert BI & Data
Fluvius

Head of Security Analytics
ING

Data Team Lead
Sympower

Platform Owner
ABNAMRO

Sr BI Specialist
Databricks

Staff Developer Advocate
Databricks

Senior Partner Solutions Architect
AWS

Head of Data & Analytics
Shell

IT Lead
ABN AMRO Bank NV

Head of Global Data Platforms
Heineken

Managing Director COO Data Office
APG Asset Management

Solutions Architect
Databricks

Leader Digital Innovation
Shell

Global Vice President., Financial Services, Cyber Security & Sustainability
Databricks

Sr. Tech Lead
Rabobank

Staff Product Manager
Databricks

Regional Vice President, Benelux
Databricks

Director of Product
Tableau

Sales Director
Databricks

Director of Data Science
Thomas International

Product Architect
Heineken International

Data Engineer
Heineken

MLOps Tech Lead
Ahold Delhaize

Senior Data Scientist
VGZ

CDO
Gemeente Amsterdam

Lead Research Data Infrastructure Lab
Eindhoven University of Technology

Senior Data Scientist
Rabobank

Global Director Architecture and Engineering
FrieslandCampina

VP, Head of Northern Europe
Databricks

Solutions Architect
Databricks

Data Engineer
Ajax

Head of Data Solutions
VGZ

Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Sympower

Global Vice President, Retail & Manufacturing
Databricks

Director, Product Management
Databricks

Data Platform Solution Architect
VGZ

Head of Data & Insights
Fastned

Strategic Advisor to the CTO
SSC-ICT

COO
RevoData

Sr. Specialist Solutions Architect
Databricks

CTO/acting CEO
anDREa BV

Data & Analytics Architect
Unilin

Solutions Architect
Databricks

Field CTO Data Integration EMEA
Qlik

Head of Data & AI
Lely Industries N.V.

Sr. Solution Architect
Databricks

Data Scientist
Ajax

Head of Data & Cloud Platforms
Hema

Product Owner (Supply Chain Data Insights-AH Tech)
Albert Heijn

Manager Data Science & Analytics
Jumbo Supermarkten B.V.

Head of Global Data & Analytics Platform
Rabobank

Featured sessions

Architecture Explained: generative AI based complex data processing

With the vast amount of LLM variations available, customers often struggle identifying the right provider and platform. Customers want to make sure their selection addresses their needs today and can accommodate future scenarios and use cases. In this session we will demonstrate how Databricks and AWS, together, maximize LLM choice providing customers an easy way to build and scale generative AI applications with foundation models from leading AI companies, along with a broad set of capabilities for security, privacy and governance.

Key takeaways include:

Interoperability between Databricks and AWS for generative AI applications
Data ingestion and document processing in real-time and batch
Databricks Auto Loader, Vector Store, Deployment AI Gateway and Amazon Bedrock
Lineage and Governance

Building a trusted Data foundation for AI on Databricks

For companies looking to use AI at scale, modernizing data engineering is not a choice, it's essential. This involves automating the discovery, integration, and transformation of source data directly into Databricks, leveraging advanced functionalities within workflows. Discover how Qlik integrates with Databricks MosaicAI to automate real-time, end-to-end data pipelines with low or no-code solutions. This allows teams to focus on AI-driven analysis, LMM fine-tuning, and feeding Machine Learning and generative AI models like Databricks DBX. Join this session for a demo showcasing how Qlik Talend Data Integration streamlines the delivery and transformation of source data, including SAP, to the Databricks Intelligent Data Platform. Additionally, hear success stories of real-time data integration into the Databricks Lakehouse from clients such as Vale, Textron, Mercedes Benz, Trek Bikes, and JB Hunt.

Databricks SQL: Addressing Data Warehousing’s Biggest Challenges with Data Intelligence

This session provides an overview of end-to-end data warehousing with Databricks SQL, from ingestion and ETL to queries and dashboards. Databricks SQL has also tapped the power of AI to address the data warehouse’s biggest historical challenges — performance, governance and usability — thanks to a deeper understanding of your specific data and how it’s used. We will share the latest of these AI-powered capabilities such as using natural language to ask questions or create visualizations, and the AI-optimized performance with serverless, elastic infrastructure for better TCO.

Discover Unity Catalog: Your Guide to Governance for Data and AI with Live Demos and new features!

Gain an in-depth look at the latest in data and AI governance. Unity Catalog is the only solution that offers unified, open governance for both data and AI, native to the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. In this session, we will cover the open source future of Unity Catalog and the newest features, such as enhanced governance with detailed row/column filtering, Governed Tags, Attribute-Based Access Controls (ABAC), and the latest updates in automated data lineage, governance for ML assets, and performance improvements.

This session, packed with demos, will illustrate how Unity Catalog's new features can streamline your data governance processes and simplify your analytics and AI initiatives. You'll also get an exclusive preview of our future plans. Plus, seize the opportunity to pose your most pressing questions to the product experts and learn why Unity Catalog is the best governance solutions for all your data and AI. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to level up your data game with Unity Catalog!

Empowering Jumbo with Data+AI: Strategic Approach to Customer-Centric Decision Making (Retail Track)

How does Jumbo leverage data and AI to optimize customer experiences and business operations? By placing data of customer behavior at the center of decision-making, Jumbo has enhanced various business processes, including assortment optimization, pricing and loyalty programs. The presentation will highlight real-world applications of AI, showcasing how insights from customer data drive more personalized and efficient decisions across the organization.

Energy Success Stories: Fluvius & Sympower (Manufacturing & Energy Track)

This session includes two customer success stories.

1. Visualizing Voltage: Enhancing Grid Stability with Data-Driven Insights
In this presentation, we will demonstrate how Fluvius leverages a data-driven voltage management dashboard to enhance grid stability across all layers of its electrical network. By utilizing smart meter data and advanced data visualization techniques, this tool enables proactive management of voltage levels. The dashboard addresses key challenges posed by the increasing decentralized production of renewable energy. It provides daily insights that help mitigate risks such as overvoltage and grid congestion, ensuring a reliable and stable energy supply. Join us to explore how this innovative solution plays a pivotal role in Fluvius’ grid management.

2. From Idea to Impact: Sympower's Approach to Rapid Prototyping of Demand-Side Flexibility Use Cases
At Sympower, we are committed to driving the transition to a sustainable energy future by unlocking the potential of demand-side flexibility. Recently, we’ve developed an approach to rapidly prototype and implement machine learning models and interactive interfaces for optimizing grid-scale battery storage and other flexible resources. In this talk, we will set the stage by exploring how Sympower leverages data to create tangible business impact in the energy sector. We will dive into a use case where our team used Databricks to quickly develop a Proof of Concept for optimizing demand-side flexibility. This integrates our forecasting models with the Flexportal, Sympower’s operational user interface, using a Kotlin-based middleware that securely connects the Databricks Statement Execution API with our internal tools. We will walk through the architecture, share the results, and demonstrate how this accelerates our ability to innovate and respond to energy market needs.

Evolving from BI platform to Central data platform (Financial Services & Insurance Track)

Learn how VGZ is shifting from BI platform to a corporate central data platform, where multiple workload-types can work together, share data amongst each other and build data products together!

Last year at Databricks Data + AI World tour VGZ demonstrated how it successfully migrated its BI workloads to the Databricks platform. The past 12 months the team has built on this success. Now the platform is a vital part of the VGZ data estate! Data engineers, Data scientists, Data analysts work together om the same platform, building new data products together, instead of doing this in silos. This was the start of the transition from BI platform to the Central Data platform where VGZ can onboard even more workload-types on the Databricks platform, like for instance integration services. Join this session to learn what was needed to make this change, the challenges we had to overcome and which results it has brought, with real life examples, plus a look into the near future!

Fixing the energy future: Demystifying the AIML & GenAI hype (Manufacturing & Energy Track)

Shell has embarked on a strategy to ensure that the energy transition can be accelerated and executed. The decarbonization of industries and transport as well as the major changes in the way the energy systems and business models are set up and working can only be enabled with a large degree of digitalization. Over the past years Shell has significantly invested in digitalization and innovation, leading to enormous value opportunities. From all emerging technologies, AIML offers by far the largest value pool.

At the scale of Shell and its customer base this requires an approach that does not only encompass digital technologies and platforms, also the culture, operating models and skill sets need to be adapted and evolved. Major finding is that AIML is not about tech. It is about data, data quality and models. Yet, this does not mean that technology and platforms can be neglected. These form the strong foundation to ensure that AIML models can deliver the right outcomes and value, at scale.

Learn in this session how Shell’s energy transition strategy relies on strong digital foundations, how AIML delivers value beyond the hype, how Generative AI adds to that, and how practical lessons can be learned how to deploy data and models at the scale of Shell. Be inspired by practical lessons which can be applied, no matter if you just started your AIML journey or are a seasoned data scientist.

Future-Proof Your Azure Lakehouse with Databricks Data Intelligence Platform

Discover how Azure Databricks, powered by the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, is the best destination for your Lakehouse. Seamlessly integrated with the Azure ecosystem, this platform drives innovation and efficiency across your organization. In this session, we'll explore best practices for maximizing the value of your Lakehouse on Azure, focusing on key integrations like Power BI for real-time business intelligence and Azure OpenAI for advanced AI capabilities. Learn how to prioritize these integrations to achieve interconnectivity, streamline workflows, and leverage the full potential of Azure Databricks and Microsoft Fabric to accelerate your data-driven intitiatives.

GenAI: Is it actually game-changing? (Financial Services & Insurance Track)

For the last thirty years, the Financial Services and insurance industry has drastically evolved, and nowadays the pace of change is accelerating rapidly. Global scale and data are now a top focus for the industry, and GenAI is a catalyst for innovation. Join Junta Nakai, Global Head of Financial Services and Insurance, to hear how to keep your competitive advantage by building a solid data and AI strategy using the Data Intelligence Platform.

Getting GenAI Apps to Production on Databricks

Step into the world of rapid Generative AI application development with Mosaic AI. We'll explore the suite of tools within Mosaic AI that revolutionize how we create and maintain high-quality AI applications, cutting down the path to production.

Gain insights into:

Efficient Application Design: Learn how to leverage Mosaic AI to design production-quality GenAI applications
Seamless Maintenance Strategies: Discover strategies for the ongoing maintenance of your AI applications, ensuring they continue to meet evolving needs.
Practical Integration Techniques: Witness a comprehensive end-to-end demonstration that showcases the practical application of these tools and strategies in real-world scenarios.
This session is your gateway to mastering the intricacies of GenAI application development, offering actionable knowledge to streamline your projects with Mosaic AI and Databricks.

Getting Started with Databricks SQL: Live Demos and New Features

Join us for live demos on Databricks SQL and discover how our streamlined interfaces simplify data warehousing for analysts, developers, admins, and business users. Learn how to create a data warehouse, ingest and transform data, and build queries and dashboards effortlessly. This session will showcase the latest features, including new AI assistants for coding and dashboards, performance optimizations with serverless infrastructure, and enhanced observability with system tables. Additionally, we'll explore AI-powered capabilities that address performance, governance, and usability challenges in data warehousing, such as natural language queries and visualizations, and serverless, elastic infrastructure for better total cost of ownership.

How Data and AI is reshaping the Manufacturing & Energy Industry (Manufacturing & Energy Track)

In this session, join Dael Williamson as he hosts an insightful and dynamic discussion with prominent figures at the forefront of their fields: ASML, Eneco and Lely. This panel will delve into the pressing issues of our era, with a keen focus on the transformative realms of manufacturing and artificial intelligence. Attendees can expect a thought-provoking exchange that not only explores the current landscape but also forecasts the future implications of these pivotal sectors. As these industry leaders share their expertise and debate the trends shaping our world, participants will gain invaluable perspectives on how these innovations are driving change – and the challenges that lie ahead. The panel will be preceded by an introduction to the Data Intelligence Platform for Manufacturing.

How to make GenAI work within Public Sector (Public Sector Track)

As SSC-IT we provide IT services to 9 out of the 15 departments of the Dutch government. We see a lot of potential for the use of AI and generative AI to solve some of the challenges the Dutch government is facing. But as a government, we also must ensure we tackle these challenges in a secure and sustainable way. This means we are constantly balancing the need to innovate, and the policies put in place to ensure we mantain trustworthiness. We will tell more about some of our experiments, like using RAG to answer questions from parliament, how we partner with Databricks, and what we think our future role is towards the responsible use of AI within the Dutch government.

Introduction to Mosaic AI: How Databricks Simplifies Your GenAI Journey

Dive into the capabilities of Mosaic AI by Databricks, designed to streamline the creation and maintenance of Generative AI (GenAI) applications. This introductory session will guide participants through the comprehensive suite of tools Mosaic AI offers, demonstrating how it simplifies the GenAI development process for organizations of any size. We'll also cover how building your AI assets on top of a Data Intelligence platform makes your teams more effective and your enterprise data easier to govern and secure.

Key session takeaways include:

Understanding Mosaic AI’s role in facilitating efficient GenAI application development.
Exploring the tools available within Mosaic AI for creating, deploying, and managing GenAI applications.
Best practices for leveraging Mosaic AI to maintain high-quality GenAI projects.

Leveraging serverless DBSQL for advanced store replenishment analytics (Retail Track)

Albert Heijn's smart replenishment team is responsible for distributing forecasts to different systems and providing a BI solution where the business can analyze the forecasts. Managing real-time aggregation of approx. 7 billion forecasts within a store forecasting system using Azure SQL Database presents significant data challenges. Performance bottlenecks often arise due to the sheer data volume, impacting the system's ability to process information swiftly. Additionally, the costs associated with transferring and processing such vast amounts of data can be prohibitively high. Addressing these issues requires strategic solutions to optimize performance and reduce expenses.
In this talk we present our approach to try resolving these challenges using Serverless DBSQL.

Municipality of Amsterdam: Enabling Sustainability, Transparency and Equality (Public Sector Track)

The Municipality of Amsterdam has been on a digital transformation journey driven by societal and political goals centered around citizen service and sustainability. Leading with data strategy, the municipality is working on streamlining diverse processes and adopting agile work to enhance the way they deliver everything from tree maintenance to garbage collection. This presentation will highlight specific applications of data and AI with a focus on responsible AI, demonstrating how public sector organisations can achieve value while also ensuring privacy and data security.

Powering Asset Management (Financial Services & Insurance Track)

Aligned with APG's strategy, its ambition for 2025 is to become the leading provider of digital and sustainable investment solutions. To achieve this, APG launched its digitalisation initiative in 2020, known as the Data and IT Foundation. This initiative centers on building a strong foundation in data and IT, with an emphasis on analytics, data visualization, and establishing a data glossary. Join Jellie Hofstra, Managing Director COO Data Office to learn how APG is taking strategic steps to build a sustainable, modular foundation that enables us to deliver business value effectively.

Research Data Infrastructure at Eindhoven University of Technology (Public Sector Track)

Join this session to hear how TU/e, anDREa, Databricks, and Cegeka are partnering to design and develop an infrastructure to serve simple and complex use-cases for research projects. This capability will allow researchers to spend less time worrying about the compliance and technology required for them to start doing research. We prioritize:

Offer a high-level of technology abstraction but, on top of that, the researcher is in control
Granular cost management to provide chargeback options or (partly) subsidize consumption
Integration with other systems to provide an end-to-end experience for our researchers

The emphasis of our collaboration is on the use of medical and other sensitive data but also includes other research initiatives. This session will introduce the scope of the RDI program, the work we have done this year, and address the next steps we are taking; a peek behind the scenes at TU/e.

The Future of Retail (Retail Track)

The retail sector continues to evolve rapidly, with AI and automation transforming customer experiences, supply chains, and personalization at every touchpoint. Advanced technologies like generative AI enable hyper-personalized shopping and predictive analytics, while immersive digital experiences bridge online and offline channels, reshaping how consumers engage with brands. Join Rob Saker, AVP Retail Consumer Goods at Databricks to learn how to unleash a new wave of innovation and growth in retail & consumer goods.
This presentation will be followed by two spotlight presentations from Royal FrieslandCampina and Shell.

1. Data Drives Dairy: Empowering People and Decisions with the Power of Data & AI
Embark on a journey through FrieslandCampina’s transformative Data and AI strategy, where vision meets innovation. Over the past three years, we have revolutionized our approach to data, with Databricks as the heartbeat of our platform. Join me to understand how our advancements in Data engineering, AI-driven insights and our investments in Generative AI are transforming FrieslandCampian into a Data Centric organization. Join us to explore how we’ve turned challenges into opportunities, building a future-proof, data-centric organization that’s primed for the next era of digital transformation. And we will be sharing some our learnings too !!

The next wave of transformation in FSI (Financial Services & Insurance Track)

This panel gathers data experts from ING, Rabobank, Argenta to explore how generative AI is shaping the future of finance. As GenAI drives transformative technology advancements, it also redefines how organizations foster creativity, agility, and resilience in their teams. Panelists will discuss not only the technical innovations enabled by GenAI but also the cultural shifts required to embrace it—creating environments where innovation thrives. Join this conversation to learn strategies for building a culture that supports data-driven experimentation and harnesses GenAI’s potential to revolutionise the financial sector.

Unilin’s pioneer journey towards a Cloud Data Platform (Manufacturing & Energy Track)

Harnessing the true value of your data through a Cloud Data & Analytics Platform is much easier said than done…. Unilin invested heavily in all core pillars of its Analytics Strategy to Enable Better Decisions. In this session Stijn Lioen (Global Data & Analytics Architect) will lead you through the journey of Unilin in building a foundational Azure Databricks platform. Stijn might also reveal some real magic of what can happen when bringing SAP and non-SAP data together….

Women in Data + AI Panel

The Women in Data + AI Panel discussion brings together data leaders to explore the topics of mentorship, allyship, and how we can bring women into tech roles. Our panelists will share their personal journeys, ideas and insights on how to navigate today's industry landscape and the opportunities that being and having a mentor can shape and build your career path. The panel will also explore the importance of allyship, and what you can do to work with your counterparts within your organisation.

The session is open to everyone to attend.

Databricks Keynote

Complexity has long been the barrier to success with data and AI. But, the unification of lakehouse architecture with generative AI has rapidly opened up new opportunities to simplification. By bringing AI to your data, you can analyze huge quantities of information from many different sources to generate outputs that drive efficiency, spur creative thinking and enhance productivity.

Hear from Databricks leaders about the latest innovations in AI, data warehousing, and analytics on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. Additionally, data leaders will explore the interconnections between data and AI and how to save good models from bad data.

Game Changer: Unlocking the Power of Data in Football Analytics

Learn how data is changing the game of football and sports in general. We will give an overview of the challenges and opportunities that are present in the world of sports analytics. Learn how Ajax utilizes data to support decision-making, including what kind of data is used and how Databricks is helping them make this data available for wide-spread analysis. Additionally, there will be some real-life examples to show how new insights are being gathered.

How Heineken deals with analytics and AI at a global scale

At HEINEKEN Digital & Technology we aim to become the Best-Connected brewer. With our data science and technology teams we develop and scale analytics & AI use cases across our markets and embed AI in our business processes. To unlock this value from AI and analytics we build a strong data foundation, standardized toolset and clear architecture patterns to have data flow from 300+ sources into tightly governed use cases. This allowed us to scale globally, greatly reducing time to market of new use cases and becoming the Best-Connected Brewer.

Get started with Data Engineering

Audience: Data Engineers
Duration: 4 hours

Learn how to navigate the Databricks Data Engineering & Data Science Workspace user interface, develop and run code using Databricks Notebooks, version notebooks with Databricks Repos, and use Delta Lake to perform data management tasks.

By the end of this course, you will:

Describe fundamental concepts about Databricks
Explain fundamental concepts about the Data Engineering & Data Science Workspace
Explain fundamental concepts about Delta Lake
Navigate the Workspace user interface
Use the Workspace to:
- Create and manage clusters using the Databricks Clusters UI
- Develop and run code in multi-cell Databricks notebooks using basic operations
- Integrate git support using Databricks Repos
- Perform data management tasks using Delta Lake

Prerequisites

Beginner-level knowledge of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.
Beginner familiarity with cloud computing concepts (virtual machines, object storage, etc.)
Intermediate experience with basic SQL concepts (select, filter, groupby, join, etc)

Get started with GenAI

Audience: Data Scientist / Machine Learning Engineer
Duration: 2 hours

Learn how to navigate the Databricks platform to build and develop Generative AI applications. You will learn how to develop prompts, and compound AI systems using MLflow and Mosaic AI on the platform. As well as learn concepts around governance and differences with GenAI.

By the end of the course, you will learn:

Generative AI opportunities and challenges
How to set up a dev environment and get started with prompt engineering on Databricks with MLFlow
How to build a compound AI system with retrieval augmented generation (RAG)
Introduction to fine-tuning models and pretraining LLMs with Mosaic AI
How to approaching governance for AI applications

Prerequisites:

Intermediate-level experience with Python
Working knowledge of machine learning and deep learning is helpful

Event details and FAQ

How much does it cost to attend the Data + AI World Tour?	All Data + AI World Tour stops are free to attend.
In which language will the event be conducted?	The Amsterdam Data + AI World Tour will be conducted in English
I am having difficulties registering. How can I get help?	Please email emea-events@databricks.com.
How do I register for training?	When registering, please select you are interested in attending training. Registration for training will open closer to the event. You must reserve your seat in order to attend training.
Will you be providing meals with dietary restrictions in mind?	We will provide meals that are vegetarian and vegan. If you have other dietary restrictions, please email emea-events@databricks.com and we will do our best to accommodate.
Where is the event located?	The event will take place at Johan Cruijf Arena. The address is Johan Cruijff Boulevard 1, 1101 AX Amsterdam. The venue has parking availability (costs are associated) and is located within 10 mins walking distance from the train/ metro station.
I have accessibility needs. Can I still join the event?	Johan Cruijff Arena has escalators & elevators to most floors. Please email emea-events@databricks.com if you have any special accessibility needs and we will do our best to accomodate.