7:45 am
NETWORKING BREAKFAST: BUILD COMMUNITY CONTACTS
- Start your day off right and connect with big data and analytics leaders.
- Get to know your data peers and colleagues over a delicious breakfast.
- Source practical tips, discuss best practices, and prepare for the day ahead.
8:45 am
OPENING COMMENTS & ICE BREAKER FROM YOUR HOST
Gain insight into today’s sessions so you can get the most out of your conference experience.
9:00 am
Opening Keynote
Tech Talent: People at the Heart of Data & Ai
Innovative Technologies are transforming businesses, but at their core, success depends on people. This session explores key lessons from building breakthrough technologies at BMO, revealing how they are reshaping recruitment, employee engagement, leadership, and L&D. As organizations adopt new workflows, understanding the evolving relationship between humans and these technologies is crucial. Take back to your organization strategies to:
- Define the role of humans in AI-driven decision-making and operations
- Implement effective change management strategies for breakthrough technologies
- Foster a culture of continuous learning and upskilling to align with new advancements
Ensure your workforce is empowered to thrive and embrace new technologies by placing people at the center of transformation.
9:30 am
C-SUITE PANEL
Rise of Agentic AI: Redefining Autonomy in Artificial Intelligence
Agentic AI offers a transformative approach to leveraging big data, enabling organizations to tackle complex challenges and enhance decision-making. Take back to your team strategies to:
- Position and structure data teams to drive success in projects that combine big data, analytics, and AI
- Evaluate and enhance the flexibility of your analytics infrastructure for AI implementation
- Address data imperfections with Agentic AI to improve data quality and outcomes
- Adopt Agentic AI that will seamlessly integrate with analytics and big data to create flexible, scalable solutions. Build successful projects that blend data, AI agents, and analytics.
Unlock the potential of Argentic AI to create smarter, more resilient data ecosystems and achieve breakthrough results.
10:00 am
CASE STUDY
Transforming a 90,000 people startup into a leading data driven business
In 2021, Kyndryl became the world’s largest startup with 90,000 people as it spun off from IBM. Within the first two years of existence, Kyndryl’s CIO, CDO and business functions focused on simplifying processes and supporting IT with an emphasis on cloud, strategic platforms and data all while establishing as a data driven business: Leave with strategies to:
- Build data platforms that establish a trusted source of truth and eliminate legacy data marts and thousands of customized reports
- Establish data governance practices improving manageability and observability of enterprise and external data
- Become AI ready with cross enterprise risk-tolerance assessments and governance on selected use cases all providing a measured approach to ensuring data readiness
Drive innovation and efficiency through effective data transformation
10:30 am
EXHIBITOR LOUNGE: VISIT BOOTHS & SOURCE EXPERTISE
- Explore the latest big data and analytics technology and strategies with our industry-leading sponsors.
- Share your challenges with the biggest innovators in the business.
- Schedule one-to-one private meetings for personalized advice.
11:00 am
PANEL
Putting up your sail in economic headwinds- Demonstrating ROI and Unlocking New Revenue Streams through Monetization
In the face of economic headwinds it is more important than ever to demonstrate the value of your data and analytics capabilities. More importantly is the opportunity to turn data from a liability into an actual monetized asset, effectively transforming raw information into valuable, revenue-generating offerings. Create a roadmap to:
- Build credibility and get buy-in form your executive team through demonstrating the ROI of data and analytics
- Identify high-value data assets and assess their monetization potential within your industry.
- Implement frameworks for data governance and compliance to protect and maximize data value.
Increase strategies to turn your data into a strategic business asset to unlock new revenue opportunities and foster long-term growth.
11:30 am
INDUSTRY EXPERT: GOVERNANCE
Structure leads to freedom! Data Governance as the source of Innovation
Access to data and the ability to uncover new insights quickly is critical to your business strategy success. Yet on-demand availability to business-ready data is still too hard for so many organizations. By leveraging data lineage, cataloging and testing you can secure your data and analytics governance framework – enabling you to be in full control of the entire data journey. Leave with strategies to:
- Empower data architects and engineers to easily understand the quality and contours of the data and make adjustments, if needed
- Enable effective data stewardship to easily manage who can get to what data
- Drive consumer engagement and personalization by enhancing their ability to interact and manage their data
12:00 pm
KEYNOTE
GenAI for Business: Build, Scale, and Beyond
Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping industries, offering unprecedented opportunities to innovate and drive value. Align with the technical advancements to:
- Identify and develop high-impact GenAI use cases tailored to your business needs
- Overcome challenges in deploying and scaling GenAI solutions across your organization
- Foster leadership alignment to maximize the strategic value of GenAI investments. Discover the pivotal role of strategic and business leadership in achieving GenAI success
Unlock the full potential of GenAI by integrating technical expertise with visionary business leadership.
12:30 pm
NETWORKING LUNCH:DELVE INTO INDUSTRY CONVERSATIONS
- Meet interesting speakers and pick their brains on the latest data issues.
- Expand your network and make connections that last beyond the conference.
- Enjoy great food and service while engaging with your big data and analytics colleagues.
1:30 pm
EXHIBITOR LOUNGE: VISIT BOOTHS & WIN PRIZES
- Browse through different sponsor booths and test drive innovative technology.
- Enter your name for a chance to win exciting prizes.
- Take advantage of event-specific offers and exclusive content.
1:45 pm
CASE STUDY
How data powers every layer of a world class E-Comm app
Modern e-commerce isn’t just built on code—it’s built on data. From the moment a user lands on the homepage to the second their order ships, every interaction is shaped by real-time insights, massive datasets, and intelligent systems working behind the scenes. Optimize how your engineering teams capture, process, and act on billions of data points daily—turning raw user behavior into personalized experiences, optimized pricing, and operational efficiency. Walk away with valuable tactics to:
- Store and managing large-scale datasets in cloud-native environments
- Deploy event streams and real-time analytics to drive insights and decision-making
- Architecting big data pipelines for recommendations, personalization, media and search
- Building experimentation frameworks on top of large, diverse data sources
Ensure scalability and reliability of data systems at high traffic volumes
1:45 pm
CASE STUDY
Driving Transformation with an Analytics Maturity Model: Lessons from Three Organizations
Adopt an analytics maturity model that has been implemented across three leading organizations, helping you elevate your data and analytics capabilities. Take back key frameworks to:
- Apply an actionable analytics maturity model to assess and evolve your organization’s data capabilities
- Drive measurable business impact through data-driven decision-making and advanced analytics
- Engage executives and foster alignment between data teams and business leaders
Explore the future of data, AI, and the evolving role of the Data & Analytics function as critical enablers of organizational growth and innovation.
1:45 pm
CASE STUDY
Scaling AI with AI Ops: Automating and Optimizing ML in Production
As organizations expand their AI initiatives, ensuring efficient management, retraining, and optimization of models in production has become essential. Implement AI Ops to support continuous model performance and scalability. Source practical tips to:
- Automate the monitoring and retraining of AI models to maintain accuracy and relevance over time.
- Design robust AI Ops frameworks that proactively detect and address performance issues.
- Integrate AI Ops into existing workflows for seamless, optimized model management at scale.
Amplify AI scalability with AI Ops tools to ensure continuous model optimization and alignment with business goals.
2:15 pm
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Accelerating Collaboration with DataOps: Bringing Agility to Data Engineering
DataOps promotes continuous integration, delivery, and monitoring of data flows to improve team collaboration and accelerate insights. Adopt best practices to:
- Implement agile DataOps practices that promote teamwork and reduce pipeline bottlenecks.
- Establish automated monitoring and feedback loops to ensure data accuracy and flow efficiency.
- Align DataOps with business goals to create a responsive, data-driven culture.
Optimize your DataOps environment to support agile data engineering, ensuring a resilient and efficient data infrastructure for your organization
2:15 pm
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Scaling Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics: From Insights to Action
Adopt strategies for expanding analytics infrastructure, integrating with existing systems, and overcoming barriers to adoption. Achieve a step-by-step action plan to:
- Build scalable data pipelines that support predictive and prescriptive analytics across diverse use cases.
- Develop frameworks to ensure analytics outputs are actionable and aligned with business objectives.
- Encourage cross-department collaboration to foster an analytics-driven culture and seamless implementation.
Amplify your analytics initiatives with practical insights and peer-driven strategies that deliver real business impact across your organization.
2:15 pm
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Harnessing Open Source for Accelerated AI Development
Execute these tools effectively and navigate the complexities of security, scalability, and integration within your enterprise environment. Create a roadmap to:
- Adopt best practices for using open-source AI tools while maintaining robust security protocols.
- Develop strategies for ensuring scalability and seamless integration of open-source solutions into existing infrastructures.
- Build a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement through community engagement and contribution.
Bolster innovation in your AI projects by fully leveraging open-source resources.
3:00 pm
CASE STUDY
Driving Efficiency in Data Engineering through Automation
Automation is emerging as a transformative trend in data engineering, empowering organizations to adopt automated tools for building, monitoring, and managing data pipelines. Source your plan of action by:
- Identifying and implementing automated tools that streamline data pipeline processes and reduce operational overhead.
- Enhancing the reliability and performance of data pipelines through continuous monitoring and automated alerts.
- Shifting the focus from routine tasks to strategic initiatives that optimize data architecture and drive business value.
Improve efficiency and effectiveness in data engineering by leveraging automation.
3:00 pm
PANEL
Overcoming Barriers to Real-Time Analytics: Scaling for Success
Harness cutting edge insights by mitigating infrastructure limitations and overcoming the complexity of integrating data from multiple sources in real-time. Develop a blueprint to:
- Evaluate and upgrade infrastructure to support real-time data processing and analytics.
- Develop integration frameworks that streamline the ingestion and processing of data from diverse sources.
- Implement best practices for ensuring data quality and reliability in real-time analytics initiatives.
Impact real-time analytics for enhanced decision-making and business agility.
3:00 pm
CASE STUDY
Trustworthy AI: From Ideation to Model
What is a reliable approach for developing trustworthy AI? Whether you are just getting started or already on your journey, leaders need real world strategies for the delivery of products using both generative and non-generative models. Walk away with a blueprint for:
- Developing and deploying trustworthy models.
- Adapting approaches for smaller, privately hosted LLMs and non-generative models.
Protect your brand while you drive innovation through AI
3:30 pm
INDUSTRY EXPERT
Beyond Data Integration: Data Unification & the Rise of GenAI
Generative AI (GenAI) is accelerating the need for Data Unification within organizations. This innovative process unites various data-driven functions—such as enterprise integration, reporting, AI development, and data science—around a shared core of information, despite differing objectives. Central to this strategy is the implementation of a Logical Data Fabric, which is critical for transcending simple centralization. Walk away with strategies to:
- Enable enterprise-wide consistent data management practices that are standardized yet flexible enough to meet the specific needs of different departments
- Foster cross-functional collaboration by providing a common platform where data from various business functions can be integrated and analyzed cohesively
- Scale effectively to accommodate increasing data volumes and complexity ensuring that data management remains robust and agile and capable of supporting both current and future business demands.
3:30 pm
INDUSTRY EXPERT
How Adaptive Analytics is Redefining Decision-Making
As organizations move beyond dashboards and historical reports, a new era of adaptive analytics is emerging—combining streaming data, AI, and contextual intelligence to enable decisions that are not just fast, but also fit-for-purpose.Key takeaways include:
- Leverage event-driven data architectures and ML to enable proactive analytics
- Balance automation with human judgment for high-stakes or ambiguous decisions
- Integrate decision intelligence into operations for continuous optimization
Drive better decision making with analytical capabilities that are adaptive not reactive
3:30 pm
INDUSTRY EXPERT
Beyond the Pilot: Scaling AI for Enterprise Impact
Scaling AI from pilot projects to full enterprise deployment is a substantial challenge for many organizations, with difficulties arising in integration, scalability, and alignment with business goals. Drive AI initiatives beyond proofs of concept to achieve measurable impact at scale. Develop a blueprint to:
- Design scalable AI architectures that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows.
- Address common obstacles in data availability, infrastructure, and cross-functional collaboration for enterprise deployment.
- Align AI projects with business objectives to ensure long-term value and secure organizational support.
Amplify the impact of AI at scale and turn promising pilots into enterprise-wide success stories.
4:00 pm
EXHIBITOR LOUNGE:ATTEND VENDOR DEMOS & CONSULT INDUSTRY EXPERTS
- Enjoy exclusive sponsor demos and experience the next level of big data and analytics innovation firsthand.
- Meet one-on-one with leading solution providers to discuss organizational hurdles.
- Brainstorm solutions and gain new perspectives and ideas.
4:30 pm
DATA VISUALISATION
Bridging the Gap: Transforming Complex Data Insights into Compelling Business Narratives
Translate intricate analytics into impactful stories that resonate with stakeholders and drive decision-making. Create a storyboard to:
- Distill complex data into clear, actionable insights that align with business priorities.
- Leverage visualization and storytelling tools to enhance data presentation.
Heighten your organization’s impact through the power of data-driven storytelling.
4:30 pm
WORKSHOP: DATA PIPELINES
Building the Capacity to Turn Data into Action at Speed and Scale
As demand for data-driven decision-making grows, so does the need for scalable, reliable data science infrastructure. Evolving your data science teams, tooling, and pipelines to deliver timely insights that support operational and strategic goals. Leave with an action plan to:
- Communicate better with data science teams to maximize the impact of models and insights on business strategy
- Focus on innovation and quality, rather than struggling with manual processes?
- Collaborate with data scientists to create a seamless and efficient pipeline that drives success
Turn insights into sustained action with data science pipelines that reduce friction from experimentation to deployment
5:00 pm
WORKSHOP: AI
Trustworthy AI: Overcoming Bias, Enhancing Explainability, and Managing Risk
Develop critical strategies for ensuring AI remains reliable, ethical, and effective. Take back to your organization strategies to:
- Address hallucination and bias in Generative AI to ensure fair and accurate outcomes
- Improve explainability in predictive models within highly regulated industries
- Develop risk mitigation strategies that align with ethical AI principles and compliance requirements
Ensure your AI initiatives are built on a foundation of trust, accountability, and responsible innovation
5:00 pm
WORKSHOP: CULTURE
Bridging the Gap- Connecting Coders and Non-Coders for Business Success
Break down silos, improve communication, and align technical execution with business goals. Take back to your organization strategies to:
- Foster collaboration between data teams and business stakeholders to accelerate innovation
- Implement tools and processes that make analytics accessible to non-technical users
- Bridge the skills gap with training, shared frameworks, and cross-functional teams
Unlock the full potential of your data initiatives by creating a culture where coders and non-coders work together seamlessly.
5:30 pm
CLOSING COMMENTS FROM YOUR HOST
Review the key solutions and takeaways from today’s sessions. Source a summary of action points to implement in your work. Discuss tomorrow’s highlights!
5:45 pm
EVENING RECEPTION:ENJOY GREAT CONVERSATION, MUSIC, & NETWORKING
- Relax and unwind with tasty cocktails after a long day of learning.
- Don’t miss your chance to win fun prizes at our Reception Gift Giveaway.
- Make dinner plans with your new connections and enjoy the best of what Toronto nightlife has to offer. Just be sure to set your alarm for Day 2!
6:00 pm