The Data Engineering & DataOps Stage at the 11th Data Innovation Summit is where the structural integrity of the modern enterprise is being redesigned for a machine-speed economy. This year, the focus shifts from simply building pipelines to architecting the resilient, value-driven foundations required for the next industrial era.
Day 1: May 6th
The opening day in Stockholm pulses with a narrative of strategic purpose and high-speed execution. Goran Cvetanovski, founder of Data Innovation Summit and Hyperight AB will open the event. Then, the journey begins with a vital reminder of the “human in the loop”, as Andy Cotgreave (How To Speak Data) explores “Why Human Insight Is More Important Than Ever in the Age of AI”, ensuring our automated future remains grounded in clarity and intent. The focus then pivots to the bottom line with Maria Wiss (Snowflake), who will tackle the industry’s most pressing challenge in her keynote, “Show Me the Money: Making AI Deliver Real Value”. Strengthening this pursuit of ROI, Stephen Brobst (Ab Initio Software) will deep-dive into the technical frontier with “Enabling the Future with Agentic AI”, providing the map for autonomous orchestration. The day reaches its peak with a high-impact keynote from Angelo Rivano (DELL Technologies), offering a model for navigating the complex convergence of infrastructure and intelligence.
Day 1 on the M2 stage will include sessions from:
- Tamara Tatian – EMEA Technical Leader & Architect | IBM Data Platform
- Vasileios Lakafosis – Software Engineer & Dave Kurtzberg – Software Engineer | Meta
- Gregor Bauer – VP Customer Engineering | CrateDB
- Shay Begun – Chief Revenue Officer | Astrafy;
- Jens Mathiasson – Cofounder | Fieldstream & Nik Zerth – Head of Sales, Data & Analytics, Nordics | Google Cloud
- Max Schultze – Director of Data Engineering | HelloFresh
- Will Martin – Evangelist EMEA | Dremio
- Claudia Chiţu – Engineering Manager | Arrive & Barry Tallon – Lead Sales Engineer | Fivetran
- Shantam Mogali – Sr. Data Engineer | Google
- Mallika Rao – Engineering Manager | Netflix
The stage will be supported by Albin Blum – Data Enthusiast and Co-Founder – Theodora Tech as a Moderator and IBM as a Stage Partner.
Day 2: May 7th
Day 2 elevates the conversation from operational efficiency to the structural transformation of the global enterprise. Leading the charge, Kevin Shin (Samsung Semiconductor Inc.) reimagines the risk landscape in his session, “From Defense to Offense: How AI and Security Unite to Power the Next Industrial Revolution,” positioning cybersecurity as a proactive catalyst for innovation. This is followed by a strategic exploration from David Meyer (Databricks) on “The Role of AI in Changing Company Structures and Dynamics,” revealing how agentic systems are fundamentally reshaping corporate hierarchies. To ground these shifts in technical excellence, Joe Reis (best-selling author) will present “Mixed Model Arts: Data Modeling in the Age of AI,” redefining how we structure the “integrity of the substance” to fuel 2026’s sophisticated models. Both days will culminate in the Chairman’s Closing Remarks from Henrik Göthberg (Dairdux), synthesizing the summit’s breakthroughs into a definitive vision for the year ahead.
On the second day, the M2 stage will also include some of the following speakers:
- Rauf Kurbanov – ML Team Lead | JetBrains
- Andre Lopes – Senior Software Engineer | Tesla
- Muhammad Ahsan Ayaz – Software Architect | Scania Group
- Olof Granberg – AI Strategist & builder | DataMentor
- Viviane Santiago Coelho Gomes – Data Ingestion Manager & Ilko Masaldzhiyski – VP Data Science | Xeneta As
This technical stage will bring data engineers, platform builders, and automation leaders together to design resilient and automated data pipelines that power analytics and AI. This year’s focus is on real-time and batch data processing, orchestration, automation, pipeline reliability, cloud-native data engineering, and operational practices enabling powerful AI and analytics.
Day 3: Industry Day
The Data Innovation Summit (DIS) is leveling up this year with the addition of a third day exclusively focused on Industry Day. This new segment aims to spotlight real-world applications and cross-sector collaboration. Beyond the main stage, the event will feature hands-on Masterclasses from Joe Reis, author of “The Data Engineering Book”, Fundamentals of Data Engineering (O’Reilly), and co-creator of a top data engineering course on Coursera with Andrew Ng. He keynotes at conferences worldwide, hosts a popular podcast and blog, and is currently writing his next book on Mixed Model Arts. This year there will also be a competitive Hackathon for those ready to dive into the technical weeds. Keep a close watch on this space as we’ll be dropping a full breakdown and further details in our upcoming articles.
Secure Your Seat Among the Pioneers of Modern Data Infrastructure
From the foundational integrity of DataOps to the revolutionary potential of Agentic AI, the Data Engineering & DataOps Stage stage provides the industrial blueprint for leaders ready to pilot the next generation of the autonomous enterprise. The M2 stage at DIS 2026 is the roadmap for the year ahead.
Request the full agenda and reserve one of the remaining tickets today.
See you in Stockholm!
