DATA festival
Explore the program
Make the most of your time on site. Discover sessions and speakers across three stages.
data.stage
Your big-picture stage for practical inspiration and strategic perspective. Expect real-world use cases from practitioners, panel discussions, and keynotes. Hear from visionaries, thought leaders, and BARC experts as they connect current trends with what works in practice.
June 16th 2026, 10:00 – 10:30 am
Opening Keynote - Shaping the future together
Join our annual Keynote of the DATA festival Founders Alexander Thamm and Carsten Bange deliver their annual reality check on Europe’s data and AI landscape. From data strategy to data culture – what separates pilots from production?
This talk cuts through GenAI hype to spotlight what truly drives value: modernized data platforms, trusted data governance, and teams empowered to act on insights. Alex and Carsten reveal where data initiatives succeed, where they fail, and what leaders must prioritize NOW to turn data into competitive advantage.
June 16th 2026, 10:45 – 11:15 am
What happens AROUND the tech stack? Tech is Easy. Change is Not.
This session aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Generative AI’s journey so far, offering valuable insights and lessons learned. Whether you’re a business leader, technologist, or AI enthusiast, this presentation will equip you with the knowledge to navigate and leverage the evolving world of Generative AI effectively.
Nina Indina, Program Director Digital Twin | ETH Zurich
June 16th 2026, 11:15 – 11:45 am
From slides to systems: Lessons learned from implementing AI governance in a decentral global organisation
Alexandra Wander, Program Manager Responsible AI | Zeiss Group
Alexandra Wander is Responsible AI Program Manager at ZEISS. She leads the company’s global AI governance strategy with the ZEISS Responsible AI Office, bridging compliance, technology and culture to ensure trustworthy AI at scale. An aerospace engineer by training, she previously worked on autonomous systems in space, on the street and on rails before turning her focus to governing AI on Earth. Passionate about responsible innovation, she advocates for AI that advances both technology and trust.
June 16th 2026, 11:45 am – 12:15 pm
The AI Act Reference Architecture: A Practical Blueprint - from Law to System Design
The EU AI Act is about to reshape how we design and operate intelligent systems — and software architecture sits right at the center of this shift. This talk explores how to build AI solutions that are compliant by design, using architectural patterns that enforce transparency, traceability, and governance without slowing teams down. We’ll look at how to structure domains, data flows, and decision points so that risk classification, documentation, and monitoring become natural outputs of the system, not last-minute compliance work. You’ll also see how Domain-Driven Design and event-driven architectures help organizations embed safety, explainability, and accountability into their AI products. Whether you’re an architect, product owner, or engineering leader, this session will show you how to turn regulation into an accelerator — not an obstacle. Join to learn how future-proof architecture can make the EU AI Act a strategic advantage.
Dr. Nikita Golovko, Portfolio Architect (Industrial AI) | Siemens
Dr. Nikita Golovko is a Solution Architect with 16+ years designing scalable, secure, cost-effective architectures for industrial and mission-critical systems. With an academic ML background, he bridges cutting-edge AI with shop-floor reality, translating business needs into robust designs and aligning cross-functional teams. He focuses on AI, IoT, and edge to drive sustainable improvement and is writing a book on managing technical debt through culture and decision frameworks.
June 16th 2026, 12:15 – 12:45 pm
A PPT on AI
This talk is a slightly humorous take on our journey of enabling AI adoption within a large, decentralized organization, detailing the kinds of challenges we faced and how we tried to overcome it in creative ways!
ome aspects that I hope to cover are as follows:
- Winning over the legal/compliance team to be on your side
- Helping business users understand what the hell “Thinking” mode and when they should be using ChatGPT Canvas!
- Effectively collaborating with the “AI consultants” that an executive decides to hire
- Adjusting expectations by answering the question, “Why can’t your fancy AI not do this!!!”
Sidharth Ramachandran, Senior Director | RTL
I’m passionate about leveraging AI and machine learning to solve real-world challenges. As a tech leader, author, and educator, I strive to make complex concepts accessible and actionable.
June 16th 2026, 02:15 – 03:25 pm
Focussed Discussion Groups
Join this small, moderated sessions designed for deeper exchange on the topics currently shaping the community. Join the data.stage-speakers and a select group of participants to unpack challenges, compare approaches, and learn directly from the presented use cases and fellow attendees. You’ll have time to ask questions, share your own experience, find peers with similar problems, and leave with concrete ideas, practical tips, and next steps for your case plus valuable new connections.
Join peers to discuss topics like:
- Too little data for AI? Doubt it! AI Use Case Exchange for SMEs
- Make or buy AI? Should I build everything, just because Claude Code can?
- Data & AI on Operational Technology
- Productivity AI or AI transformation? How to deploy AI to support strategic capabilities.
- Data & AI in Engineering and Manufacturing
- Data & AI in Pharma and regulated industries
- Data & AI in Logistics and Supply Chain
- Ethical AI – How to include affected people effectively?
- How to build reliable agents – exchanging on lessons learned
- AI on the shopfloor
- Data as an asset – how to maximize value from data
- Modernizing Data Architectures — Data Warehouse, Data Lake or Lakehouse
- How to identify the right AI Use Cases
- Getting Ready for the AI Act – Exchange on Challenges and Solutions
- Increasing AI adoption in “the business” – lessons learned
- The role and impact of the modern data professional
- Exchange among Microsoft Fabric users
- …more to come
June 16th 2026, 04:00 – 04:30 pm
Building AI Agents on Solid Ground - Context Engineering Explained By a Hands-on Use Case
Jacqueline Bloemen, Senior Analyst Data & Analytics | BARC
June 16th 2026, 04:30 – 05:00 pm
From Solo Agents to Agentic Ecosystems: Enabling Production-Ready AI for the Energy Transition
The rise of Agentic AI marks a shift from single-task copilots to multi-agent ecosystems that can collaborate, reason, and act within enterprise environments. In the energy sector, this evolution is critical: agents need not only intelligence but also interoperability with trusted data foundations and enterprise systems to become production-ready. In this talk, we’ll explore how to move beyond isolated experiments with single agents toward scalable, multi-agent architectures that can optimize grid operations, accelerate decarbonization, and empower customers. We’ll highlight the role of data governance, orchestration, and integration in making agentic AI safe, reliable, and impactful for the energy transition.
Kapil Gupta, Chief Data Technologist | E.ON
June 16th 2026, 06:00 – 07:00 pm
Panel discussion
Building AI on Solid Ground: Shared Vision, Strong Foundation, and Evolving Roles in the Enterprise
This panel explores how enterprises can build AI on solid ground by aligning a shared vision, strengthening data and platform foundations, and developing the engineering teams necessary for sustainable impact. Industry leaders and top analysts in Data & AI will join to share lessons from large-scale transformations across complex organizations and platforms.
The discussion will center on three pillars: how a unifying vision for Data & AI fosters collaboration across domains; why semantic consistency, data product architecture, and interoperable platforms are essential to integrating heterogeneous landscapes into an enterprise-ready data mesh; and which inhouse engineering skills, evolving roles, and team capabilities are required to move from maintaining isolated systems to building future-ready, responsible, and high-performing data and AI organizations.
Moderator: Katrin Botzen, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
June 16th 2026, from 06:45 pm
Evening Event
The evening event offers the perfect chance for all attendees, discussion partners, sponsors and experts to come together, enjoy delicious food and refreshing drinks, and groove to the tunes in a clubbing atmosphere. It’s going to be an amazing night! This is set to be a chill evening, dedicated to sparking conversations, connecting with others and sharing ideas in a welcoming atmosphere that encourages networking and building new relationships! Join us for a night filled with unforgettable interactions and meaningful exchanges – and dancing is allowed, so get ready to let loose! We’re so excited to welcome you!
data.stage - DAY 2
June 17th 2026
June 17th 2026, 09:05 – 09:30 am
We make AI take off – on the Rails
How can an infrastructure that is up to 150 years old be combined with artificial intelligence?
In this Use Case Presentation, Nina will show how the digital representation – the “Google Maps” of DB’s rail infrastructure – is already creating measurable value across various departments.
Examples include workforce planning, asset and maintenance management, condition monitoring, and investment planning. The digital twin integrates data from a wide range of sources, from IT systems to drones and sensors, as well as IoT and BIM data, linking them to geographic maps for 2D and 3D visualization. This creates a unique, intelligent, data-driven representation.
The presentation provides concrete insights into how AI delivers practical benefits – even in a complex, historically evolved infrastructure like the rail network – and offers inspiration for how technical transformation can succeed in other organizations as well.
Dr. Nina Stumme, Head of Data Management, Analytics and AI | DB InfraGO AG
June 17th 2026, 09:45 – 10:15 am
AI-powered Accounting: How AI is Reshaping Data Intake
From manual processing to intelligent automation, AI-powered Accounting transforms how financial data is captured and processed at Munich Re
Martin Breitschädel, Senior Project Manager | MunichRE
June 17th 2026, 10:15 – 10:45 am
Agentic and AI Delivery - setup for success
While it is important to have enthusiastic people diving into the world of GenAI and Agentic AI, value and impact only come with production-ready solutions.
This is about how ING was able to go beyond PoC’s, how we did set up ourselves as central CoE and deliver together with the business teams and how we defined our mission to get from quick wins to strategic success.
Frank Fischer, Head of Analytics Engineering CoE | ING Group
Claire Pfeil, IT Area Lead Analytics | ING
June 17th 2026, 11:15 – 11:45 am
All Aboard the AI Omnibus: Mind the Act While Accelerating Innovation
In this talk Julia explores the critical balance between leveraging AI for innovation and adhering to regulatory frameworks such as the AI Act. She will discuss how companies can pursue agile AI development strategies while maintaining a focus on ethics, transparency, and governance, ensuring both technological advancement and compliance.
Julia Sterling, Head of AI Strategy & Governance | Commerzbank
June 17th 2026, 11:45 am – 12:15 pm
Driving Data + AI Literacy
Growing future-ready data communities of practice at scale with the new Henkel Data Clubhouse, an outcome-based operating model for Communities of Practice in the AI age. I would share what we have observed running 30+ disjoint data communities and what we are learning as we are setting up a governing and enabling body for these communities, the Henkel Data Clubhouse. Here, I would include an honest assessment of measures and strategies.
Florian Roscheck, Senior Data Scientist – Data & Analytics Strategy | Henkel
Florian Roscheck is a Senior Data Scientist in Henkel’s Data & Analytics Strategy team, where he focuses on the human side of enterprise AI: how a global organization of 47,000 can build habits, skills, and shared standards beyond single use cases. Partnering with teams across functions, he co-founded the Henkel Data Club (1,000+ members), a grassroots community of practice, and the Henkel Data & Analytics Blog. Florian’s work translates what teams discover in practice into shareable frameworks, so AI adoption becomes a strategic capability.
June 17th 2026, 01:45 pm – 02:15 pm
How the agents have colonized Carrefour
The agents have started to conquer the world in 2025. Carrefour has been invaded too! And it changes the way of working, interacting and our velocity on different topics.
Come to discover how it started, the different iteration and team impacted, and the plans for the future.
Learn the different steps, our pain points and the quick wins. And get back to work to start the agentic conquest in your team!
Guillaume Blaquiere, Group Data Architect | Carrefour
Guillaume is a Google Developer Expert on Cloud Platform since 2019 and works at Carrefour as Group Data Architect.
Java developer for more than 15 years, and despite positions of responsibilities, he has always kept his wish to create, develop, discover and test new solutions, especially in the Cloud, the machine learning or Python and Go language.
Innovation addict and Google Cloud 3x certified, writer and speaker in his free time, he’s fascinated by the serverless solution and all the “”usual”” problems that it solves.
June 17th 2026, 02:15 – 02:45 pm
From Silos to Synergies: The Journey to AI-Ready Reporting & Analytics
Boyana Todorova | BSH Hausgeräte GmbH
With over 15 years of experience in data, analytics, and digital transformation, Boyana Todorova leads global initiatives at BSH, including Process Mining, ESG Reporting, Operational Analytics and the BSH Global Reporting & Analytics Group. Her career spans roles in consulting, analytics architecture, and people development across international teams. Passionate about unlocking business value from data, she focuses on governance, reliability, and innovation—always with a strong commitment to empowering people and fostering collaboration.
Stefanie Bayer | BSH Hausgeräte GmbH
Stefanie has over 15 years of leadership experience in Finance and Controlling with a passion for international project management and complex transformations. She has a proven track record in developing reporting systems and tools, relocating and streamlining reporting activities, and facilitating Mergers and Acquisitions.
As Head of Corporate Controlling Systems and Business Intelligence at BSH Household Appliances, Stefanie is leading digital transformation initiatives to develop future-proof and AI ready Controlling and Reporting Systems. She believes that transformative change is driven by people, not just technology, and is dedicated to empowering and engaging teams throughout this journey.
In her role as co-lead of the Global Reporting and Analytics Group at BSH, Stefanie additionally contributes to leveraging data and AI across BSH to enhance reporting & analytics within a global framework.
June 17th 2026, 03:15 – 03:45 pm
The Future is Conversational: Bosch's Integrated Data Product Ecosystem with Generative AI
Explore Bosch’s journey integrating Generative AI into a holistic data product ecosystem. Discover how we’re building conversational interfaces and democratizing data access to unlock new possibilities for innovation and efficiency.
Wolfgang Klein, Director Data-as-a-Service | Robert Bosch Group
Simeon Rilling, Chief Product Owner for the Data Mesh Ecosystem | Robert Bosch Group
June 17th 2026, 03:45 pm – 04:15 pm
Beyond the Hype Curve: How to Survive the AI Bubble – Economic Reality meets Generative Infrastructure
In 2026, the AI bubble has transitioned from speculative euphoria to a “utility-first” economy. This session explores why the initial wave of massive, general-purpose LLMs hit an economic and technical ceiling in the “Data, Analytics, and CPM” market. We present the strategic pivot toward Generative Infrastructure and Solution Engineering: a landscape where Multi-Agent Systems spawn “just-in-time” environments, aiming to render traditional software layers obsolete for many use cases. However, survival in this new era requires a clear-eyed reality check. We analyze where AI still fails – specifically in complex, deterministic business logic and high-scale transactional systems – and why Context-Engineering remains the only way to bridge the gap between AI agility and enterprise-grade resilience and auditability.
Thomas Zeutschler, Senior Analyst Data & AI | BARC
Thomas is a BARC Fellow and Senior Analyst at BARC in the area of data & analytics. His focus is on modern data strategy, data lake(house)-based data management concepts, API-based process integration and in particular the definition, implementation and operationalization of data-driven business processes and business models.
tech.stage
Your deep-dive stage for hands-on technology and what’s next. Expect technical sessions and deep dives from practitioners, plus innovative start-up solutions. This is also where you’ll find the BARC Start-up Award Data & AI 2026 award ceremony.
Newcomer on stage
In this dynamic age defined by the rapid advancement of AI, startups have emerged as essential players in the technological landscape. It is therefore paramount for us to provide a platform where these innovators can shine. Enter the cutting-edge realm of the tech.stage, where groundbreaking ideas and advancements take center stage.
June 16th 2026, 11:45 am – 12:15 pm
What If You Never Had to Share Data Again?
Carl Fransman, Chief Strategy Officer | Linksight
Carl Fransman is an engineer and MBA with over 20 years of international experience leading companies in data and analytics across healthcare, the public sector, and aerospace & defense. He focuses on translating cutting-edge technologies into practical, high-impact B2B solutions, and serves as a trusted advisor to clients and partners on new ways of working with and unlocking value from data
June 16th 2026, 12:15 – 12:45 pm
From PDFs to production-ready data: AI meets reinforcement plans
Thomas Prugger, CFO / Head of Finance & IT | ARGE Baustahl Eisen Blasy-Neptun GmbH
Thomas Prugger is Director of Finance and IT at Blasy Verwaltungs GmbH, the parent company of ARGE Baustahl Eisen Blasy-Neptun GmbH. He works at the intersection of digitization and finance, driving efficient digital processes and sustainable transformation. With an open mindset and a strong focus on innovation, he challenges established patterns and continuously explores new ideas and technologies to create measurable impact.
Nina Mrzelj, Director of Data & AI Transformation | Sclable Business Solutions
DAY 2
June 17th 2026, 09:45 – 10:45 am
Unlocking Data Migration Success: Architecting Eurowings’ Data Platform on Azure with Databricks
In this session, I will share real-world insights from modernizing enterprise data platforms using Azure, Databricks, and Unity Catalog. Learn how to build scalable, AI-ready architectures, solve governance challenges, and accelerate time-to-insight with cloud-native technologies.
Onur Tokat, Senior Data Engineer | Eurowings Digital GmbH
Onur is a Senior Data Engineer with 20+ years of IT experience, including 10 years in data engineering and a prior background as a Software Engineer and Architect. At Eurowings Digital, he builds scalable, AI-ready data platforms on Azure and Databricks.
June 17th 2026, 01:45 pm – 02:45 pm
AI Agents: The New Frontier of LLMs
The industry has mastered the chatbot; the next frontier is autonomy. We are rapidly moving from Large Language Models that simply generate text to AI Agents that can reason, plan, and execute complex workflows on behalf of users. But how do you architect a system that is reliable, scalable, and safe?
This session provides a technical blueprint for engineering robust AI Agents. We will move beyond basic prompt engineering to dissect the cognitive architecture of an agent; the “Think, Plan, Act, Reflect” loop, and explore essential design patterns like ReAct and Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) that turn stochastic model outputs into deterministic actions.
Crucially, we will address the issues that come with multi-agent orchestration. You will learn how to implement standardized communication protocols, specifically the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for tool decoupling and the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol for collaboration, to treat agents as interoperable microservices.
To ground these concepts in reality, we will tear down the architecture of “Instavibe,” a hyper-personalized social listening application built on Google Cloud and Vertex AI. We will demonstrate how real-time social data streams are processed by a cooperative swarm of specialized agents (a Profiler, a Planner, and an Integrator) to solve complex user problems.
Audience Takeaways:
- Architectural Patterns: How to implement the reasoning loops (ReAct/Reflect) required for autonomy.
- Standardization: Practical application of MCP and A2A protocols to build scalable “societies” of agents.
- Real-World Implementation: A deep dive into a production-grade architecture on Google Cloud (Cloud Run, Spanner, Vertex AI).
Mustapha Adekunle, Data Engineer | Nomba
Mustapha is a passionate data professional with expertise in Google Cloud Platform, spanning data and analytics engineering, database engineering, and community engagement. His background allows him to bridge the gap between business objectives and technical solutions, designing, building, and securing efficient data processing systems. As a Data Engineer and Advocate, Mustapha is dedicated to empowering others to leverage data effectively and securely through their writing, speaking engagements, and online content.
festival.stage
Expect cutting-edge data and AI from our sponsors. See real customer success stories and learn how innovations improve daily operations and business results.
June 16th 2026, 11:15 am – 11:45 am
Iron Man: Turning Data Into Cash – Optimizing NWC With Data Products
Dr. Stefan Rameseder, VP Customer Value | One Data
Sponsored by
Sponsored by
June 16th 2026, 11:45 am – 12:15 pm
From Bot to Business Standard: How AI-Powered Knowledge Management Is Transforming the Organization
Dominik Wuttke, Director Data & Digital Transformation | Marmeladenbaum
Over a year ago, we laid the foundation for a new era of knowledge management at the Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller. With the introduction of an AI-based chatbot built on Microsoft Copilot Studio, we demonstrated how 16,000 documents can become searchable in a matter of seconds. But what happens when the initial excitement fades and the system becomes an everyday tool for employees? In this follow-up talk, we take an unvarnished look behind the scenes after more than a year of productive use. We share our most valuable lessons learned from the “run phase” and show that the success of AI within an organization is less a question of programming and more a question of data strategy and user guidance.
June 16th 2026, 12:15 pm – 12:45 pm
Stop Managing AI Projects. Start Managing AI Impact.
Nadiem von Heydebrand, CEO & CO-Founder | Mindfuel
Sponsored by
Any questions?
Contact us!
