Data Platform Next Step

It's happening. 🎉 After months of planning and preparation, Data Platform Next Step 2026 is finally here, and the rooms are full. Today, 128 attendees from 12 countries are spending the full day delving into sessions with exceptional trainers: • Erwin de Kreuk & Peer Grønnerup on Automating Microsoft Fabric • Miles Cole & Jorge Docampo Carro on Spark Performance Engineering • 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹 & Mihály Kávási on Building Context, Not Vibes - Practical AI Augmented Data Engineering Seeing it all come together - the name badges lined up, the schedules on the stands, the laptops open, and the sessions underway - makes every late night worthwhile. And the day isn't over yet. Tonight we have our After Hours program: a social break, an Ask Me Anything with all nine Microsoft speakers on stage, and a conference dinner. One of our favorite parts of the whole event. Tomorrow, 199 attendees will join us for the conference day, kicking off with a keynote from Tino Tereshko on the ultra-modern architecture of Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse. See you tomorrow 🇩🇰

We are full. 🎉 199 tickets sold across 82 companies and 12 countries. On June 1st and 2nd, we'll have well over 230 people at Clarion Hotel Copenhagen Airport, including speakers, sponsors, and organizers. A few numbers worth sharing: • 128 attendees are joining us for the training day on June 1st • 199 attendees on the conference day on June 2nd • 24 speakers, 8 sponsors, and 3 organizers on stage and behind the scenes • 82 companies represented, from 12 countries • Backstage ApS leading the way with 14 attendees, closely followed by City of Aarhus with 13 and AP Pension with 12 200 might not sound like a lot compared with the big industry events. That's intentional. Data Platform Next Step is built around quality over quantity - a focused, intimate setting where networking isn't an afterthought; it's part of the program. To everyone joining us: don't just sit through the sessions and head home. Talk to the person next to you. Strike up a conversation in the hallway. Some of the best moments at a conference happen between sessions, not during them. And please, go talk to the speakers. They are all incredibly approachable and genuinely want to share their knowledge and experience. Whether it's a question after their session, a chat over lunch, or a conversation at the After Hours - they're there for it. This is the last post before we go live. Next week, it's all about the conference itself. If you didn't get a ticket this time, subscribe to the newsletter to be first to hear about next year. See you in Copenhagen

The end-of-day raffle on June 2nd is shaping up to be a good one. At 16:00, we close out the conference in the main room with prizes from our Premium Sponsors and partner conferences. Here's what's on the table: 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲𝘀 | enter by having our Premium Sponsors scan your QR code at their booths throughout the day. Each scan is one entry, so visit all four to maximize your chances: • LEGO Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean), brought to you by dataon • LEGO Ferrari SF-24 F1 Car,m brought to you by Eddytor • LEGO NASA Artemis Space Launch System, brought to you by itm8 Danmark • Gift card for Madklubben Restaurants, brought to you by VENZO_ & Inspari A/S 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 | raffled among all attendees, no booth visits required: • Data Platform Next Step - 2027 • European Microsoft Fabric + SQL Community Conference - Barcelona, September 28 – October 1 • dataMinds.be Connect - Mechelen, October 12–14 One rule applies to everything: you must be in the room at 16:00 to win. A note on the sponsor scans: By having a sponsor scan your badge, you consent to share your name and email for future promotional outreach. You can opt out at any time. See you at 16:00 👀

We are essentially sold out. 199 tickets have been booked for Data Platform Next Step 2026, and Monday, May 25th, is the last day to purchase tickets. We have a small amount of additional capacity if needed, but we're close to the limit. If you're still considering it, now is the time. Together with speakers, sponsors, and their teams, we'll be well over 230 people gathered in Copenhagen on June 1st and 2nd, a full day of hands-on training followed by an After Hours program with nine Microsoft experts on stage on June 1st, and 15 breakout sessions and a keynote from Tino Tereshko on June 2nd. Ticket sales close Monday or when we reach capacity.

This year we’re trying something new. We’ve extended the lunch break from 60 to 75 minutes – and we’re using the extra time to introduce a new format: sponsor sessions. Four sessions, 8 minutes each, delivered by the companies behind some of the most interesting tools and approaches in the data platform space today. Two sessions run at the start of the lunch break, and two at the end. Plenty of time for lunch at the onsite Horizon Restaurant in between – and a chance to see something you might not have expected. Here’s what’s on the menu: 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 & 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 | dataon brings The Governance Game: a hands-on, collaborative session designed to get teams talking about data governance in a way that’s actually engaging. Come play. 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗼𝗸𝗲 | Inspari A/S sends two Microsoft MVPs on stage to present a topic they don’t know in advance, using slides they’ve never seen before. Audience members are invited to compete. No promises on technical depth. Full promises on entertainment. 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘆 | Eddytor gives a live 8-minute demo of their product: master data editing directly in your data lake, as easy as Excel, with full audit trail and governance built in. 𝗜𝗹𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 – 𝗣𝗹𝘂𝗴 & 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 | itm8 Danmark walks through Illuminate, their plug-and-play reporting solution built on Microsoft Fabric and Business Central, designed to deliver value from day one with no heavy implementation required. Four sessions. Four different angles. All included in your conference ticket. Tickets are still available – but not for long. See you in Copenhagen on June 1st and 2nd.

A few spots are still available for the full-day workshop I’m delivering together with Erwin de Kreuk 🚀 at the Data Platform Next Step training day on June 1st. If you’re working with Microsoft Fabric and want to move beyond manual setup, one-off deployments, and click-ops, this workshop is for you. We’ll spend the day building and automating a complete Fabric Data Platform end to end. We will cover everything from workspace provisioning and metadata-driven ingestion to semantic models and Git-based CI/CD. Expect lots of real-world demos, automation patterns, REST APIs, Fabric CLI, fabric-cicd, deployment strategies, and ready-to-use scripts you can bring back to your own projects immediately. Whether you’re building a new platform or scaling an existing Fabric setup, the goal is simple: 👉 deliver faster 👉 reduce risk 👉 automate everything possible And after the training day, the event continues with the After Hours networking event, AMA session with Microsoft experts, and conference dinner - all included in the Full Package ticket. Ticket sales close May 25th (or when sold out), and only a few Full Package tickets remain. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eCwTji3z Looking forward to seeing many fellow Fabric enthusiasts there 🚀 #MicrosoftFabric #DataPlatform #Automation

Counting down the days to Data Platform Next Step 2026 in Copenhagen! On June 2nd, Srdjan Matin and I will take the stage to talk about pushing Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse to its absolute limits - what happens under the hood, how to spot bottlenecks, and the techniques that make the difference when "fast" still is not fast enough. If you care about Fabric Warehouse performance, this one is for you. 📢 Only a few tickets left for this year's conference & training day. https://lnkd.in/dD2mznmF See you in Copenhagen! Data Platform Next Step

The training day ends at 17:00 on June 1st, but the day doesn't. As part of the Full Package, we're hosting our After Hours Social & Networking event right after, and this year's lineup is one to stick around for. 𝟭𝟳:𝟬𝟬 | 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 Start the evening with a beer, soda, or glass of wine. A chance to decompress, swap notes from the day, and connect with the people around you. 𝟭𝟳:𝟯𝟬 | 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗠𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 This is always one of the event's highlights, and this year it's something special. We're bringing all our Microsoft speakers on stage together: Benni De Jagere, Clemens Vasters, Filip Popović, Jorge Docampo Carro, Kevin Thomas, Miles Cole, Srdjan Matin, Lars Andersen and Tino Tereshko. Nine experts covering the full breadth of the modern data platform. Warehouse, SQL, Lakehouse, Data Engineering, Power BI, Governance, Streaming, and more. One stage. Your questions. It's not often you get this kind of access in one room. 𝟭𝟵:𝟬𝟬 | 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 The evening wraps up with a buffet dinner at the venue, a relaxed end to what promises to be a packed and rewarding day. No need to rush anywhere. The After Hours program is included with the Full Package ticket and is the only ticket type that provides access to the full two-day experience - training day on June 1st, conference day on June 2nd, and everything in between. A few Full Package tickets remain available. Ticket sales close on May 25th — one week before the event — or when tickets sell out. If you've been considering it, now is the time.

One of the things we love about the data community is how well the conferences support each other. At dataMinds Connect 2025 in Mechelen, a ticket to Data Platform Next Step 2026 was raffled off - and it was won by Birgitt Haesen. She's joining us on June 1st and 2nd for the Building Context, Not Vibes training day, and we can't wait to welcome her to Copenhagen. This year, we're giving back. As part of our end-of-day prize raffle on June 2nd, we're raffling off tickets to three great conferences happening later this year: • 𝗙𝗮𝗯𝗖𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 | Barcelona, September 28 – October 1 • 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 | Mechelen, October 12–14 • 𝗙𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘂𝗺 | Lyngby, November 19 To be in the draw, you just need to stay for the closing session. Three reasons to make sure you don't leave early.