Conferences / Data in the D Conference
Data in the D Conference 2026
Oct 16–17, 2026 · College for Creative Studies, Benson & Edith Ford Conference Center, Detroit, MI, United States
- Conference
- Data in the D Conference Data science & ML
- Dates
- Oct 16, 2026 – Oct 17, 2026
- Venue
- College for Creative Studies, Benson & Edith Ford Conference Center
- Place
- Detroit, MI, United States
- Format
- In person
- Status
- Past
- Attendance
- —
- Website
- datainthed.org
- Recorded
- 13 sponsors · 46 speaker appearances
- Notes
- Two days: Friday workshops/demos (Omni, Tableau, MotherDuck, Fivetran/dbt vendor sessions, not listed as speakers) and the 'AI at Work: Hack the Everyday' hackathon (Snowflake-supported); Saturday five tracks plus 15-minute lightning rounds and a town hall. Speakers and titles from the individual session pages linked from the Saturday agenda. Hackathon/workshop/hospitality sponsor tiers mapped to other. No attendance figure published (sponsorship page cites "over 300 supporters" for the community, not the event).
Ticket prices
| Ticket | Price | Valid until | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday only (workshops/hackathon), at the door | $80 | — | Online sales had closed; door price | datainthed.org |
| Saturday only (conference day), at the door | $135 | — | Door price | datainthed.org |
| Two-day bundle (Fri + Sat), at the door | $195 | — | Door price; online prices not shown after sales closed | datainthed.org |
| Happy Hour | $2,500 | — | Sold out. | datainthed.org |
| Workshop/Demo | $2,500 | — | Sold out. | datainthed.org |
| Welcome Reception | $2,500 | — | Friday evening reception branding; 2 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Coffee Break | $2,500 | — | 2 sponsors; logo on coffee station signage; 2 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Breakfast | $2,500 | — | 2 sponsors; logo on breakfast signage/program; 2 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Bronze | $5,000 | — | Vendor table with lead capture; signage; social post; 2 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Lunch | $5,000 | — | Exclusive; logo on lunch signage/program; 2 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Silver | $7,500 | — | Vendor table with lead capture; signage; social post; 3 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Main Stage | $7,500 | — | Exclusive; 3-minute on-stage welcome; main stage feature; 3 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Gold | $10,000 | — | 7 sponsors. Vendor table with lead capture; stage recognition; attendee list; 4 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Platinum | $25,000 | — | 2 sponsors. Premium vendor table with lead capture; session presentation; attendee list; 5 registrations. | datainthed.org |
| Diamond | $50,000 | — | Level exclusivity; premium vendor table with lead capture; session presentation; attendee list; 6 registrations. | datainthed.org |
Sponsors 13
Gold 4
Community 1
- WIT Solutions · Community Partner
Other 8
- Atomic Object · Coffee Break Sponsor
- Collibra · Happy Hour Sponsors
- Databricks · (unlabeled, listed first above Gold)
- Dexian · Workshop & Demo Sponsors
- MotherDuck · Workshop & Demo Sponsors
- Omni · Workshop & Demo Sponsors
- Rocket Software · Hackathon Sponsors - Silver+
- Snowflake · Hackathon Sponsors - Presenting
Speakers and talks 46
| Speaker | Company | Role | Talk | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Tellis | The Research Lab | Speaker | Foundations as a Feature: How Dev Teams Are Approaching AI Modernization | — |
| Aaron Wilkerson | Carhartt | Panelist | Data Leadership Panel | — |
| Aaron Wilkerson | Carhartt | Speaker | You need to be more strategic - The mantra for the modern data leader | — |
| Adam Bacigal | General Motors | Speaker | You Didn't Tell Me There was Going to be Design | — |
| AJ Ferrara | Mastronardi Produce | Panelist | Data Leadership Panel | — |
| Alex B. Hill | DETROITography | Speaker | Data for Social Good | — |
| Alex Gaesser | Parable | Speaker | Carving the Ox: Agentic Data Ingestion and the Limits of Imitation | — |
| Alex Gaesser | Parable | Panelist | The Evolution of AI Panel | — |
| Alex Monahan | MotherDuck | Lightning | Accurate Agentic Analytics: Easy, flexible context in the warehouse | — |
| Alicia Kidd | CoCo Noir Labs | Speaker | Culture Eats AI for Breakfast: Building Teams That Actually Use the Tools | — |
| Chris Bawden | Amerisure | Speaker | There Is No Single Path in Data: Three Dimensions of a Durable Data Career (an Ensemble Approach) | Slides |
| Chris Birie | Nationwide | Speaker | Designing Data Pipelines That Don’t Hate You Six Months Later | Slides |
| Danielle Wittorp | Owens Corning | Panelist | Your Adoption Problems are Actually People Problems Panel | — |
| David Bloom | Pointe Angels | Panelist | Panel - Follow the White Rabbit | — |
| Dia Adams | The AI Table | Panelist | Data Governance & Trustworthy AI Panel | — |
| Dia Adams | The AI Table | Speaker | Responsible AI in Practice: What it Takes to Govern Well | — |
| Donovan C. Brown | — | Panelist | The Evolution of AI Panel | — |
| Dunrie Greiling | ProbeTruth, Inc | Panelist | Panel - Follow the White Rabbit | — |
| Elliot Smith, PE | Motmot | Panelist | Panel - Follow the White Rabbit | — |
| Gilberto Hernandez | Snowflake | Speaker | From Iceberg to Intelligence: Your First Lakehouse Data Pipeline For AI Agents | — |
| Harini Rajagopal | AAA Life Insurance Co | Panelist | Data Engineering Panel | — |
| Jason Touleyrou | — | Panelist | Data Engineering Panel | — |
| Jason Touleyrou | — | Panelist | The Evolution of AI Panel | — |
| Jason Touleyrou | — | Lightning | AI Harnesses & Cadence: Building Reliable AI-Powered Workflows | — |
| Jean-Georges Perrin | Actian | Speaker | Stop Rebuilding: Data Contracts for the Mess You Already Have | Slides |
| Jennifer Horne | StoryPotential, LLC | Speaker | No One’s Reading Your Dashboards: How to Design Better Data Visualizations | Slides |
| Kealy Williams | Atomic Object | Speaker | 4 months of Work in 6 Weeks: Spec-Driven Development on an Agile Team | Slides |
| Lester Martin | Starburst | Speaker | Ibis: Bringing Optionality to Python Dataframes | — |
| Marina Martynenko | University of Washington | Lightning | AI is Not the Hard Part: Lessons from Building AI Enablement in a Large Institution | — |
| Marina Martynenko | University of Washington | Panelist | Data Leadership Panel | — |
| Matthew Housley | Halfpipe Systems | Speaker | Thoughts on the Future of Data | — |
| Michael Moceri | MimoLabs | Panelist | Panel - Follow the White Rabbit | — |
| Pete Cooney | Jackson National Life | Panelist | Data Engineering Panel | — |
| Reed Bamble, PhD | Stripe | Panelist | Your Adoption Problems are Actually People Problems Panel | — |
| Renuka Gangireddy | AAA Life Insurance Co | Panelist | Data Governance & Trustworthy AI Panel | — |
| Robert Laskey | Corewell Health | Panelist | Data Engineering Panel | — |
| Ryan Dolley | Super Data Brothers | Speaker | Book Talk: Building Business Intelligence with AI | — |
| Saeb Ahsan | Henry Ford Health | Panelist | The Evolution of AI Panel | — |
| Sajitha Sritharan | Yazaki | Speaker | Semantic Layers: The Missing Foundation for Agentic AI in Enterprise | — |
| Sami Nesnidol, PhD | Atlassian | Panelist | Your Adoption Problems are Actually People Problems Panel | — |
| Samuel Umachi | KIT | Panelist | Data Leadership Panel | — |
| Scott Smith | WIT Solutions | Speaker | AI Data Therapy: Confessions from the Trenches | — |
| Winfried A. Etzel | Winfried Etzel AS | Speaker | Data Governance as Socio-Technical Infrastructure | — |
| Winfried A. Etzel | Winfried Etzel AS | Panelist | Data Governance & Trustworthy AI Panel | — |
| Zachary Fragoso, PhD | Domino's Pizza UK & Ireland Ltd | Panelist | Your Adoption Problems are Actually People Problems Panel | — |
| Ziyad Muflahi | Ford Motor Company | Panelist | Your Adoption Problems are Actually People Problems Panel | — |