My Top 10 Talks at Data Council 2025
The no-bullshit data conference returns. Top talks on RAG, AI agents, LLM systems, data engineering, and the future.
Key Takeaways
- Data Council 2025 covers RAG, AI agents, LLM quality, data engineering, and database history
- Top speakers include leaders from Perplexity, Databricks, Stanford, CMU, and Guardrails AI
- Key themes: hybrid RAG architectures, AI-ready data platforms, and production LLM quality
- 60 years of database history shows SQL remains the default - despite repeated challengers
- RAG in 2025 is evolving toward enterprise-grade, production-ready systems at scale
Data Council has been my favorite data conference since 2013. Pete Soderling created something special: a conference that provides learning, community, and fun - the three pillars that make events actually valuable.
All 10 Talks at a Glance
| # | Talk | Speaker(s) | Topic Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Building Blocks: Reusing Queries | Lloyd Tabb (Looker/Malloy) | Semantic Data Modeling |
| 2 | What Goes Around Comes Around | Andy Pavlo (CMU) | Database History |
| 3 | Data Engineering Is Not Software Engineering | CL Kao (Recce) | Data Engineering |
| 4 | Failure Is A Funnel | Bryan Bischof (Theory Ventures) | LLM Quality |
| 5 | The Future Of Guardrails | Shreya Rajpal (Guardrails AI) | AI Safety |
| 6 | RAGs to Riches | Denis Yarats (Perplexity) + Joseph Gonzalez (Berkeley) | RAG / LLM Systems |
| 7 | Data Meets Intelligence | George Mathew (Insight) + Naveen Rao (Databricks) | Data Infra + AI |
| 8 | Write Less More | Pedram Navid (Dagster) | Documentation |
| 9 | AI is Going to Break Your Data Platform | Doron Porat (Lakeway) | AI-Ready Platforms |
| 10 | RAG In 2025: State Of The Art | Tengyu Ma (Voyage AI / Stanford) | Enterprise RAG |
Top 10 Talks I'm Excited About
1. Building Blocks: Reusing Queries in Semantic Data Modeling
Lloyd Tabb (Looker founder, Malloy creator) on advanced semantic data modeling. How reusing queries creates more powerful building blocks for humans and AI.
2. What Goes Around Comes Around... and Around
Andy Pavlo (CMU) presents 60 years of data modeling history, showing why RM/SQL remains the default choice. Vector databases, NoSQL, OO databases - all claimed SQL was dying. None succeeded in replacing it.
3. Data Engineering Is Not Software Engineering, Until It Is
CL Kao (Recce CEO) on how data engineering is evolving beyond traditional software practices. dbt, SQLMesh, GitOps, CI/CD for data pipelines.
4. Failure Is A Funnel
Bryan Bischof (Theory Ventures) on LLM quality engineering. From slop to production: systematic approaches to evaluating and improving LLM performance.
5. The Future Of Guardrails
Shreya Rajpal (Guardrails AI) on next-gen safety measures for production AI systems, RAG chatbots, and autonomous agents.
6. RAGs to Riches: Engineering the Future of LLM Systems
Keynote panel: Denis Yarats (Perplexity), Joseph Gonzalez (Berkeley/RunLLM). Bridging academic theory and practical application of RAG and LLM systems.
7. Data Meets Intelligence: Where Data Infra and AI Stack Converge
George Mathew (Insight Partners), Naveen Rao (Databricks). How data infrastructure and AI capabilities are becoming interdependent.
8. Write Less More: How Dagster Rebuilt Our Docs from the Ground Up
Pedram Navid (Dagster) on completely overhauling documentation. Transforming docs from frustration into a powerful communication tool.
9. AI is Going to Break Your Data Platform - Are You Ready?
Doron Porat (Lakeway CEO) on AI's unpredictable force disrupting data operations. Building AI-ready platforms that thrive on change.
10. RAG In 2025: State Of The Art And The Road Forward
Tengyu Ma (Voyage AI, Stanford) on enterprise RAG systems. Advanced techniques for production-ready systems at scale.
Summary
Data Council 2025 brings together the sharpest minds in data engineering and AI. The top 10 talks span the full spectrum: from 60 years of database history (Andy Pavlo, CMU) to the bleeding edge of RAG systems (Tengyu Ma, Stanford/Voyage AI). Key themes include hybrid RAG architectures for production, LLM quality engineering, AI safety guardrails, and the convergence of data infrastructure with AI capabilities. Whether you're building data pipelines or deploying AI agents, this conference covers the technologies that will define 2025 and beyond.
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