My 10 must-see sessions at the Snowflake Summit 

It’s 20 degrees Celsius (or 68 degrees Fahrenheit) sunshine, but people wearing winter beanies? It must be time for the Snowflake Summit again! 

One of the things I love most about the Snowflake Summit is seeing the entire data ecosystem represented under one roof.  

It’s especially thrilling to see breakthrough technology start-ups leading the charge in technological advancement—they’re true modern-day pioneers. This is one of the reasons I’m so excited to be attending the event for the third year in a row.  

These innovators are carving out a unique niche by helping to orchestrate and consolidate top-tier technologies, ensuring they work seamlessly together and avoiding the common issue of a disjointed, patchwork tech stack. 

Either way – if you’re attending the Snowflake Summit or want to hear more about what we’re doing at Calibo, then come down and say hello at booth #1231! We’ll be serving hot, delicious coffee and candy floss, and grab some neat swag whilst you’re at it. 

First off – I highly recommend taking the time to attend the keynote talks. They’ve always been highly insightful from my previous experiences and going by the guests and topics – this year is no different. Pro-tip: Be there 20-30 min before the session starts to get a seat.  

I’ve looked through some of the scheduled sessions and the curated agendas kindly provided by the head honchos at Snowflake HQ, and I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 sessions that I’ll try and sneak away to. 

Of course, (and this is indeed a shameless plug) we hope you’ll be able to join us for Calibo’s presentations, but here are some more that we think will also be really interesting. 

10 talks you must see at the Snowflake Summit

1. SHOW AND TELL: DISCOVER 3 SECRETS TO SAVING MONTHS OF ENGINEERING TIME, OO202 
   • Here, our experienced CEO, Scott Sandschafer and our Solutions Architect, Wylde Marais, take you through a live demonstration of how you can shave literally months off your Snowflake data/app development. 
   • Time/Location: Monday, Jun 31:30 PM – 1:50 PM PDT, (10:30 PM – 10:50 PM CEST), Basecamp North Theater 1 (Basecamp, North). 

2. EMPOWERING CRM WITH SNOWFLAKE AND SALESFORCE: A GEN AI APPROACH, MA207   
   • Discover how integrating the Snowflake Data Cloud with Salesforce’s CRM enhances sales, service and marketing through generative AI. Gain invaluable insights into real-time analytics, predictive insights and strategic decision-making – all seamlessly delivered to employees within their processes and workflows.  
   • Delve into case studies and innovative approaches to architecture and grounding, demonstrating how to leverage these technologies to increase employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Learn how to overcome data integration challenges and unlock innovative gen AI applications. 
   • Speaker: Adam Caplan, President Digital Business & AI, Altimetrik. 
   • Time/Location: Wednesday, Jun 5, 12:00 PM – 12:20 PM PDT, (9:00 PM – 9:20 PM CEST), Basecamp North Theater 1 (Basecamp, North). 

3. SHOW AND TELL: ACCELERATE DATA FABRIC WITH SELF-SERVICE PLATFORMS AND SNOWFLAKE, MD208   
   • Data Fabric is huge right now. Join Calibo’s COO Loic Giraud and the man with all the answers, Cyril Soga, Solutions Architect at Calibo, as they take you through how data fabric architectures can be accelerated by Snowflake.
   • Time/Location: Tuesday, Jun 4,11:30 AM – 11:50 AM PDT, (7:30 PM – 7:50 PM BST) Vertical Village Theater 2 (Basecamp, South). 

4. IF DATA FABRIC IS THE PEANUT BUTTER, WHAT’S THE JELLY? MD205   
   • Join the dream team, once again. As Scott Sandschafer, CEO, and Wylde Marais, Senior Solutions Architect, both Calibo, take you through their rationale for data fabric from the perspective of both executives and practitioners.
   • Time/Location: Wednesday, Jun 5, 2:30 PM – 3:15 PM PDT, (10:30 PM – 11:15 PM BST) Room 202 (Moscone South, Level 2).

5. WHAT’S NEW: AI RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AT SNOWFLAKE, WN302 
   • Super excited about this – it’s definitely one for my fellow data geeks 🙂 Trying to keep up with the latest and greatest in the world of AI research is tricky, but as Snowflake is a data platform at the heart of the solutions, it’s helpful to hear from those in the know.
   • With Samyam Rajbhandari, Principal Software Engineer, Snowflake, and Yuxiong He, Distinguished Engineer, Snowflake. 
   • Time/Location: Tuesday, Jun 4,1:00 PM – 1:45 PM PDT Room 156 (Moscone South, Upper Mezzanine.

6. HOW TO BUILD AND SCALE AN ENTIRELY OPEN-SOURCE AI STACK, AI119 
   • This fascinating talk goes into the ins and outs of designing your own open-source LLM/Gen AI tech stack. This is a particularly interesting concept, as we often associate high-tech modern AI applications with large enterprises with deep pockets. But, here we can find out why this doesn’t have to be the case.  
   • Speakers: Yusuf Ozuysal, Senior Engineering Manager, Snowflake, and Doris Lee, Product Manager at Snowflake. 
   • Time/Location: Thursday, Jun 6, 2:30 PM – 2:50 PM PDT, (10:30 PM – 10:50 PM BST) Builders Hub Theater (Basecamp, South). 

7. AN OVERVIEW OF GENERATIVE AI AT SNOWFLAKE, AI109  
   • This session serves as a product roadmap of their current Gen AI capabilities so should be a super accessible, one-stop-shop for those wishing to level up their data products using Snowflake and the power of AI. 
   • Speaker: Baris Gultekin, Head of Product Management, Snowflake AI, Snowflake.
   • Time/Location: Wednesday, Jun 5, 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM PDT, (7:00 PM – 7:45 PM BST) Room 157 (Moscone South, Upper Mezzanine), and  
   • Thursday, Jun 6, 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM PDT, (5:00 PM – 5:45 PM BST) Room 211 (Moscone South, Level 2). 

8. AI GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY BEST PRACTICES WITH SNOWFLAKE HORIZON, GP212
   • With an increased reliance on PaaS and SaaS which are built with modern design principles and feature high levels of reliability and security baked in, worrying about security and governance is far less of a concern than in times gone by. But with next-gen AI being a new field of exploration and therefore lacking the maturity and methodological rigor of older processes, it’s important to cover yourself from the get-go. 
   • Speakers: Anoosh Saboori, Principal Product Manager, Snowflake and Seth Youssef, Global Security and Governance Field CTO Office, Snowflake. 
   • Time/Location: Wednesday, Jun 5, 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM PDT, (9:00 PM – 9:45 PM BST) Room 209 (Moscone South, Level 2). 

9. EFFECTIVE DATA GOVERNANCE WITH SNOWFLAKE: INSIGHTS FROM CONOCOPHILLIPS, GP209 
   • Jump into this session exploring CoconoPhillip’s successful robust data governance framework implementation. This one will be great for CIO’s, Heads of Data or even data engineers involved with the safe storage and retrieval of data. This topic is particularly close to our heart at Calibo as governance is core to what we do.  
   • Speakers: Shailender Reddy, Analytics Cloud Services Staff Engineer, Applied Digital Tech., ConocoPhillips and Anand Malgi, Staff Architect, Applied Digital Tech., ConocoPhillips.  
   • Time/Location: Thursday, Jun 6, 10:30 AM – 11:15 AM PDT, (6:30 PM – 7:15 PM BST) Room 152 (Moscone South, Upper Mezzanine). 

10. THE FUTURE OF TRUST IN LLMS, AI121 
    • Richard Socher, CEO, You.com, talks over his decade-long journey through the application and development of AI & NLP over his tenure. I think this talk will be interesting for those beginning their AI journey and looking to establish a meaningful LLM application at their org, but also seasoned professionals seeking to nuance their experience thus far with that of a seasoned industry pro.   
    • Time/Location: Thursday, Jun 6,1:00 PM – 1:20 PM PDT, (9:00 PM – 9:20 PM BST) Builders Hub Theater (Basecamp, South). 

I hope to see you there!  

• More info on what Calibo’s up to at the Snowflake Summit is here.

• More info on the sessions on the Snowflake website here.

Adrian Heim is Head of Sales and Marketing at Calibo.