Symposium

2026 Jun 25 dbt Labs Symposium NYC

Date

June 25, 2026

Location

New York, NY

Community

CIO / CISO

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Agenda

June 25, 2026
All times Eastern Time
12:00 PM-1:00 PM
Lunch & Registration
1:00 PM-1:15 PM
Opening Remarks
1:15 PM-2:00 PM
Keynote
From Data Chaos to Agent Accessible: How to Move Up the Data Maturity Curve

Every data leader in the room has felt it: the pressure to ship AI, the promising pilot, and then the quiet disappointment when results don't scale. The culprit isn't your model. It's the data underneath it.

This session introduces the Enterprise Data Maturity Model — a five-stage framework that helps data leaders honestly assess where their organization stands today and build a credible roadmap to AI that actually works. We'll examine why the majority of enterprises are stuck in the early stages, what separates organizations generating real AI ROI from those still running experiments, and why the path to autonomous agentic systems runs directly through structured, governed data. Whether you're defending last year's AI budget or planning the next wave of investment, this session gives you the language, the framework, and the mandate to lead the conversation differently.

Speaker
Russell Christopher
Russell Christopher

Senior Director, Product Strategy

dbt Labs

2:00 PM-2:35 PM
Fireside Chat
A Live Look at the Data Foundation That Makes Agents Work

What does it actually look like when an agent can be trusted to act? In this session, we'll pull back the curtain on the infrastructure decisions that separate brittle AI experiments from production-grade agentic systems.

Through candid conversation, we'll walk through how organizations are using governed semantic layers, version-controlled transformation logic, and lineage-complete data products to give AI the context it needs to reason reliably. You'll see firsthand how customers have moved from hallucination-prone text-to-SQL to governed conversational analytics — and hear what the journey looked like from the inside. If you've been wondering what "AI-ready data" means in practice, this session answers that question concretely.

2:35 PM-2:50 PM
Networking Break
2:50 PM-3:50 PM
Panel
The Data Leader's Dilemma: Governing AI Before It Governs You

There's no shortage of opinions on how to get AI right. There is a shortage of honest conversations about why it's so hard.

This panel brings together data leaders with different approaches, different starting points, and not always the same answers — to debate the decisions that define whether AI initiatives succeed or stall. How do you make the case for foundational investment when other leadership wants to skip ahead? When is governance an enabler and when does it become a bottleneck? And who actually owns AI readiness — data, engineering, or the business?

Expect a candid conversation. Attendees will leave with sharper questions, stronger conviction, and a clearer sense of where they stand.

Panelists
Ben  Moser

Speaker

Ben Moser

Sr. Product Manager

dbt Labs

Ben Moser is a staff product manager at dbt Labs, where he leads the company's work on one of the central questions of the AI era: how do you make agents trustworthy at scale. He has spent more than a decade building AI and data products, with previous roles at Collibra and Capital One and an earlier run as a startup co-founder. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and daughters, and spends the little free time he has on an unreasonable number of side projects.
Peter Smode
Peter Smode

SVP Infrastructure Platforms

JP Morgan Chase

Michael Derrenbacher

Speaker

Michael Derrenbacher

Director Business Analytics & Engineering

Bank of America

Michael Derrenbacher is an experienced Director of Business Analytics with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He is skilled in Management, Business Intelligence, Risk Management, Business Process Improvement, and Financial Services. A strong business development professional, he holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) focused on Accounting and Taxation from Fordham University. He is also a licensed CPA in the state of California and a Certified Financial Planner.
Thomas Rizzo

Speaker

Thomas Rizzo

Chief Architect

Lazard

Thomas Rizzo is a seasoned IT professional with over 20 years of experience across various sectors and is currently serving as the Chief Architect at Lazard. His diverse background spans finance technology, digital services, utilities, social media, legal, and education sectors. Prior to joining Lazard, Thomas made significant contributions to companies like Zebra, where he helped shape their digital services and SaaS offerings, and Con Edison, where he drove technological advancements in the utilities sector. In his current role at Lazard, Thomas leads the design and architecture of technology solutions that drive the company's digital transformation journey. His strategic vision and ability to foster an engaging work environment have earned him the reputation of an 'IT Rock Star'. He is committed to driving business growth through digital transformation, and he does so by fostering a creative and enjoyable workplace atmosphere as part of his leadership approach.
3:50 PM-4:00 PM
Closing Remarks
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Cocktail Reception

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