Tuesday 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM · Room 340-341
Maximize efficiency in your data-driven projects by leveraging AI and Copilot technologies.
Prabhjot Kaur
Microsoft
Prashant Atri
Microsoft
Tammiraju Prasanth
Technical Director, Quadrant Technologies
In the Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Fabric study, the composite organization based on data from four companies using Fabric showed an increase in data engineer and data scientist productivity of up to 50%, plus a 15% increase in business analyst productivity.
In this workshop, we will explore the transformative potential of various copilots, AI services within Microsoft Fabric. It covers live demos and hands on experience on Microsoft Fabric Copilots, AI Skills, Fabric integration with AI and GenAI services.
Participants will thoroughly explore the Copilot maturity framework and learn strategies to overcome adoption challenges, enabling customers to maximize the benefits of Copilots.
Wednesday 8:30 AM - 9:40 AM · Room 345-346
Real-Time Intelligence: Turning Streaming Data into Smart Decisions
Ajeta Singhal
Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence | Defini ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of the product. Driving ‘How’ of the product. Delivering the vision and iterating on the delivered product.
Mou Rakshit
Avanade, Intelligent Data Platform Data Engineering Thought leadership
In today’s fast-paced world, making smart, data-driven decisions in real time is essential for maintaining efficiency and quality in business operations. Join us to explore Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence and discover how to seamlessly ingest, analyze, and act on real-time data. Learn how to:
- Ingest real-time data from multiple sources into Fabric
- Run lightning-fast queries for instant insights
- Monitor key metrics with intuitive, real-time dashboards
- Set up automated alerts and detect anomalies for proactive issue resolution
- Leverage Copilot in Real-Time Intelligence to query data using natural language
Wednesday 8:30 AM - 9:40 AM · Room 347
How much SQL do you need to know as developer?
Hasan Savran
Microsoft MVP, Owner of SavranWeb ConsultingS, Sr. Business Intelligence Manager at Progressive Insurance
In today’s data-driven world, developers must accurately utilize SQL and database functionalities to provide effective and cost-efficient solutions. This presentation covers key database skills for developers at all levels, focusing on design, querying, and optimization.
The topics are categorized by developer levels (Jr, Sr, Ld). We will begin with fundamental topics, such as using the correct data types, and progress to advanced topics, including vectors and artificial intelligence.
We will utilize SQL Server, one of the most commonly used databases globally. By knowing how to use this well-known server, you automatically qualify for numerous projects. Though many database engines have similar functionalities, they use different terms, so everything learned in this session will apply to other database systems you encounter.
How many new technologies will remain next year is uncertain, but SQL has been essential for decades. Mastering SQL can give you a significant competitive advantage!
Wednesday 8:30 AM - 9:40 AM · Room 348
Infrastructure for Data Professionals: An Introduction
Peter Shore
Data professional
It doesn’t matter if you are a Junior DBA, an accidental DBA or all the way up to a Senior DBA, the infrastructure your SQL Server environment runs on is important. Many among the DBA community came in as developers or perhaps directly into database administration roles it is equally possible that you have been out of the operations world long enough to have fallen out of the loop with what is happening. This session is intended to provide a full stack infrastructure overview so that you can talk shop with your cohorts in operations to resolve issues and maybe even be proactive. We will discuss, in an introductory fashion, hardware, network, storage, virtualization and operating system layers. Additionally, some suggestions as to where to find more information will be provided.
Wednesday 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM · Room 320-321
Everything you need to know about Data Virtualization in Azure SQL Database
Hugo Queiroz
Sr Program Manager @ Microsoft
Learn everything you need to know about Data Virtualization, OPENROWSET, External tables, parquet, Delta, best practices, how to access external data using Azure SQL Database, export cold data, and create your very own data tiering solution.
Wednesday 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM · Room 347
Worst code ever! Reviewing real-world examples that mandated refactoring.
Jeffrey Garbus
CEO Soaring Eagle Data Solutions
This session looks at SQL Code that couldn't be tuned without a rewrite, working through why it was bad, why the optimizer couldn't deal with it appropriately, and what needed to be done to fix it.
Thursday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 340-341
How to Pitch Fabric to your Leadership
Andrea Mondello
Manager, Digital Transformation, WithumSmith+Brown
While executives are familiar with Power BI's impact on business intelligence, many remain unaware of how Microsoft Fabric revolutionizes the entire data value chain. This session bridges that knowledge gap, equipping data leaders with practical strategies to transform Fabric from "just another BI tool" into a compelling platform for enterprise-wide data transformation. Learn how to build a clear, staged roadmap that starts with familiar Power BI territory and progressively demonstrates Fabric's game-changing capabilities in data integration, lakehouse architecture, and real-time analytics. Through real-world case studies, you'll see how leading organizations have successfully expanded from departmental BI to enterprise-wide data transformation using Fabric's unified platform. We'll explore how to identify and prioritize quick wins that build momentum while laying the foundation for broader adoption. You'll learn effective techniques for quantifying ROI at each stage of implementation, addressing security and governance concerns, and managing organizational change from your existing data stack to Fabric's modern architecture. Whether you're just starting to evaluate Fabric or looking to accelerate adoption, you'll leave with a practical blueprint for moving your organization beyond Power BI into the full potential of Microsoft's unified data platform.
Thursday 4:00 PM - 5:10 PM · Room 344
SSMS 21 Spotlight: What's new and why it matters
Makena Barickman
Program Manager II, Microsoft
With the Preview 1 release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 21 in November, the SQL Tools team made available the biggest set of updates to SSMS in recent memory, including numerous requests that customers have been waiting to see...for years in some cases.
In this session we'll show off what's new in SSMS 21, what's in progress, and what we have planned for SQL 2025. We'll start by walking through installation and jump to the first step for each launch - connecting. You'll want to connect to a database using our new connection dialog - we'll take a tour through the experience and take feedback (we're always listening :) We'll also cover updates you'll find throughout SSMS such as changes to Azure authentication, and improvements in the query editor and results grid. Folks have been excited about support for Git in SSMS, so we'll show you how to get started. If Git is new to you, it may seem daunting. Don't worry, if we can figure it out, so can you!
Expect lots of demos, as many tips, tricks, and updates as we can fit in.
Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 348
Microsoft Database Docs - Learn about Contributing for your Career
William Assaf
Senior Content Developer, Database Docs, Microsoft
Join content developers from the Microsoft Database Docs content team for an interactive discussion and call to action on modern Microsoft docs. Learn about the Docs publishing process in GitHub, and the best ways to add content and fixes to Docs that are read by the entire customer community. We'll also ask for your feedback on Docs and host Q&A. Learn what contribution to Microsoft Learn can mean for your Microsoft MVP status, your career, or your personal brand.