Data Expo, MS Fabric, Data Mesh, and the AI Revolution. Xebia Data Q3 Highlights

At Xebia, knowledge sharing isn’t just a practice—it’s ingrained in our DNA. This quarter, we continued to build on that foundation by organizing and contributing to events, meetups, and conferences that are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in Data, AI, and MLOps. As always, the more we share, the more we learn. We’re excited to take you on a whirlwind journey through everything we’ve accomplished in Q3 2024! 

Data and AI Knowledge Sharing at Meetups 

Jochem Loedeman co-organized the MLOps Community Amsterdam Meetup, where Julian de Ruiter participated in a roundtable session titled: Community Discussion on the Impact of Large Language Models (LLMs) on their MLOps Careers. 

At the end of the summer, we had the pleasure of organizing the 17th edition of the Eindhoven Data Community Meetup with Picnic. Jeroen Overschie and Jetze Schuurmans discussed when and why MLOps is relevant.  

In September, we organized the 11th edition of the Analytics Engineering Meetup. It featured two excellent presentations by Mark Schep (Mark Your Data) and Tristan Guillevin (Ladataviz). We also hosted the Data Council Amsterdam Meetup, where Peter Kromhount talked about Knowledge Graphs & Metadata: Key Ingredients for Data Democratization and Governance. 

Finally, we hosted the 1st JuliaLang Meetup in our Amsterdam office!  

Our data team also presented in internal meetups: 

• Lysanne van Been spoke at the Xebia Summer Roundtable on GenAI in the Legal Department.
• Jetze Schuurmans presented: Are you ready for MLOps? at an ASML internal meetup.

Xebia Data Conferences and Events 

Data Expo 2024 in cooperation with Databricks 

In September, Xebia proudly served as an ambassador for this year’s Data Expo in Utrecht. What made this edition truly special was the opportunity to share the stage with nine of our esteemed customers. Collaborating closely with our partner, Databricks, we delivered deeper insights into the evolving data landscape, creating an unforgettable experience for all attendees. 

Here’s a quick look at the talks we presented during the event:  

• Avinash Pancham and Constantijn Visinescu presented “ING in the Cloud: Building a Robust Data Platform,” where they shared ING’s journey in building a robust data platform in the cloud, detailing the challenges and successes of this digital transformation. In a related session, Ricardo Angel Granados López (Xebia) and Akhil Nambiar from ING discussed how data is driving sustainable ESG initiatives, offering a strategic blueprint for organizations looking to align business objectives with environmental goals. 
• Sjoerd Swanenberg (NIBC), Fanny Kassapian, and Peter Kromhout, CDMP (Xebia), shared other success stories from the banking industry. They explored the innovative use of knowledge graphs in modern data governance and demonstrated how these tools improve data management. You can learn more about them here. 
• In the insurance sector, Olga Verburg and Roeland van der Molen, along with Xebia’s Jeroen Overschie and Sander van Donkelaar discussed how Klaverblad Insurance boosted productivity using Generative AI (GenAI), showcasing practical applications that enhanced operational efficiency.
• In the railway industry, Andrew Martinez-Novoa, Naveen Kumar Nagavelly, and Katerina Tashoska shared how data-driven insights are revolutionizing train travel, improving both operational efficiency and customer experience in their presentation, “Data: the Fuel Powering Train Travel.”
• Jan Boerlage and Aletta Tordai showcased Sligro’s digital transformation through a scalable cloud-based data platform, illustrating the impact of cloud solutions on business agility and decision-making. You can check out their presentation here.
• Dumky de Wilde and Ricardo Granados kicked off with an in-depth exploration of “The Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering,” covering essential concepts and advanced techniques crucial for driving success in data analytics. This presentation was a great introduction to a recently published book by some of our Xebian colleagues.. You can check it out here. 
• On the innovation front, Yke Rusticus and Tjitze Zijlstra from Avrotros demonstrated how AI is transforming content labeling, and streamlining the media production process with enhanced automation.  
• Ronald Van Marissing from Rainforest Alliance and Steven Nooijen discussed the use of a conceptual information model as the backbone for a future-ready data landscape, focusing on sustainability and structured data management. More details can be found here.
• Timon Likic from Just Eat Takeaway and Caio Benatti Moretti showcased how AI is revolutionizing menu integration at JET, simplifying the process of onboarding restaurant menus onto their platform during their presentation on Just Eat Takeaway’s Menu AI.  
• Akshay Verma from ASML and Roy van Santen presented ASML’s journey in developing portable, data-driven use cases designed for deployment close to customers’ EUV machines, significantly improving operational efficiency. 

Paradise Islands, Emerce Day, and BMVC 2024 

Dumky de Wilde spoke at the online event Paradise Islands: Mastering SQL to remodel event data to your will. Rogier Van Der Geer, along with Lonneke Eijdems from Albert Heijn, took the stage at Emerce Day 2024 to discuss scaling up AI-Powered Demand Forecasting. Jochem XX made his mark at BMVC2024 with a talk on Input-dependent Input-Prompts for Adapting Frozen Vision Transformers. 

4x Webinars – MS Fabric, Data Mesh, DuckDB and Data Democratization 

We’ve produced some impactful webinars over the last few months; if you haven’t watched them yet, it’s the perfect time to explore some data topics! 

• Deploying Microsoft Fabric:
  Discover how to Deploy Microsoft Fabric and integrate it with your favorite tools. Join our experts Niels Zeilemaker, Diederik Greveling, and Virginia Lopez on-demand here.  

• Data Mesh – Where Are We Now?
  Our second webinar on Data Mesh revisits this topic five years later, exploring its evolution and how it can fit into your organization. If you’re curious to hear more insights from Kiki Boonen, Steven Nooijen, and Niels Zeilemaker, check out the video recording here.  

• Exploring Motherduck and DuckDB:
  Interested in the cutting-edge features of Motherduck and the underlying DuckDB technology? In this webinar, Diederik Greveling, Daniel Tom, and Mehdi Ouazza from Motherduck discuss real-world use cases and how Motherduck enhances the modern data stack. Watch the webinar here. 

We also had the opportunity to speak at the Retail Consumer Goods Virtual Forum EMEA, organized by our partner Databricks. Jochem Loedeman, alongside Davey van Hennik from Albert Heijn, shared insights on data democratization during the event. 

Xebia Data Blog Contributions 

Over the last quarter, our team was busy writing blog posts on subjects such as Data Modeling, RAG, Airflow, and LLMs. Grab yourself a cup of coffee, and dive into any of these topics that catch your interest:   

• How to use Dagster to orchestrate Google Cloud Functions by Jasper Ginn
• Beyond the numbers: how a solid business case drives analytics by Iris Snuverink 
• Run Large Language Models locally with Ollama and Open WebUI by Timo Uelen 
• Bridging the Gap Between Business Stakeholders and Data Modelers by Camila Birocchi
• The Levels of RAG by Jeroen Overschie 
• Supercharging Airflow & dbt with Astronomers Cosmos on Azure Container Instances by Daniel van der Ende 
• The ever-changing role of Data Modeling by Ricardo Granados
• To Decentralize or Not to Decentralize: 4 Practical Takeaways From Implementing the Data Mesh by Steven Nooijen and Juan Venegas
   

Podcasting in Our Spare Time

Eva Bosma hosted Mariam Halfhide on De Dataloog to discuss the future of AI regulation and the potential need for an “AI pause.” You can listen to the full episode here. 

Mariam also appeared on Catalog & Cocktails, where she highlighted the importance of responsible AI.

Meanwhile, Juan Manuel Perafan kicked off the first episode of SQL Lingua Franca with guest Fanny Kassapian, discussing data transformations. He also had the pleasure of talking with Ricardo Granado Lopez about data modeling and Pádraic Slattery on the subject of mature data teams. 

Summary

Overall, Q3 has been a whirlwind of innovation, learning, and community building. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and can’t wait to see what Q4 brings. Stay tuned as we continue to push the boundaries in Data and AI! 

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