You have a story to tell?
We are looking for talks grounded in real-world experience. Tell us what you built, what broke, what you measured, and what you would do differently. Talks are organized in four themes, fifteen categories.
A complete field report with context, implementation, and lessons learned.
One precise insight, one lesson learned, one anti-pattern discovered.
Hands-on session in a small group. Attendees leave with something concrete.
Submit your proposal via Conference Hall. Pick the category that best matches your story.
Submit my proposal →The 4 themes of the 2026 edition
See the full detail of each theme and its 15 categories →
Data Foundations for Humans & AI
Data platforms now serve two kinds of consumers: people and machines. This theme covers the foundational work that makes data consumable, trustworthy, and affordable for both.
Agentic Systems Engineering
Models stopped being the hard part. The engineering around them, context, memory, evaluation, orchestration, security, and cost is where AI systems succeed or fail in production.
Engineering Shifts
AI is transforming engineering work itself. Whatever you build, your craft is changing. This theme gives each engineering practice its own stage.
Leading the AI Shift
Most Data & AI transformations stall on organizational questions: enablement, accountability, operating model. This theme is for the leaders working through them, with real numbers to share.
What makes a good Forward talk
- → Lived experience. You built it, ran it, or fixed it. First-hand stories beat industry overviews.
- → Numbers. Costs, latencies, adoption rates, incidents. Real figures make talks memorable.
- → Honesty. What failed teaches more than what worked. Post-mortems are welcome in every category.
- → Depth. Our audience is practitioners. Assume they know the basics; take them further.
- → No product pitches. Vendors are welcome as speakers when they defend an architectural thesis or share genuine field lessons. Demos of your pricing page are not a talk.