Pre Cons – Discovery Day 2026

Pre-Conference Training Day 2026

Get hands-on with Microsoft Data Platform technologies.

Pre-Cons are intensive, full-day training sessions led by top Microsoft Data Platform experts – designed for professionals who want to go beyond theory and dive deep into real-world technical scenarios.

They take place on the first day of Discovery Day 2026 (3th of June), offering a unique opportunity to gain practical experience, ask questions directly to the trainers, and bring home actionable skills for your daily work.

2026 PRE-CON SESSIONS

A Well Architected Lakehouse - Get It Right from the Start!

Trainers: Johan Ludvig Brattås & Rune Ovlien Rakeie

Level: Intermediate

Duration: 8 hours (09:30 – 17:30)

Date: 03.06.2026

Location: Capital Fort Business Center, Sofia

Price: € 180 (excl. VAT)

Organizations are increasingly adopting lakehouse architectures to unify analytics and machine learning workloads. However, many implementations suffer from poor foundational decisions that become costly to remediate later. This full-day, hands-on workshop provides practical guidance for architecting, deploying, and operationalizing a robust lakehouse on Microsoft Fabric – ensuring scalability, security, and maintainability from day one.

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Advancing the Role of SQL Server DBA in the Era of AI: Becoming Azure SQL DBA

Trainers: Borko Novakovic, Dr. Dani Ljepava, Uros Milanovic, Bogdan Gavrilovic

Level: Intermediate

Duration: 5 hours (09:30 – 14:30)

Date: 03.06.2026

Location: Capital Fort Business Center, Sofia

Price: € 120 (excl. VAT)

As data platforms move to the cloud and AI becomes embedded into database services, the role of the SQL Server DBA is evolving.
This workshop guides SQL Server DBAs through the transition from managing on premises SQL Server environments to operating Azure SQL in the era of AI. You will learn which responsibilities remain with you, which are shared with Microsoft, and how to use the freed-up time to build cloud and AI skills.

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Why Attend a Pre-Con?

DEEP-DIVE LEARNING

Full-day, topic-focused sessions with real-world labs and demos.

DIRECT ACCESS TO EXPERTS

Work in a small group and get personal guidance from recognized Microsoft MVPs.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

Each workshop ends with tools, scripts, and solutions you can apply immediately.

Margarita Naumova is a well-known Bulgarian SQL Server Expert. Magi holds the highest possible SQL Server Technical Certification in the field – Microsoft Certified Master, making her one of the best SQL Server Experts Worldwide, among the top one percent of IT professionals in the World. She is also MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) for 13 years in a row.
Magi has more than 20 years’ experience as a Data & Analytics consultant, speaker and course instructor gained in Bulgaria and abroad (UK, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Cyprus, Norway). She is a trusted advisor for major Bulgarian companies in SQL Server Platform Area.
Margarita is a leader and founder of the Bulgarian SQL & BI User Group “Let’s SQL Together!” and founder of Azure Analytics User Group BG. She is a regular presenter of the largest MS Data Platform events across the world.
Currently she is a CEO of two Data Platform Consulting companies – Inspirit LTD located in Sofia, Bulgaria and Inspirit AS located in Oslo, Norway. She is a former and author of SQL Master Academy – our training program that has helped hundreds of specialists to feel knowledgeable in their daily work or to find an inspirational career path in the world of Data.

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Johan Ludvig Brattås

Rune Ovlien Rakeie

A Well Architected Lakehouse - Get It Right from the Start!

Organizations are increasingly adopting lakehouse architectures to unify analytics and machine learning workloads. However, many implementations suffer from poor foundational decisions that become costly to remediate later. This full-day, hands-on workshop provides practical guidance for architecting, deploying, and operationalizing a robust lakehouse on Microsoft Fabric—ensuring scalability, security, and maintainability from day one.

We begin with architectural planning, where participants learn to define business requirements, design governance and security models, select data storage strategies, and plan for scalability, performance, and cost optimization. The focus is on building blueprints and frameworks that prevent common pitfalls and support long-term success.

Next, we explore Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform to create repeatable, version-controlled deployments. Participants will set up CI/CD pipelines, build reusable modules, and configure Fabric workspaces for Git integration to ensure traceability and collaboration.

The implementation phase takes these designs into practice: deploying the lakehouse foundation, configuring ingestion pipelines for batch and streaming workloads, applying cataloging and metadata management, and validating data quality and security controls. We also cover Fabric’s variables, environments, and deployment rules, showing how to promote changes safely from development to production with CI/CD.

The day concludes with an interactive Ask Me Anything session, where participants revisit core concepts, raise outstanding technical or strategic questions, and clarify how the lessons apply in their own environments.

Key takeaways: attendees will leave with production-ready templates, architectural blueprints, and operational playbooks they can immediately apply within their organizations.

Prerequisites: Basic cloud and data engineering knowledge, with familiarity in IaC and CI/CD concepts. Terraform or Git experience is helpful but not required.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Johan Ludvig Brattås

Johan Ludvig Brattås leads Data & AI Solutions at Tower NewCo, and a dedicated community guy. He has worked with MS SQL server since late 1999, mostly with BI in one form or another. Since 2015, most of his work has been in the cloud working on data platform services such as Snowflake, Databricks and Fabric.

Combining his passion for MS SQL Server with his passion for sharing knowledge, he started speaking at various events in the SQL Community. This is also a way to give back to the community for all the things he has learned over the years. When not working, Johan Ludvig either spends his time with his kids, playing with new technology or teaching coeliacs how to bake glutenfree food.

Rune Ovlien Rakeie

Rune have been working with databases for 30+ years, primarily in those years with Microsoft SQL Server. Throughout the years he has had many roles, from Developer, Database Designer, Solution Architect and all the way to Production Dba.

Today Rune works for Vivicta as a Principal Cloud Architect on the different cloud vendor's Data Platform Services.
Rune is very active in the Microsoft Data Platform community and have held a position on the board for the Norwegian user group and for the last 8 years he has been running the largest Microsoft Data Platform conference on Norwegian soil, SQLSaturday Oslo, now re-branded to Data Saturday Oslo.
In his spare time you can find Rune in the woods of his hometown Arendal enjoying his hobby, building tracks and riding singletrack bicycling.

Ola Hallengren is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and the creator of the "SQL Server Maintenance Solution".

Brian has worked with data and analytics for more than two decades - varying projects on both size and complexity.

Now, by combining deep experience with a human approach to data and analytics, and a deep understanding of platform implementations, Brian build solutions that deliver actual change for people, for business, for everyone

Brian is a Data Platform MVP and Microsoft Recognized Fasttrack Solution Architect.

Brian loves data and is always trying to glue the business and tech together using his knowledge and experience.
He is always open to meet new people and help them to get better tomorrow.

Emilie Rønning, a data girl in an Azure world.

She is a managing data engineer, based in Oslo, Norway. In addition to creating well-functioning insights and analysis data platforms, Emilie loves creating and implementing structure and solutions automating manual processes for her clients.

When not geeking out, she enjoys a long hike and a night or two in her hammock.

Back in 2007 Gregor started as a consultant for a financial planning software providing trainings and leading workshops. Soon after he started to delve into the technical details to gain more knowledge about the processes behind. Since then, his curiosity about data transfer, modeling and presentation has stayed with him to this day.
Since 2020, Gregor has proudly led a team of 20+ data and analytics consultants based in Vienna.

Ben has been working with SQL Server since SQL Server 6.5, mainly in the BI/Datawarehousing field.

He is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, an author of multiple books and video courses as well as a regular speaker at national and international events.

Ben is also a co-organizer of events like DataGrillen, New Stars of Data, SQL Konferenz, Data Left Unattended, Data Saturday Rheinland and Vienna, dataminutes, dativerse as well as a volunteer and mentor for many other Data Platform events.

Gabi Münster (she / her) started working with SQL Server technologies in 2005 during her time as Web Application developer. After 11 years as BI consultant / Data architect and being awarded Data Platform MVP since 2018, she joined Microsoft in March 2022 as part of the Azure Data Customer Advisory Team and works as a Principal Program Manager covering Fabric.

She speaks at regional chapter meetings, national and international conferences. Since 2016 she also supports a regional chapter as co-lead.
Apart from BI topics she also supports Diversity topics.

6+ years of experience working in Business Intelligence in different contexts: startup/scaleup, Big 4 consultancy firm, remote contractor for US-based tech company and as Community Leader for the Italian Power BI User Group. Currently working as a freelance consultant with customers ranging from small-sized shops to multinational corporations. Experienced in BI development, working daily to solve tasks related to Data Engineering, ETL, SQL and Power BI/SSAS development.

He is among the co-leaders of the Power BI User Group Italy, the biggest Italian community dedicated to BI and Data. For the community he manages and grows social channels, organizes events all over Italy (and beyond! They regularly travel to Switzerland for their Ticino Conference) and presents technical sessions. If you wish to join any of the social channels of the community, here's a useful LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/powerbiusergroupitaly.

Certified on Power BI (PL-300) and Fabric (DP-600 | DP-700)

Borko Novakovic is a Principal Group Product Manager in SQL team in Azure Data organization, who joined Microsoft 14 years ago. He’s been working on various projects in SQL, as an individual contributor and manager. Over the last couple of years, he’s been working as the product leader for Azure SQL Managed Instance, platform-as-a-service option in Azure SQL portfolio that streamlines migration and modernization of SQL Server applications from on-premises to Microsoft Azure. Prior to Managed Instance, Borko worked on major programmability and query troubleshooting improvements in SQL Server and Azure SQL Database, such as Temporal Tables, Query Store and Automatic Tuning. During his career in Microsoft, Borko had been engaged in product improvements for Microsoft Analytics Platform System and HDInsight. Before joining Microsoft, Borko had opportunity to build Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing solutions and flexible data integration pipelines within Asseco SEE, a European ISV that offers software solutions for financial industry vertical.

Dr. Dani is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft SQL data team responsible for product development of flagship Azure SQL Managed Instance PaaS service. His areas of expertise include hybrid environments, high availability, intelligence, automatic tuning, monitoring, backup and restore, migrations, Arc enabled SQL Server and UX. Dani has also worked on delivering data mobility features for on-prem. SQL Servers 2016-2022, and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). His experience brings in more than 15+ years of product innovation worldwide starting from Silicon Valley start-ups innovating Internet technologies to enterprise innovation in the intelligent cloud space.

Frank Geisler is the owner and CEO of GDS Business Intelligence GmbH, a leading Microsoft Solution Provider specializing in Data and AI. He holds numerous prestigious certifications, including Data Platform MVP, MCT, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Azure Security Engineer Associate, Azure Data Engineer Associate, and DevOps Engineer Expert. In his role, Frank excels in building robust Business Intelligence systems leveraging Microsoft technologies such as SQL Server, Azure Data Platform, Microsoft Fabric, and Power BI. He is also proficient in constructing Azure infrastructures and architectures using PowerShell and Bicep.

Frank is a prolific author, having written several bestselling books including "Power BI für Dummies," "Azure für Dummies," "Docker für Dummies," and "Pro Serverless Data Handling with Microsoft Azure." As a frequent speaker, he has delivered insightful presentations at major national and international conferences like the PASS Community Summit, SQL BITS, and SQL Server Konferenz.

In addition to his professional achievements, Frank co-founded PASS Deutschland e.V. in 2004 and has served on its board of directors for many years. He also leads the Microsoft Data Community Regional Chapter Münsterland, contributing significantly to the community's growth and development.

Marcel is Senior Data & AI Tech Lead at Microsoft in Germany and advises customers with his team in the field of GenAI, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the underlying data platforms. He supports customers in setting up Data & AI strategies, building analytics teams and organizations and implementing specific use cases.

Marcel has a +15 years of experience in different industries, working at several Consultancies and Building his own Startup. We supports the tech community since years and shares his learnings and best practices at several conferences.

He loves all things data, but more importantly, he loves making it work for people. Currently serving as an Enablement Lead at a Fortune 500 company, he spends his days navigating the complexities of data at scale.

He helps people unlock the magic of Power BI and Fabric by simplifying the tricky stuff and automating the boring parts. His sessions aren't just about theory; he shares rigorously tested lessons, tricks, and strategies pulled directly from the field.

He is a firm believer that data should be a source of inspiration rather than stress. His goal is to deliver practical, engaging, and fun sessions that empower teams to build sustainable solutions with a lasting impact.

Mladen Prajdić is a Data Platform MVP from Slovenia. He's been programming for 20 years, developing diﬀerent types of applications in .Net (C#) and SQL Server, ranging from standard line-of-business, image-processing applications to high performance and IoT applications. He's a regular speaker at various conferences and usergroup meetings, really likes to optimize slow SQL statements, analyze performance, and find unconventional solutions to difficult SQL Server problems. In his free time, he also develops a very popular add-in for SSMS, called the SSMS Tools Pack (www.ssmstoolspack.com).

"Experienced professional specializing in Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing within the Microsoft ecosystem with 5 years experience .

Passionate about leveraging technology to solve complex business challenges, particularly drawn to the capabilities of Azure Databricks. Throughout my journey, I've had the privilege of seamlessly transitioning between data engineering and architect roles in various projects. This experience has equipped me with a versatile skill set, allowing me to contribute effectively to crafting end-to-end solutions. With a background in collaborative consulting roles across sectors, I bring a pragmatic approach to solving problems and driving success."

"Results-driven and highly analytical professional with a proven track record of success in data analysis across various industries including consulting, marketing, insurance, sales, and product development. Adept at identifying key insights and trends within complex datasets, utilizing advanced analytical techniques to inform strategic decision-making and drive business growth. Strong communicator who can effectively present findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Skilled in data visualization and the use of various analytical tools and software. Committed to continuous learning and staying current with the latest industry trends and technologies.

Ioannis holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from Agricultural University, GR and an M.Sc. in Business Analytics from Essex University, UK, and a Data Science BootCamp Certificate with Le Wagon Berlin - Batch 954."

Rune has been working with databases for 30+ years, primarily in those years with Microsoft SQL Server. Throughout the years he has had many roles, from Developer, Database Designer, Solution Architect and all the way to Production Dba.
Today Rune works for Vivicta as a Principal Cloud Architect on the different cloud vendor's Data Platform Services.
Rune is very active in the Microsoft Data Platform community and have held a position on the board for the Norwegian user group and for the last 8 years he has been running the largest Microsoft Data Platform conference on Norwegian soil, SQLSaturday Oslo, now re-branded to Data Saturday Oslo.
In his spare time you can find Rune in the woods of his hometown Arendal enjoying his hobby, building tracks and riding singletrack bicycling.

Johan Ludvig Brattås

"Johan Ludvig Brattås leads Data & AI Solutions at Tower NewCo (now Enora) , and a dedicated community guy. He has worked with MS SQL server since late 1999, mostly with BI in one form or another. Since 2015, most of his work has been in the cloud working on data platform services such as Snowflake, Databricks and Fabric.

"In this cutting-edge session, we will explore the latest performance improvements in Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server 2025.

We’ll dive into advancements in the optimizer (including intelligent query processing), locking, storage engine, availability groups, and more.

I will share my experiences of the features from early preview testing and demonstrate these features in action.

Finally, we’ll address the questions: What problems do these features solve, how do they work, and in which scenarios will you benefit from upgrading?"

"You have just begun your Fabric journey and want to create your first pipeline and ETL-process in your new insights and analysis data platform.

This session will take you through how you can set up a basic pipeline and make it more sophisticated as your competence increases. I will walk you through static, dynamic and semi-dynamic pipelines making it easier for you to choose which is a better fit for your solution. And finally, I will show you how you can set up automated pipelines using scheduled triggers.

Let’s embark on your journey on becoming the Fabric pipeline guru in your organization. "

"Every organisation has the same problem. Business terms are defined differently across teams, semantic models duplicate the same definitions, and your AI agents have no clue what the data actually means.
The result is conflicting reports, governance headaches, and hours spent on things that should have been solved from the start.
Fabric IQ is set to change this. With the Ontology item in Microsoft Fabric, the business gets a no-code approach to define entities, relationships, and rules in one single place. Once defined, these definitions are automatically picked up by AI agents, semantic models, and services across Fabric - and beyond, into AI Foundry and Work IQ.
In this session, you will see how to set up your first Ontology from scratch or based on existing semantic models, link it to your data entities in Fabric - including time-series, bulk loaded, and geospatial data - and watch how AI agents use these definitions without extra configuration.
No marketing fluff. Hands-on demos and practical guidance you can use the day you get back to the office."

"OneLake Security has been a core principal in the Microsoft Fabric vision since day one, and it is finally there.
Let's have a look at what this means:
- How do I configure and manage OneLake Security?
- Which functionality is available as of today?
- Which limitations should I be aware of?
- What is planned for the future?

This session is meant to explain the concept and idea of OneLake Security, but also show live demos and share insights on current state and future plans.
"

"Ever wondered how to make your data reporting faster and more efficient? In this demo-based session, I will show you how to implement live-data reporting using Direct Lake. Based on a real-world example, I'll demonstrate how we transformed a direct query solution to Direct Lake, accelerating our project reporting. Additionally, I'll reveal how we combined traditional and cutting-edge technologies to provide the best user experience. At the end, we'll compare the old and new reports to experience the performance difference live.

This session aims for attendees with an understanding of data reporting and are eager to delve deeper into it. We will cover specific technologies (SSIS, Power BI, SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, Mirroring, and Fabric Lakehouse) and their integration.

At the end of the session you will know:
• How to ingest on-prem data to Fabric in near real-time
• Key limitations of Direct Lake and how to mitigate them
• Is Direct Lake really faster than direct query? :-)

If you want to create blazing-fast and constantly up-to-date reports in Power BI, this session is for you. Join us and take your data reporting to the next level!
"

"Vector search is at the core of modern AI applications, powering recommendation engines, semantic search, and image recognition. Traditionally, implementing vector-based queries required adding a dedicated vector database, introducing complexity and additional infrastructure. But with SQL Server 2025, you can now store, query, and optimize vector embeddings natively - all within your existing environment, running entirely on-premises.

Why does this matter? For organizations needing full control over their data, SQL Server 2025 enables AI-powered search without relying on external cloud services or third-party databases.

In this demo-driven session, we'll start with how REST APIs are integrated into SQL Server 2025 as they are not only a cool feature on their own but also a prequisite to integrate AI into your workloads. We’ll keep going by looking at what vectors are, why they’re essential for AI applications, and how SQL Server 2025 simplifies vector search. You'll learn how to store and query vector embeddings efficiently, explore real-world scenarios like AI-powered recommendations and intelligent search, and discover best practices for indexing and optimizing performance. Of course, we’ll also take a look on what you’ll need to get going right away in your own environment!

If you're looking for a way to integrate AI-powered search within your on-premises SQL Server - without external infrastructure - this is a session you won’t want to miss!"

In today's fast-paced world, businesses need real-time insights and intelligent automation to be ahead of competition. This session explores the synergy between AI Agents and Microsoft Real-Time Intelligence. We will demonstrate how businesses can benefit from the power of real-time data processing, predictive analytics, and autonomous decisions. You will examine Azure Event Hubs, Stream Analytics, Fabric Real-Time Intelligence, and real-time-acting AI-driven agents that learn, adapt, and act in real time. You will be shown how to develop intelligent pipelines that detect anomalies, automate reactions, and enhance operations—all real-time. Join us for hands-on demos and realistic examples in order to explore how AI agents will revolutionize industries by providing predictive maintenance, real-time adaptive customer engagement, and autonomous business processes. Regardless of your position—data engineer, AI developer, business leader—this session will set you up to bridge from real-time data to AI-driven automation—turn insights into action in ways previously impossible. Are you ready to unleash the potential of smart automation?

"Ensuring development consistency across Power BI models and reports is no small task. Following best practices and coding conventions often depends on each developer’s discipline and attention to detail, which often leads to inconsistencies over time. Fortunately, there is a more scalable and automated way to enforce standards.

In this session, I will demonstrate why and how to leverage Tabular Editor’s Best Practice Analyzer and PBI Inspector within an Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline to automate and scale best-practice compliance across your organization when developing tabular models and Power BI reports.

The session will consist of two parts:

The What and the Why: An overview of the tools, the CI/CD concept, and the benefits of integrating these practices into a Power BI/SSAS development workflow.

Demo: A hands-on demonstration showing a simple example of how to implement these tools within an Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline."

"At last year’s Fabric Community Conference (FabCon) in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced the general availability of the Terraform provider for Microsoft Fabric. This milestone has significantly narrowed the gap in automated management of Fabric resources. Terraform, HashiCorp’s industry-leading Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tool, now enables streamlined provisioning and management of Microsoft Fabric environments using code.

In this session, we’ll explore:
* Why Infrastructure-as-Code matters: Discover the value of coding your infrastructure for scalability, repeatability, and efficiency
* What’s possible with the Microsoft Fabric Terraform provider (& friends): Learn how to manage capacities, workspaces, connections, gateways, lakehouses, data pipelines, and other Fabric resources programmatically
* Current limitations and workarounds: Get a clear view of what’s supported, what isn’t, and how to address gaps
* Internal Git integration vs. IaC: What is the role of Microsoft Fabric’s built-in Git integration, where it complements and where it differs from the broader IaC approach

Whether you’re new to IaC or looking to optimize your automation with Microsoft Fabric, this talk will provide actionable insights to elevate your automation strategy."

"For years, Power BI has been a ""read-only"" window into your data. When users need to take action, updating a record, triggering a workflow, or running a custom algorithm, they are forced to leave the report. But what if your dashboard could act as the command center for your data?

Enter Fabric User Data Functions. This session introduces a paradigm shift for Power BI professionals: the ability to host and run custom Python logic directly within the Fabric ecosystem. We will tackle the long-standing challenge of implementing ""writeback"" and custom automation without the overhead of managing external Azure Functions or Power Automate. You will learn how to encapsulate business logic into reusable REST endpoints that bridge the gap between analysis and action.

Through live, end-to-end demos, we will build a ""Translytical"" flow from scratch, moving from writing the Python code in Fabric to triggering real-time data updates directly from a Power BI report interface.

By attending this session, you will learn how to:

✅ Master the Fundamentals: Understand exactly what User Data Functions are and where they fit in your Power BI solutions.
✅ Build & Deploy: Set up your first User Data Function.
✅ Enable Secure Writeback: Implement secure, reliable data writeback patterns that allow users to update sources directly from a report.
✅ Architect Translytical Flows: Design workflows that combine analytical insights with transactional execution in a single step.
✅ Extend Your Reach: Use the power of Python to bring automation and external connectivity to your BI solutions."

"In today's world the chances of having data in a single language are slim to none. Your customers speak and write many languages with many different letters. Once you get to talking or thinking about characters, collations, encodings, sort orders, diacritics, code pages, etc, a brain melt is what you end up with. In this session we'll look at what all of these things are, how they fit together and how to use them properly as each of them can break your applications in various ways. Since SQL Server 2019 brought improvements in UTF-8 area, we'll look at that as well. Because sometimes it's not enough to just use NChar or NVarChar and thinking everything will be ok. "

"Databricks has long been a platform built for engineers and advanced analytics use cases. Over the past year, however, the platform has increasingly shifted focus toward analysts and business users. Enhanced dashboards, the Genie assistant for natural-language queries, and the introduction of a dedicated user portal are clear signals that Databricks is positioning itself as a more enterprise-ready reporting platform.

The session includes practical demos covering:
*Using Unity Catalog Metric Views as a shared semantic layer
*How Genie translates plain-English questions into queries and visualizations
*The current state of built-in dashboards and reporting in Databricks
*A walkthrough of the Databricks One portal for business users

We close with an honest reflection on what this evolution means in practice: where Databricks works well today for reporting and broader usage, where it still has limitations, and how we see the platform continuing to evolve over the next year."

"Most Power BI performance problems are diagnosed in the semantic model, but are caused long before it exists.

With Microsoft Fabric, transformations, shaping, and architectural decisions increasingly move upstream into Dataflows Gen2, SQL endpoints, and notebooks. These early choices silently determine model size, refresh times, DAX complexity, and whether Direct Lake succeeds or fails.

In this session, we explore how upstream design decisions around grain, shaping, aggregation, and transformation impact downstream semantic models. Through real-world patterns and architectural examples, you’ll learn when logic belongs upstream, when it belongs in the model, and why “fixing it in DAX” is often a sign of deeper issues.

The goal is not to eliminate DAX—but to let it do what it does best, on top of data that was prepared right."

"Data Products are not just a part of the data mesh paradigm, even if this is the first place many hear about the concept. But what exactly IS a data product?
There are surprisingly many takes on what a data product is, but in this session we will take a closer look at what core features every data product should have regardless.
We will also discuss the various forms of data products that can appear as well as how you can place proper governance on them.

We will also take a look at data contracts, which are a central feature when applying data products successfully."

Borko Novakovic

Dr. Dani Ljepava

Uros Milanovic

Bogdan Gavrilovic

Advancing the Role of SQL Server DBA in the Era of AI: Becoming Azure SQL DBA

As data platforms move to the cloud and AI becomes embedded into database services, the role of the SQL Server DBA is evolving.

This workshop guides SQL Server DBAs through the transition from managing on premises SQL Server environments to operating Azure SQL in the era of AI. You will learn which responsibilities remain with you, which are shared with Microsoft, and how to use the freed-up time to build cloud and AI skills.

We will examine Azure SQL architecture across key areas such as high availability, BCDR, backup and restore, performance, monitoring, security, compliance, and connectivity, mapping each to traditional SQL Server DBA responsibilities.

You will also discover how to use Copilot and AI powered capabilities across Azure, SSMS, and Azure Arc, and how services such as Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft Copilot for Azure AI can improve DBA’s operational efficiency and productivity.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Borko Novakovic

Dr. Dani Ljepava

Dr. Dani Ljepava is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft SQL data team responsible for product development of flagship Azure SQL Managed Instance PaaS service. His areas of expertise include hybrid environments, high availability, intelligence, automatic tuning, monitoring, backup and restore, migrations, Arc enabled SQL Server and UX. Dani has also worked on delivering data mobility features for on-prem. SQL Servers 2016-2022, and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). His experience brings in more than 15+ years of product innovation worldwide starting from Silicon Valley start-ups innovating Internet technologies to enterprise innovation in the intelligent cloud space.

Uros Milanovic

Uros Milanovic - As a Senior Product Manager for Azure SQL Managed Instance, he focuses on building a better platform for running SQL Server in Azure - one that is elastic, flexible, and optimized for cost and performance. His goal is to empower individuals and organizations to adopt the cloud with confidence, using tools and capabilities that make SQL Server workloads more efficient, scalable, and secure.

He collaborates with customers across industries - from finance to retail - to simplify cloud migration, optimize cost and performance, and ensure high availability for mission-critical applications. Whether organizations are just starting their cloud journey or scaling complex environments, he helps them succeed with Azure SQL Managed Instance.

Bogdan Gavrilovic

Bogdan Gavrilovic - Senior product Manager at Microsoft working on Azure SQL

"Planning to migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL and not sure where to start? Join this Ask Me Anything session with Microsoft SQL experts for open, candid discussion and direct answers to your migration questions.

This interactive panel creates space to discuss real-world migration projects, operational challenges, and product feedback, including unfiltered input shared directly with the people shaping the platform. The session also helps you understand the major pillars of Microsoft's investment in Azure SQL, so you can provide feedback and make more informed decisions aligned with your migration needs.

Whether you are just starting your migration or modernizing a complex SQL estate, this session is designed to deliver practical, actionable guidance tailored to your scenarios"

As a Senior Product Manager for Azure SQL Managed Instance, he focuses on building a better platform for running SQL Server in Azure - one that is elastic, flexible, and optimized for cost and performance. His goal is to empower individuals and organizations to adopt the cloud with confidence, using tools and capabilities that make SQL Server workloads more efficient, scalable, and secure.

Senior product Manager at Microsoft working on Azure SQL

"Discover how Azure Arc accelerates SQL Server modernization and migration to Azure SQL Managed Instance with a seamless, Microsoft Copilot-assisted experience. Explore benefits of the next-generation General Purpose Azure SQL Managed Instance, a fully managed database service that delivers a free performance upgrade, five times more databases, and ultimate flexibility in resource configuration compared to the previous generation, significantly improving your total cost of ownership.

Explore how Azure Arc provides a unified migration experience in the Azure portal: from automated assessments and at-scale views of your SQL Server data estate to provisioning SQL Managed Instance, real-time database replication, and cutover - enabling near-zero downtime migration. What once required weeks can now be completed in days. Confidently migrate, optimize, and unlock the full potential of your data estate.

This session is delivered by the Microsoft SQL Server product group, offering an opportunity to connect and network with the team behind these products."

Discovery Day Sofia opens with a high-energy keynote bringing together five well-known names from across the Microsoft Data Platform ecosystem for a live, interactive, demo-driven session packed with technology, insights and fun along the way.

Join long-time Microsoft MVPs and community leaders together with members of the SQL Server Product Group and the Microsoft Fabric Customer Advisory Team as they take the stage to explore the future of data platforms — from SQL Server 2025 and Azure SQL to Microsoft Fabric, analytics, AI and modern cloud-connected architectures.

Rather than a traditional slide-heavy presentation, this keynote is designed as a dynamic on-stage experience with live discussions, exciting demos, spontaneous interactions and conversations between the speakers throughout the session.

Expect practical demonstrations, new features, architecture insights, behind-the-scenes perspectives and honest discussions about where the Microsoft Data Platform is heading next — directly from the people building and working with these technologies every day.

Whether you are a DBA, developer, architect, data engineer, analyst or technology leader, this keynote will set the tone for the conference and showcase the innovation, energy and community spirit that define Discovery Day Sofia.

Inspire. Build. Lead. WITH DATA.

SQL Server 2025 introduces Change Event Streaming (CES) — a new capability that brings real-time event streaming directly into the SQL Server platform.

In this session, we will explore how CES enables SQL Server to publish data changes as events, opening the door to modern event-driven architectures, real-time analytics, streaming integrations, and near real-time data movement scenarios.

We will start with the CES architecture and core concepts, compare CES with existing technologies such as Change Data Capture (CDC), and discuss where each approach fits best. From there, we will move into practical demonstrations covering configuration, integration with Azure Event Hubs, streaming pipelines, and real-world implementation considerations.
Whether you are a DBA, data engineer, architect, or developer, this session will help you understand where CES fits in the evolving SQL Server ecosystem and how it can be used to modernize data integration and event processing solutions.

Pre-Conference Training Day 2026

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