Blog Coalesce 2023: Deliver value for your data team

Coalesce 2023: Deliver value for your data team

Aug 25, 2023

Company News

Get ready for handshakes, meme swaps, some serious learning, and forming awesome connections. We're super excited to dish out the details on what's cooking at Coalesce 2023, and we hope we’ll see you there.

At Coalesce 2020, we defined analytics engineering as a community. We unpacked data transformation, software engineering best practices, and how those all connect to the modern data analyst and data team. We built the foundation for a conference for data practitioners, by data practitioners. (You can also check out replays from Coalesce 2021 and Coalesce 2022.)

“A must-attend for my entire team. … Best lineup of talks of any data conference and great energy. It’s real conversations about data topics that matter.”

And at Coalesce 2023, we’re expanding on how data teams and practitioners can increase value and generate stellar ROI to become major assets to their companies.

We will showcase practitioners at the forefront of complex dbt projects, launch new products (we’re very excited about this), and offer fresh insights on how to align people, process, and technology for better governance. This 4-day in-person and virtual experience kicks off on October 16th, with thoughtfully curated sessions designed to rethink how we work within and beyond our data teams.

Coalesce is about connecting with people. This year, analytics engineers, data engineers, data analysts, data scientists, executives, and many others are tuning in from all over the world! Attendees will be able to join Coalesce online or in-person at our main stage in San Diego as well as one-day events in London and Sydney.

Give me the good stuff. The TL;DR of Coalesce 2023

For four days, data practitioners will be gathering together to learn and share the skills, tools, and methods to produce higher leverage and higher impact data work:

• Coalesce San Diego (Oct. 16-19, 2023): Join us in San Diego! Live workshops, sessions, a hackathon, and face-to-face time with friends new and old.
• Coalesce London (Oct. 17, 2023): Calling all folks in EMEA! A special one-day in-person event, closer to you, that is designed to supplement your Coalesce Online experience.
• Coalesce Sydney (Oct. 17, 2023): For our friends in APAC! A special one-day in-person event, closer to you, that is designed to supplement your Coalesce Online experience.
• Coalesce Online (Oct. 16-19, 2023): The livestream worth clearing your calendar for. No matter where you are in the world—get the Coalesce experience from the comfort of your home!

Practitioner and community-driven knowledge sharing

“Coalesce presentations are just all of us, trying to save each other time that we have spent learning hard things.”

At Coalesce 2023, there will be over 113 ecosystem and community sessions covering a wide range of topics, from the dbt Semantic Layer to best practices for data teams to drive revenue growth. Here are the session tracks that will define this year's Coalesce experience:

• dbt at Scale: The future of analytics engineering calls for greater maturity in processes, teams, and tooling. Hear how organizations are scaling dbt to serve growing demand for data and analytics.
• • Session spotlight: How Roche GTM manages multi-project deployments
• Business Critical Data Teams: Learn how top data teams are setting up systems and processes to operate more efficiently and create tangible business impact.
• • Session spotlight: Transforming healthcare by putting data in the driver’s seat at Vida Health
• Modernization and Migration: Every business has their own journey to the modern data stack. In this track, hear stories of the before and after: how teams undertook complex migration and maturity efforts, and what the next wave of modernization looks like.
• • Session spotlight: How Fanduel migrated a mature data organization
• dbt Labs on dbt: How we operationalize dbt at scale to power the growth of our business. A dedicated track to showcase how parts of the dbt Labs team is building our business processes around dbt.
• • Session spotlight: Rows-colored glasses: What a migration to dbt taught me about Excel
• Product Tour: Dive into the newest updates and features in dbt Cloud with the dbt Labs product team. Learn first-hand how these additions can help your team deliver more impact, faster.
• • Session spotlight: Scaling collaboration with dbt Cloud
• Community: The dbt Community drives innovation in the modern data stack. In this track, hear ideas about new ways of working—from both a technical and cultural perspective
• • Session spotlight: 60 sources and counting: Unlocking microservice integration with dbt and Data Vault

New to dbt and analytics engineering? Need some help identifying new tools for your team’s data stack? Practitioners and leaders in data are bringing their perspectives and experiences to create sessions for a variety of skill sets, interests, and needs.

All the things that make Coalesce, well, Coalesce

Staying true to our roots while exploring new horizons.

Hackathon, workshops, and certifications

At Coalesce, attendees can expect engaging and informative virtual and in-person learning events happening throughout the week.

• 🧑‍💻 Hackathon: For San Diego attendees–don't miss our Hackathon on Thursday, where you can experience some of the latest dbt Cloud functionality in action. Test your skills, compete against others, and have a blast creating something awesome. All participants are welcome, and there are prizes up for grabs. Come solo or bring your team!
• ⚒️ Workshops: dbt Labs team members and Coalesce sponsors are hosting hands-on and interactive learning workshops throughout the week.
• 🏋️ Trainings and dbt certification: The dbt Labs team are hosting several live trainings for dbt users of all skill levels. For practitioners ready for the challenge, we’re also offering an in-person exam for dbt certification at all three Coalesce locations.

Mingling in sunny San Diego

Attendees at the Coalesce San Diego can expect a variety of in-person events

• A live keynote from dbt CEO Tristan Handy
• Sponsor happy hours, networking events, and evening parties
• The Coalesce activation hall is not your typical conference expo floor. Each of our sponsors will have an interactive booth. At our inaugural event in 2022 attendees enjoyed tie-dye, a make-up station, origami, a diner, boba tea & more! There's more exciting things planned from our sponsors this year Folks at the Coalesce locations in Sydney and London can also expect live executive keynotes and in-person networking sessions.

Attendee checklist: What you need to know

Is Coalesce 2023 calling your name? Here are the steps you should take to ensure that you’re all set for the big week.

• Register for the conference in the location that works for you.
• Secure your spot in one of our hotel blocks by September 20 in San Diego, Sydney, or London.
• Join the dbt Community Slack. Make sure to join the #coalesce-updates channel for Coalesce news and questions.
• Scroll through the conference agenda and discover which sessions you’re interested in attending. Folks will be able to add sessions to their agenda closer to the conference date.
• Make sure to use #dbtCoalesce when posting about the conference on social media! Follow us on LinkedIn.
• Check out the FAQs for any unanswered questions.

If you have additional questions, check out the #coalesce-updates Slack channel, and a dbt Labs teammate will help you as soon as possible.

Learning and building together

“Communities determine what’s exciting and how it gets used, what new practitioners learn, and where investment dollars flow. And in turn, they give participants professional development, a sense of identity, and a way to give back.” - Tristan Handy, founder and CEO of dbt Labs

When Tristan announced the first Coalesce back in 2020, what he reiterated there, and what many of us have come to love about the practice of analytics engineering, is the special community that exists here.

Just as the dbt Community is a space for anyone who has a love, interest, or passion for analytics work, Coalesce is the space for those people to grow and learn together. We welcome data engineers, purple people, and anyone in-between. Coalesce strives to be a space to lift up voices and be a platform for sharing knowledge.

Bring your questions, hot takes, and open minds for four days of learning and community building. We can’t wait to see you in October!

[Register for Coalesce 2023 today.]

Last modified on: Feb 21, 2024