What to expect from sessions at Coalesce 2025

The dbt community gathers at Coalesce to share the best ways to get data work done. Not in theory, but in practice and in production.

The Coalesce 2025 breakout sessions are built for doers. They’re curated for the challenges that data teams face daily and the tools and practices they’re‌ using to solve them. Whether you're scaling globally or just getting started with dbt, there's a track waiting for you at Coalesce 2025. Here’s what to expect:

Track: Data modernization

Learn how to go from legacy to leading edge. This track showcases real before-and-after stories of platform migrations and process overhauls with dbt as the linchpin. You’ll hear how teams prioritized their modernization efforts, tackled complex architectures, and achieved tangible results while future-proofing their analytics stack.

This track is perfect for: Data platform owners, modernization champions, and technical leaders rewriting the next chapter of their organization’s data journey.

Featured sessions:

• Bumble – Starting from day one: 7 ways we reduced our tech debt and prepared for ML/AI. Setting up a dbt project the right way from the start is critical to ensuring long-term maintainability, scalability, and efficiency. Learn how Bumble uses dbt to minimize tech debt that had caused ‌operational headaches and performance bottlenecks.
• Riot Games – Leveling up data engineering at Riot: How we transformed DevEx with dbt. Riot Games reduced its Databricks compute spend and accelerated development cycles by migrating from bespoke Databricks notebooks and Spark pipelines to a scalable, testable, and developer-friendly dbt-based architecture. You’ll learn how they designed and operationalized dbt to support Riot’s evolving data needs.
• Ericsson – Ascending data Everest: Ericsson's climb to scalable analytics. Learn how Ericsson’s Enterprise Wireless Solutions team modernized its analytics stack by replacing legacy tools like Alteryx and ThoughtSpot with scalable, modular data models powered by the dbt platform. Learn how they tackled SOX compliance, streamlined operations, and expanded from internal analytics to external analytics to create enterprise-grade analytics performance.

Track: Embracing AI

AI is only as good as the data behind it. This track explores how companies are identifying real-world AI use cases, building reliable data foundations, and accelerating time to value with dbt as a key part of their AI workflows.

This track is perfect for: Leaders exploring best practices for AI adoption and for practitioners building the infrastructure to support it.

Featured sessions:

• Bilt Rewards: Bilt's conversational data layer: How we connected data to LLMs with dbt. Bilt Rewards turned their dbt project into a natural language interface. By connecting their semantic layer and underlying data warehouse to an LLM, business users and data analysts can ask real business questions and get trusted and creative insights. This session shows how Bilt modeled their data for AI, how they kept accuracy intact, and how they increased data-driven conversations across the business.
• JP Morgan: Building autonomous AI agents for finance. How can AI agents make informed financial decisions—without compromising compliance, accuracy, or trust? In this session, learn how a major finanical institution is bridging the gap between experimentation and enterprise-grade financial intelligence. Drawing from real-world use cases, explore how autonomous agents can parse annual reports, extract insights from earnings calls, forecast financial outcomes, and evaluate options strategies.
• Hex – AI, anxiety, and the future of data teams: A playbook for real leadership. AI is transforming data teams, but the real challenge is still people and purpose. Learn how to build lasting teams, drive real business impact, and navigate career evolution while preparing your data foundation for an AI-driven future.

Track: dbt at scale

More teams. More models. More impact**.** If your data environment is growing faster than your ability to manage it, this track is for you. See how enterprises are using dbt to mature their development processes, enable cross-functional collaboration, and unlock faster delivery of insights—at real organizational scale.

This track is perfect for: Platform teams, data enablement leads, and enterprise data architects managing growth.

Featured sessions:

• Okta – From silos to AI-ready: How Okta built governed analytics at scale. Okta is rebuilding its data platform, moving from disconnected pipelines to a scalable, well-governed foundation with Snowflake and dbt. In this session, you’ll learn how they improved CI/CD, enabled self-service, and are now testing a prototype to make dbt models ready for AI.
• Zendesk – How we built a cross-domain, multi-platform data strategy at Zendesk. Serving hundreds of engineers and analysts across dozens of domains takes more than good tooling. Learn how Zendesk scaled dbt across its distributed Snowflake architecture and multiple development environments. They’ll also dive into topics like advanced CI/CD, hybrid mesh, and workload portability.

Track: Empowering self-service

See how dbt customers are enabling business users to explore and use data without compromising on governance, performance, or trust. These sessions focus on what it takes to scale self-service across an organization.

This track is perfect for: Data teams supporting self-serve environments and business users who want better, faster answers.

Featured sessions:

• Sweetgreen – From chaos to clarity: How Sweetgreen streamlined data with AI and dbt. In this session, you’ll learn how Sweetgreen is transforming its data ecosystem with dbt to enable self-serve analytics and accelerate development. Sweetgreen will walk through how they built a trusted semantic layer, simplified their Snowflake assets, and began using AI to boost delivery speed. Whether you're focused on reliability, scalability, or empowering more users with data, this session will offer practical takeaways from Sweetgreen’s data journey.
• Virgin Media O2 – From merge to momentum: How Virgin Media O2 built scalable self-service with dbt across two orgs. Merging two large organizations with different tools, teams, and data practices is never simple. Virgin Media O2, we used dbt to help bring consistency to that complexity, building a hybrid data mesh that supported self-serve analytics across domains. In this session, we’ll share how we gave teams clearer ownership, put governance in place using dbt, and set up secure data sharing through GCP’s Analytics Hub. If you’re working in a federated or fast-changing environment, this session offers practical lessons for making self-serve work at scale.

Track: Analytics development best practices

Rewrite how how data work gets done. Explore proven approaches data teams have used to work more efficiently and collaboratively, and deliver real value for their organizations. Sessions in this track focus on establish robust analytics processes, improving team workflows, and turning analytics into a strategic advantage.

This track is perfect for: Data practitioners and data leads looking to level up their analytics development lifecycle with best-in-class practices.

Featured sessions:

• Daiichi Sankyo – How we are building a federated, AI-augmented data platform that balances autonomy and standardization at scale. **Platform engineers from the global pharmaceutical company share their journey in creating a cloud-native, federated data platform using dbt, Snowflake, and Data Mesh. Learn how they established foundational tools, and standards to develop automation and self-service capabilities.
• Tatango – dbt data migration: Best practices for large-scale projects. In this session, attendees will learn best practices for migrating a large-scale dbt project from one platform to another. Learn how to run dual-execution environments, address syntactic differences and implement data integrity tests to ensure your models are running smoothly.

Track: Data quality and trust

Trust isn’t given. It’s built. Learn how leading organizations are maintaining data quality at scale. Learn how they’re operationalizing testing, enabling governed collaboration across teams, and creating environments where data consumers trust what they see—and use it to drive impact.

This track is perfect for: Data stewards, governance pros, and any team fighting the “what does this number even mean?” battle.

Featured sessions:

• United Services Automobile Association (USAA) – Towards a more perfect pipeline: CI/CD in the dbt Platform. In this session USAA will show how they integrated CI/CD dbt jobs to validate data and run tests on every merge request. Attendees will walk away with a blueprint for implementing CI/CD for dbt, lessons learned from their data journey, and best practices to keep data quality high without slowing down development.
• The Information Lab – Achieve governance harmony: Powering Tableau with dbt. Explore the growing dbt and Tableau partnership. Learn how integrations enhance the modern analytics stack, streamline workflows, and provide accurate, actionable insights with strong data governance.

Track: dbt Product

The roadmap to what’s next. Find out what’s new, and what’s coming soon, across the dbt platform and dbt Core. These sessions come straight from the product teams building the future of dbt. Learn how to use new capabilities, give feedback, and stay ahead of the curve.

This track is perfect for: Everyone. Power users, architects, and anyone responsible for maximizing the value of dbt in their organization.

Featured sessions:

• Next-gen data development with dbt Fusion engine. The next-generation dbt Fusion engine brings a faster, more responsive, and more intuitive development experience to dbt. In this session, you’ll see firsthand what Fusion can do for your team. From real-time, intelligent validation of your code to state-aware runs that skip the rebuilds you don’t need, discover how Fusion helps you move faster, ship with confidence, and stay in flow.
• Shaping the future of self-service with the dbt MCP server and Semantic Layer. In this session, you’ll learn how the dbt Semantic Layer and dbt MCP server enable safe, AI-powered access to data through natural language interfaces. As business users start exploring data conversationally, the analyst role is evolving from writing queries to curating trusted logic, guiding usage, and enabling scalable self-service. We’ll break down what this shift looks like and how dbt helps analysts stay at the center of decision-making.
• Governed data meets context-aware AI: How analysts build better in dbt. Learn why dbt is the best place for analysts to build reliable data products quickly, combining structured workflows with context-aware AI. We will explore how dbt Canvas, dbt Studio, and more give analysts the visibility, control, and flexibility they need to move from exploration to production without relying on engineers. You will also see how AI agents in dbt accelerate development by recommending logic, surfacing relevant models, and helping troubleshoot issues—making self-service both faster and more trusted.

Experience Coalesce your way

Breakout sessions at Coalesce aren’t just informative, they’re transformative. You’ll leave with guidebooks to make your data work more scalable, trusted, and impactful.

Join us in Las Vegas to catch any session you want, or join online for a selection of breakout sessions livestreamed for virtual attendees. Explore the full breakout agenda and register for Coalesce 2025 now.