dbt Summit 2026 Community Keynote
Relive a celebration of the dbt community and what’s next, including how dbt unites under one framework and how we’re continuing to build in the open.
Overview
Let’s return to where it all began—with the practitioners, contributors, and builders who have made dbt what it is—and look ahead to where we're going together. We’ll take the new dbt v2 engine out for a test drive and speak with industry leaders about how adopting and contributing to open standards can elevate the whole community. We'll celebrate the exceptional community contributors who shaped this year's level up, and close with a look at what's on the horizon.
What you'll take away
- 01
dbt v2 is one engine with one name, dbt, in two distributions built from a single codebase: dbt, which is free and includes SQL comprehension features, and dbt-oss, which includes only Apache 2 licensed components. The team upgraded live from v1.12 using a v2 parser flag and dbt-autofix.
- 02
New in v2 is the dbt information schema, a contracted metadata interface that powers project quality checks and a rebuilt dbt docs, all working from project metadata without a warehouse connection.
- 03
Guests from the Apache Arrow, DuckDB, and Omni communities explained how ADBC, Iceberg, and Ossie let teams pick the right engine for each job, and how anyone can contribute to them.
Session speakers
Jeremy Cohen
dbt LabsBolaji Oyejide
dbt LabsChris Merrick
OmniGrace Goheen
dbt LabsHannes Mühleisen
DuckLabsMatt Topol
Columnar