Snowflake Summit 2023: Why Attend and What to Expect

Updated June 14th, 2023
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The Snowflake Summit is touted to be the world’s largest Data and AI Conference this year. It’s a four-day conference taking place from June 26-29 at the Caesars Forum Conference Center in Las Vegas, USA.

The conference aims to focus on how data, generative AI, and LLM are reshaping enterprises. The event promises 400+ sessions from data leaders at NVIDIA, Fidelity, Thomson Reuters, T-Mobile, Instacart, American Airlines, and more.

This article will highlight the importance of attending this year’s Snowflake Summit and explore some of the must-attend sessions.

P.S. Atlan’s going to be at the summit too. Read on to know more about what to expect and how to meet our humans of data.

Table of contents

  1. What is the Snowflake Summit 2023?
  2. Types of sessions at the Snowflake Summit
  3. Why attend the Snowflake Summit 2023
  4. 11 Snowflake Summit 2023 sessions you should attend
  5. Atlan at the Snowflake Summit 2023

What is the Snowflake Summit 2023?

The Snowflake Summit is an annual event by Snowflake that brings together data practitioners, industry experts, and Snowflake customers to discuss and explore the latest trends, innovations, and best practices in data and AI.

This year’s Snowflake Summit will focus on generative AI and LLMs.

This year’s Snowflake Summit will focus on generative AI and LLMs. - Source: LinkedIn.

The summit will feature keynote presentations, panel discussions, hands-on workshops, customer success stories, product demonstrations, and more.

Attendees will include data practitioners such as CXOs, business and technical leaders, architects, analysts, data engineers, data scientists, security practitioners, developers, and more.

The event is an opportunity to learn and gain insights from industry leaders in financial services, healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing, media, retail, and CPG, telecom, and the public sector.

Also, Checkout the → Snowflake Summit 2023 video here.

While the summit is a 4-day event in Las Vegas, you can also access the full library of keynotes, breakout sessions, and some of the theater session recordings after the event.

The event has several types of sessions and depending on your job role and skills, you can decide which ones to attend. Let’s look at the various types of sessions, followed by session recommendations.

Types of sessions at the Snowflake Summit

This year’s Snowflake Summit has four types of sessions:

  • Breakout tracks
  • Hands-on labs
  • Certifications
  • Pre-event training

Let’s explore further.

1. Breakout tracks


You can choose sessions from 11 tracks, which include:

  • What’s New with Snowflake
  • Industry Impact
  • Operating and Optimizing Snowflake
  • Modern Data Architectures
  • Data Engineering
  • Data Science and Machine Learning
  • Collaboration
  • Application Development
  • Accelerating Analytics
  • Cybersecurity
  • Marketing Analytics

Each track has sessions that cover the capabilities of the Data Cloud™, the latest trends, and use cases. For example, the Industry Impact track features sessions such as:

2. Hands-on labs


With hands-on labs, you get to learn how to use Snowflake and its partner technologies with expert instructors. Each lab session is 120 minutes long and will explore real-world scenarios with step-by-step lab guides. Examples include:

3. Certifications


The Snowflake Summit is also an opportunity to get SnowPro™ certifications as well as apply for recertification exams.

The SnowPro™ certifications available are:

  • SnowPro™ Core Certification to demonstrate your expertise in implementing and migrating to Snowflake
  • SnowPro™ Advanced exams that test advanced Snowflake knowledge and skills

Meanwhile, the recertification exams include:

  • SnowPro™ Core Recertification
  • SnowPro™ Advanced: Architect Recertification
  • SnowPro™ Advanced: Data Engineer Recertification
  • SnowPro™ Advanced: Data Scientist Recertification

4. Pre-event training


The pre-event training includes two classes with expert instructors that will walk you through several hands-on scenarios to architect, understand, and build using Snowflake.

It will take place on Monday, June 26 and the training classes:

  • New to Snowflake? will give you a VIP tour across Snowflake
  • Advanced experience with Snowflake? will help expand your Snowflake expertise and working knowledge

Next, let’s look at the benefits of attending the Snowflake Summit.

Why attend the Snowflake Summit 2023

The Snowflake Summit will discuss trends, challenges, use cases, and best practices in data and metadata management, data governance, analytics, engineering, and other essential aspects of the data ecosystem.

You’ll learn from Snowflake customers and partners on how to create new market and revenue opportunities, build native applications, improve existing data strategies, and streamline your data stack workflows.

The Snowflake Summit is also an opportunity to get 1:1 time with subject matter experts and participate in hands-on workshops with personalized coaching from Snowflake experts.

Next, let’s take a look at some of the must-attend sessions during the summit.

11 Snowflake Summit 2023 sessions you should attend

While there are 400+ sessions to choose from across 11 tracks, here’s a glimpse of the type of sessions you can expect at this year’s Snowflake Summit:

  1. How Autodesk activates their data mesh with Snowflake and Atlan
  2. How Cisco Uses Active Metadata to Power DataOps: A Conversation with Atlan
  3. How Atlan Helps Cut Cloud Costs and Optimize Your Data Stack
  4. Build an app for that: The next big opportunity for data entrepreneurs
  5. Data governance in a data mesh
  6. How Blackstone builds with Snowflake
  7. How the New York Stock Exchange uses Snowpark to reduce costs
  8. Learning to love dbt at Hubspot
  9. Turbocharging enterprise value with Generative AI
  10. My notebook doesn’t do that!
  11. Best practices for compliance automation: How data and cyber teams can supercharge success

Let’s look into the specifics of each session.

1. How Autodesk activates their data mesh with Snowflake and Atlan


By: Mark Kidwell, Chief Data Architect, Autodesk, and Austin Kronz, Director of Data Strategy, Atlan | For: Data engineers and architects

In this 45-minute breakout session, Mark Kidwell and Austin Kronz look into the benefits of using Snowflake and Atlan’s active metadata platform to build a data mesh.

They’ll talk about the challenges that Autodesk faced in scaling data collaboration and governance, and how the switch to a data mesh architecture helped overcome these issues.

Also, read → An insider session with Autodesk at the Snowflake Summit 2023

2. How Cisco Uses Active Metadata to Power DataOps: A Conversation with Atlan


By: Matt McCabe, Director, Customer Experience Digital Transformation at Cisco, and Mark Pavletich, Director of Sales Engineering at Atlan | For: Data leaders, engineers, and architects

This 25-minute-long Industry Pavilion Theater Session will feature Cisco, a renowned global technology leader, known for its exemplary management of customer, product, and operational data.

The session will showcase insights from Matt McCabe, Cisco’s Director of Customer Experience Digital Transformation, and Mark Pavletich, Director of Sales Engineering. They’ll be opening up about the critical role active metadata plays in Cisco’s data operations, drawing from their extensive experience to share practical takeaways.

Expect to explore how cutting-edge data platforms, such as Snowflake and Atlan, are utilized to their full potential. The session aims to provide guidance on developing efficient organizational structures and practices, geared towards timely delivery of data to consumers.

3. How Atlan Helps Cut Cloud Costs and Optimize Your Data Stack


By: Austin Kronz, Director of Data Strategy at Atlan | For: Everyone

In this 20-minute session, Kronz will unpack how Atlan customers are leveraging active metadata to pinpoint inefficiencies, streamline their data pipelines, and clean up their data estate.

The session promises practical insights and actionable takeaways, regardless of your organization’s size or sector. It’s an opportunity to learn from the experiences of Atlan’s customers, understand how to better manage your data operations, and mitigate the potential pitfalls of a modern data stack.

4. Build an app for that: The next big opportunity for data entrepreneurs


By: Benn Stancil, CTO, and Founder, Mode | For: Data entrepreneurs and application developers

This 20-minute session by Benn Stancil will share how to build data products inside Snowflake.

He will explore how, just like iPhone app developers, data entrepreneurs can deliver enormous value to expansive audiences of customers with small teams and a limited budget.

5. Data governance in a data mesh


By: Seth Youssef, Security Field CTO at Snowflake | For: Security practitioners, Data engineers

Cybersecurity veteran Seth Youssef will talk about operating models of data governance in a data mesh.

This 45-minute session by the Snowflake’s Security Field CTO is essential for data practitioners and enterprises working with modern data architectures.

Also read → A how-to guide on implementing the data mesh with Snowflake

6. How Blackstone builds with Snowflake


By: Young Cha, Senior VP, Head of Data Engineering at The Blackstone Group | For: Data engineers

In this 45-minute session, Young Cha will talk about how Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, uses Snowflake to help their data science teams analyze and report data at scale.

The session will also cover using Snowflake and Streamlit for advanced data science capabilities.

7. How the New York Stock Exchange uses Snowpark to reduce costs


By: Anand Pradhan, Senior Director, Regulatory and NMS Tech at NYSE | For: Data engineers

The NYSE generates its daily surveillance reports that cover market statistics, market quality information, and program trading reports using Snowpark.

In this 45-minute session, financial technologist Anand Pradhan will delve into the specifics of the migration process and its impact on costs.

8. Learning to love dbt at Hubspot


By: Kasey Mazza, Analytics Engineering Manager, RevOps at HubSpot | For: Data engineers and analysts

Kasey Mazza and her team at HubSpot developed a long-term data strategy using dbt. This 45-minute session will look into the dbt implementation at HubSpot, challenges, and best practices.

9. Turbocharging enterprise value with Generative AI


By: Lan Guan, Head of Global Data and AI, Accenture | For: All data practitioners

Lan Guan, a Senior Managing Director at Accenture who leads the Global Data & AI practice for their Cloud First business, will talk about using Generative AI and LLMs to create impact.

This 45-minute session will analyze the trends in generative AI and what it means for enterprises across industries.

10. My notebook doesn’t do that!


By: Izzy Miller, Developer Relations and Technical Marketing, Hex | For: Data analysts, scientists, application developers

Izzy Miller will delve into the typical pain points with SQL when using traditional notebooks like Jupyter in your daily workflows. He will then present Hex’s notebook-based platform that can solve such issues with a user-friendly SQL interface.

11. Best practices for compliance automation: How data and cyber teams can supercharge success


By: Richard Marcus, VP, Information Security at AuditBoard | For: Security practitioners

This session by Richard Marcus from AuditBoard will explore best practices for a continuous monitoring program to perform compliance activities at scale.

Richard will delve into the challenges of a constantly evolving cyber risk landscape and help security practitioners take steps to tackle them with automation.

Atlan at the Snowflake Summit 2023

As mentioned earlier, the Snowflake Summit 2023 is a great opportunity to meet the humans of data at Atlan. You can:

  • Sign up for a personalized demo
  • Set up 1:1 data strategy consultation
  • Attend our Insider Session on activating the data mesh with Autodesk
  • Get an invite to our evening events — the Atlan Community Party and The Dark Mode After Party

Sign up here and meet us at the summit.

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