DATACON, a Microsoft Data Platform conference, brings together top experts, industry leaders, and data professionals for an immersive five-day experience. Focused on cutting-edge Microsoft data technologies—including Azure SQL Databases, Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server, and Real-Time Intelligence—DATACON delivers deep technical insights and practical solutions to help individuals and organizations unlock the full potential of their data.
With two days of intensive preconference workshops followed by three days of expert-led sessions, attendees gain hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge across a range of specialized tracks, including,&nbsp;Azure Data Services,&nbsp;SQL Server Optimization &amp; Best Practices,&nbsp;SQL Server Data Solutions for Enterprise,&nbsp;Data Warehousing,&nbsp;Data Integration &amp; Transformation,&nbsp;Power BI &amp; Data Visualization,&nbsp;Microsoft Fabric, and&nbsp;Data Security &amp; Governance.
At DATACON, learning comes from the best in the industry. Our speakers include Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Certified Masters (MCMs), Microsoft Program Managers, Engineers, MCTs, and Regional Directors—each bringing expert-level insights into Azure SQL Databases, SQL Server, Purview, Power BI, Fabric, and more.
Choose a complete learning track to deepen your expertise or mix and match sessions to fit your organization’s specific needs. Whether you’re focused on building data pipelines, designing dashboards, integrating AI into your workflows, or mastering data governance,&nbsp;DATACON&nbsp;is your destination for actionable insights and transformative learning.

DATACON

Room 347-348

Unlock the power of automation and enhance your database management skills in this full-day PowerShell workshop designed for DBAs. This session will equip you with essential skills and  streamline your daily operations and reduce manual errors through scripting and automation.

We will start with PowerShell fundamentals before moving into advanced scripting best practices tailored to the needs of SQL Server management. A key highlight of the workshop is our in-depth exploration of the **dbatools module**—a powerful, community-built toolkit that simplifies SQL Server management tasks. With over 700 cmdlets/functions it is a treasure trove of greatness (in my opinion). This mostly demo session with many real-world examples, you’ll learn how to leverage dbatools to automate tasks such as backups, restores, performance monitoring, and migrations, dramatically enhancing your operational efficiency.

Whether you’re looking to learn PowerShell and dbatools or to explore automation strategies, this workshop offers a rich blend of theoretical insights and interactive scenarios. Join me for a day of learning, collaboration, and fun that will allow you to take full control of your database operations with the combined power of PowerShell and dbatools.

PowerShell DBA Dream dbatools Workshop

In this hands-on workshop, we will dive deep into mastering Eventhouse and KQL (Kusto Query Language) to harness the power of real-time intelligence. As data continues to grow exponentially, the need for real-time processing and insights has become critical. This workshop will cover the following key areas:

Introduction to Eventhouse:

Overview of Eventhouse and its role in real-time data processing.
Key features and capabilities that set Eventhouse apart.
Implementing Real-Time Dashboards:

Setting up real-time data pipelines with Eventhouse.
Best practices for optimizing performance and scalability.
Ensuring data integrity and consistency in real-time environments.
Advanced KQL Techniques:

Introduction to Kusto Query Language (KQL).
Writing efficient queries for real-time data exploration.
Advanced KQL functions and operators for complex data analysis.
Integrating Eventhouse with KQL:

Leveraging Eventhouse for complex event processing.
Creating dynamic dashboards and real-time reports using KQL.
Case studies and real-world examples of successful implementations.
Best Practices:

Proven methodologies for deploying Eventhouse and KQL in production.
Tips and tricks for maximizing the value of real-time data.
Ensuring security and compliance in real-time data processing.
By the end of this workshop, attendees will have a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively utilize Eventhouse and KQL for real-time intelligence, enabling them to create dynamic dashboards, explore data in real-time, and make faster, data-driven decisions.

Mastering Eventhouse and KQL: Advanced Strategies and Best Practices

In the Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Fabric study, the composite organization based on data from four companies using Fabric showed an increase in data engineer and data scientist productivity of up to 50%, plus a 15% increase in business analyst productivity.

In this workshop, we will explore the transformative potential of various copilots, AI services within Microsoft Fabric. It covers live demos and hands on experience on Microsoft Fabric Copilots, AI Skills, Fabric integration with AI and GenAI services. 

Participants will thoroughly explore the Copilot maturity framework and learn strategies to overcome adoption challenges, enabling customers to maximize the benefits of Copilots.


Maximize efficiency in your data-driven projects by leveraging AI and Copilot technologies.

In today’s data-driven world, developers must accurately utilize SQL and database functionalities to provide effective and cost-efficient solutions. This presentation covers key database skills for developers at all levels, focusing on design, querying, and optimization.

The topics are categorized by developer levels (Jr, Sr, Ld). We will begin with fundamental topics, such as using the correct data types, and progress to advanced topics, including vectors and artificial intelligence.

We will utilize SQL Server, one of the most commonly used databases globally. By knowing how to use this well-known server, you automatically qualify for numerous projects. Though many database engines have similar functionalities, they use different terms, so everything learned in this session will apply to other database systems you encounter.

How many new technologies will remain next year is uncertain, but SQL has been essential for decades. Mastering SQL can give you a significant competitive advantage!

How much SQL do you need to know as developer?

How quickly can you take your database and examine its code? Database-as-code is not a new concept, but all too often we focus only on being able to apply changes to the database instead of having a development process that ensures that we’re making good database changes. A more wholistic development process offers early warnings of antipatterns via code analysis and increases our confidence even on mature databases with deployment “practice runs” and unit tests. In this session we’ll discuss the components of a database development cycle through the lens of Microsoft.Build.Sql projects and what capabilities we should expect to deliver database object updates easily and more reliably. 

Deployments aren’t enough – databases deserve a development process

How many times have you wished that you could self-diagnose a really strange issue with your SQL Server, that did not seem to be related to typical reasons like missing indexes, query plans, lock blocking, etc.?

- Maybe you are seeing unexplained high CPU usage.
- Maybe you have blocking, but it's on a really strange wait type that you've never seen before and does not show up in your web searches. 
- Maybe you are seeing unusually high memory consumption in a memory clerk that you have never heard of?

You get the idea - all of us have had these head-scratching moments. Having the right tools and techniques at your disposal is crucial for diagnosing and resolving these issues efficiently and on time. Join us for an in-depth exploration of SQL Server extended events, wait statistics, call stack information, and debugging symbols. We will demonstrate how to leverage these powerful tools to gain a comprehensive understanding of the root causes behind various issues like the ones described above.

This will not be an introductory or general troubleshooting session. It assumes that you are familiar with the usual tools of the trade and want to know more. In other words, you are asking yourself - "can I do what the Microsoft support engineer would do"?

Through real-world scenarios and hands-on demonstrations, you will learn how to apply these tools effectively to diagnose and resolve SQL Server performance issues. By the end of this session, you will be equipped with a robust toolkit which will help you get a deeper understanding of SQL Server internals. And who knows, you might just be able to skip that support call to Microsoft and be the hero who saved the day!

Learn how to troubleshoot SQL Server like a Microsoft engineer would

This session looks at SQL Code that couldn't be tuned without a rewrite, working through why it was bad, why the optimizer couldn't deal with it appropriately, and what needed to be done to fix it.

Worst code ever! Reviewing real-world examples that mandated refactoring.

Many proof-of-concept AI applications fail to reach production because industries do not find value in copilot-like applications.
Companies seek clarity and focus, not an overwhelming barrage of chat applications bombarding decision-makers with countless suggestions or summarizations.
This session will help you connect the dots in the AI puzzle using Microsoft technologies, including the new open-source database, DocumentDB.  We will examine vector stores, the RAG pattern, and multi-agent frameworks and learn how to implement these technologies in applications.
By the end of this session, you will have all the practical information necessary to integrate AI features into your projects.

Hold my beer; I know how to fix this with Copilot!

Curious about SQL Database in Fabric but unsure where to start? This session is your gateway to limitless innovation—completely free. Discover how to leverage the Fabric free trial to explore serverless computing, real-time analytics, and AI-powered insights—all without cost or commitment.

We’ll walk you through hands-on scenarios, best practices, and real-world workflows that showcase the full potential of SQL Database in Fabric. Learn how to automate processes, optimize performance, and seamlessly integrate SQL with other Fabric components to drive efficiency and scale effortlessly.

Whether you're a developer, data engineer, or tech innovator, this session will give you the tools to experiment, build, and unlock new capabilities—risk-free. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your data solutions and bring your ideas to life with zero barriers, zero cost, and endless possibilities.

Unleash the Power of SQL Database in Fabric: Innovate Without Limits Using the Free Trial

With Microsoft.Build.Sql SDK-style SQL projects, your database objects are stored as code for seamless development in Microsoft Fabric and client tools like VS Code and Visual Studio, but the advantages don’t stop there. The modernized SQL projects format backs Fabric’s git integration and deployment pipelines for Data Warehouse and SQL database, providing interoperability with extended CI/CD capabilities and your existing DevOps investments for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, and Synapse Data Warehouse. SQL project’s code analysis and other build-time tests validate database code quality and correctness during continuous integration of code changes. With SQL projects delivering database object updates is easier and more reliable whether you're managing one database or a fleet of databases because the deployment plan is dynamically calculated through the SqlPackage CLI. In this session we’ll learn how to leverage the Fabric experiences for database DevOps in addition to the depth of capabilities from SQL projects such that we can efficiently develop and deploy database changes with source control integration, all with the tools you love. 

Unified DevOps for Microsoft Fabric, Azure SQL, and SQL Server with next-gen SQL projects

We'll learn how to leverage Copilot and AI to quickly turn an Excel table into a Dataverse schema, with data and a fully functional low-code app using the assistance of AI and Copilot Studio.

Microsoft Dataverse for Teams delivers a no code / low code out of the box data platform for Microsoft Teams. You get relational data storage, rich data types, enterprise-grade governance, and one-click solution deployment. Dataverse for Teams enables everyone to easily build and deploy apps. Come see what Dataverse for Teams is all about and how to get started building databased apps within Teams.

Building Your First CRUD App using Dataverse for Teams with Copilot

New to AI? Come learn the fundamentals of how to get started with AI and Microsoft SQL everywhere it exists: ground to cloud to fabric. This includes SQL Server 2025, Azure SQL, and SQL database in Fabric. SQL is the perfect place to integrate data with AI because of its industry proven security, scalability, and availability. We will show GenAI capabilities like vector search, how to integrate these with your application, and Copilot experiences everywhere SQL exists including GitHub Copilot. 

AI and SQL ground to cloud to fabric

Take your AI apps to the next level with cost-smart SQL database optimization in Fabric. This session explores how to maximize performance while minimizing costs by leveraging Fabric's capacity monitoring tools for SQL databases. Learn to track resource usage, identify inefficiencies, and optimize database performance—all without exceeding your budget. Designed for app developers, architects, and innovators, this talk will provide real-world strategies to build scalable, high-performing AI apps powered by intelligent SQL database cost management. Discover how to turn insights into action and supercharge your AI applications with Fabric

Build AI Apps Smarter: Optimize SQL Database Costs & Performance in Fabric

When I first started learning about SQL Server, really deeply learning, there were a few “key” concepts that you hear repeated often by top speakers and SQL MVP’s. Internals, recovery models, and backups.  They are interconnected.  As the learning continued, it was self-evident how understanding basic data internals with pages, extents, and allocation bitmaps or database recovery models, the transaction log, and VLF’s or advanced backup options backups like stripping and piecemeal restores affected the uses of SQL Server.  They affected not just SQL Server but the way you make decisions in order to determine how best to use SQL Server to support your business.  This session enables you to have that core set of understanding required for advanced SQL learning.   