What we're looking forward to at Coalesce 2023

Hey there, it’s Sung (Solutions Engineer), Leo (Solutions Engineer), and Kira (Product Marketing Manager) from Datafold here 👋

We’re so incredibly excited that Datafold is going to be IRL at Coalesce again this year (both in San Diego and London), so we wanted to share some of the sessions, events, and vibes our team is looking forward to at Coalesce 2023.

The road to Coalesce

Coalesce 2021: All three of us have been long-time attendees of Coalesce. In 2021 due to the pandemic, the first version of Coalesce was an online extravaganza. Sung was a chat moderator, Leo and Kira were attendees, and none of us knew how fast a Slack channel could move until Coalesce. We got to see—even through a virtual lens—how much passion and knowledge exists in the data community.

Coalesce 2022: The first IRL Coalesce in New Orleans! With Leo attending virtually, Sung and Kira got to be up close and personal with other practitioners who shared their same pains and wins. As Sung likes to say, “It felt like college welcome week orientation in all of its freshmen charm.” This was also Datafold’s first time sponsoring Coalesce, and it was such a great experience learning in-person about the community’s universal data quality problems. There was something powerful in being side by side in the trenches to solve real problems together (ex: how do I know my production data will change in a good/bad way?). There’s nothing quite like it!

What Datafold has been up to in the last year: ICYMI, we’ve been a bit busy! Since last year, we’ve launched product features that enable dbt developers to ship their code with more confidence and speed, such as:

• A native dbt integration with open source data-diff and Datafold Cloud
• A (free!) VS Code Extension, so you can diff your dbt models directly from your development environment
• A seamless Datafold Cloud CI integration, so your dbt PRs are always tested against the same standards
• Data diffing between databases 🤯 to validate data replication and migrations

This year at Coalesce, we can’t wait to see everyone in person again to share more about these developments and Datafold Cloud, and learn about the issues your team is actively facing.

If you haven't registered for Coalesce online or IRL, it's not too late!

What we’re looking forward to

To get into it: what exactly are we–as an industry, as teams, and as people–looking forward to this year at Coalesce??

Kira

There are too many things to list out here that I’m excited to see and do at Coalesce, but I’ll start off with some of the sessions I won’t be skipping out on:

• Amber Oar’s (Rocket Money) talk on how their data team built a Quote-to-Cash system in dbt Cloud to help automate end of month close and helped close their SOX audit. What can I say, I’m a bit of a compliance nerd 🤓.
• I feel like I’ve heard so much Data Vault chatter this year in the community, but want to learn more about it and microservices with Brad and Rebecca from Guild.
• Watching Grace, Dave, and Nicholas explain how to dbt Mesh-ify a large dbt project…I cannot wait to see what a data mesh looks like in practice for dbt projects.
• Selfishly, I can’t wait to see how Moody’s Analytics gained data quality peace of mind by adopting CI and Datafold.
• Leo’s talk, because I don’t hear him talk enough during my day job.

When I’m not in sessions, you can catch me at the Datafold booth (#108), where I’ll be with my teammates to learn about your data quality wins and pain points. As much as I love marketing, I love talking about data problems more, and want to learn how your team is actively solving them.

Leo

I’d be lying if I didn’t say first and foremost, there are SO MANY people I’ve met online in the last three years that I’ve never once met in person. It will be so cathartic to be in the same space, learning and having fun together. Don’t get me wrong, I love being totally, extremely online. But I want to finally hang out in a corporate conference room together!

Additionally, I’m REALLY excited to hear about dbt Mesh and how larger teams are managing complex dbt projects. As I work with customers at Datafold to level up their CI processes, I often get into the weeds of how dbt jobs are built in CI, and how organizations are handling complex dependencies and massive scale, while keeping warehouse and infrastructure costs in mind.

• How to ensure your dbt project doesn’t become spaghetti code?
• What if your dbt models have millions or billions of rows—what is your approach to incremental modes?
• How are stakeholders across your organization, with varying technical skill sets, engaging with and benefiting from your dbt project’s structure—or are there struggles?
• Did I say “dbt project”—or perhaps multiple dbt projects??

It’s not straightforward! We all want to be thorough, but not see work and progress grind to a halt. We want to move fast and NOT break stuff.

I’ll be looking to attend any talks that tackle these fundamental tradeoffs head on.

Finally, I’m hoping to spend some time at the beach and maybe convince Datafold to raffle off the surfboard that will be at our booth.

Sung

I’m excited to see you evolve like I did at Coalesce 2021 and 2022. That’s what gives me deep fulfillment: seeing you all fight so hard to solve problems that matter. It’s one of the few times in our careers  to share in-person wins/losses/lessons learned/vent to each other because some hard problems are left unsolved.

And on the problems left unsolved, that’s why I joined Datafold.

1. I still want to play in the dbt cinematic universe
2. I want to see what dbt Mesh looks like in action
3. Predictability in data workflows is still so hard to achieve that people don’t even do it. This should be a solved problem by now, and I’m here to make that happen.

I’m here to hear your problems. You’re going to hear questions like this from me:

• What’s the hardest part of your job?
• How do you think data engineers should evolve?
• If you’re a Datafold customer, how do we need to evolve?

Know if you walk by the Datafold booth, you are going to get more than a demo and conversation. You’re going to get someone who cares because your problems are very literally my problems. We deserve to win together.

See y’all in San Diego.

Datafold at Coalesce: Come say hi 👋

So yes, the Datafold team is absolutely pumped to be back in person with some of you at Coalesce 2023. The details:

• You can find us at booth #108—you won’t be able to miss the neon sign and surfboards 😂 We’ll be ready to talk about data quality, your stack and pain points, and where those things meet. We’ll also have plenty of dope swag and some fun 🥥 refreshments!
• 🎉We’ll also be joining our friends at Hightouch, Airbyte, Secoda, Hex, and Databricks to throw a rooftop after party on the 18th—you’re not going to want to miss it so RSVP now!

Our team will be on stage a few times during the conference talking about all things data quality and data testing:

• (San Diego) Tues 1:30pm-1:50pm join Gleb, Datafold’s CEO, and the data team at Moody’s Analytics about how data diffing and CI/CD have given them greater peace of mind
• (San Diego) Thurs 1:30pm-2pm join Leo as he explains how (and why!) to set-up Slim CI in dbt Cloud
• (London) Tues 4:15-4:45pm join the team at FINN Auto as they talk about how they’ve managed to strike the perfect balance between developer speed and data quality

And if you haven’t yet already, please register for Coalesce (either IRL or online)!