SmartCat @ London - Databricks Night!

​📍 The Crown and Two Chairmen, Soho, London
📅 May 19, 2025
🕕 6:00 PM
​Join us for an evening dedicated to modern analytics and real-time intelligence!
Our speakers, Milena Laketić and Nemanja Milićević, will share real-world insights on how Databricks helps teams modernize data platforms, accelerate innovation, and scale AI systems with ease.

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​🎤 Talks
​Scalable Data Intelligence with Databricks
Nemanja Milićević, Lead Data Engineer @ [Smartcat.io](http://smartcat.io/)
In this session we walk through our migration from an on-prem Spark cluster to a Databricks Data Intelligence Platform that now delivers real-time insight to millions users across South America, Europe, and Africa. You will learn how we:

• ​Designed a Structured Streaming pipelines that reduces data latency from hours to seconds
• ​Applied Unity Catalog to standardise governance, lineage, and fine-grained access control
• ​Iterated over 10 ML prototypes and shipped two recommendation models using MLflow and Databricks Workflows

​Attendees will leave with a practical framework for modernising analytics workloads while maintaining robust data governance and security.

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​Build Fast and Scale Smarter with Databricks
Milena Laketić, Data Engineer @ [Smartcat.io](http://smartcat.io/)
Join us for a two-part exploration of how Databricks transformed our data strategy—from messy inputs to real-time semantic search.

1. ​The Need for Speed

• ​Discover how we tackled the chaos of complex customer data during critical PoC phases.
• ​Learn how Databricks allowed us to build high-impact demos in days.

​2. Scalable Vectorization

• ​Peek under the hood of the ingestion pipeline we built using Databricks—able to handle over 1000 different data sources with ease.
• ​Learn how we converted this data into vector native input and activated real-time semantic search via a simple toggle, without heavy engineering lift.

​Takeaway:
​See on our example how Databricks can help you move faster and build smarter whether you’re prototyping under pressure or scaling a production-grade AI system

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​👩‍💻 About the Speakers
​Milena Laketić
Data Engineer at [Smartcat.io](http://smartcat.io/). She works on distributed vector databases and real-time pipelines, helping teams transform messy data into powerful semantic search experiences.
​Nemanja Milićević
Lead Data Engineer specializing in stream processing and building reliable data platforms. Experienced with Apache Kafka, Flink, and Spark, Nemanja is passionate about pushing the limits of data engineering and enjoys sharing knowledge at conferences, in blogs, and with fellow data enthusiasts.

Agenda

• ​6:00 – 6:15 PM | Registration & Welcome
• ​6:15 – 6:55 PM | Scalable Data Intelligence with Databricks
  Nemanja Milićević, Lead Data Engineer @ [Smartcat.io](http://smartcat.io/)
  (30 min talk + 10 min Q&A)
• ​6:55 – 7:35 PM | Build Fast and Scale Smarter with Databricks
  Milena Laketić, Data Engineer @ [Smartcat.io](http://smartcat.io/)
  (30 min talk + 10 min Q&A)
• ​7:35 – 9:00 PM | Networking over drinks, good food & great conversations
  Connect with fellow data professionals in a relaxed setting.

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​More details coming soon. Save your spot now!