Manchester Databricks User Group

Welcome to the Manchester Databricks Meetup - May 2026

Join us for an evening packed with Databricks insights, real-world use cases, expert speakers, and plenty of time to network with the local data & AI community

Agenda:
17:30 – 17:45 | Arrival & Networking
Meet fellow data professionals, practitioners, and Databricks enthusiasts

17:45 – 18:00 | Opening Remarks & Introductions
Opening remarks from the organisers

18:00 – 20:00 | Sessions
Hear from industry leaders sharing practical Databricks and AI insights.
Pizza and refreshments will be served during the sessions.

20:00 onwards | Drinks & Networking
Continue the conversations over drinks and informal networkin

Session 1

Cassidy Louch – Lead Data Engineer, ASDA

From Day-Old Data to Real-Time Retail: Modernizing CDC With Spark Declarative Pipelines and Lakeflow
Cassidy will share how he transformed a legacy CDC solution into a modern, real-time data pipeline using Databricks.
In this session, you’ll learn:

• The successes and pitfalls of moving from batch to real-time architectures
• How the solution was iteratively designed and refined
• How new Databricks capabilities like AutoCDC and Lakeflow Connect were leveraged
• How a complex, cumbersome legacy setup was turned into a streamlined, scalable workflow

This is a highly practical session for anyone looking to modernise ingestion pipelines or unlock real-time use cases.

Session 2

Anna Gatty & Declan Watson

Scaling Trusted Decisions: The Semantic Foundation for Self-Service Analytics and Agentic Workflows
Today, company knowledge is often fragmented across dashboards and tools, leading to inconsistent metrics and slower decision-making.
In this session, Anna and Declan will explore how to build a trusted, governed semantic layer that enables both self-service analytics and future AI capabilities.

They’ll cover:

• Why fragmented KPIs and definitions create friction across teams
• How a semantic layer brings consistency and reduces rework
• Enabling self-service analytics with trusted data
• Laying the foundation for agentic AI workflows that can reason over data correctly
• How this vision is enabled using Unity Catalog, UC Metrics, and Genie on Databricks

The outcome: faster, more confident decision-making and a foundation for trusted AI at scale.

Date and Location:

Date: Thursday 21st May
Venue: Slalom - Floor 15, Bloc, 17 Marble Street, Manchester, M2 3AW