January 2026 - We're back! Manchester Databricks Meetup

Welcome to the first Manchester Databricks Meetup of 2026!

We’re kicking off the new year with momentum. Last year, the Manchester Databricks Meetup grew to over 700 members — and in 2026, it’s going to be bigger and better.

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 networking

Session Details:

Oyedele Oyeyemi & Malvik Vaghadia - Slalom - Insurance 360° - Building a unified 360° Customer View on Databricks

Join Oyedele and Malvik as they present Insurance360, a new accelerator built entirely on Databricks that enables insurance organisations to create a unified 360° customer view. The session will showcase how the accelerator leverages modern Databricks features including Lakeflow Connect, Agent Bricks, Genie, Document Processing and NLP, to ingest, enrich, and analyse structured and unstructured data. Attendees will gain insight into how Insurance360 accelerates data engineering and AI workflows, unlocking faster, smarter insights across the insurance customer lifecycle.

Declan Watson, Senior Solutions Architect, Databricks - From Nothing to an Agent

Discover how Databricks Agent Bricks can take you from a blank slate to a fully functioning AI agent with minimal effort. This session walks through practical patterns for simplifying data access, automating reasoning over organisational knowledge, and building AI-ready workflows with little to no coding involved

Donal Simmie - Head of Data Science & AI, PEI Group - Speed to Insight & Delivery: How PEI Took a Private Markets AI Assistant to Production in Just Five Months

Join Donal as he shares the story behind PEI’s journey to building a production-ready Private Markets AI assistant, from initial idea to live enterprise deployment in just five months.

In this session, Donal will cut through the hype and talk candidly about what it actually takes to move from a compelling prototype to a high-quality enterprise AI product. He’ll share practical lessons learned, trade-offs made, and how PEI balanced speed with robustness to deliver meaningful outcomes for the business.

Date and Location:
Date: 22nd January 2026

Venue: Slalom – Floor 15, Bloc, 17 Marble Street, Manchester, M2 3AW