September 2026 Meetup

Agentic AI, MCP, Unity AI Gateway & Sub-100ms Real-Time Analytics.

Join us for the September edition of the Manchester Databricks User Group, bringing together the Manchester data community for an evening of technical deep dives, live demos and networking.

This month, we have two fantastic speakers covering two of the most exciting areas of the Databricks platform: governing enterprise AI agents with Unity AI Gateway and sub-100ms real-time analytics with Reyden and Lakehouse//RT.

## Agenda

17:30 – 17:45 | Arrival & Networking
Grab a drink, meet fellow data professionals and connect with the Manchester Databricks community.
17:45 – 18:00 | Opening Remarks & Introductions
Welcome from the organisers and an introduction to the evening's speakers and sessions.

### 18:00 – 18:45 | Session 1

From MCP to Enterprise AI: Governing Agent Tools with Unity AI Gateway
Luke Menzies – Principal AI Consultant, Advancing Analytics

As agentic AI systems become more capable, they're gaining access to increasingly powerful tools, sensitive data and external systems.
MCP has transformed how agents connect to these resources – but connectivity alone isn't enough for enterprise production environments.
Luke will explore how Databricks Unity AI Gateway provides the enterprise control layer for MCP-based solutions, covering tool-level permissions, identity-based policies, rate limits, human approval workflows, auditing and observability.
Through a practical end-to-end demonstration, we'll see a custom MCP server built, registered with Unity AI Gateway and connected to an agent with production-grade guardrails.

18:45 – 19:00 | Break & Networking

### 19:00 – 19:45 | Session 2

Reyden: Sub-100ms Real-Time Analytics at Scale
Declan Watson – Senior Solutions Architect, Databricks

Explore Reyden, Databricks' next-generation Rust execution engine powering Lakehouse//RT.
Declan will take us under the hood of Reyden and explore how Databricks is targeting sub-100ms query performance at massive scale, why a new Rust-based execution engine has been developed specifically for real-time workloads, and where it fits within the wider Databricks architecture.
We'll also look at the real-world use cases this technology unlocks and what Reyden and Lakehouse//RT could mean for the future of real-time analytics on the Lakehouse.

19:45 – 20:00 | Wrap-Up & Networking
Final questions, conversations and a chance to connect with our speakers and fellow attendees.

## Date & Location

📅 Date: Thursday, 3rd September 2026
🕠 Time: 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
📍 Venue: Slalom – Floor 15, Bloc, 17 Marble Street, Manchester, M2 3AW

Whether you're a Data Engineer, Architect, Data Scientist, AI/ML Engineer, Platform Engineer or simply interested in what's coming next from Databricks, we'd love to have you there.
Join us for another evening of technical content, live demos, learning and networking with the Manchester Databricks community.