DataConnect Conference

A few firsts for DataConnect Conference West this year. We moved to SF and we partnered with Women In Data™️! Two excellent moves. I know there are 1000 AI events in SF every day, but this one was unique. I cannot event explain the type of energy that pops up at these conferences. It is definitely the crowd we bring together, no matter where we go! We had such a stellar line up of speakers - that is something I am so proud of every time we host this conference. The content is top notch! I am so grateful for the group of women that rallied behind this effort and made it possible 💖 These are definitely women you want to know!! Sadie St. Lawrence Kelsey D. Lauren Burke-McCarthy Deni S. Adita Karkera, Ph.D. Chip Huyen Brooke Hopkins Srujana Kaddevarmuth Karen Edwards Michelle Yi Anne Joséphine Flanagan, MBA Gabriela de Queiroz WanTing Huang Jordan Hagan Kierra Dotson and so so many more!! Feeling FOMO? I get it... At least we have another one in Columbus in October! Hope to see you there 😊 dataconnectconf.com

This series brings bold insights, real-world strategies, and candid stories from leaders shaping the future of analytics. Learn how they’re driving innovation, building data-literate cultures, and advancing equity in the field. Sign up: https://bit.ly/3YZX3Uv @Rackspace

Ticked my first #dataconnect in SF this week. We chatted everything from what’s does Agentic AI actually means to us in our day to day, to where it’s all headed. 🙌 Thanks Sadie St. Lawrence for the invitation and hosting this forwardlooking panel. Major shoutout to the hall way conversations and surprise connections. Those are always where the real magic happens. Well done team! 🔥 DataConnect Conference Women In Data™️ Women in Analytics (WIA) Sravya Madipalli Rehgan Bleile (Avon) Jigyasa GroverShuchi Rana Michelle Yi Brooke Hopkins

We were thrilled to sponsor the DataConnect Conference this week. It was a full day of talks on emerging artificial intelligence and machine learning trends from industry leaders, technical experts, and entrepreneurs. Two members of the Grammarly team took the stage! 💬 Sravya Madipalli participated in a panel discussion on governance for Agentic AI at scale, while Charlandra Rachal expertly emceed breakout sessions featuring other AI topics. 🤝 We also hosted speakers and leaders of the Women in Analytics (WIA) and Women In Data™️ organizations at the Grammarly SF hub for an evening of sharing and connection. Many thanks to the organizers of #DCCWest2025 for the opportunity to support your mission of amplifying the voices of women in data!

Want to boost your AI skills? The WIA AI Bootcamp is designed for non-technical professionals ready to apply tools like ChatGPT in real-world work. 👉 Hands-on learning 👉 Live instruction + office hours 👉 No coding background required 📍 Ohio residents: You may qualify to attend for FREE through the Ohio TechCred program! Apply by May 30 to join our final cohort starting the week of June 9. https://bit.ly/3HbEwOV

Kierra Dotson, CEO the Data Bloq breaking down the agent lifecycle 🤖 DataConnect Conference #womenindata #womeninAI

Finally met Chip Huyen today in person today! The DataConnect Conference is in full swing, and it’s been both inspiring and refreshing to be surrounded by so many brilliant minds and kind humans. My session was packed—and best of all, I had fun, connected with amazing people, and received such positive feedback. Every talk and panel has been insightful, but Chip’s session stood out to me. She touched on topics I’ve been thinking a lot about lately—and hearing that she’s been wanting to meet me made my day. 💜 Huge thanks to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, attendees, sponsors, and community partners who make this event so special. Shoutout to Women In Data™️ Women in Analytics (WIA) AI Inclusive R-Ladies Global It was wonderful to see/meet: Adita Karkera, Ph.D., Sadie St. Lawrence, Michelle Yi, Sravya Madipalli, Zeynep K, Anna Anisin, Anna Jacobi, Nolwenn Godard, Dulce Ponceleon, Brooke Hopkins, Hanisha Pasupulate, Rahul Parundekar, Lauren Burke-McCarthy, Dio-Ann Valmores and many others. #womenindata #womeninAI #rladies #AIinclusive #DCCWest

I was introduced to the Women in Analytics (WIA) community by a former manager and mentor Shannon N. Hollars, Ph.D. back in 2020. The community's mission to put more women on the stage, with all welcome to hear from amazing women driving great work, has been both an honor and pleasure to witness.   Starting from my first time attending Data Connect in 2022 in Columbus, OH to attending their first San Francisco hosted Data Connect conference this year, I have witnessed how creating a space for women to lead the conversation, with the support of other women and allies, is making a huge impact in the world of data and beyond.   My highlights from this year's DCC West include: • Taking a Waymo to the conference and catching a scenic view of the city this morning • Dissecting operating stems for AI agents with the lead behind simulation & evaluation for Waymo who also founded Coval, Brooke Hopkins • Chatting and catching up with the founder and CEO of AlignAI, Rehgan Bleile (Avon), and her work on governing enterprise AI by design • Diving into agentic AI via a sales agent use case with Venture Partner and Angel Investor, Gabriela de Queiroz • Exploring AI Engineering antipatterns with esteemed writer and computer scientist, Chip Huyen • Walking through instances of adversarial attack and defense with Co-Founder of Generationship, Michelle Yi • Closing with a panel on ways different industries and businesses build and adapt to what's considered to be trustworthy system.   #DCCWest #SanFrancisco #WomenInData #WomenInAI

Still catching my breath after an inspiring day at my 1st DataConnect Conference in San Francisco!! It was an honor to represent Women In Data™️ as we teamed up with Women in Analytics (WIA) to co-host this power-packed day. The conference featured top voices from across industries— women who are shaping the future of AI and doing it with depth, conviction, and vision. I was deeply proud to be among so many women making bold moves in this space and to share closing reflections at the end of the day 💓 AI Agents took center stage across the sessions—diving into architecture, design, infrastructure, governance, and real-world use cases. As their presence grows, so does the responsibility we carry in how they are developed and deployed—ethically 🤖 Trust, data privacy, and security were consistent themes, approached not just through a technical lens, but through the lens of human impact. This is a once-in-a-generation technology and regardless of its power, it will not reach its full potential without the inclusion of diverse voices to help shape AI’s role in long-term society 🌎 I'm proud to serve alongside you Sadie St. Lawrence, Deni S., Michelle Yi, and Adita Karkera, Ph.D., as well as our entire board, our committees and our awesome community!! #BetterTogether 💜 Thank you to everyone involved with #DCCWest for this top-tier experience from start to finish 🎉 🎉 🎉 #WomininData #WomeninAnalytics #Data #AI #AIAgents #AgenticAI #AIConferences #VML #AITrailblazers #AIEthics #WomeninAI #AILeadership #DiversityMakesUsStronger 💪 🩷

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁. While much of the industry was caught up in agent buzzwords and AI sizzle, this conference focused on what actually breaks in real systems. At DCCWest '25, topics weren’t theoretical—they were pulled straight from production pain: • SGA-vLA and cross-block feed attacks • Retry logic and fallback design for vector databases • Cosine vs. semantic similarity failures in ranking • Observability gaps in chained agent pipelines • RAG vs. ML vs. traditional compute under ambiguous input • Human-in-the-loop evaluation paired with automated scoring • Multi-tenant performance degradation: caching mismatches, latency cliffs, and invisible contention • Attacks against vision-language pretraining models (VLPs) and defenses grounded in model internals Infrastructure wasn't a footnote—it was the throughline. Chip Huyen laid it bare in the afternoon keynote: most teams are still discovering AI engineering anti-patterns the hard way. Her teardown of real deployment flaws landed with anyone who's had to debug through glue code and fragile abstractions. Brooke Hopkins opened the day with a talk connecting evals to conversational agent testing —highlighting where many teams are still duct-taping test harnesses without traceability. Kierra Dotson broke down agentic DevOps in concrete terms: fallback strategy templates, CI/CD patterns for autonomous systems, and monitoring. Gabriela de Queiroz walked through full-stack agent design: how grounding cuts hallucinations, how memory enables adaptation, and how multi-turn planning actually works. Anyone building agent-first systems, this wasn’t futurecasting—it was real architecture. Despite all the depth, the silence on sustainability stood out. Discussions focused heavily on how to scale AI—very little on why, where, or at what cost. No mention of energy tradeoffs. Nothing on water usage. No discussion on GPU lifecycle burn. Risk was framed as latency or throughput—not as trust, ethics, or planetary cost. The gap between technical execution and systemic responsibility remains massive. This wasn’t a branding showcase. It felt more like an internal postmortem between peers who’ve shipped, patched, and recovered. The strongest voices weren’t theorizing—they’ve built systems that couldn’t afford to fail quietly. When governance was discussed, it was about real enforcement: • Agent traceability • Risk threshold design • Evaluation lifecycle integration • Consent models that evolve with system state • Observability across chained orchestration layers No one was waiting for a seat at the table. They were mapping where the system fails—and redesigning from there. #WomenInData #DCCWest25 #AIResilience #AgenticSystems #SGAvLA #VectorDB #Observability #GovernanceTools #RAGvsML #SustainabilityInAI #LLMRisk #ProductionAI #LeadershipInTech #AIInfra #SystemDesign #HumanInTheLoop #ModelEvaluation #PostDeploymentGovernance