State of Data 2026

The annual event for Belgian data leaders and practitioners.

One day, 70 seats, no fluff.

The annual event for Belgian data leaders and practitioners.

One day, 70 seats, no fluff.

The annual event for Belgian data leaders and practitioners.

April 2nd, 2026 — Leuven, BELGIUM

What to expect

One evening to step back and look at what actually works.

State of Data brings together people who are building, running, and evolving data platforms and organisations to share real experiences, compare approaches, and challenge assumptions.

This year, we focus on three topics that keep coming back in every serious data conversation:

State of Data brings together people who are building, running, and evolving data platforms and organisations to share real experiences, compare approaches, and challenge assumptions.

This year, we focus on three topics that keep coming back in every serious data conversation:

1. Agentic AI

What does it take to move from demos to production? - How to move from “Hello World” to production-ready AI - What value AI systems actually bring in practice - Why data foundations are often the real bottleneck - How to make “talk to your data” work in reality Featured sessions: - Talk to your data — Rushil Daya & Stijn De Haes - The agentic R&D engine: synthesizing research outputs into strategic knowledge @ imec — Bernd Verhofstadt & Jesús García Ramírez

3. EU digital sovereignity

What happens after the hyperscale era? - When does cloud strategy become a real constraint? - Which workloads should move — and which shouldn’t? - What realistic options exist today in Europe? - How to think about sovereignty beyond just data residency Featured session: - Your Cloud Strategy After the Hyper-scale Era — Niels Claeys

2. Data products at scale

How do you turn data into something the business can actually use? - How Brussels Airlines uses data products to accelerate time-to-value - How Luminus builds reliable, measurable data products - Why data products are the bridge between data and business - The role of data contracts, context, and product thinking Featured sessions: - Turning Data into Impact @ Brussels Airlines — Stefan Van Raemdonck & Tom Holsteens - From Fragile Market Loads to Resilient Metering Data Products @ Luminus — Jelle De Vleminck & David Lathouwers

We’ll close with The Reality Check, a panel discussion focused on real-world experiences: what worked, what didn’t, and what teams would do differently today. Panel speakers: Koen Van Aken — Data Manager, Swift Nassim Haddad — Head of DT Artificial Intelligence, UCB Erik Valgaeren — TMT Partner, Stibbe Tom Delesie — Manager Data and Analytics, Atlas Copco Moderated by Maja D’Hondt.

What to expect

One day to step back and see the bigger picture

The State of Data event by Dataminded `brings together data leaders and practitioners once a year to compare notes, challenge assumptions, and figure out what's next, together.