Summary

Joe Reis announces The Practical Data Summit 2027, a deliberately small, application-only conference in Salt Lake City built as a reaction against the vendor-saturated, low-signal norm of typical data industry events. The event prioritizes hands-on technical depth, candid leadership roundtables, and keynotes from practitioners actually building things — with no expo floor. It's framed as the data industry's equivalent of Sundance: a curated gathering that reasserts craft and substance over spectacle.

Key Insight

The data industry needs a Sundance-style antidote to bloated vendor conferences: a small, curated, application-only event where the filter is seriousness of purpose rather than size of marketing budget.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 7

  Most conferences have turned into glorified trade shows with a bored audience.

• 6

  Signal over noise. Implementation over inspiration.

• 7

  Zero pitch decks allowed. All substance encouraged.

• 3

  We're curating a room where every single conversation is worth your time.

• 5

  Keynotes from the heavy-hitters who are building things, and the future of our industry, not just generically pontificating about it.

Tone

critical and constructive — dissatisfied with the status quo of industry events, but channeling that frustration into a concrete alternative vision