State of Fabric: Houston - Outcomes for leaders. Patterns for builders. One decisive day.
November 6, 2025 | Houston, TX
Join senior leaders and technical teams for an in-person deep dive on Microsoft Fabric—why it matters now, how to land it in 90 days, and how to scale over 6–12 months. Hosted at Microsoft Houston. Invite-only, complimentary, catered breakfast and lunch.
This event took place on Thursday, November 6, 2025.
Join Us In Person!
Date: November 6, 2025
Why this matters now
- For leadership: A clear investment case with KPIs—where cost and complexity come out, where speed to insight accelerates, and how to strengthen risk and governance.
- For practitioners: Proven patterns to ship quickly—Direct Lake, OneLake, semantic models and Power BI, and Microsoft Purview for governance, security, and lineage.
- Coexistence without disruption: Use Fabric alongside SQL, Databricks, Synapse, and existing warehouses; adopt open formats and reduce copies.
- Strategic planning: A practical 90-day plan that aligns teams, sets workspace standards, and delivers a measurable win.
Format
- Executive morning: Outcomes, KPIs, and a prioritized roadmap.
- Practitioner afternoon: Lakehouse end-to-end, governance and lineage, semantic models and BI, plus optional AI and real-time patterns.
Refreshments and catered lunch included for attendees. This exclusive event is your opportunity to advance your business with AI.
Request Your Invitation Now!
AGENDA
| Thursday, November 6, 2025 | ||
| 8:30AM | Registration | |
| 9:00AM | Welcome and Logistics | |
| 9:15AM | From Data Sprawl to Decision Velocity — The Executive Case for FabricBREAKOUT | Mike Yeager |
| 10:00AM | Refreshment Break & Networking | |
| 10:15AM | How to Land Fabric in 90 Days—Architectures, Patterns, and TeamsKEYNOTE | Ginger Grant |
| 11:00AM | Refreshment Break & Networking | |
| 11:15AM | Fabric Executive Panel DiscussionPANEL | Ginger GrantMarkus EggerMike YeagerPaul DeCarloTim Locke |
| 12:00PM | Catered Lunch & Networking | |
| 1:00PM | SQL in Fabric Without Copies—Mirroring and Shortcuts to Unify Your Data EstateBREAKOUT | Ginger Grant |
| 1:45PM | Refreshment Break & Networking | |
| 2:00PM | Building Agentic AI Apps with Microsoft Fabric: A Unified Data ApproachBREAKOUT | Paul DeCarlo |
| 2:45PM | Refreshment Break & Networking | |
| 3:00PM | Technical Q&A Panel and Solution ClinicBREAKOUT | Ginger GrantLaurabeth BarkerMarkus EggerMike YeagerPaul DeCarloTim Locke |
| Thursday, November 6, 2025 |
| 8:30AM Registration |
| 9:00AM Welcome and Logistics |
| 9:15AMBREAKOUT From Data Sprawl to Decision Velocity — The Executive Case for Fabric Mike Yeager |
| 10:00AM Refreshment Break & Networking |
| 10:15AMKEYNOTE How to Land Fabric in 90 Days—Architectures, Patterns, and Teams Ginger Grant |
| 11:00AM Refreshment Break & Networking |
| 11:15AMPANEL Fabric Executive Panel Discussion Ginger GrantMarkus EggerMike YeagerPaul DeCarloTim Locke |
| 12:00PM Catered Lunch & Networking |
| 1:00PMBREAKOUT SQL in Fabric Without Copies—Mirroring and Shortcuts to Unify Your Data Estate Ginger Grant |
| 1:45PM Refreshment Break & Networking |
| 2:00PMBREAKOUT Building Agentic AI Apps with Microsoft Fabric: A Unified Data Approach Paul DeCarlo |
| 2:45PM Refreshment Break & Networking |
| 3:00PMBREAKOUT Technical Q&A Panel and Solution Clinic Ginger GrantLaurabeth BarkerMarkus EggerMike YeagerPaul DeCarloTim Locke |
SESSION DETAILS
Registration
Welcome comments, meet today's speakers, logistics
From Data Sprawl to Decision Velocity — The Executive Case for Fabric
A C‑suite view of how Fabric creates measurable enterprise value in 6–12 months. We’ll cover where cost and complexity come out, how decision latency improves, and how to strengthen risk and governance. Includes a practical KPI lens for boards and leadership, investment prioritization, coexistence with current platforms, and proven ways to de‑risk adoption.
How to Land Fabric in 90 Days—Architectures, Patterns, and Teams
The practical starter path: reference architecture, Direct Lake adoption, semantic layer design, workspace standards, and the roles you need on day one. Covers coexistence with Databricks, Synapse, and existing warehouses, plus open formats and phased migration options.
Fabric Executive Panel Discussion
Open Q&A on funding a pilot, governance from day one, security and lineage, change management, and how to align business and technical teams. Bring your use cases; we’ll focus on what’s achievable inside a quarter.
SQL in Fabric Without Copies—Mirroring and Shortcuts to Unify Your Data Estate
How to bring your existing SQL workloads into Fabric without moving or duplicating data. We’ll cover Fabric Mirroring for operational stores, OneLake Shortcuts to external data, and when to use each. Learn how to expose mirrored/shortcut data to T‑SQL, notebooks, and Power BI; align security (RBAC, sensitivity labels) and governance; understand freshness, latency, and performance trade‑offs; and see a demo that connects an existing SQL application, builds a governed semantic model, and delivers analytics in one place.
Building Agentic AI Apps with Microsoft Fabric: A Unified Data Approach
Architect AI‑ready analytics by unifying data in OneLake with a trusted semantic layer. We’ll show patterns that ground and orchestrate agentic apps over Fabric (Direct Lake, notebooks, pipelines), integrate responsibly with Azure OpenAI/AI Foundry, and enforce governance with Purview. Includes reference architectures, common integration points with existing platforms, and a walkthrough from data to an AI‑assisted experience.
Technical Q&A Panel and Solution Clinic
Bring your architecture questions. We’ll cover coexistence patterns, migration considerations, cost control, performance tuning, and organizational standards. If interest is high, we’ll split short breakouts on AI integration and real‑time analytics.
VENUE
Microsoft Innovation Hub - Houston
750 Town and Country Blvd #1000 (10th floor)
Houston, TX 77024
