Calgary’s growing community of data and AI professionals will gather at the BMO Centre this week as YYC DataCon returns for its sixth edition.
Organized by the volunteer-led YYC Data Society, YYC DataCon 2026 will bring together practitioners, technology leaders, and builders for a full day of talks, workshops, and discussions focused on applying data and AI in the real world.
This year’s theme, “From Insight to Impact: Doing Data Right,” reflects a shift in the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence. Rather than focusing simply on whether organizations should adopt AI, programming will explore what comes next — including implementation, return on investment, governance, privacy, data infrastructure, and building systems that can operate reliably in production.
The conference comes as Calgary continues to expand its technology workforce at a rapid pace. According to CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report, Calgary’s tech workforce grew 56 per cent between 2022 and 2025, adding nearly 29,000 workers and pushing the city’s tech talent pool above 80,000. Calgary ranked first among 50 North American markets for technology workforce growth over the period.
That growth is reflected in a DataCon program featuring dozens of speakers from technology companies, major enterprises and public-sector organizations.
Several speakers come from Calgary companies familiar to Calgary.tech readers.
Michael Nar, Director of Data & Risk at Calgary fintech Helcim, will speak about bridging the gap between technical capabilities and business outcomes.
Blackline Safety’s Nikolai Kummer, AI Engineer, and James Petryk, Director of Data, will share lessons from putting agentic AI workflows into production.
Aritro Roy Arko and Abrar Fahim of the artificial intelligence company Ultimarii will discuss lessons learned taking vertical AI systems from prototypes into production, including retrieval design, evaluation, data residency, and observability. Ultimarii is one of Calgary.tech’s 2026 startups to watch.
YYC DataCon is entering the year under new leadership as the 2026 version is being co-led by Mirna Damergi, Chair of the YYC Data Society, and Graham Doerksen, the Society’s Secretary. Josh Rainbow, who previously served as a director of the conference, has shifted his focus to Future Summit, the Calgary tech event he launched in 2025.
With Calgary’s data and AI ecosystem expanding alongside the city’s broader technology sector, this year’s DataCon is putting the emphasis squarely on what happens after experimentation ends and organizations need to make the technology work.
YYC DataCon 2026 takes place Friday, September 11 at Calgary’s BMO Centre with tickets available here.
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