Big Data Conference Europe 2026 — Vilnius

Big Data Conference Europe 2026 takes place from 24 to 27 November 2026 in Vilnius, Lithuania, with a hybrid format that pairs an in-person programme with full online access. It is one of the Baltic region's longest-running technical gatherings for data engineers, machine learning practitioners, data architects, analysts, cloud specialists and engineering leaders, and it draws a genuinely international audience to a part of Europe that rarely hosts events of this depth. For anyone tracking where applied AI and data infrastructure meet, this is a focused, practitioner-first conference rather than a vendor showcase, and it has become a fixture for the Central and Eastern European data community.

What the conference covers

The programme spans the full modern data stack, with machine learning and artificial intelligence sitting alongside data engineering, analytics, cloud platforms and emerging areas such as quantum computing. The 2026 edition is built around roughly sixty talks and a set of dedicated hands-on workshops, so attendees can move between high-level strategy sessions and deep, code-level instruction in the same few days. The mix is deliberate: keynotes and case studies set context, while the smaller workshop format gives engineers room to work through real tooling rather than watch from a distance.

• Large language models in production, including retrieval, evaluation and cost control for systems built on models like the GPT family
• Deep learning architectures, training methodology and model optimisation
• Data engineering pipelines, streaming, lakehouse design and platform reliability
• MLOps and practical data-science workflows, from experimentation to deployment and monitoring
• Cloud-native analytics and scalable infrastructure for data-intensive workloads
• Data governance, quality and the operational foundations that production AI depends on

This breadth is what keeps the event AI-core rather than generic: the machine learning and applied-AI track is a central pillar, and much of the data-engineering content exists to support models in production. That is exactly the problem most organisations are wrestling with in 2026 as generative AI moves from proofs of concept into day-to-day operations, where reliability, cost and governance matter as much as raw model capability.

Who should attend

The conference is aimed at people who build and run data and AI systems, not only those who buy them. Data engineers and platform teams come for the architecture and pipeline sessions; machine learning engineers and data scientists come for the modelling, LLM and MLOps content; and technical leads and architects come for the cross-cutting view of how these pieces fit together at scale. Analytics professionals and engineering managers will also find sessions that connect technical choices to delivery and team practice. Because Vilnius sits at an accessible point in the Baltics and the event is also streamed, it is a practical option for teams across Central and Eastern Europe, the Nordics and beyond who want serious technical content without travelling to the larger and more expensive Western European hubs.

What is notable this year

The 2026 line-up is expected to feature around forty-eight speakers, with the detailed agenda and named talks published on the official site closer to the date. The continued emphasis on large language models, retrieval-augmented systems, MLOps and the operational side of machine learning reflects where the field has moved: the questions are less about whether to use AI and more about how to deploy, evaluate and govern it reliably and affordably. The hands-on workshops are a particular draw, giving attendees a way to leave with concrete, applied skills rather than only slides, and the four-day span allows room for both the broad talk programme and these deeper sessions.

Format and how to attend

Big Data Conference Europe 2026 offers both in-person attendance in Vilnius and an online ticket, with the workshops typically scheduled around the main talk days across the 24–27 November window. Registration, the full speaker roster and the final schedule are published on the official conference website, where ticket tiers and any early-booking windows are listed. As with any technical conference, confirming the workshop catalogue and session times on the official site before booking travel is sensible, since the programme is finalised in stages and the hands-on sessions often sell out separately from the main pass.

For the Baltic and wider European data community, Big Data Conference Europe remains a dependable annual fixture: technically credible, hybrid-accessible and squarely focused on the machine learning, data engineering and applied-AI practice that organisations are putting to work right now. It is the kind of regional, engineering-led event that helps a smaller market stay connected to the international state of the art.