Emcee Lester Leo was the emcee for the Databricks offsite event at Bintan, Indonesia.
The event included both a formal and a fun segment. The formal segment featured The Forge: Databricks Field Engineering Buildathon 2026, a hands on team event that brought engineering talent together. Emcee Lester hosted the buildathon hackathon for Databricks. The buildathon challenged teams to turn the latest thinking in data and AI into working products over a focused, fast moving programme by the coast. A buildathon runs much like a hackathon. Teams are given a challenge, a tight window of time, and the freedom to build something real from the ground up.
For The Forge, the field engineering teams drew directly on the newest announcements from the Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026, translating fresh platform capabilities into functional Data + AI products.
The event also included a cosy dinner event by the beach, where Lester play games and engaged with the Databricks team.