IN PERSON! Apache Kafka® Meetup (Aug 2026)

Hello everyone! Join us for an Apache Kafka® x Apache Flink® meetup on **Aug 20th from 5:30pm**, in Melbourne! The address, agenda, and speaker information can be found below. See you there! **📍Venue**: 394 High Street Northcote, Victoria 3070 \*\*\* **🗓 Agenda:** * 5:30pm: Doors open * 5:30pm - 6:00pm: Pizza, Drinks, and Networking * 6:00pm - 6:30pm: Karel Sague, Staff Software Engineer, Factor House * 6:30pm - 7:00pm: ​Dominique Ronde, Staff Solution Engineer, Confluent * 7:00pm - 7:30pm: Additional Networking \*\*\* **💡 Speaker:** Karel Sague, Staff Software Engineer, Factor House **Talk:** Journey to an open lakehouse: real-world lessons from streaming Kafka into Apache Iceberg **Abstract:** Karel Sague spent the last year migrating a production data platform from Snowflake to Apache Iceberg. In this session, he shares what he learned throughout that process, including what worked well and what he would approach differently. Karel covers why the traditional split between operational and analytical data stores tends to create vendor lock-in and duplicated governance overhead, and how an open table format can address this. He walks through streaming Kafka data into Iceberg using Kafka Connect, including a standard CloudEvents-based schema he built to handle ingestion consistently across tables, GitOps-based self-serve provisioning, and the metrics and SLOs used to keep pipelines observable in production. He then discusses migration in more detail. Karel explains why an all-or-nothing approach to migration can create unnecessary risk, how to prioritize which workloads move first, and the schema and partitioning challenges that arise when Kafka's ingestion-time partitioning doesn't align with analytics queries filtered by business key. He also covers consumer-aligned tables, materialized views, and upcoming developments in Iceberg, including v3 features, secondary indexes, and pluggable file formats for AI workloads. This session will be useful if you're running Kafka and considering Iceberg, or if you're already migrating and want to compare notes on the practical challenges involved. **Bio:** Karel Sague is a Staff Software Engineer at Factor House, where he works on real-time data streaming infrastructure spanning Kafka, Flink, and Iceberg. Before joining Factor House, he spent 8 years as a Software Engineer at Square (Block Inc.), and prior to that worked as a consultant at ThoughtWorks. Across his career he has built and operated large-scale data platforms in financial services and consulting, with deep experience in event-driven architecture, streaming ingestion, and open table formats. \-\-\-\-\- **💡 Speaker:** ​Dominique Ronde, Staff Solution Engineer, Confluent **Talk:** Guardians of the Stream: Kafka, Flink, and the Rise of GenAI **Abstract:** In this session we will explore how Kafka and Flink can seamlessly integrate with GenAI to build intelligent systems capable of real-time learning, automation, and decision-making. Discover the next frontier in data streaming and artificial intelligence, where Kafka, Flink, and GenAI take center stage in shaping the future of industries. **Bio:** ​Dominique Ronde is a Staff Solution Engineer at Confluent, a pioneer in enterprise event-streaming platforms. With previous roles as a Big Data Architect and Data Scientist at freeyou, SAP, and Allianz, Dominique brings deep expertise in digital transformation, Java, AWS, and Apache Kafka®. Since 2016, he has worked extensively with Apache Flink and currently serves as a subject matter expert in the APAC region. Dominique is a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide, with a recent focus on innovative data use cases in the insurance industry. Outside of work, he enjoys experimenting with Arduino microcontrollers, IoT home devices, and traveling. \*\*\* If you would like to speak or host our next event please let us know! [community@confluent.io](community@confluent.io)