IN-PERSON: Apache Kafka® x Apache Iceberg Meetup

Join us for an Apache Kafka® meetup on Thursday, January 22nd from 6:00pm in Brugge hosted by Cymo!

📍Venue:
Liantis, Sint-Clarastraat 48, 8000 Bruges

🗓 Agenda:

• 6:00pm: Doors open
• 6:00pm - 6:30pm: Benjamin Barrett, Java developer and Consultant, Cymo
• 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Willem Serruys, Software Engineer, Cymo
• 7:00pm - 7:45pm: Will Martin, PhD / EMEA Evangelist, Dremio
• 7:45pm - 8:30pm - Additional Q&A & Networking

💡Speaker One:
Benjamin Barrett, Java developer and Consultant, Cymo

Title of Talk:
How to Upgrade to Spring Boot 4 (Without Breaking Kafka)

Abstract:
Spring boot has released version 4.0.0 and even though it’s exciting to get your grubs on some new features, we all know that upgrading a framework comes with its trails and tribulations.

Together we’ll go over a couple of lessons I’ve learned during my attempt to change the number 3 into 4 and what this means for spring kafka & spring kafka streams.

Bio:
Benjamin Barrett is a Java developer and consultant at Cymo, specializing in Kafka and distributed systems. With hands-on experience in Kafka Streams since 2019, Benjamin Barrett has contributed to major projects at mateco, Sabam, bpostGroup and Digitaal Vlaanderen.

💡 Speaker Two:
Willem Serruys, Software Engineer, Cymo

Title of Talk:
Streamiz: Bringing Native Kafka Streams to the .NET Ecosystem

Abstract:
Building real-time streaming applications in .NET? You’ve probably hit the wall of limited options and wondered why the JVM ecosystem gets all the love with Kafka Streams.Enter Streamiz - a powerful .NET library that brings stream processing capabilities directly to your C# applications. But does it live up to the hype?In this session, we’ll dive into:

• Live coding a real-time data pipeline with Streamiz
• Comparison with Kafka Streams
• When to choose Streamiz vs. other streaming solutions

Through hands-on demos and honest technical analysis, you’ll walk away knowing exactly whether Streamiz deserves a place in your streaming architecture.Perfect for .NET developers tired of being second-class citizens in the streaming world!

Bio:
Willem is a .NET enthusiast and Software Engineer at Cymo with a passion for cloud architecture. A former R&D Manager turned individual contributor, he brings extensive experience in C#, .NET Core, and SQL. Willem is a strong advocate for modern DevOps practices, utilizing Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform to build scalable solutions on Azure. When not in C#, he is likely exploring Rust or TypeScript.

💡 Speaker Three:
Will Martin, PhD / EMEA Evangelist, Dremio

Title of Talk:
From Stream to Table: Building Kafka-to-Iceberg Pipelines

Abstract:
While Kafka excels at streaming data, the real challenge lies in making that data analytically useful without sacrificing consistency or performance. This talk explores why Apache Iceberg has emerged as the ideal streaming destination, offering ACID transactions, schema evolution, and time travel capabilities that traditional data lakes can't match. Learn about some foundational tools that enable streaming pipelines and why they all converge on this next-generation table format built for flexibility and scalability.

Bio:
Will Martin is an Evangelist at Dremio with experience as a data engineer, academic, technology consultant, and software developer. His career includes roles at CERN, BMT, Deloitte, and Tamr. He has spent 15+ years collaborating with companies and organisations across EMEA and APAC, working to understand their unique problems and to deliver targeted, technical solutions. Starting with a background of statistical analysis in particle physics, his professional journey has spanned multiple industries, including banking, shipping logistics, entertainment media, healthcare, defence, and customer 360.

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DISCLAIMER
We are unable to cater for any attendees under the age of 18.
If you would like to speak or host our next event please let us know! community@confluent.io