Recording https://womeninapis.substack.com/p/get-ready-how-to-step-on-stage-with

RSVP https://women-in-apis.kit.com/e498de9362

In this GET /Ready session, Nathalie Moss joins Imma Valls to share a practical checklist for approaching that moment with greater confidence.

​After more than 25 years leading global teams and transformation programmes, Nathalie knows that confidence on stage isn’t personality — it’s preparation.

What you’ll learn:

• How to rehearse your walk-on and opening
• What to consider about stage setup
• Why a tried-and-tested outfit matters
• How to check in with the sound crew and MC
• What to include in a simple speaker survival kit
• How to build a personal confidence routine
• Why the audience is rooting for you

Who’s hosting:

• ​Imma Valls – Developer Advocate, Grafana Labs
• ​Nathalie Moss – CIO | CTO | Strategic Technology Executive | Transformation Leader

Social:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/women-in-apis_womeninapis-publicspeaking-womenintech-activity-7428191394063724544-kQXM
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_here-we-go-again-i-have-a-busy-week-ahead-activity-7427973566517768192-sl0F

We don’t want to guess what you need this year. We want you to tell us.

We want to start 2026 by rebuilding our roadmap. And a community isn’t built by organizers alone, it’s built by its “tribe”.

For this special Tech Tribe edition, we are ditching the slides and speakers to host a World Café.

☕ What is a World Café? Don’t worry, you don’t need to bring coffee! A World Café is a creative, conversational workshop format.

• The Setup: Small groups sit at tables with markers and paper.
• The Flow: We ask powerful questions about our future. You doodle, write, and discuss your ideas right on the table.
• The Rotation: Every 20 minutes, you move to a new table to exchange ideas with different women+ on a different topic.

💡 Why should you come? This isn’t just a chat. It’s a session to define what TechFems 2026 should look like, what we love and we should keep, and what we should add.

• If you missed us, come tell us what would bring you back.
• If you have big ideas: Come design the events you actually want to attend.
• If you have blockers, come tell us what’s stopping you from attending so we can fix it.

📅 The Agenda

• 18:00: Doors Open. Grab a drink, some snacks, and say hello 👋
• 18:30: The World Café Begins. Please try to be on time so we can start the rounds together!
• 19:30: We share the top ideas and vote on our favorites.
• 20:00: Wrap up & mingling.

📅 Date: February 16th 2026, 18:00 – 20:30
📍 Location: Itnig Café – c/ Pujades 100, Barcelona | https://maps.app.goo.gl/dLkxLEZDs3ZUyLpV8

🎙️Facilitators
This session will be guided by Monica Verdi and Imma Valls. They will hold the space, keep the energy high, and ensure every voice is heard as we draw our new map.

🤝 In Collaboration With A huge thank you to Code Sherpas for collaborating with us to make this event possible, and Itnig Spaces for their hosting.

Who can join:

• This event is for women+ (including trans and non-binary people) of all backgrounds. Whether you’re a student, job seeker, or professional in tech, you’re welcome here!
• If you prefer not to be photographed or recorded, let us know at the event.

Learn more:

• Discover more about TechFems on our Website and follow us on LinkedIn
• Check out our Event Calendar
• Please read our Code of Conduct

Important:
By registering, you agree to the TechFems Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_here-we-go-again-i-have-a-busy-week-ahead-activity-7427973566517768192-sl0F
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_techfems-tech-tribe-world-cafe-activity-7424368664558186496-VHX0

Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQy52iuKWM

Grafana is powerful on its own, but its true potential lies in its vibrant community of plugin developers. In this talk, we’ll explore how community plugins extend Grafana’s core functionality, enabling you to connect to a broader range of data sources and visualize your data in new ways. As a practical example, we’ll introduce the Kafka Data Source plugin and demonstrate how it enables you to directly query and visualize Kafka topic data in your dashboards, eliminating the need for intermediate storage or external services.

Demo repository by Tom Hopewell: https://github.com/thopewell/grafana-kafka-datasource-demo

Social

Talk based on the blog post “Metrics, logs, traces, and mayhem: introducing an observability adventure game powered by Grafana Alloy and OTel“, at Grafana & Friends Mumbai
We’re excited to kick off 2026 with our first Grafana & Friends Mumbai meetup — and this one is online, so you can experience it from anywhere! 🚀
This session is designed to be student-friendly, beginner-focused, and community-driven, with talks centered around Grafana, observability, and real-world learning journeys.

📅 Event Details

• Date: 6th February 2026 (Friday)
• Time: 5:30 PM IST
• Mode: Online

✨ What to Expect

• Beginner-friendly Grafana talks
• Practical insights and learning-focused sessions
• Community stories and real-world use cases
• Live Q&A and interactive discussions

Whether you’re a student, early-career professional, or Grafana enthusiast, this meetup is a great place to learn, connect, and grow with the community.

📌 Speakers

🎙️ Marie Cruz — Senior Developer Advocate, Grafana Labs
Talk: Observability Made Simple: Monitoring Plants with IoT and Grafana
🎙️ Imma Valls — Staff Developer Advocate, Grafana Labs
Talk: Metrics, Logs, Traces, and Mayhem: Introducing an observability adventure game powered by Grafana Alloy and OpenTelemetry
🎙️ Sonal Gaud — Software Engineer, Accenture
Talk: Inside otelhttp: How OpenTelemetry Instruments HTTP in Go

📌 Registrations open — save your spot!

We look forward to seeing you online — let’s learn and build together! 💬

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_observability-opentelemetry-grafana-activity-7425168547686961152-LleI
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_observability-opentelemetry-grafana-ugcPost-7425168546420318208-M10C
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grafana-user-group-mumbai-50149b386_grafanaandfriendsmumbai-observibility-grafana-activity-7428363989442777088-uo9m
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grafana-user-group-mumbai-50149b386_grafanaandfriendsmumbai-communityevent-observability-activity-7425566641847037952-es2h
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amitabh-devops_amazing-online-meetup-by-grafana-and-friends-activity-7425542780606861313-3dUj

Talk presented at Open Lakehouse and AI in Brussels. RSVP here

The OSA Community is proud to host the Open Lakehouse and AI event in Brussels!

​​As real-time databases integrate more closely with data lakes to reduce storage costs and unlock data for AI and advanced analytics, data infrastructure is evolving fast. Join us to hear from leading experts as they share practical solutions and lessons learned in building open, scalable, and high-performance data platforms.

​Food and beverages will be provided!

​​​​Speakers

• ​​Robert Hodges, CEO @ Altinity
• ​​Andrew Madson, Head of Developer Relations @ Fivetran
• ​​Imma Valls, Senior Developer Advocate @ Grafana
• ​Will Martin, Evangelist @ Dremio

​​Agenda

• ​​6:00 pm – Check-in and networking
• ​​6:15 – 8:00 pm – Talks
• ​​8:00 – 9:00 pm – Networking

​​Description of the Talks

​​Building a Foundation for AI with ClickHouse® and Apache Iceberg Storage

​​Speaker: Robert Hodges, CEO @ Altinity

​​Abstract: AI applications need data. Lots of it. Altinity’s Project Antalya is adapting open source ClickHouse® to introduce separation of compute and storage on shared Iceberg table data. The result: fast, cheap, flexible query that extends the life of real-time analytic applications and lays the foundation for handling new AI use cases on the same datasets. We cover architecture, performance results, roadmap, and how to get started yourself.  

​​

​​Iceberg for Agents: Elevating Lakehouse Data Into AI-Ready Context

​​Speaker: Andrew Madson, Head of Developer Relations @ Fivetran

​​Abstract: AI agents fail in production because even though they’re stuffed with data, they’re starved for context. Better LLM models aren’t the problem. The bottleneck is the data stack: fragmented silos, inconsistent definitions, and logic hidden in tribal knowledge. Agents need structured, reliable, and interpretable context—not just data access.

​​In this session, we’ll show how Apache Iceberg becomes the backbone of AI-ready pipelines. You’ll learn how to elevate your Iceberg implementation from a storage format to a live context layer that powers structured retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), schema-aware agents, and autonomous reasoning grounded in truth.

​​What we’ll cover:

• ​​Iceberg Foundations for AI – from ACID to Time Travel
• ​​From Rows to Relationships – The role of the semantic layer
• ​​Structured RAG in Practice – Fully open source

​​The session includes a live demo of a fully open-source Structured RAG stack built on Apache Iceberg, featuring semantic query translation, hybrid retrieval, and governed agent reasoning. Expect architecture diagrams, real code, and practical guidance.

​​

​​Visualizing Your Data Lake with Grafana

​​Speaker: Imma Valls, Senior Software Engineer @ Grafana

​​Abstract: In this brief talk, we’ll walk through how to get started with Grafana’s open source platform to explore and understand your data lake. We’ll cover how to connect to your data—no matter where it lives—then craft queries that turn raw information into clear, compelling visualizations, and finally set up alerts and annotations so you’re always in the know when something important changes in your data lake.

​

​​The Open Data Lakehouse: Who Benefits?

​​Speaker: Will Martin, Evangelist @ Dremio

​​Abstract: Data Lakehouses have long benefited from open standards, with many established table formats and now emerging alternatives for the data catalog. But where does this leave the users, customers, and vendors? Who sees the benefits of these open technologies?

In this talk I will delve into the Open Data Lakehouse, the analytics platform that delivers industry-leading performance on open software standards. We will delve into the technical details of Apache Iceberg and Apache Polaris, what they deliver for modern data analytics, and who is impacted by these ground-breaking collaborations.

Location

Commons Hub Brussels

Rue de la Madeleine 51, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/osa-con_open-lakehouse-and-ai-luma-activity-7422333186233376770-0VLu

Talk delivered at FOSDEM 2026 in the /dev/random track: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/J8UCRH-why_i_volunteer_at_fosdem_and_you_should_too/

FOSDEM is legendary, but it doesn’t run on magic, it runs on people.

Apart from the core organizers, an enthusiastic team of volunteers helps make FOSDEM the fun and safe community event we all love every year. As a long-time attendee, I made the jump to volunteering during the event and discovered a new side of the conference.

In this talk, I’ll share my personal journey and what volunteering involves: from simple tasks like setting up directional signs or assisting at the InfoDesk, to setting up and tearing down before and after the event, or helping the video streaming team. I’ll share stories about the people I’ve met, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into this impressive organization, and how truly impressed I am by its operations.

However, the real reason to join is a chance to give back, meet new people, and become an active community builder. FOSDEM needs you to make the event a fun and safe place for all visitors.

What’s in it for you? Join this session to learn how easy it is to sign up, the tasks you can pick (even just for a few hours!), and how you can join the effort to make FOSDEM 2026 the best one yet.

You can learn how to sign up at https://volunteers.fosdem.org/.

Talk presented at Open Lakehouse and AI in Amsterdam. RSVP here

GitHub repo: https://github.com/sarahzinger/meetup-data-lake

The OSA Community is proud to host the Open Lakehouse and AI event in Amsterdam!

​​As real-time databases integrate more closely with data lakes to reduce storage costs and unlock data for AI and advanced analytics, data infrastructure is evolving fast. Join us to hear from leading experts as they share practical solutions and lessons learned in building open, scalable, and high-performance data platforms.

​Food and beverages will be provided!

​​Speakers

• ​Robert Hodges, CEO @ Altinity
• ​Andrew Madson, Head of Developer Relations @ Fivetran
• ​Imma Valls, Senior Developer Advocate @ Grafana
• ​Will Martin, Evangelist @ Dremio

​Agenda

• ​6:00 pm – Check-in and networking
• ​6:15 – 8:00 pm – Talks
• ​8:00 – 9:00 pm – Networking

​Description of the Talks

​Building a Foundation for AI with ClickHouse® and Apache Iceberg Storage

​Speaker: Robert Hodges, CEO @ Altinity

​Abstract: AI applications need data. Lots of it. Altinity’s Project Antalya is adapting open source ClickHouse® to introduce separation of compute and storage on shared Iceberg table data. The result: fast, cheap, flexible query that extends the life of real-time analytic applications and lays the foundation for handling new AI use cases on the same datasets. We cover architecture, performance results, roadmap, and how to get started yourself.  

​Iceberg for Agents: Elevating Lakehouse Data Into AI-Ready Context

​Speaker: Andrew Madson, Head of Developer Relations @ Fivetran

​Abstract: AI agents fail in production because even though they’re stuffed with data, they’re starved for context. Better LLM models aren’t the problem. The bottleneck is the data stack: fragmented silos, inconsistent definitions, and logic hidden in tribal knowledge. Agents need structured, reliable, and interpretable context—not just data access.

​In this session, we’ll show how Apache Iceberg becomes the backbone of AI-ready pipelines. You’ll learn how to elevate your Iceberg implementation from a storage format to a live context layer that powers structured retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), schema-aware agents, and autonomous reasoning grounded in truth.

​What we’ll cover:

• ​Iceberg Foundations for AI – from ACID to Time Travel
• ​From Rows to Relationships – The role of the semantic layer
• ​Structured RAG in Practice – Fully open source

​The session includes a live demo of a fully open-source Structured RAG stack built on Apache Iceberg, featuring semantic query translation, hybrid retrieval, and governed agent reasoning. Expect architecture diagrams, real code, and practical guidance.

​Visualizing Your Data Lake with Grafana

​Speaker: Imma Valls, Senior Developer Advocate @ Grafana

​Abstract: In this brief talk, we’ll walk through how to get started with Grafana’s open source platform to explore and understand your data lake. We’ll cover how to connect to your data—no matter where it lives—then craft queries that turn raw information into clear, compelling visualizations, and finally set up alerts and annotations so you’re always in the know when something important changes in your data lake.

​The Open Data Lakehouse: Who Benefits?

​Speaker: Will Martin, Evangelist @ Dremio

​Abstract: Data Lakehouses have long benefited from open standards, with many established table formats and now emerging alternatives for the data catalog. But where does this leave the users, customers, and vendors? Who sees the benefits of these open technologies?

In this talk I will delve into the Open Data Lakehouse, the analytics platform that delivers industry-leading performance on open software standards. We will delve into the technical details of Apache Iceberg and Apache Polaris, what they deliver for modern data analytics, and who is impacted by these ground-breaking collaborations.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/osa-con_open-lakehouse-and-ai-luma-activity-7422333186233376770-0VLu
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/osa-con_amsterdamtech-openlakehouse-ai-activity-7422862881454637056-6JOp

Recording https://womeninapis.substack.com/p/get-ready-how-to-master-being-a-master

RSVP https://women-in-apis.kit.com/18894a80ad

In this GET /Ready session, we’ll explore what the MC role really involves — and how to approach it with confidence.

What you’ll learn

• What the MC role looks like across conferences, meetups, and briefings
• How MCs help guide the audience’s journey through an event
• Practical ways to frame speakers and connect themes
• How preparation and context support both speakers and audiences

What to expect

This is a practical, conversational session focused on shared experience.

• Bring questions or add thoughts in the chat
• Learn through real examples
• Join the discussion — or simply listen in

There’s time for Q&A at the end, and the session will be recorded.

Who’s hosting

• ​Imma Valls — Developer Advocate, Grafana Labs
• ​Matt Feigal — Principal Partner Engineer, Google

Join the GET /Ready session and step into the MC role with clarity

Social:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mattfeigal_get-ready-activity-7421581503710601216-frhs

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/software-crafters-barcelona/events/312612894

“¿Cómo conseguimos grandes diseñadores? Los grandes diseñadores diseñan, por supuesto.” Fred Brooks

“Entonces, ¿cómo se supone que vamos a conseguir grandes arquitectos si solo tienen la oportunidad de ser arquitectos menos de media docena de veces en su carrera?” Ted Neward

Estamos de vuelta con nuestra primera kata focalizada en diseño de sistemas de 2026 🎉

¿Qué es una kata de arquitectura? En pocas palabras, los katas de arquitectura son ejercicios diseñados para maximizar el esfuerzo en arquitectura, minimizar los costes innecesarios y completar todos los elementos críticos que un ejercicio de arquitectura debe incluir: un cliente, restricciones del proyecto, requisitos cambiantes, compañer@s y un proceso de revisión.

No se requiere experiencia previa en diseño de sistemas o arquitectura. No tener experiencia puede ser incluso más beneficioso: no tendrás ideas preexistentes sobre cómo “debería” hacerse.

El idioma principal será el 🇪🇸 y podemos acomodarnos al 🇬🇧 según asistentes.

📅 Agenda

• 18:30-18:45. Bienvenida de Fotocasa Group.
• 18:45-20:45. Nuestro@s facilitador@s harán una breve introducción a la kata y propondrán un escenario relacionado con observabilidad de aplicaciones (ver OpenTelemetry) para trabajar en grupos pequeños (3-5) y poner en común las soluciones propuestas.
• 20:45-21:30. Networking.

🙇‍♀️ Facilitan

• Almudena Vivanco – Principal Performance Engineer en SCRM – Lidl International Hub
• David Ricordel – Elastic search Architect en Elastic
• Imma Valls – Staff Developer Advocate en Grafana Labs

🏢 Dónde
🆕 Fotocasa Group: Carrer de la Ciutat de Granada 150, Barcelona | https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZzCrFDFd3zMA4s3u9

Si tenéis problemas para llegar o acceder, contactad a través de comentarios en el meetup.

Queremos agradecer a nuestro sponsor, Fotocasa Group 🙌, por facilitarnos el espacio, snacks y refrescos 🍲 🍕 🍴🥤🧃

¡Nos vemos allí!

Social:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/software-crafters-barcelona_systemdesign-softwarearchitecture-architecturalkata-activity-7418748550311776256-t5af
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fotocasa_fotocasagroup-techcommunity-networking-activity-7419350207894700032-YJg5
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/software-crafters-barcelona_tarde-m%C3%A1gica-de-la-mano-de-imma-valls-bernaus-activity-7419317715875631105-Cc7w
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/almudenavivanco_kata-de-arquitectura-fotocasa-group-lun-activity-7418204248485568513-0YZo
• https://x.com/bcnswcraft/status/2013313221709398283
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michellecabrerac_softwarecraftersbarcelona-activity-7419444137835294720-twzS

Recording https://womeninapis.substack.com/p/get-ready-how-to-write-a-cfp-with

RSVP https://women-in-apis.kit.com/18894a80ad

Join the next session in our new GET /Ready series designed to help women in tech build the confidence and support they need to speak in public.

​In this session you will learn how to write conference proposals that get accepted.

​Join your guest Marjukka Niinioja in this interactive session where you’ll discover how to craft a CFP that stands out.

6 January 2026
8:30 to 9:00am CET

You’ll learn:

1. How to find your unique angle (even if you think everything has been said).
2. How to research conferences and tailor your submission.
3. What Program Committees look for when selecting talks.