This talk was presented at Grafana & Friends Amsterdam meetup, a joint meetup with the Amsterdam Apache Kafka and Amsterdam Data Streaming communities.

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 lets you directly query and visualize Kafka topic data in your dashboards, bypassing the need for intermediate storage or external services.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_grafana-kafka-snowflake-activity-7373630478538592256-u5kI
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/confluent_there-are-so-many-more-chances-to-join-a-activity-7372348683499237377-cgBk

Earlier this year, Grafana Labs was a proud sponsor of HackUPC — one of the biggest student hackathons in Europe — at BarcelonaTech. The event drew more than 700 passionate tech students from around the globe, all racing the clock in a 36-hour burst of creativity to build web, mobile, and hardware projects.

As a developer advocate here at Grafana Labs — where we are big believers in hackathons — it was a privilege to participate as mentor and judge in the HackUPC 2025 event. For our challenge, we focused primarily on the theme of sustainability and asked a set of students to leverage Grafana to raise awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Shout out to Niki Manoledaki, senior software engineer at Grafana Labs and a contributor to the CNCF Environmental Sustainability Technical Advisory Group (TAG ENV), for inspiring this sustainability-related challenge! 

The students in our group could approach the challenge in two ways: create compelling data visualizations using open data to reveal meaningful trends or develop an innovative Grafana app plugin to provide unique insights or functionalities related to their chosen SDG(s). 

It was inspiring to see how the hackers used their creativity to tackle global issues and showcase the power of data. In this post, we recap and celebrate some of the Grafana hackathon projects that emerged from the event.

Project Graf-Anna: tracking global climate and health trends 

The team behind Graf-Anna wanted to tell a data-driven story to illustrate the urgency of climate change, as outlined by the SDGs, and recognized Grafana as a powerful tool to help achieve this goal.

In particular, this team of hackers wanted to explore the connections between industrial development (SDG 9), responsible consumption (SDG 12), climate change action (SDG 13), and their effects on the planet and human health. The result was a comprehensive Grafana dashboard that visualizes the historical impact of the Industrial Revolution and human activity on CO2 emissions, climate trends, and health. It’s an excellent educational tool that uses historical and live data to create a compelling narrative.

In the Grafana dashboard below, the team tracked trends in global emissions, temperature variation, natural disasters, CO2 per capita, and life expectancy.

They also tracked land usage, current world emissions per country, and CO2 emissions from deforestation.

Lastly, they built a conclusion panel to breakdown key takeaways from the data.

The team behind Graf-Anna had some pretty ambitious goals from the start. They initially wanted to build a custom Grafana app plugin with advanced features, including integrating LLMs for insights. However, they hit some technical difficulties and ran into time constraints, which forced them to pivot their strategy. They decided to source, integrate, and visualize existing data to tell a clear story — which was still a big accomplishment on its own. 

Their project reinforced the power of Grafana data visualization as a storytelling tool, even without custom code. It’s a great example of learning and adapting on the fly, which hackathons are all about.

Peaceful Protest Tracker: insights for sustainable development

While Graf-Anna focused on global climate trends, another team used data to tackle a different real-world issue. The Peaceful Protest Tracker: Headlines vs. Reality project promoted peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development with accountable institutions, in line with SDG 16. The team wanted to apply their skills in web development, AI, and data visualization to a compelling and personal topic, inspired by the confusing and often contradictory news coverage following a tragic railway collapse in Serbia. 

Their solution was a dynamic Grafana dashboard that visualized how protests unfolded in near real-time, pulling data from various media outlets. The dashboard used a semi-live map to pinpoint protest locations.

It also included features like sentiment analysis and keyword usage comparisons to create a powerful example of storytelling with data.

This was a seriously ambitious project, and the team faced the major challenge of designing a complex system architecture connecting various technologies. They used Python for web scraping, the Gemini 2.5 Flash API for sentiment analysis, a Spring Boot backend, and MongoDB Atlas to store the data before visualizing it all in Grafana. 

The team learned how to work with Grafana from scratch and should be incredibly proud of their persistence in bringing such a complex idea to life in 36 hours. It’s a fantastic example of using technology to address a critical real-world issue and what can be accomplished with a lot of determination (and probably a few too many potato chips!).

Project Musigrafs: visualizing global music trends  

We wrapped our hackathon highlights with a project unrelated to the sustainability theme, but still showed a lot of creativity and told a powerful story through data. 

The Musigrafs project was inspired by the fast-paced nature of the music world and the difficulty of tracking emerging trends using existing apps like Spotify or YouTube Music. The team set out to build a data-driven web app that captures the “pulse of global music trends — live.” The result was a Grafana dashboard that visualizes top genres by country, common musical keys, and real-time audio features like energy and tempo for top hits. It’s an excellent tool for aspiring musicians to understand the market and kickstart their careers.

The team initially struggled to display the map in their desired format and had to explore other repositories for inspiration. To get the global information just right, they used GeoJSON, which helped them represent the countries’ borders. Connecting their GitHub custom GeoJSON to Grafana presented a hurdle, but the team managed to get the raw GeoJSON file contents with help from mentors and Grot AI. Ultimately, they were proud of the visual quality and clarity of their plots and successfully integrated real-time data, which was a core goal of their project.

Closing thoughts 

The Grafana support and judging team at HackUPC was impressed by how quickly hackers grasped complex concepts, and we learned so much from their approaches and challenges. What made their projects successful was their fantastic storytelling, best practices in creating beautiful and impactful visualizations, and great time management skills under pressure! We felt privileged to be there and connect with the next generation of tech talent and data storytellers. 

We want to thank the HackUPC volunteer organization, all the participating students, and all the fellow judges. Without your efforts, this would not have been possible. We can’t wait for HackUPC next year! 

In the meantime, you can find us at HackSheffield10, another student hackathon event at the University of Sheffield in November, where we’ll continue celebrating students’ passions and the power of data to make a difference.

Kubernetes, paired with Prometheus monitoring, Grafana visualization, and alerting, has transformed cloud native development. In this webinar, you’ll learn how Grafana offers developers and SREs a quick-to-value and straightforward solution for monitoring their Kubernetes infrastructure. You’ll learn how Grafana Cloud and a simple deployment of Grafana Alloy allow you to monitor your clusters with an all-new, traversable UI and out-of-the-box metrics, logs, dashboards, and alerts.

What you’ll learn

1. How Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Grafana changed the cloud-native landscape
2. The cost of improper k8s monitoring
3. What telemetry should you be collecting
4. The power of Grafana Alloy
5. Collecting Kubernetes metrics and logs
6. The speed-to-value and ease of troubleshooting with Kubernetes Monitoring in Grafana Cloud

RSVP: https://grafana.com/go/webinar/kubernetes-monitoring-with-grafana-cloud/

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7369761360840290305/

Este año la CNCF cumple 10 años, una década, y hablaremos sobre lo que deparan los próximos 10 años para la CNCF y la comunidad cloud native en general.

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/cloud-native-bcn/events/310010434 or https://www.meetup.com/devops-bcn-group/events/310091903

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/devops-bcn_devops-bcn-group-cloud-native-barcelona-activity-7353819679087284224-Hzv0

https://osseu2025.sched.com/event/25Vwd/understanding-the-need-for-systemic-change-in-open-source-through-intersectionality-imma-valls-grafana-labs

While open-source communities strive for innovation, achieving genuine diversity and inclusion requires a fundamental understanding of systemic inequalities.

This talk centers on the lived experiences of women navigating open-source spaces. We will reveal the persistent challenges related to safety, lack of representation, and the critical importance of considering intersecting identities. By applying an intersectionality lens, we can gain a clearer understanding of the systemic changes required to dismantle the barriers.

This session will then focus on the power of sponsorship and fostering allyship as key strategies for enacting this change. We will highlight existing initiatives and brainstorm solutions to build a more welcoming and equitable community where everyone feels empowered to contribute.

Join us to explore how understanding the need for systemic change through intersectionality and how actively fostering allyship and sponsorship can pave the way for a truly diverse and inclusive open-source future.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7362908726724382720-yqar
• https://x.com/tacoverdo/status/1960691991953486112

This workshop was delivered with Karla Valeria Feijoo and Sevi Karakulak at Dutch Cloud Native Day 2025.

Privilege is not a binary concept—it’s multifaceted, contextual, and intersects with various aspects of identity and environment. Each of us holds privilege in some areas while lacking it in others. This talk explores how to recognize and understand these nuances of privilege, especially within today’s globally distributed teams. We will examine the role of systemic inequality and cultural bias in the workplace and provide practical strategies for supporting colleagues with less privilege. Through real-world scenarios, we’ll discuss fostering inclusivity, encouraging empathy, and contributing to a more equitable professional environment.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloudnativenl_inclusion-equity-diversity-activity-7343182353411829764-Ecnp
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/karla-valeria-feijoo-54934422_inclusion-equity-diversity-activity-7343192034591080448-oewP
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7343339635294593024-A1T1

This 15-minute keynote was delivered at Dutch Cloud Native Day 2025.

While open-source communities strive for innovation, achieving genuine diversity and inclusion requires a fundamental understanding of systemic inequalities.

This talk centers on the lived experiences of women navigating open-source spaces. We will reveal the persistent challenges related to safety, lack of representation, and the critical importance of considering intersecting identities. By applying an intersectionality lens, we can gain a clearer understanding of the systemic changes required to dismantle the barriers.

This session will then focus on the power of sponsorship and fostering allyship as key strategies for enacting this change. We will highlight existing initiatives and brainstorm solutions to build a more welcoming and equitable community where everyone feels empowered to contribute.

Join us to explore how understanding the need for systemic change through intersectionality and actively fostering allyship and sponsorship can pave the way for a genuinely diverse and inclusive open-source future.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloudnativenl_we-are-excited-to-announce-that-imma-valls-activity-7338175554497511424-iSlt

Registro: https://www.meetup.com/grafana-and-friends-madrid/events/308062818/

Os traemos la edición local de GrafanaCON 2025 en Madrid 🎉

Te esperamos en Celonis para conocer algunas de las últimas novedades en el ecosistema de Grafana que se han desvelado en GrafanaCON 2025, y para conectar con la comunidad local.

📍Ubicación:
Celonis: Pl. de Manuel Gómez-Moreno, 2 Madrid | https://maps.app.goo.gl/tSeuMHXwwvaTC9VH9

📅 Agenda:
18:00: Abrimos puertas y bievenida 👋
18:30: 🎙️ “Recapitulando la Keynote de GrafanaCON 2025“, Imma Valls – Staff Developer Advocate en Grafana Labs
Presentaremos los puntos clave y anuncios más relevantes de la keynote de GrafanaCON 2025.
19:15: 🎙️ “Sin rastro (de queries): Simplificando el troubleshooting con Tempo y Traces Drilldown en Grafana” by Mario Rodriguez – Senior Software Engineer en Grafana Labs
Examinar la avalancha de datos de nuestros sistemas distribuidos puede ser abrumador, pero no tiene por qué serlo.
En esta charla descubrirás cómo con Traces Drilldown, con tecnología Tempo, se puede simplificar la resolución de problemas complejos, ayudándote a detectar rápidamente problemas de latencia, identificar tendencias de errores e identificar anomalías. Todo esto sin tener que aprender otro lenguaje de consulta. Para quienes se inician en las trazas distribuidas, sabemos que empezar con las métricas derivadas de las trazas puede ser abrumador al principio. Por eso, la página principal de Drilldown Traces consolida los datos de las trazas en una vista intuitiva.
20:00 – 21:00: Networking con pizzas y bebidas 🍻🍕

No faltará el picoteo post evento después de las charlas ¿te unes al evento? Sería un placer verte y charlar contigo 🎉 ¡Nos vemos!

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7343347713918341121-Yzso

Taller #IAmRemarkable en català, realitzat durant la jornada “Build With AI: Inspirant amb IA” al tecnocampus de Mataró, organitzat per GDG Barcelona.

About this event

🎉 Build With AI: Inspirant amb IA

🗓 Dissabte, 14 de juny de 2025

📍 TecnoCampus Mataró

🕘 De 09:00 a 13:00 h

Una jornada per inspirar, empoderar i explorar com la intel·ligència artificial pot potenciar el talent femení en el sector tecnològic.

Tres sessions dinàmiques, pràctiques i transformadores de la mà de dones referents en IA, tecnologia i lideratge.

🕒 Agenda:

09:00 – Check-in i benvinguda

09:30 – Imma Valls

💬 “I Am Remarkable” (Català)

Un taller transformador per reconèixer i expressar el teu valor professional i personal.

11:00 – Laura Morinigo

💬 “Utilitzant la IA al web: crea un lloc que classifiqui imatges” (Castellà)

Laboratori pràctic amb TensorFlow Serving per fer inferència d’imatges via REST i gRPC.

11:50 – Marcia Paola Rodriguez

💬 “Domina el teu temps, multiplica l’impacte: IA aplicada al treball real amb Google Workspace i Gemini” (Català)

Consells pràctics per aprofitar la IA en la teva feina quotidiana: productivitat, automatització i col·laboració intel·ligent.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7333058138599755798/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7331652109332824064/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7335236273244200962/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marciapaola_donaitecnologia-iaambimpacte-tecnocampus-activity-7335962500271693824-kXNB/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7337905825945899008-IZBw
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7340698357633355776-WfUh
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laurasmorinigo_ai-gemini-webapps-activity-7340408979073699840-4ahE
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marciapaola_buildwithai-geminiai-googleworkspace-activity-7340261406895681536-vG0k

Clément Duveau created this OpenTelemetry workshop, and I delivered it as a talk at Cloud Native Barcelona.

A brief introduction to OpenTelemetry, with a practical example of auto-instrumenting a Java web application with the Grafana stack (Loki, Grafana, Tempo, and Mimir).

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/cloud-native-bcn/events/307621031

Killercoda workshop: https://killercoda.com/clement/scenario/opentelemetry-instrumentation-demo

Killercoda Github repo: https://github.com/clementduveau/killercoda/

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloud-native-barcelona_cloud-native-barcelona-opentelemetry-1-activity-7335301232485384192-rt6u
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloud-native-barcelona_opentelemetry-cloudnative-cncf-activity-7340702343362928641-llCK