This talk was presented alongside Juraj Michálak at the Grafana & Friends Madrid meetup, a joint meetup with the Madrid Apache Kafka community.

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: https://github.com/thopewell/grafana-kafka-datasource-demo

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7455523937658126336/

Recording

How to look at your CFP through a reviewer’s eyes

If you’ve ever submitted a Call for Papers and wondered why some talks get accepted while others don’t, this session is for you.

In this GET /Ready webinar, Miriam Greis, Principal Integration Architect at Adorsys, shares what reviewers actually look for when evaluating conference submissions.

Drawing on real reviewing experience, Miriam will walk through how CFPs are read, what makes reviewers keep reading, and the common mistakes that lead to instant rejection.

Whether you’re submitting your first talk or refining your next proposal, this session will help you approach your CFP with a clearer strategy.

In this session, we’ll look at CFPs from the reviewer’s perspective, including:

• What signals enthusiasm and credibility in a proposal
• Why titles and abstracts make or break first impressions
• How to avoid common pitfalls that weaken CFP submissions
• How to make your proposal feel authentic rather than generic

​You’ll leave with practical ideas you can immediately apply to your next CFP submission.

Social:

RSVP: https://community.cncf.io/events/details/cncf-opentelemetry-live-presents-live-from-amsterdam-whats-up-otel/

Coming to you live from Amsterdam, we’re here to report on all* things new and cool from KubeCon EU 2026! We chat with Dan Gomez Blanco, Principal Solutions Architect @ New Relic and OTel Blueprints, and Imma Valls, Developer Advocate @ Grafana for OTel Spanish Localisation.

*Okay, just the subset of what we can fit into this episode.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_blueprints-kubecon-cloudnative-activity-7442846592509997056-nQ7n
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cloud-native-computing-foundation_blueprints-kubecon-cloudnative-activity-7447610448277090304-H_2q

Recording:

Repo: https://github.com/immavalls/kyverno-observability-as-code-kubecon26eu

The adoption of Kyverno solves the challenge of Policy-as-Code. However, a new question emerges for platform engineers: what happens when a slow policy rule adds latency? A slow admission webhook can degrade performance across the k8s cluster.
Tracing the webhook’s lifecycle is the fastest way to pinpoint any bottlenecking rule.

The next step in your GitOps journey is to make your monitoring as declarative as your policies. In the live demo, you’ll learn how to monitor Kyverno’s operational cycle using Prometheus, Tempo, and Grafana. We’ll set SLOs and enable real-time alerts with observability-as-code, including metrics and alerts for policy failure rates or slow webhooks, and use OpenTelemetry tracing to pinpoint what is causing a delay in the admission process.

If you manage policies as code, don’t let silent performance bottlenecks threaten your cluster stability. Join to learn concrete steps needed to close your GitOps loop and achieve operational control over Kyverno.

This talk was delivered at KyvernoCon, a co-located event at KubeCon CloudNativeCon Europe 2026: https://colocatedeventseu2026.sched.com/event/3d9bd77f04055bd504873cea34432510

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kyvernoplatform_kyverno-devsecops-kubernetes-activity-7417550328943788035-Qt_X/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7441880447938285569/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7441838568878047232/

Talk presented at Grafana & Friends Stockholm meetup. RSVP here.

________________

Time for another Grafana & Friends Meetup, together with the Stockholm Apache Kafka® and Kong/Stockholm communities, hosted by Magello 🎉

📕 Agenda
17:00 – 17:25: Drop-in, food/drink-grabbing and mingle
17:25 – 17:30: Introductions
17:30 – 18:00: Talk 1
18:00 – 18:20: Mingle
18:20 – 18:50: Talk 2
18:50 – 20:00: Mingle

1️⃣ “Beyond API Management: Building AI-Enabled Event Streams with Kong Event Gateway, Kafka and MCP” by Johannes Brännström, Staff Solutions Engineer at Kong
In the era of LLMs and real-time data, the gateway’s role has shifted from a passive “traffic cop” to an active platform enabler. In this session, we’ll move beyond the basics and live-build a real-time, event-driven chat system. We’ll show you how to:

• Architect the Backbone: Use Kafka for high-throughput event streaming.
• Secure the Flow: Implement robust Auth/Z using Kong to protect your event streams.
• Give AI “Hands”: Integrate the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to allow a chatbot to perform actions, like fetching Konnect metrics or generating memes, directly from the stream.
• Simplify the Complexity: See how Kong isn’t just another layer of friction, but a tool that makes orchestrating these complex, multi-protocol systems significantly easier.

2️⃣ “Visualizing Your Data Lake with Grafana”, Imma Valls, Staff Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs.
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. How to 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.

📍Location
Magello office: Västgötagatan 2, 118 27 Stockholm | https://maps.app.goo.gl/FPhEqLjttBHEneEt8
Take the stairs to the left after entering the building. If anyone is late, dial “Patrik Magello Group” on the door phone.

Food
There will be vegan/vegetarian food, and beverages at the event; if you have any allergies or other food preferences, please let us know at least 48 hours before the event!

Photo and video
We may take photos and record videos during the event. If you prefer not to be captured on camera, please inform the photographer when arriving.
If you feel sick, stay at home.

We are looking forward to seeing you 🎉!

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_grafana-observability-techcommunity-activity-7434902714863656960-F8DN

Recording

RSVP https://women-in-apis.kit.com/8623233d18

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

In this session, we’ll explore: ”How to find the courage to submit your first conference talk.”

Join your host Imma Valls, joined by Katya Dreyer-Oren, Lead Software Engineer at Heroku, in this interactive conversation where you’ll discover practical ways to manage fear, validate your ideas, and confidently press “submit” on your first CFP.

​10 March 2026
17:30 CET

What you’ll take away:

1. A practical mindset shift to reframe rejection as feedback.
2. Simple ways to validate and shape your talk idea before hitting “submit”.
3. Tools to manage self-doubt and step beyond your comfort zone.

Social:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_public-speaking-often-feels-like-something-activity-7435608443505414144-OuTt
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/women-in-apis_a-question-for-the-community-whats-the-activity-7436793215057481728-jHtc
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kdreyeroren_public-speaking-often-feels-like-something-activity-7435798796137029632-y02j

This talk was presented at the Grafana & Friends Zurich meetup, a joint meetup with the Zurich Apache Kafka community.

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: https://github.com/thopewell/grafana-kafka-datasource-demo

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7434902714863656960/

Build your voice in the API Community

Speaking opportunities are everywhere, from conferences to team meetings.

GET /Speaking is a small-format program from (and for) Women in APIs (WIAs). It’s designed to boost your public speaking skills and confidence. You’ll get practical advice and share experiences with others, helping you overcome what holds you back. You’ll be better prepared to take speaking opportunities head-on.

Who it’s for:

• Potential/future speakers at apidays and related events

• Anyone working in API design, engineering, product, or advocacy.

• Non-native English speakers.

What we’ll cover:

• Identify what holds you back from speaking.

• Find a subject that resonates with your audience.

• Prepare for a conference talk.

What you’ll get:

• Actionable tips for finding your voice and preparing talks.

• The chance to build your professional network.

• Two highly interactive, two-hour in-person sessions.

Before registering for this course, ensure you’ve joined our community at our WIAs website. As a member, you are welcome to join GET /Speaking and other WIAs events, however you identify.

Thanks to APIdays and our global group of committed volunteers, we can offer this GET /Speaking program free of charge to Women In APIs members. Make sure you apply first for membership at www.womeninapis.com

Tickets: https://women-in-apis.kit.com/d0b339e785

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7432768738665402369/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cristinagallardorey_yesterday-i-learned-a-lot-about-how-to-approach-activity-7436362456366546944-pJhn
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/julia-dur%C3%A1n-751aa82b_get-speaking-activity-7434925725675134976-TMx9
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/isabel-olea-170a7556_last-saturday-i-had-the-opportunity-to-take-activity-7436696953620500480-ZEgm
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cristinagallardorey_yesterday-i-learned-a-lot-about-how-to-approach-activity-7436362456366546944-pJhn

Contrary to popular belief, we still have a long way to go toward equality in the workplace. And in these uncertain times, where DEI programs have gone the way of the dodo, we need to have these conversations now, more than ever. Join us for a Geeking Out LIVE panel ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD), as we discuss what it means to support women in the workplace from both female and male perspectives, featuring panelists Colleen Coll, Reese Lee, Imma Valls Bernaus, and Josh Lee. ✌️

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geeking-out-podcast_todays-the-day-join-us-mar-4th-at-0900-activity-7434946332894773248-BNEp
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/geeking-out-podcast_one-more-sleep-until-geeking-out-live-join-activity-7434606214883291136-uZ7c
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_mark-your-calendars-on-march-4th-join-us-activity-7432020666285027328-czPn
• https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jkloammkxhs5qef3oiaxluog/post/3mfktkjdslu2h
• https://hachyderm.io/@adrianamvillela/116122609162519845

Grafana Labs patrocina HackUCD 2026. Como parte del patrocinio, se presenta un reto para los estudiantes hackers. Con María Alonso, preparamos una sesión para presentar el reto e incluir una formación en el uso de Grafana para el reto.

Descripción

¿Cómo podemos saber si hoy es un buen día para practicar deporte al aire libre basándonos en la contaminación? ¿O cómo influye el clima en el consumo de servicios públicos? Los datos abiertos están ahí, pero necesitan ser interpretados para ser útiles.

Os retamos a construir un cuadro de mando (dashboard/s) y un sistema de respuesta que resuelva una duda concreta o narre una situación específica de Galicia o de sus ciudades. Buscamos proyectos que no solo visualicen tendencias, sino que también permitan a sus usuarios recibir notificaciones simplificadas y personalizables.

Objetivo 

Desarrollar un sistema que conecte al menos una fuente de datos abiertos para:

• Crear dashboards en Grafana que hagan los datos comprensibles de un vistazo mediante gauges, heatmaps, series temporales, etc…
• Configurar Grafana Alerting para detectar anomalías o la superación de umbrales.
• (Opcional – Nivel Avanzado) Desarrollar una capa de usuario (App, Bot o Web) que consuma dichas alertas, de modo que la ciudadanía no tenga que interpretar gráficas complejas para estar informada.

Material de apoyo

• Datos Xunta de Galicia: abertos.xunta.gal (Recomendado: Medio Ambiente > Calidade Ambiental/Meteoroloxía).
• MeteoGalicia: API MeteoSIX, con datos de meteorología y calidad del aire en tiempo real.
• Grafana: Grafana Cloud y Grafana Assistant, herramientas para el despliegue y la ayuda en la creación de dashboards.
• Tokens de acceso: Se proporcionarán instrucciones en Discord para obtener los tokens de MeteoGalicia.

Criterios de valoración

1. Creatividad e impacto social: ¿ayuda realmente a que una persona tome una mejor decisión sobre su salud o su entorno?
2. Storytelling y claridad: capacidad del dashboard para narrar una historia de forma clara a simple vista.
3. Complejidad técnica: se valorará positivamente la integración de sistemas de alerta (Telegram/Discord) y el uso de arquitecturas completas (App + Grafana).
4. Uso de datos en tiempo real: capacidad para trabajar con flujos de datos dinámicos frente a datasets estáticos.

¿Qué no se premia?

• No se requiere un código perfecto ni una solución totalmente funcional en todos sus aspectos; buscamos un prototipo que demuestre el potencial de la idea.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/imma-valls_hackudc-hackudc-gpul-activity-7432437481289142272-oQRs