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.

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

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

Charla presentada con Miguel Ángel Ortega Ramos en AWS Summit Madrid 2025. Agenda aquí.

Aprende a observar tus clusters de Kubernetes como un/a experto/a. En esta sesión, Miguel e Imma te guiarán a través de la implementación de Kubernetes Monitoring en Grafana utilizando Helm con EKS, navegando por potentes dashboards pre-construidos y aprovechando las alertas integradas, métricas de coste y energía, así como recomendaciones basadas en Machine Learning. Sea cual sea tu plataforma — EKS, OpenShift u otras — saldrás con las habilidades necesarias para obtener una observabilidad real de tu flota de Kubernetes, de manera eficiente y efectiva.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jose-carlos-fernandez-carrillo_awssummit-grafana-observability-activity-7336360988121694208-VkiS
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/miguelortegaramos_agenda-aws-summit-madrid-2025-activity-7334199726726090752-mcs5
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonathan-moore-b50bb51a1_awssummit-grafana-observability-activity-7336406244359823360-H1Ds
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7337907852222631937-OAKI
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/miguelortegaramos_awssummit-grafanalabs-awscommunity-activity-7338845206768771074-vI7P/

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Fxhllcs_KrquZwd3T5Brt82FhQNP00VmR_wUljY_uMk

Registro: https://www.meetup.com/grafana-and-friends-barcelona/events/307619697

Este meetup es la edición local de GrafanaCON 2025 en Barcelona 🎉

Te esperamos en SCRM – Lidl International Hub 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:
c/ Bergara 13, Barcelona | https://maps.app.goo.gl/zd6h3BGzHNxgAgjT6

📅 Agenda:

18:30: Bienvenida 👋
18:45: 🎙️ “Recapitulando la Keynote de GrafanaCON 2025“, Imma Valls – Staff Developer Advocate en Grafana Labs
Se presentarán los puntos clave y anuncios más relevantes de la keynote de GrafanaCON 2025.
19:15: 🎙️ “k6 1.0: Cómo esta esperada versión major facilita la introducción al testing” by Joan López de la Franca – Senior Software Engineer en Grafana Labs
¡Probando, probando, 1, 2, … 1.0! Grafana k6 v1.0 ya está aquí. La herramienta de pruebas de carga de código abierto, fácil de usar para desarrollador@s, ha alcanzado este importante hito con las funciones principales estabilizadas y un nuevo flujo de trabajo que facilita su arranque. En esta sesión mostraremos características como la extensibilidad nativa (sin más soluciones alternativas a xk6); el conversor OpenAPI para optimizar y automatizar la creación de pruebas basadas en TypeScript; y k6 Studio, una aplicación de escritorio que simplifica las pruebas de rendimiento. Tanto si desarrolas backend, eres QA o profesional de DevOps, esta sesión te proporcionará los conocimientos necesarios para empezar rápidamente con k6 y sacarle el máximo provecho.
20:00 – 21:00: Networking con pizzas y bebidas 🍻🍕

¡Nos vemos allí! 👋

Grafana & Friends Barcelona.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7333051349032419328-60F3
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/almudenavivanco_networking-activity-7336071707352285184-yXPR
• https://x.com/mrsdaehin/status/1930306467711578576
• https://x.com/mrsdaehin/status/1930315510421270665

Registro: https://grafana.com/es/go/webinar/grafanacon-2025-keynote-es-recap

Únete con nosotros en un seminario web exclusivo mientras recapitulamos los aspectos más destacados de GrafanaCON 2025, nuestro evento comunitario más grande del año.

Si no puedes asistir al evento en persona, esta es una excelente oportunidad para ponerte al día con lo último en Grafana y el ecosistema más amplio de monitorización de código abierto. También compartiremos ejemplos de paneles inspiradores y casos de uso de la comunidad, y repasaremos los momentos más destacados y los anuncios de la conferencia.

Lo que aprenderás

1. Últimas novedades de Grafana 12: Explora las funciones de vanguardia que estamos desarrollando en nuestra última versión de Grafana.
2. Innovaciones en el Stack LGTM (Loki-Grafana-Tempo-Mimir): Descubre los aspectos más sobresalientes en los proyectos open source Loki, Mimir, Tempo, y más.
3. Logros de la comunidad: Aprende sobre los logros sobresalientes y contribuciones de los miembros de la comunidad de Grafana.

Curious about Grafana Loki and how it can help you with your logs? Join this talk for an interactive introduction where you can decide which aspects of Loki we explore through live demos. You’ll learn the basics of Grafana Loki and how it can provide valuable insights without overwhelming complexity. You’ll leave with a practical understanding of its architecture and capabilities and a GitHub repository so you can continue experimenting. Don’t miss the opportunity to unleash the power of Grafana Loki and take your skills to the next level!

Demo repository: https://github.com/immavalls/codemotion25-loki

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7327970499152470016-K5u4
• https://x.com/eyeveebee/status/1922205278826557507
• https://bsky.app/profile/eyeveebee.bsky.social/post/3lp22lk2abc2s
• https://x.com/codemomadrid/status/1912448860095406384

Workshop based on the blog post “Metrics, logs, traces, and mayhem: introducing an observability adventure game powered by Grafana Alloy and OTel“, at Grafana & Friends Amsterdam Meetup @ HCS Company.

This is a hands-on introductory session on observability. Through an engaging text-based adventure, you’ll learn to diagnose and resolve issues in your systems. This workshop covers essential observability tools —metrics, logs, and traces — and shows how to leverage them effectively for real-world troubleshooting and insights in your application.
Bring your laptop for this session. Docker and git, or a browser to run this on a killercoda playground, are prerequisites. You can also work in pairs.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7319067584438407169/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7327627275774918656-sTiB
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7328460523677638659/
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cshy_monitoring-iot-edge-devices-using-grafana-activity-7328499575504175104-LHwp

Taller basado en el blog “Metrics, logs, traces, and mayhem: introducing an observability adventure game powered by Grafana Alloy and OTel“, realizado en Lidl International Hub en Barcelona.

Se trata de un 🛠️ taller práctico 🙇‍♀️ que no requiere conocimientos previos de observabilidad, donde aprenderás a diagnosticar y resolver problemas en tus sistemas a través de una aventura interactiva basada en texto. Cubriremos herramientas esenciales de observabilidad —métricas, logs y trazas— y cómo utilizarlas eficazmente para solucionar problemas reales y obtener información valiosa de tu aplicación.

Social

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scrmlidlinternationalhub_observability-teamdigits-barcelonatech-activity-7316385870863896576-wc66