​​​Real-time databases are integrating with data lakes to reduce storage costs and share data with AI and data science. Please join us to hear from a range of experts as they share current problems and solutions while navigating the transition from closed storage models to open table formats like Apache Iceberg.

​​Join us in London for an evening with experts from ClickHouse®, Confluent, Databricks, and AWS. Networking to follow presentations. Food and drink provided!

​A big thanks to TheTradeDesk for providing the venue! Thank you for London Technology Community for co-hosting!

​Speakers

• ​Robert Hodges, CEO @ Altinity

• ​Olena Kutsenko, Staff Developer Advocate @ Confluent

• ​Robert Pack, Staff Developer Advocate @ Databricks

• ​Prachi Gupta @ AWS

​​​Description of the Talks

​​​​Building a Foundation for AI with ClickHouse® and Apache Iceberg Storage - Robert Hodges, CEO @ Altinity.

• ​​​​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.  

​Teaching databases to speak human with LLMs and MCP - Olena Kutsenko, Staff Developer Advocate @ Confluent

• ​Imagine asking your database a question in plain English - and getting the right answer back, instantly. Thanks to advances in large language models (LLMs), this is now a practical reality. Natural Language to SQL (NL2SQL) systems are making data more accessible than ever, helping teams move faster without writing a single query by hand. In this talk, we’ll walk through the key building blocks that make it possible for LLMs to "talk" to databases. We’ll start with natural language: how NL2SQL systems understand what the user is asking, map questions to the right parts of a database, and generate executable SQL. Of course, this is easier said than done. Natural language is full of ambiguity, and many databases have complex schemas, tricky joins, and domain-specific terms. But despite these challenges, benchmarks like Spider and BIRD show just how far we've come in the past decade. Next, we’ll introduce the Model Context Protocol (MCP) - a way to give LLMs access to metadata, table relationships, and tools for query execution. Instead of guessing, the model can reason step-by-step using chain-of-thought, consult the schema, and run sub-queries to reach the right result. Whether you're an engineer building LLM-powered interfaces or a data leader exploring self-serve analytics, this session will give you a clear view of how natural language is reshaping the way we interact with data and how to start using it in your stack today.​

​Managed Apache Iceberg With Amazon S3 Tables - Prachi Gupta, Sr. Specialist Solution Architect @ AWS

• ​Details TBD

​Talk by Databricks - stay tuned

​​​Description of the Presenters

​​​Robert Hodges - Robert is the CEO of Altinity, an enterprise provider for ClickHouse data warehouse. He's also a database geek with experience on at least 20 DBMS types. Robert caught the Kubernetes bug at VMware in 2018.

​​​Connect with Robert on LinkedIn.

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​Olena Kutsenko - Olena is a Staff Developer Advocate at Confluent and a recognized expert in data streaming and analytics. With two decades of experience in software engineering, she has built mission-critical applications, led high-performing teams, and driven large-scale technology adoption at industry leaders like Nokia, HERE Technologies, AWS, and Aiven.

​A passionate advocate for real-time data processing and AI-driven applications, Olena empowers developers and organizations to use the power of streaming data. She is an AWS Community Builder, a dedicated mentor, and a volunteer instructor at a nonprofit tech school, helping to shape the next generation of engineers.

​As an international speaker and thought leader, Olena regularly presents at top global conferences, sharing deep technical insights and hands-on expertise. Whether through her talks, workshops, or content, she is committed to making complex technologies accessible and inspiring innovation in the developer community.

​Connect with Olena on LinkedIn.

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​Prachi Gupta - In her role at AWS, she collaborates with some of the most innovative minds to design and build cutting-edge cloud solutions. As a Specialized Solutions Architect, she helps customers address their storage needs by designing and architecting data solutions that emphasize disaster recovery, resilience, and data protection within the AWS Cloud.

​Connect with Prachi on LinkedIn.