Apache Iceberg™ Meetup Atlanta
Apache Iceberg™ Meetup Atlanta! 🧊❄️
Join us on November 12th (Wednesday) from 6:00-8:30 PM at the Snowflake Atlanta Office!
Connect with fellow enthusiasts, share insights, and dive into the latest developments in the Apache Iceberg™ ecosystem! Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to Apache Iceberg, this meetup is the perfect place to exchange ideas and spark innovation.
*** We will have a raffle for a Meta VR Headset at the end of the event ***
Agenda
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Networking and Welcome Drinks
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM: Welcome Remarks & Presentations!
7:45 PM - 8:30 PM: Demos and Networking
The event will focus on use cases around and innovations in Apache Iceberg (https://iceberg.apache.org/)
We will discuss topics around Open-Source Data Analytics, Open Table Formats (OTF), software concepts like Transactional Data Lakes or Lakehouse, advancements in AI/ML including generative AI, and many more topics of mutual interest that leverage Apache Iceberg.
Talk 1: Implementing On-prem Iceberg: Architecture That Scales
Explore architectural choices for on-prem Apache Iceberg deployments, from external catalog services like Nessie/Polaris to embedded object-native implementations, examining tradeoffs in governance, performance, and operations.
Brenna Buuck is a Developer Evangelist at MinIO specializing in databases and data lakehouses, helping developers through tutorials, speaking, and writing with degrees from UC San Diego and San Diego State University.
Talk 2: Building the Future of AI and ML with Rust-Powered Data Lakes
The future of AI and ML depends on how efficiently we can process, manage, and transform data at scale. In this talk, Dhruvil Shah introduces PATHSDATA’s Rust-based data platform, designed to power the next generation of intelligent data lakes. Built on technologies like Apache Arrow, DataFusion, and Apache Iceberg, PATHSDATA’s platform delivers high performance, safety, and scalability—core requirements for modern AI and ML workloads. The session explores how Rust enables ultra-fast data ingestion, transformation, and model training pipelines while maintaining reliability and low memory overhead. Attendees will gain insights into how Rust-based architectures can unify data engineering and machine learning, paving the way for smarter, faster, and more efficient AI systems.
Dhruvil Shah is the Founder and CEO of PATHSDATA, where he leads innovation in building scalable Data and AI infrastructures. With over 8 years of experience in Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, Dhruvil specializes in designing intelligent systems that combine the power of cloud computing and Rust-based performance engineering. He holds a degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology and has worked extensively with modern data frameworks such as Apache Arrow, DataFusion, and Apache Iceberg. His vision with PATHSDATA is to redefine how organizations build and operate AI-ready data lakes that accelerate the path from raw data to intelligence.
Talk 3: Lakeside AI with SQL & Apache Iceberg
After a overview on the theory of unstructured document parsing/chunking/embedding transformations and how this can be used in a GenAI application, demonstrations will show a simple unstructured document ETL pipeline that uses SQL to create and store vector embeddings in Apache Iceberg tables. Next, you will see how to use SQL to retrieve additional context from the vector embeddings that most closely match the user’s initial request and then augment the formal request to an LLM before returning the final response.
Lester Martin is a seasoned developer advocate, trainer, blogger, and data engineer focused on data pipelines & data lake analytics using Trino, Iceberg, Hive, Spark, Flink, Kafka, NiFi, NoSQL databases, and, of course, classical RDBMSs. Find out more about Lester at https://linktr.ee/lestermartin.
About PATHSDATA
PATHSDATA powers PATHSIQ and WAYPOINT — two platforms redefining how organizations use data, AI, and automation.
PATHSIQ is an AI Data Engineering Assistant that delivers intelligent, scalable data processing using its integrated stack or a Rust-based architecture built on Apache Iceberg, DataFusion, and Ballista — automating workflows and turning raw data into actionable intelligence.
WAYPOINT is PATHSDATA’s Data, AI, and ML consulting arm, helping organizations design, build, and operationalize cloud-native AI solutions that drive real business impact.
Together, PATHSIQ and WAYPOINT accelerate the journey from data to intelligence, empowering organizations to innovate with speed and confidence.
Follow us on LinkedIn: PATHSDATA
About Starburst
Your data lives everywhere—Starburst, powered by Trino, connects it all. Our flexible, open lakehouse architecture integrates seamlessly with 50+ data sources, streamlining data discovery ensuring real-time access, scalability, and cost efficiency without complex migrations or vendor lock-in. Whether on-premises, in the cloud, or across multiple environments, Starburst brings your data together—so you can power AI, applications, and analytics.
- Compare Starburst with Trino
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- Visit the Starburst Developer Center
- Start for FREE with Starburst Galaxy which includes $500 in usage credits
About Snowflake
Snowflake makes enterprise AI easy, efficient and trusted. More than 10,000 companies around the globe, including hundreds of the world’s largest, use Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to share data, build applications, and power their business with AI. Snowflake provides native support for Apache Iceberg™ and Apache Polaris™ (incubating).
📚 Check out how Snowflake can power your open data lakehouse
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❄️ Start your 30-day free Snowflake trial which includes $400 worth of free usage
About MinIO
MinIO is the company behind AIStor, the world’s most widely adopted exascale object store for enterprise AI data, agentic computing, and analytics. Trusted by 77% of the Fortune 100 and built for performance at scale, AIStor unifies structured and unstructured data in a single, consistent system. It's object-native, hybrid by design, and fully S3-compatible. Run it anywhere: from edge to core to cloud.
Whether you're training massive models, deploying AI agents, or scaling your data lakehouse, AIStor delivers the speed, control, and scale your workloads demand.