Current 2024: What’s on Tap in Data Streaming

On September 17-18, the data streaming world will descend upon Austin, Texas for Current 2024––bringing the community together to discuss all things Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink®. You’ll hear from tech leaders, industry giants, and startups as they drop a seemingly endless supply of knowledge on everything related to real-time event streaming––and then some.

As the date quickly approaches, we’re here to instill some serious FOMO. Here’s what’s on tap at Current 2024.

The event about events

Current is the event to attend to learn everything you need to know about events, eventing, and event-driven architectures. You’ll see proof of that in the packed, two-day agenda. With nearly 100 sessions––breakouts, lightning talks, meetups, and more—covering topics from message broker basics and the history of SQL to implementing real-time systems with Kafka and Flink and deep dives into vector databases, there’s something for everyone at this conference.

We’ll be the first to admit that it's tough to pick and choose which sessions to attend at Current––especially when our talented program committee did such an amazing job assembling the agenda––so we’ll give you a head start with a couple that we’re personally looking forward to:

“I really love seeing how real people are using data streaming technologies to solve real problems in their industry. If that sounds like you, then Dean Schaefer’s session, ‘Tracking Locomotive to Train Associations in Kafka,’ is one you should definitely check out. Not only will he showcase how Kafka is being used at CSX and dive into their implementation, he plans to cover common hurdles that all Kafka-based applications are at risk of running into and how to avoid them.” — Danica

“Confluent’s own David Anderson always seems to be able to unpack some pearls within Apache Flink. At Current he’ll do that again in his session ‘Flinking Enrichment: Shouldn't This Be Easier?’ David will teach us the most useful techniques for implementing stream enrichment with Flink, along with common pitfalls and coping strategies for those pitfalls.” — Sandon

Rise and shine

The Current agenda includes a morning keynote on each of the two conference days. Grab your coffee and let’s dive in.

For the first day of the conference, the keynote will take us on a journey of data infrastructure––starting with how things were done in the past and ending in the not so distant future. Along the way, get a glimpse of how different industries are using data streaming platforms and data products to become pioneers in the future, where data drives better operations and decision-making. We know the future is here; this keynote will give you the inspiration to take advantage of it!

On the second day of the conference, the keynote is all about the developer… er, data scientist … or is it the data engineer? The answer is YES. As it turns out, we’re more alike than we’ve ever been. While each of us brings a specialized toolset to the table, we’re all coalescing around the data stream itself, to provide value and insights to our organizations. Join this keynote to see what’s happening across all of your favorite streaming technologies to accelerate this transformation and work through this identity crisis of sorts. 

And then there’s…

As always, Current offers more than world-class speakers presenting innovative sessions on your favorite real-time technologies. Here’s a sampling of what else is in store:

• Community meetup hub: Join members of the data streaming community in the Expo Hall for informal discussions on a variety of interesting topics. We’re actively working to build out this programming with the best and brightest, so keep checking the agenda for more details!

• Training and certifications: Take your data streaming knowledge to the next level during the conference with free training (Fundamentals of Apache Kafka®), hands-on labs (Working with Confluent Schema Registry and Harnessing Terraform with Confluent Cloud), and technical certifications. More details can be found on the agenda.

• Birds-of-a-Feather lunches: Want to connect with like-minded peers and experts? No problem. At our Financial Services Lunch on September 17, you’ll hear from finserv leaders on how data streaming is fueling the next wave of emerging tech in the finance and banking industry—and how you can help.

• The Current 2024 sundowner: Of course we need a party to celebrate the data streaming community! To close out the first day of the conference, join us from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Expo Hall where you can enjoy Austin’s top food trucks, live music, specialty cocktails, and networking with fellow Kafka and Flink enthusiasts. Bring your LinkedIn QR code!

• Diversity & inclusion programming: Get ready for our Women in Data Lunch and Panel on September 18—an empowering session filled with knowledge-sharing and scope for building meaningful connections with women and allies in the space. 

• Closing session raffle: Be sure to stick around for the whole conference and join us for what’s sure to be an entertaining session to close everything out. We’ll be celebrating conference highlights, getting excited for what’s to come, and, of course, hosting a raffle. What are we raffling? You’ll just have to stop by to find out!

To avoid FOMO

There’s only one certified way to dodge Current FOMO this year––register and attend. Sure, the sessions will be streamed and recorded, but seeing them live, in-person is so much better. Register today with promo code DEVREL to save $450 off registration prices.

We can’t wait to see you there!