Talk Archive
A complete list of my conference talks, workshops, podcasts, and speaking engagements. For recorded talks, check out my YouTube channel.
ls talks/2026/
I Built an Internal Developer Platform and Developers Still Ping Me
DevOpsCon Amsterdam
April 20th-24th, 2026 -- Amsterdam, Netherlands
Addressing the challenges that persist even after implementing an internal developer platform, focusing on ongoing support needs and platform adoption.
Event page →Operationalizing AWS Governance at Scale: Five Questions Your Team Can't Answer in Under Five Minutes
CloudQuery & AWS Webinar
April 8th, 2026 (virtual)
Exploring five critical infrastructure questions that typically require hours to resolve, treating cloud governance as a data problem, and strategies for cross-cloud visibility and compliance. Co-presented with Keegan Mirazee from AWS.
Event page →ls talks/2025/
Live Coding: Building a Multi-Cloud Asset Inventory with AWS & GCP using CloudQuery and Postgres
CloudQuery YouTube
2025
Live coding session demonstrating how to build a multi-cloud asset inventory using CloudQuery to pull data from AWS and GCP, storing it in Postgres.
Watch →How to Manage Data Pipeline Complexity and Maintain High Data Quality
CloudQuery YouTube
2025
Strategies for handling data pipeline complexity and ensuring high data quality - best practices, tools, and techniques for data engineers and analysts.
Watch →The Future of Security Engineering is Data Engineering
CloudQuery YouTube
2025
Exploring why security engineers need to learn SQL and how the future of security engineering lies in data engineering.
Watch →What is Apache Arrow?
CloudQuery YouTube
2025
Deep dive into Apache Arrow with Yevgeny Pats (CloudQuery CEO) - exploring efficient data processing, cross-language support, and why CloudQuery chose Arrow for their ETL platform.
Watch →ls talks/2024/
Cloud Asset Inventory & Management Webinar
CloudQuery
December 19th, 2024 (virtual)
Creating a cloud asset inventory using CloudQuery to track resources across AWS and Azure, monitor changes, and query infrastructure with SQL. Co-presented with Yevgeny Pats (CloudQuery CEO).
Event page →Cloud Governance & Security Webinar
CloudQuery
December 19th, 2024 (virtual)
Managing governance, security, and regulatory compliance across multi-cloud environments with security monitoring and automated remediation workflows.
Event page →Improve AWS Visibility & Governance Webinar
CloudQuery
December 19th, 2024 (virtual)
Getting complete visibility into AWS infrastructure across all regions and accounts, with resource tracking, optimization, and SQL-based querying.
Event page →Build Real-Time Data Products over Kafka
Tinybird Live Coding
January 9th, 2024 (virtual)
Live coding session on building real-time data products using Kafka. Co-hosted with Jim Moffitt.
ls talks/2023/
From Kafka to APIs in Minutes
Tinybird Live Coding
November 14th, 2023 (virtual)
Live coding session demonstrating rapid API development from Kafka streams. Co-hosted with Marc Gonzalez (Director of Data at Factorial).
Build Your Own Infrastructure Monitoring Application
Tinybird Live Coding
May 17th, 2023 (virtual)
Building a miniature version of Datadog's infrastructure monitoring tool - using Kafka to stream events and Tinybird's native Kafka connector for ingestion.
Watch →Launch Week #2 Release Round-up
Tinybird Live Coding
April 21st, 2023 (virtual)
Recap of Tinybird's Launch Week #2 releases and new features. Co-hosted with Alasdair Brown.
ls talks/2022/
DoK Talks #120: A Gentle Introduction to Building Data Intensive Applications
CNCF Data on Kubernetes
March 2022 (virtual)
Gotchas and best practices for building, deploying, and scaling data-intensive apps - building a key-value store from scratch using only SQL. Co-presented with Bart Farrell.
TechTalk: Databases and DevOps
SingleStore
February 2022 (virtual)
Live demo showing how to set up continuous database deployments using GitHub Actions. Co-presented with Rizel Scarlett (GitHub).
ls talks/2021/
Save The World And Money with MongoDB Data Lakes
Conf42 Cloud Native 2021
April 29th, 2021 (virtual)
Using MongoDB's Data Lake service to auto-archive cold data to AWS S3 while maintaining query capabilities - reducing data center power consumption and costs.
Watch →ls talks/2020/
An Introduction to IoT / How I Built an IoT Kitty Litter Box Using JavaScript
IoT Innovation Latam
September 7th-8th, 2020 (virtual)
Building an IoT litter box with a Raspberry Pi and JavaScript -- from sensor setup to reading inputs with Node.js.
An Introduction to IoT / How I Built an IoT Kitty Litter Box Using JavaScript
CodeLand:Distributed
July 23rd, 2020 (virtual)
Combining cats, computers, and crappy ideas into an IoT litter box using a Raspberry Pi and Node.js.
JavaScript Jabber: MongoDB Basics with Joe Karlsson
JavaScript Jabber (JSJ 436)
June 16th, 2020
What is MongoDB, how it works, how it differs from relational databases, and how it fits into modern web apps.
Listen →Bechdel.io: How We Used MongoDB To Help Make Film More Inclusive
MongoDB World 2020 (mongodb.live)
June 9th-10th, 2020 (virtual)
How a brother-sister team built bechdel.io, a film script parsing tool that automatically runs the Bechdel Test using MongoDB.
Building Your First GraphQL Client in JS
MongoDB World 2020 (mongodb.live)
June 9th-10th, 2020 (virtual)
Learn about GraphQL with MongoDB -- schema architecture, query performance, error handling, and caching.
An Introduction To IoT (Internet of Toilets)
Live Coders Conf
June 6th, 2020 (virtual)
IoT kitty litter box talk at the Live Coders Conference.
Event page →From SQL to NoSQL: A Gentle Introduction For JS Developers
Node.js Global Summit
May 30th, 2020
Changing your mindset from tabular data modeling to NoSQL -- comparing SQL and MongoDB concepts for JavaScript developers.
MongoDB Schema Design Best Practices
Data Architecture Day
May 18th, 2020
Data modeling basics using real-world examples -- common methodologies for designing MongoDB schemas.
From SQL to NoSQL: A Gentle Introduction For JS Developers
JS VidCon 2020
May 7th, 2020 (virtual)
Comparing SQL and MongoDB for JavaScript developers, with a walkthrough of data modeling basics.
JavaScript Jabber: Internet of Things (IoT) with Joe Karlsson
JavaScript Jabber (JSJ 432)
May 5th, 2020
Walking through approaches, uses, and libraries for building IoT with JavaScript.
Listen →A Gentle Introduction to Building Serverless Apps
Byteconf React 2020
May 1st, 2020 (virtual)
Beginner-friendly intro to serverless computing with MongoDB Stitch, including authentication and access rules.
An Introduction To IoT (Internet of Toilets)
(mini) Minnebar
April 25th, 2020 -- Minneapolis, MN
IoT litter box talk -- setting up Node.js on a Raspberry Pi, connecting sensors, and reading inputs.
MongoDB Schema Design Best Practices
MidwestPHP
April 2nd-4th, 2020 -- Minneapolis, MN
Data modeling with document databases -- real-world examples of schema design for read-heavy and write-heavy applications.
From SQL to NoSQL: A Gentle Introduction For Developers
JavaMN Meetup
March 10th, 2020 -- Minneapolis, MN
Comparing SQL and MongoDB concepts, with data modeling basics for developers transitioning to NoSQL.
An Introduction To IoT (Internet of Toilets)
Prime Digital Academy
March 2nd, 2020 -- Minneapolis, MN
Hands-on walkthrough of building an IoT project with a Raspberry Pi and JavaScript.
A Gentle Introduction to IoT
ConFoo Montreal
February 26th-28th, 2020 -- Montreal, Canada
Getting started with IoT using Raspberry Pi and Node.js -- sensor setup and reading inputs.
From SQL to NoSQL: A Gentle Introduction For Developers
ConFoo Montreal
February 26th-28th, 2020 -- Montreal, Canada
Comparing SQL and NoSQL data modeling, with practical guidance for developers moving to MongoDB.
Getting Started with GraphQL And Atlas
ConFoo Montreal
February 26th-28th, 2020 -- Montreal, Canada
Step-by-step setup of GraphQL schemas and APIs on MongoDB Atlas for rapid application building.
Resources →ls talks/2019/
Bringing JavaScript to the IoT Edge
Node + JS Interactive 2019
December 11th-12th, 2019 -- Montreal, Canada
Why JavaScript is positioned to power billions of IoT devices, the role of Node.js, and schema design patterns for sensor data in MongoDB.
Resources →IoT with JS -- A Gentle Introduction to IoT
NYC Code Camp 2019
September 28th, 2019 -- New York, NY
Hands-on introduction to IoT with Raspberry Pi, Node.js, WebSockets, and sensor integration.
IoT with JS -- A Gentle Introduction to IoT
Grizzhacks
September 2019 -- Rochester, MI
Getting started with IoT using JavaScript, Raspberry Pi, and Node.js.
JS and Parallel Processing(!?)
Midwest JS
August 7th-9th, 2019 -- Minneapolis, MN
Exploring JavaScript's evolution from single-threaded to supporting processing threads for serious computation.
Building a GraphQL Client in JavaScript
Midwest JS
August 7th-9th, 2019 -- Minneapolis, MN
Workshop: GraphQL fundamentals, schema architecture, query performance, error handling, and caching.
A Gentle Introduction to Building Serverless Apps with MongoDB Stitch
ServerlessMN
2019 -- Minneapolis, MN
Beginner-friendly intro to serverless with MongoDB Stitch -- authentication, access rules, and managed clusters.
Bechdel.io: The Future of Film and Feminism
The Association for Computers and the Humanities
July 25th, 2019 -- Pittsburgh, PA
How a collaborative digital humanities project created an automated Bechdel Test tool for macro-level feminist film analysis.
Building High Performance React Applications
Kansas City Developer Conference
July 17th-19th, 2019 -- Kansas City, MO
Common React performance bottlenecks and practical ways to speed up real-world applications.
Building a GraphQL Client in JavaScript
Kansas City Developer Conference
July 17th-19th, 2019 -- Kansas City, MO
Workshop covering GraphQL philosophy, scalable schema design, performance optimization, and caching strategies.
JS and Parallel Processing(!?)
Self.Conference
June 4th-5th, 2019
JavaScript's journey from single-threaded to supporting parallel processing for time-consuming calculations.