Dave is a developer, mentor, author, presenter, community organizer, father of 14, and all round fun guy. He has been working in software development since the last century and focusing on streaming data for the past 5 years.

I first got involved in the Kafka community when I was trying to learn Kafka for a new job back in 2018. The people in this community made that learning journey much easier and way more fun! Soon after that I worked with the Confluent Community Team to organize a Kafka meetup in St. Louis, Missouri (USA). Next I spoke at my first Kafka Summit (online during the pandemic) and then began working at Confluent as a developer advocate. I've since moved on from Confluent but not from the Kafka Community! I am continually amazed at what the people in this community build and the way they support each other. I can't wait to see many of you at the next event!