On September 28th, Paul Mac Farland gave a great presentation to the virtual Dublin Kafka Meetup. He started out taking us through a brief history of where we’ve been as an industry and then a look at the future of event-driven systems and the benefits they bring.
One of my favorite illustrations from Paul, on the benefits of being event-driven was the fact that when our hand comes in contact with a flame, we learn about that event in real-time and can pull our hand away. (as opposed to waiting for the daily burned limbs report 
).
While most of our business transactions are not quite that critical, there is no denying the need for near real-time responses in today’s world. Whether we’re talking about fraud detection, recommendation engines, or pro-active customer support, knowing what is happening, while it is happening is becoming critical for most organizations. Paul did a great job of making that clear.
He then went on to describe the way to get there. It really is a journey, and it can seem like a daunting one, but Paul laid out some practical steps that we can take and stages we can work through en route to becoming an event-driven organization.
This summary can’t really do it justice, but fortunately, the amazing people on the Community team at Confluent have made the video available already! You can watch the whole meetup here.
Also, be sure to check the Meetup Hub frequently to see what’s coming up and to see videos of other great presentations!