Share your Apache Iceberg™ story

We're looking for talks about Apache Iceberg and the open lakehouse ecosystem. Talks should be interesting, educational, and inspiring for a technical audience and should not be a product or sales pitch.

Suggested topics

Below is a list of topic areas the Selection Committee is interested in. Feel free to submit your abstract even if it doesn't fit neatly into one of these categories, or crosses multiple areas.

• Iceberg in Production (Case Studies and Best Practices): Tell us how you put Apache Iceberg™ to work in the real world. We want to hear about the problem or opportunity you set out to address, why Iceberg was the right fit, how you integrated it into your architecture, and what your implementation journey looked like, difficulties included. Share the tips, tricks, and lessons learned that helped you scale, the benefits you’re seeing now, and where you plan to take Iceberg next.
  
  
• Iceberg Internals & Features: Technical deep dives into Apache Iceberg itself: the table spec, the REST catalog, Puffin, and the libraries across languages, including Java, PyIceberg, Rust, Go, and C++. Talks can range from overviews to “under the hood” explorations, and can cover how things work today, performance characteristics, and new features and enhancements in development.
  
  
• The Open Lakehouse Ecosystem: Iceberg doesn't live alone. This track covers the broader open lakehouse: the engines, catalogs, and tools that integrate with Iceberg, the file and in-memory formats beneath it (e.g., Apache Parquet™ and Apache Arrow™), and other table formats in the space. We welcome talks on compute and processing engines (e.g., Apache Spark™, Apache Flink®, Trino), streaming and ingestion, catalogs and governance, and interoperability across the open data stack. Show us how these technologies work together, the architectural tradeoffs involved, and how they deliver performance and reliability on open storage. Talks should focus on technology and integration, not product marketing.
  
  
• Future Trends & Thought Leadership: Where are Iceberg and the open lakehouse heading? Tell us your vision for open data architecture in a world of AI and agentic workloads, real-time analytics, and the next generation of cloud-native data stacks. We’re especially interested in perspectives on open standards, interoperability, and the community that drives them.

Selections will be made by the Iceberg Summit Selection Committee.

Session Formats*

This year, the conference offers several session formats. Please choose the best format for your particular session!

• Breakout session (30 minutes, including Q&A): The standard conference talk. Most submissions belong here, including technical deep dives, case studies, best practices, and ecosystem talks.
• Lightning talk (15 minutes, no Q&A): A shorter, more focused format for one idea, technique, or lesson learned. Less is more!
• Panel (45 minutes): A moderated discussion with up to four participants, including the moderator. Submitters must list the proposed panelists and moderator. Panels should reflect the diversity of the Iceberg community across companies, roles, and backgrounds.
• Workshop/Lab (60–180 minutes): Hands-on sessions where attendees follow along on their laptops, such as committer workshops or Iceberg in Python. Please say how much time you’re requesting and what attendees need to prepare in advance.
• Keynote (30 minutes, main stage): A small number of keynote slots are reserved for talks that speak to the entire Iceberg community, such as the direction of the project, the future of the open lakehouse, or perspectives that will shape how the community builds. Keynotes are not deep dives, case studies, or product talks; those belong in breakout sessions. In your submission, briefly explain why your talk should be presented to the full conference. Keynote submissions may be considered for a breakout slot instead.

* These session types are suggestions. The Selection Committee reserves the right to not select any talks of a given type or include sessions of a type not listed here.

Note: Co-speakers are only allowed for breakout sessions and workshops. Lightning talks and keynotes are single-speaker; if submitted with co-speakers, only the session owner will be considered. Panelists should be listed in the submission description as described above.

If you have any questions or concerns about your topic or session type, please feel free to reach out for community feedback on the Iceberg community slack #abstracts channel.

Benefits of Submitting

Speaking at Iceberg Summit can be great for the community, your company and you.

• Community: Sharing your knowledge and expertise with peers makes the lakehouse community stronger, creating a virtuous circle that leads to higher-quality and more innovative contributions, content, and collaborations.
• Company: Presenting at industry conferences promotes your company and the great work your team is doing. It positions your company as a technology leader and helps you to recruit top talent.
• Career: Presenting your work demonstrates your presentation skills, helps build your personal brand and opens doors to career advancement. It makes the community aware of your valuable work and shows you can communicate its impacts. 

Important Dates†

• Call for Papers Closes: Sunday, January 10, 2027
• Speaker Announcements: Friday, January 22, 2027

† Dates are subject to change

Speakers will be responsible for travel and accommodation. Speakers will receive a complimentary conference pass.