This list was updated on July 8, 2026 and represents some of the public activities I’ve done that are aligned with my “What I do” Venn diagram on my About page.
2026 public activities & content
Events
- Starburst Office Hours: Pipeline Automation and Data Quality (Webinar)
- Starburst Workshop: MCP Server (Webinar)
- Starburst Office Hours: Getting Hands-On with AIDA (Webinar)
- Starburst Workshop: Building Data Pipelines with Ibis and Starburst (Webinar)
- Starburst Office Hours: Building AI-Ready Data Products (Webinar)
- Starburst Workshop: Query Plan Analysis Deep-Dive with Starburst (Webinar)
- Starburst Office Hours: Automated Iceberg Table Maintenance (Webinar)
- From CDC to Queryable Iceberg: Building a Production Ingestion Path with OLake + Trino (Webinar)
- What’s New in Starburst: Highlights from Product Management (Webinar)
- Starburst Workshop: Migrating from Apache Iceberg from Hive, Step-by-Step (Webinar)
- Unlocking Data Ingestion into Apache Iceberg (Webinar)
- Starburst Office Hours: Secure Data Access with ABAC, RBAC, and Fine-Grained Controls (Webinar)
- Starburst Workshop: Hands-On with Apache Iceberg: Build, Evolve, Operate (Webinar)
- From Kafka to Iceberg: High-Throughput Ingestion at Starburst (Meetup)
- Starburst Office Hours: Connect Once, Query Everywhere (Webinar)
- Optimizing Apache Iceberg Performance (Webinar)
- Jan 2026 – Apache Iceberg Meetup Atlanta (Meetup)
- Starburst 101 Workshop (Webinar)
- Starburst Galaxy Demo (Webinar)
Blog posts
- lakehouse lab (short-form video series)
- Understanding Query Plans | Starburst
- what is driving the semantic layer revival? (ai can’t live without it) | Medium
- The 8am Heartbeat Moments Before Your Data Pipelines Go Live | Starburst
- what is driving the semantic layer revival? (ai can’t live without it)
- my iceberg book (early release 1)
- don’t lead your chat-based llm (it wants to please) | Medium
- understanding iceberg deletion vectors (and enjoying some humble pie) | Medium
- don’t lead your chat-based llm (it wants to please)
Assets
- Early Release #1 – Optimizing Your Apache Iceberg Lakehouse (O’Reilly book)
- The Data Engineer’s Guide to Apache Iceberg v3 (ebook)
- Trino-Iceberg cheat sheet
- A Guide to Smarter ETL and Data Pipelines with Starburst (ebook)
- The Data Engineer’s Guide to the Iceberg Data Lakehouse (ebook)
On-demand training
Videos
Hoping these videos that got updated as private will be changed back to public, soon.
2 new series; Office Hours & Workshops
2025 public activities & content
Events
- Python for the Modern Data Lakehouse: PyStarburst, Ibis, and Beyond (Webinar)
- Exploring AI Functions with Starburst Galaxy (Webinar)
- Mastering Iceberg v3: Hands-On Techniques to Optimize Your Data Lakehouse (Webinar)
- Apache Iceberg Meetup – Atlanta, Georgia (Meetup)
- Starburst’s Lakeside AI Strategy in Action (Webinar)
- Iceberg v3 in Action (Datanova / Trino Day)
- Explore Data Products and Starburst AI Agent (Webinar)
- Build RAG Apps with Starburst AI Workflows (Webinar)
- Apache Iceberg Meetup – North Carolina (Meetup)
- Starburst 101 Workshop (Webinar) multiple deliveries
- Implementing Managed Iceberg Pipelines (Webinar)
- Building Trino data pipelines with SQL or Python (DataEngBytes Melbourne & Sydney)
- Implementing the medallion architecture with Starburst (DataEngBytes Melbourne & Sydney)
- Starburst Galaxy Demo (Webinar) multiple deliveries
- Apache Iceberg ingestion with Apache NiFi (Berlin Buzz Words)
- If there’s hope for GenAI… it’s in data platforms (Data Architecture Sydney)
- Trino query plan analysis | Session 3 of 3 (Webinar)
- Trino query plan analysis | Session 2 of 3 (Webinar)
- Trino query plan analysis | Session 1 of 3 (Webinar)
- Iceberg Metadata Deep-Dive (Webinar)
- Hive to Iceberg – To migrate, or not to migrate (Webinar)
- Streaming Stories #21: Everything You Wanted to Know About Iceberg, Trino, and More (Webinar)
- Data pipelines for RAG architecture applications | Starburst AMA #5 (Webinar)
- Apache Spark overview | Starburst AMA #4 (Webinar)
- PyStarburst – Dataframe API for Trino | Starburst AMA #3 (Webinar)
- Schema discovery | Starburst AMA #2 (Webinar)
- Apache Iceberg metadata | Starburst AMA #1 (Webinar)
Blog posts
- Best Practices for Optimizing Apache Iceberg Performance | Starburst
- Comparing Trino Spooling Protocol Client Retrieval Mods | Starburst
- How Starburst Galaxy Helps Unblock AI Projects | Starburst
- understanding iceberg deletion vectors (and enjoying some humble pie)
- Building Starburst Data Pipelines with SQL or Python | Starburst
- Comparing Foundational Features of Trino, Hive & Spark | Starburst
- Iceberg Snapshots Affect Storage, Not Performance | Starburst
- How Table Maintenance Affects Iceberg Snapshots | Starburst
- Visualizing Iceberg Snapshot Linear History | Starburst
- hive, trino & spark features (their journeys to sql, performance & durability) | Medium
- building trino data pipelines (with sql or python) | Medium
- building trino data pipelines (with sql or python)
- What is Vector Storage? | Starburst
- Improved Performance with Starburst ODBC Driver Version 3 | Starburst
- Starburst integration with Amazon S3 Tables | Starburst
- yarp: yet another rag post (this time using sql) | Medium
- yarp: yet another rag post (this time using sql)
- Starburst & Spark | Starburst
- trino query plan analysis (video series) | Medium
- trino query plan analysis (video series)
- Faster data compliance and data sovereignty with Stargate Parallel | Starburst
- Build a managed Apache Iceberg data lake using Starburst and Amazon S3 Tables | AWS
- Exploring Iceberg transactions and metadata | Starburst
- logo to company match game (data engineering open-source projects)
- Introducing the Trino spooling protocol | Starburst
- delta lake time-travel (just reference the version)
- unstructured docs in ai (the wild west) | Medium
- unstructured docs in ai (the wild west)
- What is Apache Spark? | Starburst
- success (ability, fortitude & luck) | Medium
- success (ability, fortitude & luck)
- optionality and common sense (why i returned to starburst)
- apache spark (yet another overview)
- apache iceberg table maintenance (is_current_ancestor part deux) | Medium
- How to see I/O wait time | Starburst forum
- iceberg snapshot is_current_ancestor flag (what does it tells us) | Medium
- iceberg acid transactions with partitions (a behind the scenes perspective) | Medium
On-demand training
- Utilizing SQL-based AI functions with Starburst
- Exploring Iceberg v3 with Starburst
- Create a Trino UDF function with Java
- Starburst Galaxy’s streaming ingestion service
- Starburst Galaxy’s file ingestion service
- Starburst Galaxy’s data maintenance service
- Intro to Apache NiFi flow development
Videos
Hoping these videos that got updated as private will be changed back to public, soon.
Hoping these videos that got updated as private will be changed back to public, soon.
2024 and earlier
I started keeping a detailed list (as you see above) from 2025 onward, but feel free to check my prior blog postings at lestermartin.blog, Medium, and my legacy blog, as well as my YouTube channel, my Sessionize profile, and my Linktree for some of my historical content & activities.