...and it all kicked off the night before.
Let’s be honest. Most conferences give you a tote bag, three lukewarm coffees, and a vague idea that maybe you should be doing things differently. But our Data Mesh Meetup & Data Mesh Live 2025 Conference? Those hit differently.
It all began on the evening of June 4th at the 5th Data Mesh Belgium Meetup, expertly hosted by our own Tom De Wolf in partnership with Aardling and ACA Group. With insightful talks from Arif Wider and Jacek Majchrzak, the community dove headfirst into key questions:
It wasn’t just a warm-up, it was ignition. The meetup was a space for candid reflection, sharp insights, and the type of conversations that get everyone nodding in recognition. And from there, momentum only built.
On June 5 & 6, Data Mesh Live took over the beautiful location of the Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp.
Curated with precision and passion by Tom De Wolf, the conference drew data leaders, product managers, engineers, architects, and data mesh practitioners in general. No fluffy vendor pitches. No silver-bullet nonsense. Just clear, real, often deep conversations about making Data Mesh work in practice.
We started with an inspiring interview between Tom De Wolf and Zhamak Dehghani, creator of Data Mesh. Data Mesh is more relevant than ever and the foundation for data and (Gen)AI strategies. She thanked Tom for his commitment to the community and making this milestone event happen.
The real gold happened between the talks, in hallway exchanges, during the conference, over coffee, and deep into post-session chats. People weren’t just there to listen. They came to share, challenge, connect.
We left with more than just stickers and tote bags. These were the takeaways that stuck with us:
Watching people realise Data Mesh isn’t about tooling alone.
It’s about people. About agreements. About domain teams that finally feel ownership. And, let’s be honest, about asking better questions instead of just building faster pipelines.
The atmosphere was honest and energising, from sharp talks to lively side conversations to shared “aha-moments” that made you want to go home and re-architect everything.
And yes, credit where credit’s due: our very own Tom De Wolf made sure the program hit that sweet spot between concept and pragmatism. Calm, curated, community-driven.
Tom De Wolf: “The Data Mesh community has found its home to meet and align in-person. Data Mesh Live is finally that event with focus on the topic, resulting in more thorough discussions and exchange of ideas that go beyond the basics”
At ACA Group, we don’t just talk about Data Mesh, we help teams make it work, day-to-day, in real-life complexity. We’re guiding organisations towards:
Every organisation is different, but the need for clarity, autonomy and collaboration? That’s universal. And that’s where we come in.