Welcome to Season One of ‘In Conversation With’ - a series of conversations with practitioners, technologists, and change makers who all share a passion in making meaningful connections and rethinking traditional practices, in the world of data and beyond.
Our host is Maarten Masschelein, CEO and co-founder of Soda Data. Maarten and his guests will be talking about data, what makes their world go around, and sharing their thoughts, perspective, and ideas that we think will inspire you to be a part of the conversation and be a part of the change. Because just like good data helps the world go around, so do good conversations.
To kick off this new series and its inaugural episode, here’s a teaser getting to know our host Maarten and a few of his favorite things.
Greetings, everyone. I'm Natasha, and I'm from Soda Data, an idea born in Belgium that helps organizations create the observability data teams need to find, analyze, and resolve data issues. Just like good data helps the world go around, so do good conversations. So, I'm delighted to welcome you to season one of the series that we are calling In Conversation With. Your host is Maarten Masschelein, CEO and co-founder of Soda Data. In this series, Maarten will be in conversation with practitioners, technologists, and change makers who all share a passion in making meaningful connections and rethinking traditional practices.
Maarten, it’s going to be great, you’ll be talking about data. What makes their world go around, and sharing their thoughts, perspective, and ideas that we think will inspire everyone here listening to be a part of the conversation and be a part of the change.
So it’s my pleasure to welcome you to your seat as host of your own series that we’re calling In Conversation With.
Hi, Tash. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Are you looking forward to it?
I’m very much looking forward to it. I love speaking with practitioners, I love getting new insights and ideas and sharing them with everyone, with all the listeners, so I’m very much looking forward to the lineup, as well.
So without further ado, let's get going. I've got a ton of questions for you.
First steps in data.
Oh, easy. Excel.
Why should someone think about building a career in data?
The impact you can make.
People that have influenced you?
Ah, there's two. Stijn Christiaens and Benny Verhaeghe. They're very Belgian names. They're both Belgian, but they're two co-founders of Collibra. Amazing people.
Do you play an instrument?
No.
Easy. What is your theme tune?
Oh, Sister Sledge, Greatest Dancer.
Love it. Your favorite example of data doing good?
That's fact checking fake news.
What are you passionate about that's got nothing to do with data?
Car design.
If you could do anything with data, what would it be?
Using data to make sure we use the right data to make decisions. So it's very meta, but that's what I would use it for.
I like it. It's meta.
Is there something that everyone should be reading right now?
I would go for - if you aren't already, look at the big tech companies. They all have engineering blogs. I kind of like following those. They're very nice.
What do you want listeners to get out of this podcast?
Well, new insights, ideas, and ideally ones that they can bring back into their day-to-day lives and apply them.
Thanks Maarten. This has been great. So that's your host listeners, Maarten Masschelein. We've got a great lineup of guests and I'm excited for each episode to start dropping, which will be once a month. So be sure to follow In Conversation With and the Soda Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. We can't wait to hear the conversations with practitioners, technologists, and change makers who all share a passion in making meaningful connections and rethinking traditional practices.
We'll see you here soon at In Conversation With.
