Summit for MySQL Community, EU Edition — February 2, 2026

Speakers: Vadim Tkachenko, Mykola Marzhan, Mohamed Wadie Nsiri, Sunny Bains, Geir Høydalsvik, Peter Zaitsev

We’re gathering in Brussels on February 2nd for a focused, in-person summit dedicated to strengthening the MySQL ecosystem through collaboration, contribution, and community building.

Location: Rue Auguste Orts, Grand Place 3-7, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
Attendance: Free, by registration and confirmation only
Format: In-person only, no remote participation
Time: Monday, February 2, 2026, at 10:30 Brussels Time (CET) / 09:30 GMT
Structure: Roundtable discussions, connecting with peers, and collaboratively creating the summit agenda.

The Challenge

MySQL remains a critical part of the global data infrastructure, powering countless applications and services. Yet its long-term vitality depends on active, coordinated effort from the broader community, not just a few stakeholders.

The Solution

This summit offers a space for individuals and organizations who care deeply about MySQL’s future to come together, share ideas, and explore how we can collaborate more effectively.

If you’re part of the MySQL community, building tools, contributing code, supporting users, or working in DevRel, your voice and experience are essential.

What Makes This Different

Unlike traditional MySQL conferences that focus on end users and best practices, this summit is designed for active contributors to the MySQL ecosystem. That includes:

Software vendors, tool builders, and service providers
Contributors to MySQL or its forks
Engineers and architects working with large-scale MySQL deployments
Community organizers and open-source advocates
Companies with significant MySQL infrastructure

Together, we’ll explore how to support MySQL’s long-term health, and we welcome diverse voices to help shape that future.

Led by Vadim Tkachenko

The summit will be led by Vadim Tkachenko, co‑founder of Percona and a key figure in the MySQL world. Vadim served for many years as Percona’s CTO, contributed to the development of MySQL‑based products, and is a respected author and speaker in the open‑source database community. His deep technical expertise and long‑standing commitment to MySQL make him an ideal guide for this summit.

Who You’ll Meet

We expect participation from engineers and contributors working on MySQL and its ecosystem, including developers from Percona and other MySQL‑focused teams. This is a unique opportunity to connect directly with the people building the tools, infrastructure, and community around MySQL.

Among the participants and speakers:

Mykola Marzhan — Director of Engineering / Data Platform at Canonical. An engineering leader with 20 years of experience in database cluster management, managed services, monitoring, backups, and automated deployment systems. With a longstanding love of MySQL, he is focused on building the best DBaaS Platform.
Mohamed Wadie Nsiri — Product Manager of Data Platforms at Canonical. He brings about 15 years of experience in the IT industry, with strong expertise in data stores, storage, and distributed systems. His focus on building reliable and scalable data platforms reflects a deep passion for advancing open‑source infrastructure and supporting the MySQL ecosystem.
Sunny Bains — Software Architect at PingCAP. Database engineer with decades of experience in MySQL internals. Former Senior Director at Oracle leading the MySQL/InnoDB team, known for major contributions to InnoDB performance and features such as Full Text Search and parallel B+Tree reads.
Geir Høydalsvik — Independent MySQL Advocate. With long experience in database engineering, including 15 years at Oracle leading MySQL development, he continues to share deep expertise in MySQL internals and performance.
Peter Zaitsev — co‑founder of Percona and a long‑time leader in the MySQL community. A driving force behind open‑source database innovation, frequent speaker at global conferences, and advocate for collaborative development. His deep experience in MySQL performance, scalability, and community engagement will enrich the discussions and connections at the summit.

Agenda

The agenda will be published during the first week of January. It will include the schedule of the day (10:30–17:00), the topics of collaborative discussions, and the planned breaks.

Expect a full day of interactive sessions with a flexible structure shaped by the participants, ensuring both focused conversations and time for networking.

Next Steps

Please complete the registration form to apply for participation.

https://forms.gle/L9qQdGesGpVjSjhRA

We will review submissions within one week of receiving them, but we’ll do our best to respond sooner. Confirmed participants will receive a follow-up email with logistical details and agenda updates.

Also in USA

The MySQL Community Summit will also be held in San Francisco, USA, January 14, 2026. If traveling to the United States works better for you, we would be delighted to welcome you there. 👉 Link

We look forward to hearing from you and to building the future of MySQL together. ∎

Speakers

Vadim Tkachenko

Co-founder at Percona

Co‑founder of Percona and co‑author of High Performance MySQL. Vadim has deep expertise in database scalability and performance, with a long history in the IT and services industry. His professional skills span scalability, performance tuning, and software engineering, and his contributions — including co‑authoring one of the most influential books on MySQL optimization — have helped shape Percona into a trusted name in the open source database community. Vadim is also a frequent speaker at open source and database conferences, where he shares practical insights on performance and scalability.

See all talks by Vadim Tkachenko »

Mykola Marzhan

Director of Engineering / Data Platform, Canonical

Mykola is an engineering leader with 20 years of experience in making database cluster management boring. His career has centred on building managed services, monitoring, backups, and automated deployment and upgrade systems. He has a longstanding love of MySQL and intends to build the best DBaaS Platform.

See all talks by Mykola Marzhan »

Mohamed Wadie Nsiri

Product Manager of Data platforms, Canonical

With 15 years of IT industry experience, he is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about data stores, storage, and distributed systems.

See all talks by Mohamed Wadie Nsiri »

Sunny Bains

Software Architect at PingCAP

Sunny Bains has been working on database internals since 2001. Before joining PingCAP in 2022 he was a Senior Director of Software Development at Oracle where led the MySQL/InnoDB team. He fixed the performance bottlenecks that made InnoDB scale to where it is today. He is also the main author of the Full Text Search in InnoDB, B+Tree parallel read, DDL and more things that he can remember. Before joining Oracle in 2006 he implemented a database storage engine from scratch for a distributed database product at CTI Pty. Ltd. The networked database was used in a mission critical environment in the airline industry with very strict service level guarantees.

See all talks by Sunny Bains »

Geir Høydalsvik

Independent MySQL advocate

Geir Høydalsvik has been working on the MySQL Database since 2008. He is currently an independent MySQL advocate. In the period from 2010 to 2025 he worked for Oracle and was responsible for the development and maintenance of the MySQL Database. He has a background in the database industry, working for the database startup company Clustra Inc. on the Clustra database (2000-2002) and for Sun Microsystems on Java DB (2002-2008). He has a Master degree in Computer Science (1991) and a PhD in Software Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (1997).

See all talks by Geir Høydalsvik »

Peter Zaitsev

Co‑founder of Percona

Co‑founder of Percona and one of the foremost experts on MySQL strategy and optimization. Peter leveraged both his technical vision and entrepreneurial skills to grow Percona from a two‑person shop to one of the most respected open source companies in the business. A serial entrepreneur, he co‑founded his first startup while attending Moscow State University where he majored in Computer Science. He is a co‑author of High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, and Replication, one of the most popular books on MySQL performance. Peter frequently speaks as an expert lecturer at open source database conferences and has contributed articles to outlets such as Fortune and DZone.

See all talks by Peter Zaitsev »