The author, David Flanagan, uses InfluxDB Cloud, Telegraf, and Flux to parse Meetup API data, store it in InfluxDB Cloud, and send Slack notifications. He configures Telegraf to fetch events from the Meetup API every hour, stores them in InfluxDB Cloud, and then uses Flux tasks to filter, pivot, and map the data into a format suitable for sending to Slack. The author also handles authentication with Telegraf, confirms data availability using GUI time selectors, and uses the HTTP package to send notifications directly to the Slack API. Additionally, he leverages the secrets API in InfluxDB Cloud to securely store a Slack webhook endpoint, ensuring that sensitive information is not hardcoded into the Flux task.