My Talk At PG Conf.EU

Most times, when I want to share something from my professional blog, I just repost it, but this time, I made a separate post with twice as many pictures, since my former colleague took several dozen!

Yesterday, I spoke about pg_acm at PGConf.EU. Speaking at the world’s biggest Postgres conference is an honor in itself, and I don’t get to present there every year, so I am incredibly thankful to the CfP committee for choosing this talk.

This talk has a long history of rejection and denial of the fact that something could be wrong with Postgres, which made me appreciate this opportunity even more.

My presentation earlier this year at Tallinn PUG definitely helped me shape it better, and I think it went as well as it could have.

Prairie Postgres Is Two! (Professional blog repost)

Two Years of Community Building!

Are You Doing SQL?

The weirdest and funniest thing happened to me in Chicago last week.

I was waiting for a Red Line train at Roosevelt when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a very queer person coming down. Queerness isn’t unusual, of course, but this particular outfit was not exactly for the weather (I would question a bare chest at 67 F outside, but whatever). He sat down on a bench to wait for a train, and suddenly, he addressed me: “Excuse me, are you doing SQL?”

I am used to people noticing my laptop on the CTA, and even recognizing me, but my laptop was inside my backpack. I nervously looked down at my clothes, but I didn’t even wear a Postgres hoodie or anything with Blue Elephant on it. Finally, I replied, “What exactly do you mean?”

— You are running this SQL thing on Wednesdays, don’t you?

— Yes, I am! But how do you know? I do not have anything that says “Postgres” on me.

— I’ve been to your events a couple of times. I remember you; it just took me some time to place you.

We talked a little bit about my meetup and others. I am so embarrassed that I do not remember people (and yes, he didn’t come to our meetups in a pink tutu, but still). As it turns out, I don’t even remember many people I briefly communicated with at my former firm. When they reach out on LinkedIn and say we talked, I often can’t recall either the conversation or the person, and I feel horrible about it. And no, that’s not the “I am way too popular” thing; it’s just something I need to work on.

Sharing A Vlog About Our Conference

Pavlo creates amazing vlogs, and I am not even jealous; I know I can’t create anything even remotely close to what he produces. Excited to share his vlog about PG DATA 2026 conference (starring me, among others:))

Traveling To PG Day Boston

My friend and former colleague was in charge of Pg Day Boston; it was the first event in that series, and I promised him I would come. Fortunately, there are plenty of direct flights to Boston from Chicago, but Boston is one hour ahead of us, and to make it a day trip and to get most of the conference, I had to take a 6 AM flight, which meant I had to be up at 3 AM. That was an extreme even for me, but remembering how I stayed in line three weeks ago, I decided to be on the safe side. I even pre-ordered Uber, which I almost never do.

Also, remembering that there was no food on my flight to Vancouver, and that the lounge does not open before 5 AM, I decided to upgrade to First Class. I arrived at the airport on time; the priority boarding didn’t reopen, so I stayed in the line with others, but chose a shorter line this time. Then, I waited for 25 min for the lounge to open. I got a cappuccino, a small yogurt cup, and a small cup of chai pudding, thinking I would have a proper breakfast on the plane, but they didn’t have any food, even in first class! There were drinks and some snacks, like crunchy bars, and that was it. Oh, well. First World problems:)

The conference took place on the 6th floor of the Boston Museum of Science. The great thing about it is that it is very close to the Logan Airport. Since my flight was ahead of schedule, and the ride was less than 15 minutes, I only missed a small part of the keynote. The most difficult part of the whole day was staying awake, alert, and social while being up since 3 AM. I mostly succeeded :). I had several great conversations, made some meaningful comments, and reconnected with several of my former EDB colleagues. I probably could have stayed for the whole social hour after the conference and been on time for my flight, but I chose to spend this extra hour in the airport lounge and have a proper meal. Even though it was rush hour, it still took 15 min to get to the airport (most of the way it was an underground tunnel). No lines at security, great food in the lounge, free in-flight internet (now the norm with AA), early arrival, and a quick taxi ride home (I know by now that taxi is faster on tbd way back, and not that expensive).

I spent zero time in Boston, as expected. I am thinking – it’s sort of funny how you can actually go for a day to Boston with no luggage, no packing; just a regular backpack I take to work. I am not sure whether it was a justified spending of time and money yet, but we’ll see. I mostly went to support Tom, but he appears to be fine anyway. There was enough EBD people, which made up for the lack of external audience, and overall, he is just more relaxed about the whole thing than I :). Besides, he won’t be doing these conferences anymore; there is a new team coming next year.

Anyway, I guess it was good that I went. The event was different from mine, and it’s OK.

Speakers And Travel

We had to replace several speakers because they either didn’t get visas or required sponsorship for their travel. While the latter one was no one fault, the visa situation was extremely annoying. People applied for visas way in advance, and they should not have wait for many months. I am still mad that it happened!

Additionally, there were several mini -calamities, like there were three speakers who forgot to register, and there was one speaker who’s flight was delayed multiple times, so he ended up arriving to the venue nine minutes before his talk! Our head of the CfP Committee was pacing the hallway with the phone in her hand watching for the speaker’s messages. I ran up to the registration desk and checked him in, so that he could have his badge ready. He made it!

I should also mention that our keynote was at risk until days before the event, but this was also happily resolved.

And the program was the best I could imagine!

PG DATA Conference In Pictures

I know, I know… I know that people do not click the links, especially if this link leads you to several hundred pictures. I know, I know…

Still, I can’t select just a couple of pictures; I can’t even select a dozen or two. I love them all! I just went through the “everything”, which is around 900 photos, and painfully selected just about 300, and that’s the link I am posting here.

I am smiling, going through the photos. Although this time around, I was able to listen to some sessions, it was still a drop in the sea, and it brings me incredible joy to see an engaged audience at each session, everyone listening and asking questions; a great hallway track. Love seeing new faces, love seeing interest and curiosity!

Take a look 🙂

Conference Day 1

Looks like we are rolling! I had tons of positive feedback about the conference; there were many great talks, and it looks like there were no major hiccups (although we will know next week!)

Pre-conference

Several times a day, I think I should write down everything that happens over just a couple of hours: how many conference-related messages I receive, what they are about, and how many responses I need to send out.

It couldn’t be further from “me doing it all alone,” nothing like that! Many people are helping me and handling huge portions of the work, including catering, sending sponsor information, sending messages to attendees, managing social media, and more!

Still… each time I look at the phone or open my laptop to write something personal, I see yet another thing I need to take care of, respond to, or plan.

The conference is just a week away, and I can’t believe it. And there are so many things to do – still!

Pictures From The Conference

This year, I felt way more “in the right place” than in Montreal last year. I do not know whether to blame the conference or myself :). Below are the pictures from the conference social media or taken by other people.