Tag: postgres

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.

“DBA confessions”
What is Postgres Compatible? with Jimmy Angelakos. Since this discussion was based on the results of a half-day event we ran in Riga, Jummy called it “Riga Consensus,” and I liked it!
After “Women’s Breasfast”
I am posing by the poster of my college together with his co-author.
With Monica

Things I am Losing And Forgetting

I know that I am balancing on the edge when I start forgetting important things or losing object which are in plain sight. Just two minutes ago, I realized that I didn’t hit “post” on my repost, and didn’t repost here about yesterday’s meetup. And you what – yesterday was amazing! I felt good, like I hadn’t for a very long time! Moving to a new location was all I wanted, plus more!

However, the past week was marked by multiple micro-tragedies. On Saturday, Anna, Kira, and I stopped at the Art Institute before going to the concert, with the background idea of leaving their backpacks at the coat check for the duration of the concert. The idea was great, but closer to the end of the concert, I realized that I couldn’t find the tag, although I was sure I had put it into my backpack pocket. I ended up asking Anna to go to retrieve her luggage, and I found the tag in that very pocket on Sunday evening!

Second. I was cleaning the milk wand on my cappuccino maker, and then… I could tell where I put it! I am absolutely sure I accidentally threw it into the garbage, but I know how small, relatively heavy objects slide to the bottom of the bag almost instantaneously, so I didn’t have high expectations! Since I already had a thought about replacing this machine (I bought it because it cost $35, and I decided I could throw away that much for experimenting). The machine was not perfect, and I was leisurely thinking about the alternatives.

I checked on the manufacturer’s website and found that they do not have spare parts and that they are about to discontinue this particular model. Then, I went to check what’s on sale on Amazon, selected the device I liked, and it was shipped to me the day after. However, I was unable to make it work, and trust me, I am not a complete idiot. Something was definitely broken. I spent 30 min on AWS tech support, and they agreed to send me a replacement (I still had to sign up on the manufacturer’s website to initiate a replacement, but still!). Waiting for it to be over!

And finally, today, when I was at the ODS making Chicken Alfredo, I heated the pan too much before putting the chicken breasts on it, and hot olive oil made a little explosion straight into my right palm! I am still in pain, but not super severe.

What’s wrong with me?!

First Meetup At Chicago Innovations: I Loved It!!!

Prairie Postgres May meetup: the Mythical data Warehouse

Other Things I’ve Been Busy With Recently

Illinois Prairie PostgreSQL Meetup is moving!

Nordic PG Day

It was a good event, although I had a feeling it was too brief: not much time before or during the breaks. I was hoping to have more talks with the fellow organizers, friends, and sponsors, and I simply didn’t have enough time, especially because I only skipped one session; otherwise, I was actively listening.

My talk was very well received.

It turned out that Boris mentioned at the last Helsinki PUG that there would be an opportunity to have the Query Optimization signed by two of the three authors, and several people approached us with paper copies. 😀

I attended several incredibly interesting talks, and I am planning to follow up with some people because I want to explore more of what they are doing.

Three out of four PG DATA Org committee members presented at Nordic!

After the conference was over, those who didn’t leave to catch their flights went for drinks at the hotel bar. Boris and I wanted to take a couple of people whom we knew and who were in Helsinki for the first time, for one more round of Finnish authentic food, and we walked to the Konstan Möljä restaurant. Since my friend Zoya introduced us to this place, we’ve loved it! Our guests also liked it!

DePaul Industry Night

On Wednesday, March 11, our non-profit Pairie Postgres participated in the  Business & Data Analytics Industry Night at DePaul University as a resource for students. I was pleasantly surprised that our communications with DePaul are deepening, and they actually do all they can to include us in any events we might be interested in. It was great to talk with students directly. Yes, it might feel like a very modest outcome: one student registered for our June conference, and one student emailed us to tell us he wants to volunteer, but it’s so much better than nothing (which we had before!).

Carlos, the only local Board member except for me, was able to join me, and another organization member, Robert, also joined us. We had a great time at the event and appreciate the opportunity to connect with students and share that learning about databases can benefit their future careers.

I saved the last copy of our book from being silently taken 🙂