Just got back from the whirlwind 🌪️ of PGConf NYC 2023 in Midtown Manhattan.🗽
After presenting at the 2021 edition, my first ever PostgreSQL conference, I was excited to return.
I’m happy to report that my second time around was as good or better than the first!
It was a great week of learning, networking, and sharing. Having so many different PostgreSQL people together in a shared space was very energizing.
Choosing sessions was difficult since there were 4 tracks to choose from, and I could only be in one place at a time. I generally chose sessions related to query performance, indexes, table partitioning, and things that PostgreSQL users like me tend to face building and scaling applications.
The PostgreSQL ecosystem is huge. I wanted to highlight some of the attendees and companies at the conference to give you a flavor.
Outline
- Recap of sessions I attended
- Networking with big companies using PostgreSQL
- Networking with PostgreSQL users and backend engineers
- Developer Advocates and Community Builders
- Networking with PostgreSQL committers and contributors
- Startups, Sponsors, and Vendors
- Lightning Talks
Sessions I attended
As a multi-track conference, many slots had multiple sessions I wanted to attend.
Here’s a quick list of what I attended. Each session is linked on the site, and presenters may have added slides or contact information if you’d like to learn more.
- Keynote by Dr. Andy Pavlo, CEO OtterTune
- Instacart engineering: Postgres Personalization by Ankit M., Jon P.
- pgbench with Melanie Plageman
- Query planning with Hamid Quddus Akhtar
- LOOKING IT UP: POSTGRESQL INDEXES with Christophe Pettus
- Table Partitioning with Chelsea Dole
- THINK LIKE A POSTGRES! with Robert Treat
- Supporting GenAI workloads in PostgreSQL with AWS by SHAYON SANYAL: pgvector, IVFFlat, HNSW
- Blue Green Deployments with AWS Aurora
- Incremental Materialized Views Overview
- Epsio: Instant query results, effortlessly
- Open source: pg_ivm
- PostgreSQL Extensions Overview with Claire Giordano
- Connection Pooling with Jelte F. (Microsoft): pgbouncer, Odyssey, pgcat, and more
- Database Maintenance with Keith Fiske (Crunchy Data)
Networking with companies building on PostgreSQL
- AWS, Crunchy Data
- Microsoft (ALL THE POSTGRES THINGS AT MICROSOFT with Claire G.)
- Neon (met Tristan who is a new developer there)
- Tembo (Founder Ry W., CTO Samay S., Founding engineer Adam H., and more team members!)
- datAvail
I also briefly chatted with Developer Advocates and Community Builders like Ryan Booz and Joe Brockmeier. And advocates like Robert Treat.
Networking with PostgreSQL users
I met backend engineers from these companies, using PostgreSQL!
These companies have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of PostgreSQL instances, powering their platforms.
Fleet management, configuration management, zero downtime cutovers, and major version upgrades are big challenges these companies face.
I met performance and scalability enthusiasts Hamid Akhtar (presented on: QUERY PERFORMANCE INSIGHTS V2), Umair Shahid, and Samay S. (who presented at Citus Con 2023 earlier this year).
Networking with PostgreSQL committers
The conference provides a great opportunity to meet contributors, committers, and community members. I briefly met Robert H. and Andres F.
- And contributors Jonathan K., Melanie P., Peter G. (and more!)
- And committers for ecosystem projects like pgbouncer and citus: Jelte F.
Community members, advocates, and presenters like Robert Treat.
Check out the Contributor Profiles page.
This page categorizes the Core Team, Major Contributors, Contributors, and past Hackers Emeritus and Contributors.
PostgreSQL Startups
These are new companies building on and contributing to the PostgreSQL ecosystem.
Many of these companies are sponsors, and had booths where you could learn about their products and offerings.
Lightning Talks
I was excited to give a short lightning talk, and enjoyed the ~10 lightning talks given by others.
I briefly showed a PostgreSQL 16 feature that adds the Query Identifier to logged query execution plans.
If there’s interest, I can record this demo since the original wasn’t recorded.
Hanging Out
Had some fun dinners and events out in NYC to meet more folks.
Highlights included Dim Sum, Italian in the East Village, and a private Karaoke room where we belted out tunes!
Wrap Up
PostgreSQL NYC was a great conference to network, learn, and share. The organizers and volunteers did a great job running it, creating a great experience for attendees.
If you’re considering attending future PGConf or PGDay events (see: PGDay Chicago 2023), I recommend them!
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