PGConf.EU 2024 in Athens is over, time for a review - which is long overdue. With 782 confirmed registrations, it was the largest PostgreSQL conference organized by PostgreSQL Europe - so far. And maybe the largest in-person PostgreSQL community conference world-wide.
If you see me writing about “us”, that’s because I’m one of the organizers of this conference.
The format was mostly the same as in previous years: Tuesday was training day, provided by sponsors. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday has seen three regular tracks with talks, and one track with sponsor talks. In my opinion, the sponsors do a good job submitting interesting talks for the sponsor track, and are not just doing yet another product presentation. This shows that everyone takes the sponsor track seriously, and it is a good addition to the talks in the main tracks.
Wednesday evening was the Community reception, also in the conference venue. Before the reception, we’ve seen the sponsor keynotes from the Platinum sponsors. More about that in a moment.
And the Lightning Talks are on Friday evening, which is an incentive not to leave before the conference closes.
Trainings
Tuesday was reserved for trainings, which are provided by some of the sponsors of the conference. This is a good opportunity to attend a training class by experts from the community, while also getting ready for the main conference.
Extension Summit
Not part of the main conference, there was a PostgreSQL Extension Summit on Tuesday afternoon. Organized by tembo, PERCONA, xata & Timescale, there was first a number of short presentations about the state of the extensions in PostgreSQL, followed by group discussions around several extension topics. This event was managed by David E. Wheeler, who also - together with Floor Drees - wrote a blog posting about the results.
Before the event spread out into separate discussions about extensions, the following speakers did a short presentation:
- David E. Wheeler: State of the Postgres Extension Ecosystem (Slides)
- Jimmy Angelakos: pg_statviz is a minimalist extension and utility pair for time series analysis and visualization of PostgreSQL internal statistics (Slides)
- Adam Hendel: pgmq is a lightweight message queue (Slides)
- Alastair Turner: pg_tde offers transparent encryption of table contents at rest, through a new Table Access Method extension (Slides)
- Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek: pgzx is a library for developing PostgreSQL extensions written in Zig (Slides)
- Mats Kindahl: maintaining extensions written in different languages
- James Blackwood-Sewell: The Timescale PGAI extensions: pgai and pgvectorscale (Slides)
Speaker reception
Ever since this small mishap in Milan (if you know, you know), we invite all speakers to a reception before the conference. This year, our local guide Jimmy Angelakos found the Black Duck near the Athens City Museum. The weather was warm, we stayed outside in the garden, got drinks and finger food served and talked to each other.
The venue was about 50 minutes walking from the hotel, and we passed by a number of embassies, as well as the Hellenic Parliament (under heavy guard by police).
Keynote
This year, Stacey Haysler presented the keynote: The PostgreSQL License Fee.
In this talk she shows that although companies and users do not pay a nominal license fee for the software, there is still often some form of payments attached. That might be in the form of sponsoring employment time (where she presented numbers from her own company), hosting events like Meetups, paying employees to go to events, paying companies for support contracts which these companies can use to support open source, or in general by supporting open source projects in one way or another.
- Schedule: The PostgreSQL License Fee
- YouTube: The PostgreSQL License Fee
- Slides: The PostgreSQL License Fee
We are all building the software together which we are using in our daily life.
Community Reception
Also for a couple of years now, we have a community reception. This is a party in the evening, where everyone can join, there’s some food, drinks, and everyone talks with each other. The main idea is that this event gives every attendee an opportunity to get to know new people and talk about something. Doesn’t even have to be database related.
This event is well received, and many attendees go around and talk to others, establishing new connections. As intended.
Lunch
No good conference without good food! The hotel had a very good buffet where everyone could pick from a wide variety of mostly mediterranean choices, including delicious desserts.
It’s really hard to keep the weight when so much good food is available!
Lightning Talks
Karen Jex organized the Lightning Talks this year, and provided a box for submissions. Separate colors for new and experienced speakers. Until the deadline, 29 submissions landed in the box. In the end, by accident, 6 speakers from each group were choosen to present their short talks and ideas.
I wrote a separate blog posting about the Lightning Talks, including links to each recording and the slides for each talk.
Diversity Committee
The newly formed PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee presented itself with a table with a wide choice of stickers and activities.
It also encouraged everyone to share: the table provided cards and pens, and the pinboard:
A space for PGConf.EU attendees to celebrate the things that make them unique, the things they have in common, and the things they love about the Postgres community. Also, a space for attendees to share the things they’re working on to make it even better.
Sweets from Ukraine
Taras Kloba brought a box of delicious sweets from Ukraine. Very delicious!
Makes me miss that PGDay Ukraine in 2020 never happened, and hopefully one day we can have this conference.
Postgres Chess Club
The Postgres Chess Club did meet during the conference, and organized a tournament. When you walk down from the main lobby to the conference area, there was almost always someone playing chess.
Boriss Mejías, Derk van Veen and Jan Karremans organized the tournament. Patricia Horvath blogged about it. Cybertec sponsored LEGO prices for the winners.
Sign up for the Postgres Chess Club on lichess.org.
Sponsors
PGConf.EU will not be possible without the generous help from sponsors. Some of the companies are with us for many years, others are new. Everyone is welcome. And everyone offers interesting products and ideas.
We as conference provide a table in the main area for the Platinum and Gold sponsors, most of the sponsors present themselves and their products at this table.
For attendees, this is a good opportunity to walk around and talk to sponsors and see if they offer products and services they can use. Also many of the sponsors are hiring, if you are looking for a new job this is a good opportunity to see if this is a match.
Personally I like to walk around and find out what’s new in the PostgreSQL world and what companies are working on. Also I know many of the people, so it’s always nice to have a chat. And the people I don’t know - well, not much longer.
Sponsor Keynotes
Besides the sponsor track, where both Gold and Platinum sponsors have talks, the Platinum sponsors also have the opportunity to present a keynote. Some sppnsors use this to talk about the work they are doing, for some it is also a hiring pitch, but in general this is mostly about the community.
Hans-Jürgen Schönig: Using PostgreSQL in real life
- Schedule: Using PostgreSQL in real life
- YouTube: Using PostgreSQL in real life
Heikki Linnakangas: Making Postgres serverless
- Schedule: Making Postgres serverless
- YouTube: Making Postgres serverless
Peter Eisentraut: Postgres Over the Horizon: Anchor Points for the Future We Should Be Building Now
- Schedule: Postgres Over the Horizon: Anchor Points for the Future We Should Be Building Now
- YouTube: Postgres Over the Horizon: Anchor Points for the Future We Should Be Building Now
Charles Feddersen: Everything Postgres at Microsoft – 2024 in Review
Speaker present
This years speaker present was designed and produced by a local artist. Every carafe is hand-made and unique. The design is based on our conference logo, with additions by the artist.
Restaurants
Of course we also had dinner! Every day, believe it or not!
I wrote a separate blog posting about the restaurants we visited.
Tourist activities
Although Athens is a very old and historic city, it’s not made for walking anymore. Sidewalks are not in a good condition, and very small. Every small street is full with parked cars, taking away a lot of public space - often even blocking crossings. Not a single cycling lane. In total I’ve seen 3 (yes, three) bicycles during the entire week.
As a tourist you can walk around, but it’s noisy because everyone is driving cars. Public transport is ok, there are busses, some trams and one of the metro lines goes from the airport to near the conference venue. While we walked from the Acropolis to the Acropolis Museum, we passed through the Dionysiou Areopagitou street (Διονυσίου Αρεοπαγίτου) - this street is blocked for traffic. What a relief, and a difference compared to the rest of the city!
Mount Lycabettus, Lycabetos Theatre and Chapel of St. George
Monday afternoon I just went out to find a Geocache or two - and ended up at the foot of Mount Lycabettus (in Greek: Lykavittos). Said to myself: why not. And walked up to the Lycabetos Theatre and the Chapel of St. George. It’s only about two km from the conference venue, but it’s uphill which takes a bit more time. On the way back I passed by the War Museum which I already spotted when I exited the metro station the day before.
While exploring the vicinity I also passed by the famous The Runner statue.
Olymp
When we walked to the Strofi Athenian Restaurant, we passed by the Panathenaic Stadium. That is the place of the first mew Olympic Games in 1896.
The timing was good, it was already closed and we could walk up to the gate and take pictures. When we passed by here the next day we found out that the entire placa is only accessible after paying an entrance fee.
Acropolis
For Saturday, we had tickets for the Acropolis. It’s best if you book the tickets in advance, the later times in weekend days are usually fully booked ahead of time.
It is without a doubt one of the attractions of Athens! A while ago it was damaged in a wildfire, and is currently partly under reconstruction. From here one has a wide view over all parts of the city.
Acropolis Museum
From the Acropolis we went to the Acropolis Museum - which is not included in the general admission ticket.
Library
The day was only halfway over, therefore it was time for lunch. We found a small restaurant right across the Hard Rock Cafe - the Efcharis restaurant (ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣ μεζεδοπωλείο). Much better choice indeed.
From there we went across the street and visited Hadrian’s Library. This was included in the ticket we had.
Ancient Agora Museum
A couple of streets from the library is the Museum of the Ancient Agora. This was also included in the ticket. The library we visited before is rather small, only like 3 or 4 houses wide. The area of the museum is really huge, one can easily plan 2-3 hours to visit everything. The area includes the Temple of Hephaestus, the Ancient Agora and the Stoa of Attalos, Temple of Ares, the Monument of Socrates and Confucius, the Altar of the Twelve Gods as well as many other small exhibitions and installations.
From here it was time to walk back to the hotel, and get some rest before dinner.
Closing session
During the closing, Dave and Magnus traditionally present a number of statistics about the conference. Remarkable, the focus on Social Media switched to LinkedIn in recent months, another previously used platform (you know which one) is no longer much relevant. That said, follow PGConf.EU on LinkedIn and on Mastodon.
And with that, PGConf.EU 2024 is history. See you next year, in another city in Europe!
Thanks to everyone who made the conference possible!
Other postings
Other people also posted about the conference:
- Jimmy Angelakos: PGConf.EU 2024 in Athens, Extension Summit, OpenStreetMap talk, and others
- Gulcin Yildirim Jelinek: Recap of PGConf.EU 2024 in Athens
- Akshat Jaimini: Had an amazing time at #pgconfeu 2024 in sunny Athens! ☀️
- Sena Güngör: It’s a wrap! 🐘
- Taras Kloba: Wrapping Up PgConf.EU 2024 in Greece
- Mohsin Ejaz: Excited to be part of the world’s largest PostgreSQL Conference at #PGConfEU!
- Cornelia Biacsics: Recap on PostgreSQL Conference Europe!
- Akshay Joshi: PostgreSQL Conference In Athens
- Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya: And About The Conference
- Stefanie Janine Stölting: Recap pgconf.eu 2024
- Adrien Obernesser: PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2024 – Day 1
- Adrien Obernesser: PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2024 – Day 2
- Adrien Obernesser: PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2024 – Last day
- Sascha Spettmann: Unser Besuch der PGConf.EU 2024
- Daniel Westermann: 2024.pgconf.eu – Bigger than ever, the family is growing fast
- David E. Wheeler: PGConf & Extension Ecosystem Summit EU 2024
- Jan Karremans: Pure CYBERTEC power in Athens!
- Dirk Aumüller: Rückblick auf die PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2024 in Athen
- Tembo: We had a great time at PGConf EU last week
- LOXODATA: Retour sur la PG Conf Europe 2024
Feel free to have a glimpse. If you know about a posting which is not listed here, please let me know.
Comments
With an account on the Fediverse or Mastodon, you can respond to this post. Known replies are displayed below:
Note: This will load data from mastodon.social.
Learn how this is implemented here.
Share: