Community events

Many years ago, I started attending conferences.  Mostly in the SQL Server space and related to the PASS community.  We built a family in that community and I’m proud to say I still know many of that family to this day. I’ve been helping to organize the PGConf NYC event for the past 2 years and I’m starting to see this community grow.   Last year was still right at the end of the Pandemic and we were still limited in some things.  This year it was nice to see Timescale do an after party and to see lots of people going off for drinks and dinner.   

When I got into my hotel room Thursday night I was super energized and focused on what I needed to do in the community to help this keep going.  I remember those feelings from the days at the summit in spending time talking to friends and mentors.  I made a quick list of things we need to do to hopefully grow this community and continue to increase the feeling of family.  

1. Embrace the new people!  We have a lot of people that have been in this community for a long time and know all about Postgres.  But we are the fastest growing DB on the market and that means lots of new faces that need to learn about Postgres. We need more 101 sessions and more sessions that welcome them into the fold.  
2. More community events,  We need more user groups and smaller events.  We need to start spreading the word and getting communities all over the world.  So that when they come together they already feel like family. 
3. More sponsors focused on the community.   My hats off to Timescale for this event as they put on an after party for the community. I know that some of the other sponsors wanted to do this as well and I hope next year we can have several events to choose from.  I urge all the sponsors/vendors out there to find ways to connect with the community.  Not through the product, just connecting with people.  
4. More Speakers. We have lots of amazing long time speakers that know PG extremely well.  We need to start getting more people in the position to speak so we can grow and get more diverse sessions.  If anyone is interested in learning to speak or interested in speaking please reach out to me. I’m happy to coach and work with you and help to get you started down that path.  It will forever change your career I promise.  

These were the key things I wrote down after the first day and things I intend to focus on in the next 6 months.  I would love to hear from others that might have suggestions for things to add to my list or for things that you would like us to do better for future events.  

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