PostgreSQL for Thinkers

Please check PostgreSQL Ibiza’s conference website. If you haven’t done so, please also take two minutes to watch our conference video. Now if you think that PostgreSQL Ibiza is another PostgreSQL Conference, just on the beach (which is not that bad anyway!), then keep reading. Because it is much more than that. PostgreSQL Ibiza is a new, disruptive PostgreSQL conference.

We are all in a rush. I have been to many dozens of PostgreSQL conferences in the last decade. Some are good, some are great. I have always enjoyed them and I will continue to attend to them, as many as I can. But I always rush. I know many people, and love to talk to all of them, all of you. But it’s impossible. Time is tight. Conference runs just for a few days. Everybody (starting from myself) is busy with “normal” work. Sometimes, there’s even barely time to attend to all the talks that I want to. I’m sure I’m not alone here.

We have organized PostgreSQL Ibiza in a different way. Turned it upside down. PostgreSQL Ibiza is a 5 day social and networking event, embedding a two-day PostgreSQL talks conference.

There is a Welcome Reception on the evening of Wednesday, June 19th, for the attendees, friends, colleagues, to start socializing. While enjoying a cocktail on a rooftop, overseeing the port of Santa Eulalia and the beautiful, calm Mediterranean Sea, while the sun sets. Then there is PostgreSQL talks, as usual, on Thursday and Friday. With the exception that you can be on the patio of the conference venue, surrounded by Ibiza’s typical pine tree forest, or simply swim on the beach, 50m away from the Palacio de Congresos de Ibiza. And then there’s the weekend, a family-friendly time to relax, enjoy with PostgreSQL colleagues, experience the exquisite Ibiza food, pure Mediterranean diet, and visit the best beaches of Ibiza –second to none.

And why we do all this? It is just for fun, for tourism, vacations, to finally bring your family to a PostgreSQL Conference? Not at all. On the contrary, we do this because we believe it is the best way to contribute to a non-rushed, profound, thoughtful conversation about PostgreSQL: where we are, what challenges do we need to address as a Community, and what to do next. This cannot happen when rushing on the “hallway track”. But we will definitely have this conversation during PostgreSQL Ibiza.

Because there are challenges. PostgreSQL is great, isn’t it? It’s been named database of the year for two years in a row. With each release it gets better and better. Usage is growing year over year. Awesome right? Not enough. We need to stop patting ourselves in the back. The reality is that PostgreSQL is entering/well into a comfort zone. PostgreSQL is still a relative niche in terms of market share. Our potential competitors are backed by publicly traded companies with huge millions of $ for their marketing, R&D and development spending. And even if we could compete well with all that, maybe we’re underperforming, losing the opportunity to do even more (cost of opportunity).

We need to sit down, again, calmly, and think about PostgreSQL. I’m sure every one of you can name a few topics that should be touched on, to guarantee the best future and outreach for PostgreSQL. And this cannot happen on a rush. On the hallway track. We need to inaugurate the three-hour-long-Spanish-meal-in-front-of-the-beach-track, and many other similar tracks than will happen in Ibiza. To discuss the future of PostgreSQL, to further engage with your PostgreSQL colleagues. To hack on patches. To talk to your customers, or your prospects. To establish new alliances within the community, or to reach out to other database technologies and open source communities.

Let’s all join in Ibiza, and Think PostgreSQL. Please join us attending and/or sponsoring this effort. PostgreSQL Ibiza is an independent conference, run by Fundación PostgreSQL, a non-profit Foundation established in Spain. It is an international conference. And more importantly, it is a Community Conference.

See you in Ibiza in June!

P.S. Ticket are on sale now. Go and grab yours while it’s on Early Bird and get a 25% discount!