PgconfEu 2022 in Berlin is coming very fast and one of my colleagues, who’s not very used to other pGConf Eu events asked what session we would recommend and why. First, let’s state the obvious, there will be concurring sessions and you will miss some that you want to see but will be at the same time than another one you absolutely want.

Of course, as I’m volunteering and speaking, this is not my real schedule.

A quick note on the value of events

Before jumping into my ideal schedule, I’d like to point out what is obvious to me: the real value of conf talk events is not the lineup of great speakers or the conf talks themselves. It is meeting great people! Please, add some “networking” sessions into your schedule, more than the coffee breaks give you!

Wednesday

So, here is my ideal schedule for Wednesday:

1. Welcome and Opening where you will have some important details like the wifi code, the social event, and the lightning talks session
2. Efficient Graph Analysis with SQL/PGQ where you will learn about the new SQL sublanguage, PGQ, efficient for graph analysis
3. Changelog vs Two-dimensional time - what works better? where I might find answers to my customers' recurrent questions about how to keep track of history
4. So, this is a difficult choice but from experience, I know I won’t be able to enjoy a talk before and after lunch and as there is a session I don’t want to miss after lunch, this time would be dedicated to rest and networkiing.
5. GSoC 2022 - Overview I want to hear about Google Summer of Code 2022.
6. Understanding the impact of Materialized CTEs as I’d like to learn more about materialized CTE
7. No Array of Sunshine: an Introduction to Data Types from a Data Quality Perspective as I love those talks about data quality
8. Again, this is heartbreaking, but I think this session will be too much for me to enjoy it, so I’d rather have a networking session instead.

Thursday

So, this is the day of my talk. From experience, I know I can’t concentrate on another talk before mine and that I will need one complete session to evacuate the adrenaline after. But let’s imagine this was not the case!

1. A comparison of PostgreSQL backup tools as I’m very interested in backup tools in the PostgreSQL world.
2. How to handle 1000 application users because I love real-world feedback
3. Neon, cloud-native storage backend for PostgreSQL because I’m very curious about Neon, what they did, and how (of course, I won’t be able to attend that one, because it’s during my own session)
4. I would take this session to rest.
5. On the Road to TDE as it’s a feature a lot of customers are asking for a long time (even though I can challenge the need most of the time).
6. How PostgreSQL Resists Automated Management (And How To Fix This) because that’s a very important topic nowadays
7. There is a list of 4 sponsor keynotes to finish the evening

Friday

Here is my ideal schedule for Friday:

1. Collations in PostgreSQL: The good, the bad and the ugly as I know collation can be very tricky
2. Practical transactions theory for PostgreSQL users as I think this is the kind of fundamental knowledge most people lack
3. I would take this time to rest, as heartbreaking as it is because there are great sessions during that time.
4. Documentation : Let’s make it better, now, together! because I do think we can make the documentation better but I’m not a professional tech writer
5. Solving PostgreSQL wicked problems as I’m interested in legacy code problems in Postgres Lightning Talks as no one will want to miss that one!!
6. and the ending keynote.

Ok, this is it. This is the end of the schedule! And you? What’s your ideal schedule?