About PGCon

• Josh Berkus
• Peter Eisentraut
• Dan Langille
• Andrew Sullivan

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first PostgreSQL release, community members got together and arranged a 10th anniversary meeting in July 2006 (announcement email). This event was titled "The PostgreSQL Anniversary Summit" (event description). It was primarily organzied by Josh Berkus, Peter Eisentraut, Gavin Sherry, and Andrew Sullivan. Andrew did the on-the-ground work to set up the summit at Ryerson University in Toronto. Many community members and contributors attended, including all of the core team members. In total, there were 90 attendees. The first charity auction, which benefited elephants in Africa, was held here (the auction has been an annual and proud part of PGCon since its first year). The success of the The PostgreSQL Anniversary Summit inspired a desire for something more regular than once every 10 years.

After the summit, the desire for an annual event arose. Dan Langille, having started BSDCan three years earlier, was approached asked if he was interested in organizing the event.. There was still some ongoing discussion within the community about whether or not they wanted to run the event. Dan wanted that discussion to reach a conclusion before offering as he did not want to overlap or conflict with existing efforts. Based on prior work on other conferences, Dan knew that he wanted to be the organizer as opposed to a member of a committee reporting to another group.

Eventually, discussion concluded, and it was clear that Dan could proceed and not conflict with existing community efforts.

The domain was registered on 2006-10-13 and the Call for Papers went out on December 19, 2006.

PGCon 2007 gathered together 140 developers and users at the University of Ottawa, the setting being both fitting and convenient. Fitting, because PostgreSQL originated at a university. Convenient because the venue is close to hotels, bars, and restaurants, all withing easy walking distance. The academic setting also helps us keep costs lower, as reflected in our registration fees.

PGCon, true to its roots, has always been a technical conference, heavily attended by core team members and other developers. There is always a healthy mix of PostgreSQL hacking, performance, DBA, and other tracks. There is always a heavy emphasis on building great relationships and making valuable connections all while learning valuable insights into the work and skills you love.

PGCon 2018 was the 12th annual PGCon. It has always been held in Ottawa. All profits go to the future growth and expansion of the event.