Just got back home last night about 2 AM, and I am sitting in a park thinking about the last couple of days. Held in downtown Chicago, PG Day Chicago 2025 was very well done, and to be quite honest, sized just right for the attendance and space.

They had two tracks, and around 150 people registered. And both rooms were inhabited quite well the whole day long. Of course, I can only vouch for 50% of the sessions, but I really enjoyed the day.

This feels like one of my best experiences at a PostgreSQL conference, and really any conference in quite a while, for one reason. I learned some new, useful, and most importantly, practical stuff. This can be tricky for me trying to learn news skills, because of my knowledge of SQL Server. I know a lot about the basics of databases, and am starting to slightly understand PostgreSQL, but there are a lot of details that I don’t understand yet. It can be challenging finding the time and resources to learn, especially knowing what to learn. This is especially the case when terms are used similarly across platforms, but given different meanings and implementations.

An example

For example, PostgreSQL tables are all heap structures. But there is also a fill factor setting. In SQL Server a heap is thought of as bad, but one with any unused space is much worse, be cause heap space is never reused. But in PostgreSQL, they do reuse space. Their structures are based on MVCC, and if possible (in later versions), they try to write the new version on the same page.

It’s the speakers, it is always the speakers

Of course like with all conferences, like I said earlier, it all really comes down to the speakers. You could take the best conference center, the best city, the best food, and even the best volunteers and still have a terrible conference if the speakers don’t show up and give good advice.

Great conference, thank you Henrietta Dombrovskaya and Pat Wright for a wonderful day. (Also, I hope the bad printing job didn’t cause you any extra work…and if you attended and got a card from Redgate with the same image on both sides…let me know and I will send you a replacement via snail mail!)

I am glad we were able to sponsor again this year, and I hope to do it again next year!

The Scenic Route

On this trip I had 3 planned side trips mentioned in my last conference roundup, and since that was published, I came up with one possible alternative. Unfortunately, the weather was not on my side for two of them, as it was raining hard when I was going to stop for the waterfall, and it was too cloudy and cold to head down to the Navy Pier or Even Willis Tower and get some worthy pictures. So that is put off until next time!

I did get a few pictures of Chicago, several from my hotel window. It seems like a nice city. I will try to make more time for it on my next trip in.

I flew out of Nashville, where Nashville SC had a match at Geodis Park against the Chicago Fire. What a night, as Nashville the scored the most goals their team had ever scored in a game with a 7-2 victory (which is also the second highest goal count ever!)

The place was filled with energy, and I luckily caught this bit of video of a masterful score by Hany Mukhtar, who scored 2 goals that night (but that was only half as many as Sam Surridge who laid in 4!)

Next up

SQL Saturday Jacksonville is May 3, so I am off to a more typical conference for me! For this trip I have 2 side trips planned.