PGDay UK 2023 was a week ago today, and I think it's safe to say it was a resounding success!
Starting a new conference series is always a gamble, but PostgreSQL Europe has got quite experienced at it at this point, with PGDay UK becoming the 7th active series we're running. The UK event was always going to be tricky to figure out - PostgreSQL Europe is based in France, so not only did we need to deal with trading in British Pounds instead of Euros (which we also have to do with some of the Nordic events), but we also had to deal with the UK being outside of the EU since Brexit which creates complications with payment providers for example. All of that went quite well all things considered, though it did mean we had to run a separate instance of our conference management system. The good news is, everything is now in place for 2024!
We were very happy with the venue; attendees seemed to like the 'half-round' banquet style setup of the talk room - one attendee said "the rounded tables felt more friendly and collaborative than a traditional lecture theatre setup" which personally I agree with entirely. The room itself was also very nice, with minstrel galleries at either end, a stage for the speakers giving good visibility, and an awesome AV guy who couldn't do enough to help.
We had a great range of talks, starting with Magnus Hagander's tour of the changes in PostgreSQL 16, and covering topics such as the community, AI, IoT, and, performance optimisation.
We also had amazing support from the sponsors; most of whom chose to take the partner level which gave them each a desk in the break area, allowing our attendees to chat with them over coffee and lunch, as well as grab some swag or win some goodies. Of course, there was also the usual hallway track between talks, with some very interesting discussions between our attendees.
I'd like to thank all the attendees, sponsors, staff, and the venue team for helping make the day a success - and hope to see everyone return in 2024!