Could you briefly introduce yourself?

I have been a PostgreSQL developer and committer since 1999. I got involved to scratch my own itch, and it became a career. I now work as Deputy CTO at 2ndQuadrant, doing PostgreSQL development and support. I live in Germany.

How do you engage with the PostgreSQL Community?

I engage mostly via the pgsql-hackers mailing list, discussing development and project management and whatever else comes up. I’m also involved in some roles that are more behind the scenes, such as the core team, translations management, and the security team.

Have you enjoyed previous pgconf.eu or FOSDEM conferences, either as attendee or as speaker?

I have never been to pgconf.eu, so this will be quite exciting for me. I used to go regularly to the main FOSDEM conference but I’ve only been one or two times to the attached PostgreSQL day.

What will your talk be about, exactly? Why this topic?

My talk will be about the new procedures feature in PostgreSQL 11. I’m the main developer of this feature, so I’m touring to tell people about it.

What is the audience for your talk?

Those who write a lot of PL/pgSQL in their job and those who have worked with Oracle’s PL/SQL or who port Oracle code to PostgreSQL are the main audience. But everyone who is doing application development in PostgreSQL or who just wants to learn a bit about how PostgreSQL works can get something out of it.

What existing knowledge should the attendee have?

Some basic knowledge of PL/pgSQL or similar will be helpful.

What is the one feature in PostgreSQL 11 which you like most?

Those features that I have worked on myself clearly have a special place. But setting that aside, I’m excited about JIT compilation. It’s very cool technology, and it opens up a whole new world for developers and users.

Which other talk at this year’s conference would you like to see?

I want to see Tomas Vondra’s “CREATE STATISTICS - what is it for?” -- The “what is it for” theme is very similar to my talk.