First-Time Speaker Notes from PGDay Paris 2025
PGDay Paris 2025 was a compact but intense trip: fly in, speak, network, fly out. As a first-time conference speaker, I found the experience genuinely energizing — less because of the spotlight and more because of the community's depth and openness.
Starting with the Speaker Dinner
The conference officially began the evening before the main event with a speaker dinner at a cozy restaurant near the venue. Beyond the good food, it served a practical purpose: it gave speakers a chance to meet each other and shed some of the pre-talk jitters in a low-pressure setting.
A Compact but Engaged Audience
The venue was already buzzing by the time I arrived. Registration counted roughly 120 participants — a modest crowd by conference standards, but a notably knowledgeable one. I spotted many familiar faces from other PostgreSQL events, which made it easy to strike up conversations between sessions.
Monitoring and Full-Text Search
The first session I attended was Professional PostgreSQL Monitoring Made Easy by Pavlo Golub of CYBERTEC. He focused on practical monitoring setups and the common pitfalls to avoid. The examples were concrete enough that I could immediately think of improvements for my own PostgreSQL deployments.
Next, Google's Matt Cornillon took the stage with Full-Text Search Explained from A to Z with French Food. Using French cuisine as a running theme, he walked through how PostgreSQL's full-text capabilities work, pairing technical detail with recognizable use cases that made the material stick.
Lightning Talks at Pace
After lunch, the Lightning Talks started at 13:30. In five-minute slots, speakers covered an impressive range: one session dug into optimizing complex JOINs, another showed how to monitor database performance using only native PostgreSQL features. The format kept things moving, and the varied perspectives made for a dense, engaging hour.
My Session: PostgreSQL and Node.js on the Backend
When my own session came up, the nerves I'd been carrying faded surprisingly quickly. I spoke about using PostgreSQL with Next.js and NestJS, focusing on server-side rendering (SSR) and real-time updates, and how that combination can keep backend systems fast and scalable.
The questions afterward were the best part. People asked about connection pooling, handling JOINs in real-time queries, and structuring Prisma models for SSR and incremental static regeneration (ISR). It was satisfying to see attendees connecting the material to their own projects.
Conversations Beyond the Last Talk
After the final session, the venue stayed lively for a while before a relaxed evening reception with drinks, snacks, and naturally, more PostgreSQL discussion. A smaller group moved on to a nearby pub afterward over local food. Those informal conversations — about ideas, practices, and the community itself — are often where the real value of a conference shows.
PGDay Paris reaffirmed something I'd suspected: the PostgreSQL community is exceptionally welcoming to newcomers. The enthusiasm for Node.js and PostgreSQL combinations was encouraging, and the feedback from the talk left me motivated. I'm already looking forward to the next PGDay.
