The First pgCon Unconference: Join Us!

We're having an Unconference Day at pgCon 2013!  As far as I know, this is a first for the PostgreSQL community*, so I've prepared some information on what the unconference is and how it happens. The Unconference Day is taking place on Saturday, May 25, after the main session days at pgCon, so I hope you bought your plane tickets to stay over Saturday!

For those of you who are unfamiliar, an Unconference is a participant-driven meeting. Typically at an unconference, the agenda is created by the attendees at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion on a topic can claim a time and a space. Unconferences typically feature open discussions rather than having a single speaker at the front of the room giving a talk, although any format is permitted.

This means that we want you -- yes, you -- to lead a session at the Unconference Day.  Don't be shy!

pgCon is the primary venue for PostgreSQL contributors around the world to collaborate in person. As pgCon has grown, it has added additional ways to be involved in PostgreSQL development, including the Developer Meeting, the Cluster-Hackers Summit, the PostgresXC Summit, the Schemaverse Tournament, and many other satellite events.

This Unconference Day will permit us additional collaboration time, in order to work on many things which didn't make it into the formal pgCon program, including:

• open or round-table discussions among community teams, such as the Web Team, Advocacy Team, Buildfarm hosts, and others.
• new or emerging topics which came up after the pgCon Call for Papers was closed.
• spillover topics from things which came up during pgCon
• development planning and coordination for contributors who were not invited to the Developer Meeting
• active working or hacking sessions

Most of the Unconference Day will be planned between 10am and 11am on the day of.  However, there are a couple things you could do right now to help get ready for it:

1. If you have an idea for a session at the Unconference Day, add it to the wiki page.
2. If you are available to volunteer to help me run the day, please contact me.

I look forward to seeing you there!

(* Turns out, as usual, our Japanese collegues have beaten us to the punch.  There was an unconference in Tokyo last season.)