PostgreSQL Usergroup NL meetup "the Dutchies"

We are happy to invite you to the 2nd meetup of 2024 of thé PostgreSQL meetup group of thé Dutch Postgres community on Thursday, May 30th.!

First of all we would like to point that that our meetup group now consists of 839 members. These are all working and active PostgreSQL professionals in the Netherlands who are part of the Postgres community. The PostgreSQL Usergroup NL is an officially registered "local chapter" (PUG) of the PostgreSQL community.

On May 30th we our welcome at HCS Company in Amsterdam and have a great line-up consisting of 2 ‘friends from the show’ who will give a talk this evening.

Feike Steenbergen will kick off and take us through his experiences with Streamlining Bulk Data Insertion in PostgreSQL.

Then Boriss Mejias (co-author of the latest PostgreSQL 16 cookbook!) will take you through all the possibilities that PGVector offers.

In addition to these headliners, we offer the opportunity to participate in the Lightning Talks. If you have something to share in the PostgreSQL space, let us know and we'll be happy to give you the floor.

This PostgreSQL Meetup will be held at the HCS Company office in Amsterdam. Food and drinks are provided. Many thanks to HCS for their hospitality!!! We are very grateful to HCS Company for hosting the Meetup. Registration through Meetup.com is required.

We look forward to meet and talk on May 30th.

17:30 - 18:15 Doors open and drinks

18:15 - 18:20 Opening by Gerard Zuidweg, OptimaData

18:20 - 18:30 Introduction to HCS by KP Majoor - CTO

18:30 - 19:00 Feike Steenbergen - Streamlining Bulk Data Insertion in PostgreSQL

Break

19:10 - 19:45 Boriss Mejias - Pgvector - What the buzz with the vector databases in PostgreSQL

19:45 - 20:00 Lightning talks

20:00 - 20:30 Wrap up and drinks

By Feike Steenbergen, Staff Engineer - TimeScaleDB

While working on a new product that uses a lot of bulk inserts, we started to really appreciate the tools available in PostgreSQL to insert large amounts of data with the least amount of performance impact on the database. One of the features that has been available since PostgreSQL 15 is MERGE, which extends the possibilities of INSERT ON CONFLICT so you can ingest your data efficiently with only 1 statement.

We'll go through the semantics of MERGE, when to use it and show some examples of why it is useful and when it is more performant. One usecase is to have the most recent data readily available in a single table, yet also retain the whole history of the data in different tables.

We'll show how setting up temporary tables, MERGE, COPY and a few triggers simplifies our application, gives us great performance for getting the latest data, while still allowing us to query the whole history in (partitioned) tables.

 NOTE: I work for TimescaleDB ;-). If time permits, we can take a look at how TimescaleDB can be used to compress older data, reducing the disk-space requirement of the data without losing any details.

By Boriss Mejias, Solution Architect - EDB

Yet another talk on vector databases in PostgreSQL, and yes, yet again with the pgvector extension. So let’s iterate once again on the topic so that we probably get it right. The multi-dimensional representation of data using vectors enables programs to see data in a structured way that allows them to search and compare data in the forms of images, audio or text. This is especially interesting for deductive behavior in artificial intelligence.

Now, Postgres is an object-relational database that does not yet have vector capabilities in core, and that is why the extension pgvector comes into the game to convert Postgres in a vector database.

Postgres has established itself as a core capability of today’s digital transformation. This talk will explore the role Postgres plays in the IT stack, and what drove that phenomenal success. It will also look at the key requirements of new applications, as they pertain to Postgres. The talk ends with a discussion of the next frontiers for data driven applications: accelerated transformation, distributed systems, analytics, and AI.

What are Ligtning Talks?

A lightning talk is a very short presentation lasting only a few minutes. Everybody has the opportunity to take the stage for a few minutes and talk about a particular subject that he/she wants to share or even want some input on from the group. You can reserve your slot for a lightning talk by sending us a mail or write your name down on the day of the Meetup itself.

During a PostgreSQL Meetup we schedule the Lightning Talks to give everybody the oppertunity to get up the stage and share something.

Send us an email if you want to reserve a slot to share some of your experiences, knowlegde, funny or to ask the audience for feedback on a topic. Also you can write down your name on the list at the Meetup itself.

De meetup will be organized at the location of HCS Company Amsterdam at the Anthony Fokkerweg 61.

The adress is:

Anthony Fokkerweg 61
Amsterdam

How to reach:

By car: The office of HCS Company is easy to reach by the A10 exit s107. Around the office there is plenty of parking space.

Public transport: On walking distance there is Hoofddorpplein and Station Haarlemmermeer, form here there are several trams and buses to Amsterdam Centrum/Zuid. The metrostation Henk Sneevlietweg is on a few minutes walk.

You can signup to attend this meetup in the meetup-group "PostgreSQL Usergroup NL" at www.meetup.com. You don't have an account on Meetup yet? register for free at meetup.com and signup for this meetup!

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