Ultimate Guide to POSETTE: An Event for Postgres, 2026 edition
POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2026 is back for its 5th year: free, virtual, and unapologetically all about Postgres. No travel budget required and no jet lag involved. Just your laptop, a decent internet connection, and curiosity. This year the POSETTE 2026 schedule has 4 livestreams (16-18 June) with 44 talks at ~25 minutes each—covering everything from query performance and partitioning to Postgres 19 features, extensions, and use cases. Which is awesome but also a bit of work to figure out which talks are for you. Hence this ultimate guide post. Every talk will land on YouTube afterward (un-gated, of course) so if you miss anything you care about, you can watch it later. But if you can catch a livestream in June, do it. That’s when the “virtual hallway track” happens on Discord—where you can ask the POSETTE speakers questions and compare notes with other attendees. Meeting other attendees who have the same weird Postgres problems you do can be reassuring somehow. And yes, there will be swag. This guide is your cheat sheet: I’ve categorized and tagged all 44 talks so you don’t have to read 44 abstracts back-to-back. In this post you'll get: “By the numbers” summary Map of the 44 talks 2 Keynote sessions 23 Postgres core talks 11 Postgres ecosystem talks 8 Azure Database talks Why participate on the virtual hallway track on Discord A big thank you to our amazing speakers Join us for POSETTE 2026 & mark your calendars Official POSETTE 2026 Trailer “By the numbers” summary for POSETTE 2026 Here’s a quick snapshot of what you need to know about POSETTE this year: 3 days 16-18 June 2026 4 livestreams In Americas & EMEA time zones but of course you can watch from anywhere 44 talks All free, all virtual 2 invited keynotes Driving Postgres forward at Microsoft (Livestream 1), and Postgres 19 Hackers Panel: What’s In, What’s Out, & What’s Next (Livestream 2) 25 minutes Average length per talk ~1100 minutes Total minutes in POSETTE 2026 talks 50 speakers POSETTE 2026 speakers include PostgreSQL hackers and contributors, users, application developers, PG community members, Azure engineers, & Azure customers 6 keynote speakers Affan Dar & Charles Feddersen (Livestream 1); and Álvaro Herrera, Heikki Linnakangas, Melanie Plageman, & Thomas Munro (Livestream 2) 19 countries Speakers reside in 19 different countries 23 companies Speakers hail from 23 different companies 17.6% CFP acceptance rate 42 talks selected from 238 submisssions 75% general Postgres talks 33 talks are not cloud-specific at all, they’re about the Postgres technology & ecosystem 25% Azure-related talks 11 of 44 talks feature Azure Database for PostgreSQL or Azure HorizonDB 1 organizing company Organized by the Postgres team at Microsoft, in partnership with AMD 17 languages Published talk videos will have captions available in 17 languages, including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Chinese Simplified & Chinese Traditional Map of the 44 talks To help you quickly navigate all 44 talks, here’s a map of the high-level categories and detailed topics. : A map of the POSETTE 2026 talks—high-level categories and detailed tags to help you find what you care about 2 Keynote sessions Affan Dar and Charles Feddersen lead the PostgreSQL engineering and product teams at Microsoft, In this keynote, they’ll walk through how Microsoft is contributing to Postgres, both upstream in the open source project and in the cloud database service they build on top of it. Driving Postgres forward at Microsoft, by Affan Dar & Charles Feddersen (Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure HorizonDB, VS Code, Dev tools, community, Postgres hacking, open source, PosetteConf, livestream-1) Want to understand how Postgres features get decided? This keynote panel with 4 PostgreSQL committers & hackers will peel back the curtain. You’ll hear what made it into Postgres 19, what didn’t (and why), and get a sneak peek into a few of the things in the oven for Postgres 20. Postgres 19 Hackers Panel: What’s In, What’s Out, & What’s Next, by Álvaro Herrera, Heikki Linnakangas, Melanie Plageman, & Thomas Munro (Postgres 19, Postgres hacking, panel, open source, collaboration, multithreading, livestream-2) 23 Postgres core talks Data Modeling JSON in PostgreSQL - evil data type or just needs to be tamed?, by Boriss Mejias (JSON, performance, data modeling, livestream-1) PostgreSQL Design Patterns, by Chris Ellis (data modeling, SQL, PG use cases, livestream-1) Graph Data Exploring property graphs with SQL/PGQ in PostgreSQL, by Ashutosh Bapat (SQL/PGQ, graph data, data modeling, Postgres 19, livestream-4) LISTEN/NOTIFY LISTEN Carefully: How NOTIFY Can Trip Up Your Database, by Jimmy Angelakos (LISTEN/NOTIFY, PG use cases, triggers, livestream-4) Performance Maintaining Large Tables in PostgreSQL, by Sarat Balijepalli (WAL, performance, scaling Postgres, vacuum, autovacuum, statistics, partitioning, monitoring, livestream-3) My Postgres partitioning cookbook, by Derk van Veen (partitioning, PG use cases, data modeling, performance, livestream-4) PostgreSQL 17 vs 18: Side‑by‑Side Performance Wins in Real‑World Queries, by Divya Bhargov (performance, PG use cases, livestream-3) Vacuuming Enhancements in PostgreSQL 18: Faster, Smarter, More Predictable, by Shashikant Shakya (vacuum, async IO, monitoring, performance, livestream-4) PG Internals Linux and PostgreSQL in the Multiverse of Connections, by Josef Machytka (Linux, PG internals, connection pooling, livestream-2) pg_stats: How Postgres Internal Stats Work, by Richard Yen (statistics, pg_stats, PG internals, query planner, livestream-2) Postgres isn’t slow, your storage is, by Sai Srirampur (storage, IO, performance, livestream-3) PostgreSQL queues done right with PgQ, by Alexander Kukushkin (queues, PG internals, extensions, livestream-2) random_page_cost in Postgres - why the default is 4.0 and should you lower it?, by Tomas Vondra (PG internals, IO, performance, livestream-1) The Wonderful World of WAL, by Bruce Momjian (WAL, PG internals, replication, livestream-3) What's new with constraints in Postgres 18, by Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek (constraints, data modeling, livestream-2) Postgres Hacking Fuzzing PostgreSQL, by Adam Wolk (PG internals, testing, Dev tools, libpq, security, livestream-1) Journey of developing a performance optimization feature in PostgreSQL, by Rahila Syed (Postgres hacking, PG internals, performance, WAL, replication, livestream-4) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to PostgreSQL Hacking: Don’t Panic, Just Start Small, by Xuneng Zhou (Postgres hacking, PG internals, community, livestream-2) Replication Past, Present, and Future: Logical Decoding and Replication in PostgreSQL, by Hari Kiran (replication, logical decoding, PG internals, livestream-4) Where Does My INSERT Go? A Logical Replication Story, by Hamid Akhtar (replication, PG internals, WAL, livestream-4) Security From Dev to Prod: Securing Postgres the Right Way, by Sakshi Nasha (security, roles, PG use cases, extensions, monitoring, livestream-4) From trust to Tokens: A Short History of PostgreSQL Authentication, by Murat Tuncer (authentication, security, livestream-2) PostgreSQL vs. SQL Server: Security Model Differences, by Taiob Ali (security, authentication, SQL Server, roles, livestream-1) 11 Postgres ecosystem talks Analytics pg_lake: Postgres as a lakehouse, by Marco Slot (pg_lake, extensions, OLAP, data warehouse, Iceberg, DuckDB, analytics, livestream-2) Apache AGE Querying & Visualizing Graphs in Postgres with Apache AGE, by Christian Miles (Apache AGE, graph data, data visualization, SQL/PGQ, Azure HorizonDB, livestream-1) Autotuning Building safety tooling for risk-free AI tuning of Postgres: Fast cars need fast brakes, by Mohsin Ejaz (autotuning, AI, performance, monitoring, livestream-2) Change Data Capture Building Event-Driven Systems with PostgreSQL Logical Replication and Drasi, by Diaa Radwan (Drasi, replication, WAL, CDC, livestream-3) Citus Move Less, Move Faster: Speeding Up Citus Cluster Scaling, by Muhammad Usama (Citus, extensions, performance, scaling Postgres, livestream-4) Dev Tools An MCP for your Postgres DB, by Pamela Fox (MCP, AI, Python, Dev tools, livestream-1) pgcov: Bringing Real Test Coverage to PostgreSQL Code, by Pavlo Golub (testing, Postgres hacking, Dev tools, extensions, CI/CD, livestream-3) PostgreSQL Tooling Across AI Editors and Agents, by Matt McFarland (Dev tools, VS Code, Cursor, AI, data visualization, Apache AGE, graph data, Azure, MCP, Copilot, livestream-1) Django PostgreSQL Generated Columns by Example, by Paolo Melchiorre (app dev, Django, generated columns, livestream-2) Kubernetes Quorum-Based Consistency for Cluster Changes with CloudNativePG Operator, by Jeremy Schneider & Leonardo Cecchi (CloudNativePG, Kubernetes, PG use cases, livestream-3) Performance Modelling Postgres Performance Degradation on Burstable Cloud Instances, by Chun Lin Goh (performance, burstable, compute, QA, livestream-4) 8 Azure Database for PostgreSQL & Azure HorizonDB talks AI-related talks From Queries to Agents: The Next Era of Data Retrieval on PostgreSQL, by Abe Omorogbe (AI, MCP, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, graph data, Apache AGE, Azure HorizonDB, livestream-3) Production RAG at Scale with Azure Database for PostgreSQL, by Julia Schröder Langhaeuser & Paula Santamaría (Azure Database for PostgreSQL, AI, RAG, PG use cases, livestream-3) AMD Choose the Right Azure Infrastructure to Improve Postgres Performance by Over 60%, by Andrew Ruffin (AMD, performance, Azure, compute, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, livestream-1) Azure HorizonDB Why we built Azure HorizonDB for PostgreSQL, by Dingding Lu (Azure HorizonDB, scaling Postgres, livestream-3) Flexible Server pg_duckdb in Action: Accelerating Analytics on Azure Database for PostgreSQL, by Nitin Jadhav (DuckDB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, extensions, OLAP, analytics, performance, livestream-4) The Rise of PostgreSQL as the Everything Database, by Varun Dhawan (Postgres history, extensions, graph data, Apache AGE, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, DuckDB, Citus, livestream-3) What I’ve Learned Teaching Postgres to 200+ field engineers at Microsoft, by Paula Berenguel (training, Azure, Postgres skilling, livestream-1) Oracle to Postgres Migrating VLDBs from Oracle to Azure Database for PostgreSQL, by Adithya Kumaranchath (migration, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Oracle to Postgres, livestream-2) Why participate in the virtual hallway track on Discord If you’ve checked out the schedule and plan to watch some of the talks, you might still be wondering: why join live—and why bother with the virtual hallway track on Discord? Here’s how a few of last year’s attendees described the experience: “Very impressed by all the speakers and content I am absolutely shattered as there was so much great content in all the talks over the past 3 days but I have probably learnt more in these sessions than I could have in months of reading up.” “Want to let y’all know how much I got from this onine conference, the speakers were excellent, well-prepared and well-presented. The hosts were informative, engaging, & amusing. The discord hallway channel made me feel connected. I learned a lot and found some new inspiration. I’ll be back next year!” “I have no idea how I’m going to summarise all the interesting stuff for coworkers.” The common thread: the live, shared experience—being able to ask questions, compare notes, and learn alongside other people in real time. How to join the virtual hallway track Head to the #posetteconf channel on Discord (on the Microsoft Open Source Discord) That’s where speakers and attendees hang out during the livestreams—it’s where you can ask questions, share reactions, and just say hi Big thank you to our amazing speakers Every great event starts with great talks—and great talks start with great speakers. Want to learn more about the people behind these talks? Visit the POSETTE 2026 Speaker page Click a speaker’s bio to see their written interview (if available) If a speaker has been a guest on the Talking Postgres podcast in the past, then you’ll find a link to their episode there, too Join us for POSETTE 2026! Mark your calendars I hope you join us for POSETTE 2026. Consider yourself officially invited. As part of the talk selection team, I’m definitely biased—but I truly believe these speakers and talks are worth your time. I’ll be hosting Livestream 1 and you’ll find me in the #posetteconf Discord chat. I hope to see you there. And please: tell your Postgres friends, so they don’t miss out! 🗓️ Add the livestreams to your calendar Livestream 1: Tue 16 June, 8am–2pm PDT (UTC-7) [ register for updates ] and/or [ add to calendar ] Livestream 2: Wed 17 June, 8am–2pm CEST (UTC+2) [ register for updates ] and/or [ add to calendar ] Livestream 3: Wed 17 June, 8am–2pm PDT (UTC-7) [ register for updates ] and/or [ add to calendar ] Livestream 4: Thu 18 June, 8am–2pm CEST (UTC+2) [ register for updates ] and/or [ add to calendar ] Watch last year’s POSETTE 2025 talks in advance: And if you want to get ready, you can watch talks from the POSETTE 2025 playlist on YouTube anytime, anywhere. Lots of solid, useful, and evergreen Postgres talks in there. “Official Trailer” for POSETTE 2026 is on YouTube To help more developers, community members, and Postgres users discover POSETTE 2026, our team created this short video trailer. Take a peek and share it with friends as an invitation of sorts. We’re trying to make sure that people don’t miss their opportunity to be part of the livestreams and ask questions on the discord during the conference (as well as watch the talks on YouTube after the event is over.) Watch and share the trailer: Official Trailer for POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2026 Acknowledgements & Gratitude I’ve already thanked the 50 amazing speakers above. In addition, thanks go to Silvano Coriani, Cornelia Biacsics, Aaron Wislang, and My Nguyen for reviewing parts of this post before publication. I also want to thank the team at AMD for their partnership and support of POSETTE this year! And of course, big thank you to the POSETTE 2026 organizing team and POSETTE talk selection team—without you, there would be no POSETTE! Figure 3: Visual invitation to join the virtual hallway track for POSETTE 2026 on the Microsoft Open Source Discord, so you can chat with the speakers & others in the Postgres communityAgentCon Hong Kong - Come One Come All for FREE
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On March 9, 2026, #AgentCon lands at Nasdaq, Times Square, bringing together developers, engineers, and innovators shaping the future of AI agents. Expect deep‑dive talks, hands‑on learning, practical demos and plenty of networking with the AI community. This isn’t just another AI event, it’s where builders meet to talk real code. ➡️ Register now!NVIDIA GTC AI Conference
Event Description: NVIDIA GTC is the premier global AI conference, where developers, researchers, and business leaders come together to explore the next wave of AI innovation. From physical AI and AI factories to agentic AI and inference, GTC 2026 will showcase the breakthroughs shaping every industry. Venues throughout downtown San Jose for inspiring sessions, hands-on training, and opportunities to connect with experts and peers—and be part of the unique GTC experience. Event Dates: March 16 – 19, 2026 San Jose Convention Center & Virtual Who: 27K+ Attendees – including developers, researchers, and business leaders Event websiteAPAC Fabric Engineering Connection Call
The Fabric partner ecosystem is buzzing right now — and 2026 is already raising the bar. 🚀 On this week's Fabric Engineering Connection call, Tamer Farag will share what’s next for partners across skilling, demos, FabCon + SQLCon Atlanta, and more. Highlights include: 🎓 More skilling momentum (DP‑600/DP‑700 vouchers, new Partner Project Ready workshops, and a new “Chat with your Data in a Day” xIAD workshop). 🔦 Fabric Certification Spotlight: partners who reach 100+ Fabric certifications will be recognized live in Arun’s keynote at FabCon + SQLCon. 🤝 New ways to tell your story and win with customers through Fabric Demo eXperiences, Fabric Featured Partners + case studies, and FabCon experiences (Partner Elevator Pitch Search, 1:1 + executive meetings, testimonial videos, the Partner Social Sprint, and more). If you’re a Microsoft partner investing in Fabric, we’d love for you to join our next Fabric Engineering Connection call: 📅 Americas/EMEA – Wednesday, Feb 4, 8–9 AM PT 📅 APAC – Thursday, Feb 5, 1–2 AM UTC (Wednesday, Feb 4, 5–6 PM PT) To join, you must be a member of the Fabric Partner Community in Teams: https://aka.ms/JoinFabricPartnerCommunityAmericas & EMEA Fabric Engineering Connection
The Fabric partner ecosystem is buzzing right now — and 2026 is already raising the bar. 🚀 On this week's Fabric Engineering Connection call, Tamer Farag will share what’s next for partners across skilling, demos, FabCon + SQLCon Atlanta, and more. Highlights include: 🎓 More skilling momentum (DP‑600/DP‑700 vouchers, new Partner Project Ready workshops, and a new “Chat with your Data in a Day” xIAD workshop). 🔦 Fabric Certification Spotlight: partners who reach 100+ Fabric certifications will be recognized live in Arun’s keynote at FabCon + SQLCon. 🤝 New ways to tell your story and win with customers through Fabric Demo eXperiences, Fabric Featured Partners + case studies, and FabCon experiences (Partner Elevator Pitch Search, 1:1 + executive meetings, testimonial videos, the Partner Social Sprint, and more). If you’re a Microsoft partner investing in Fabric, we’d love for you to join our next Fabric Engineering Connection call: 📅 Americas/EMEA – Wednesday, Feb 4, 8–9 AM PT 📅 APAC – Thursday, Feb 5, 1–2 AM UTC (Wednesday, Feb 4, 5–6 PM PT) To join, you must be a member of the Fabric Partner Community in Teams: https://aka.ms/JoinFabricPartnerCommunityPostgres speakers - POSETTE 2026 CFP is closing soon!
Guidelines for submitting a proposal to the POSETTE CFP POSETTE: An Event for Postgres is back for its 5th year, and the excitement is already building. Scheduled for June 16 – June 18, 2026, this free and virtual developer event brings together the global Postgres community for three days of learning, sharing, and deep technical storytelling. Whether you're a first-time speaker or a seasoned contributor, your story matters and the Call for Proposals (CFP) closes on February 1, 2026. If you’re considering submitting a proposal (or encouraging someone else to), in this post I will walk you through everything you need to know to craft a strong, compelling submission before the deadline arrives. 1. Key Dates to Know CFP Deadline: February 1, 2026 @ 11:59 PM PST Talk Acceptance Notifications: February 11, 2026 Event Dates: June 16 – June 18, 2026 (includes four unique livestreams, live text chat, and speaker Q&A) Schedule & sessions announced: Feb 25, 2026 Pre-record all talks: Weeks of April 20 & April 27 Tip: Add a calendar reminder, this deadline arrives quickly, and no late submissions are accepted. 2. Why Submit a Talk to POSETTE? Submitting a talk for a conference can seem like a difficult task at the start, but this guide can help you come up with potential ideas that can be used to submit a talk for the conference. Share your story with the global Postgres community Your experience, whether it’s a deep dive into query planning, a migration journey, or lessons learned from scaling can help thousands of developers. Grow your professional visibility POSETTE is a high‑reach, virtual event that enables your content to live on well after the livestream. First‑time speakers are welcomed and encouraged POSETTE is not an exclusive club. If you have a story to tell, this is a supportive, welcoming place to tell it. 3. What Makes a Strong Proposal? First‑time speaker? Don’t worry. The guidelines below cover the key elements you’ll need to craft a strong, successful proposal. Make your proposal focused, not broad: Many proposals try to cover too much. The strongest ones zoom in on a specific challenge, insight, or transformation. A narrow, well‑defined topic reads more clearly and creates a stronger takeaway for attendees. Clearly identify the target audience: State who the talk is for: Beginner Postgres developers Cloud architects DBAs focusing on performance Engineers migrating from Oracle/MySQL This helps the selection team understand fit and event balance. Demonstrate real‑world value, not generic theory: Talks rooted in hands‑on experience tend to perform best. Strong abstracts answer: What problem did we face? What did we try? What worked (or didn’t)? What can you replicate in your environment? POSETTE audiences love actionable content. 4. Show how attendees will grow from your talk: Selection committees love when speakers articulate transformation. Clarify what people will gain: “Improve query execution time by…” “Avoid common replication pitfalls…” “Design HA setups more confidently…” The reviewers want talks with practical outcomes. 5. Highlight what makes your talk unique Is your approach unconventional? Did you migrate at massive scale? Did you build or extend an OSS tool? Did you learn something the hard way? Emphasize novelty POSETTE gets many submissions, so originality matters. 6. Use a storytelling angle: Human brains love stories. Strong abstracts often follow a mini narrative: Problem Tension Turning point Solution Lessons This makes your proposal memorable and relatable. 7. Keep the abstract concise and structured: Avoid long, meandering paragraphs. A clear structure like this works well: Topic summary (one sentence) Problem + context (two–three sentences) Solution or insights (two–three sentences) What attendees will learn (one–two sentences) 4. Ideas for Topics That Work Well Not every proposal needs to be a deep internal dive real‑world stories resonate. Consider topics like: Migrating to Postgres (cloud or on‑prem) Performance tuning adventures and lessons Postgres extensions and ecosystem tooling Operational best practices, HA architecture, or incident learnings Developer productivity with Postgres Novel patterns or creative uses of Postgres internals Azure Database for PostgreSQL customer stories Community‑focused topics, such as how to start a PGDay event, how to begin contributing to open source, or how to engage with the Postgres community effectively. Look at POSETTE 2024 or 2025 talk titles to calibrate tone and depth. 5. What Happens If Your Talk Is Accepted? Good news: the speaker experience is designed to be smooth and supportive. Talks are 25 minutes long and pre‑recorded, with professional production support from the POSETTE organizing team at an agreed-upon time during the weeks of April 20 & April 27 Speakers join live text chat during the session to interact with attendees No travel required the event is fully virtual All you need is a good microphone, a quiet space, and a story worth telling. 6. How to Submit Your Proposal Here are the official links you’ll want handy: 📄 CFP Page: https://posetteconf.com/2026/cfp/ ❓ FAQ: https://posetteconf.com/2026/faq/ 📝 Submit on Sessionize: https://sessionize.com/posette2026/ Submission Checklist Before hitting "submit," make sure you have: A strong, interesting title A clear and concise abstract Defined takeaways for attendees An understanding of your target audience Submission completed before Feb 1 @ 11:59 PM PST POSETTE is built by and for the Postgres community and your experience, whether small or monumental, has the potential to help others. With the CFP deadline approaching fast on February 1, now is the perfect time to refine your idea, shape your abstract, and submit your talk. This could be the year your story gets shared with thousands. Take the leap the community will be glad you did.KCDC: Where Global Voices Drive Local Innovation
At the heart of the Kansas City Developer Conference (KCDC) is a vibrant, inclusive community—one that empowers developers from around the world to connect, collaborate, and innovate. This year, Microsoft MVPs brought their expertise and passion to the event, uplifting others and sparking curiosity across every session. We caught up with a few of them, to hear their reflections on the experience and what makes KCDC such a standout event in the developer world. MVP Dennie Declercq: Hospitality That Fuels Innovation How far would you go for a great developer conference? For MVP Dennie Declercq, the answer is over 4,500 miles (7,000+ km) —crossing continents and time zones from Belgium all the way to Kansas City, Missouri! Dennie’s journey to KCDC wasn’t just about the miles; it was about the magnetic pull of a truly special event. He shared, “KCDC has an incredibly welcoming vibe for speakers. They celebrate their Kansas City roots with legendary BBQ and unique speaker shirts, but what really sets them apart is how they treat their speakers. KCDC challenges the status quo—offering professional photo shoots that speakers can use for personal branding and their professional lives. It’s a level of hospitality and appreciation you don’t find everywhere.” Louella Creemers at KCDC MVP Louella Creemers: Belief That Crosses Borders Sometimes, the most important journeys aren’t measured in miles—they’re measured in encouragement and support. For MVP Louella Creemers, her path from the Netherlands to the Kansas City Developer Conference began long before she ever booked a flight. Lou’s KCDC story started in 2021 when she began sharing online her aspirations to speak and run workshops. The KCDC organizers saw her potential and reached out with a simple message: “You should totally come to KCDC and give a talk.” That early support made Louella feel part of the community, even when she was still studying and unable to travel. “I flew 7,000+ km to KCDC because it’s the conference that believed in me before I’d ever set foot on a stage.” Louella recalls. In 2025, with a job that supports her passion for sharing knowledge, she finally fulfilled that promise—bringing her unique perspective to sessions on topics like inclusive design and cross-platform development. Stepping into the Kansas City developer community was an eye-opening experience for Louella. Coming from the Netherlands, where the tech scene is close-knit and meetups are limited by geography, she was struck by the sheer scale and variety on display at KCDC. Lou shared, “At KCDC I noticed a totally different scale. In the sponsor hall I passed the community booths and saw a full page with names of developer meetups in Kansas City. The number and variety left my mind blown. Talking to these developer group organizers made me realize how much density matters: when you have that many groups in one region, you get more cross-pollination, more chances to learn, and more choices for new people.” Photo: MVP Samuel Gomez at KCDC MVP Samuel Gomez: The Power of New Connections For MVP Samuel Gomez, KCDC stands out for its commitment to welcoming newcomers and fostering meaningful connections. During the opening ceremony, organizers encouraged attendees to reach out and talk to someone they didn’t know—a simple piece of advice that Samuel finds truly transformative. “I love that advice because you never know how meeting someone at an event can change your life—I know mine has!” Samuel’s experience is a testament to the power of community-driven events like KCDC, where a single conversation can spark new opportunities, collaborations, and lifelong friendships. By creating an environment where everyone feels encouraged to connect, KCDC continues to empower developers at every stage of their journey. MVP Ben Dechrai: Curiosity and Collaboration in Action For MVP Ben Dechrai, speaking at KCDC isn’t just another stop on the conference circuit—it’s a return to a place where curiosity and connection thrive. For him, returning to Kansas City each year means rejoining a community where curiosity is celebrated and meaningful connections thrive. “I keep coming back to KCDC because of the audience - they're what make this conference truly special. The rooms are packed with people who come with incredible questions and a real hunger for learning. It's not just polite Q&A; these attendees are genuinely there to absorb as much as they can, and they'll approach you afterward to continue the conversation, ask follow-up questions, or just thank you for sharing your knowledge.” Ben continued, what really sets KCDC apart from other conferences I've spoken at is this combination of deep engagement and Midwestern hospitality. Many of the 1,800 attendees are locals, and that welcoming spirit is palpable throughout the event. While audiences around the world are always welcoming, there's something special about KCDC's community that reminds me of my own hunger for knowledge when I first started attending conferences.” That same spirit extends to speakers, too. From the first outreach to on-site logistics, the organizers go above and beyond to make presenters feel appreciated and supported—one of many reasons KCDC stands out in the global developer community. The Heart of KCDC: Community, Curiosity, and Collaboration From insightful talks to behind-the-scenes planning, MVPs helped shape KCDC into a vibrant and impactful experience for attendees. Their dedication to the developer community shines through in every session, hallway conversation, and late-night planning meeting. Whether you're a seasoned speaker or a first-time attendee, their stories offer a glimpse into the heart of what makes KCDC—and the MVP community—so special. How has a community or conference empowered you in your technical journey? Share your story and join the conversation—because innovation starts with people who believe in each other. Learn more about KCDC and how you can get involved. #MVPBuzz
