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My First Self-Organized PostgreSQL Meetup in Vienna

Cornelia Biacsics

6 min readMar 27, 2026

Have you noticed how many new PostgreSQL meetups have appeared over the past few months?

Just to name a few examples:

All of these groups share the same goal: bringing PostgreSQL enthusiasts together to learn, exchange ideas, and connect with each other — often organized entirely in people’s spare time.

If you are curious about PostgreSQL user groups worldwide, you can explore them here: https://www.postgresql.org/community/user-groups/

To me, this is a wonderful sign of PostgreSQL’s continued growth and adoption around the world.

Seeing this wave of community activity inspired me as well. At the beginning of 2026, I decided to start something similar in my own city: the PostgreSQL User Group Vienna.

Last week on Wednesday March 18, 2026, the moment finally arrived: I attended the first meetup that I had organized myself — and it turned out to be an amazing experience.

Realizing something was missing

The idea to organize a meetup did not appear overnight.

Over the past year (especially while helping organize PGDay Austria 2025, which took place in September) I noticed something interesting. There were clearly people in Austria who were excited about PostgreSQL, but they were not very well connected with each other.

This observation stood out even more because I had already attended many conferences and meetups across Europe during the past two years. At those events I experienced firsthand how welcoming and vibrant the PostgreSQL community is.

The contrast made me realize that something similar was missing locally. Throughout 2025, the thought kept coming back to me:

>> Austria could really use a regular PostgreSQL meetup. <<

For context, I should mention that I’m not a technical person …. my background is actually in marketing. Still, I have been closely following the PostgreSQL ecosystem and community for quite some time.

Part of that involvement includes collecting PostgreSQL contributions on a weekly basis and regularly reporting on community activities, including meetups, organizers, and speakers (https://postgres-contrib.org/). Seeing so many people around the world build their own communities eventually made me think:

>> “Why not try this here as well?” <<

The final push came at PGConf.eu 2025 in Riga.

During her talk “Behind Postgres 18: The People, the Code, & the Invisible Work”, Claire Giordano showed a map of active PostgreSQL user groups around the world.

Photograph from a Slide — “Behind Postgres 18: The People, the Code, & the Invisible Work”, **Claire Giordano**

And there it was — an empty space over Austria.

At that moment I thought: >> maybe not for much longer <<

Taking the first step

Even with the idea in mind, I still hesitated.

Organizing a technical meetup as a non-technical person felt intimidating, and I was planning to do it as a solo organizer.

But there is this phrase I really like: “Do what scares you.”

So that’s what I did.

I started planning and executing.

Turning the idea into a Meetup

Fortunately, starting a user group in the PostgreSQL space does not mean starting completely from scratch. There is a lot of guidance available within the PostgreSQL community.

Since I had attended several meetups myself, including events in Belgium and Rotterdam. I already had a rough idea of how these gatherings typically work.

On top of that, I received helpful advice from people who had already organized successful communities:

Ellyne Phneah, who shared insights about building welcoming PostgreSQL user groups by the example of the Malmö PostgreSQL User Group:

Watch her POSETTE 2025 talk: https://posetteconf.com/2025/talks/setting-max_connection-building-postgresql-user-groups-that-bring-people-together/

Ellyne Phneah and her talk at POSETTE 2025

Emma Saroyan, who gave me advice based on her experience organizing a user group in Armenia
Andreas Scherbaum, whose meetup organizer checklist was incredibly helpful

The PostgreSQL community also provides useful resources such as:

Even with all this guidance, one thing became very clear during the process: Meetups don’t organize themselves. Especially not the first one.

What it took for me to organize a Meetup

Once the decision was made, several practical questions had to be answered.

First, I started with research, looking at existing PostgreSQL and database-related groups to better understand the local landscape.

Next came finding sponsors for snacks, drinks, and the venue. Since this was the first meetup, I didn’t want to start with a large public call for sponsors. Instead, I reached out directly to several PostgreSQL companies in Vienna and asked whether they would be interested in supporting the event.

I’m very thankful to Dotbite, especially Christoph Sprenger and Emir Selimovic, for sponsoring the inaugural meetup in Vienna and for their trust.

For speakers, I was fortunate to rely on personal connections. Even better, during the meetup itself some attendees approached me afterward and said they would like to speak at a future event — which was incredibly encouraging. Special thanks also to Ranjeet Kumar, Jan Karremans, and Pavlo Golub for being my first speakers!

Finding a venue turned out to be more difficult than expected. Many locations suitable for about 40 people were surprisingly expensive. Luckily, our first sponsor (Dotbite) offered their office space, which solved the problem perfectly.

I also had to decide on the infrastructure for the group: where people should register, where announcements should happen, and how communication should work.

Then there was branding. Coming from a marketing background, it felt natural to create a logo and a visual identity for the meetup group. Designing it took some time (graphic design is not exactly my core skill :) ) but I’m quite happy with the result.

I even ordered a roll-up banner for the meetup, and I have to admit I was very proud when it arrived.

Finally came promotion. Making people aware of a brand-new meetup group within just two weeks was a challenge, but the PostgreSQL community was incredibly supportive and helped spread the word.

The day of the Meetup

When the event day finally arrived, I was very nervous.

Because of all the last-minute preparations, I barely had time to talk to attendees before the event started.

And of course, a few small lessons appeared immediately.

For example, I didn’t have any bell or signal to announce the start of the event or the end of the break, so I had to walk around the room telling people individually.

During the break I also got so deep into conversations that I almost forgot to restart the agenda — next time I will definitely set a timer.

At one point I even forgot to ask the audience if they had questions after a talk, until someone reminded me.

But despite these small mishaps, something wonderful happened.

Watching people talk to each other, exchange ideas, and connect with other PostgreSQL users in Vienna made the entire effort worthwhile.

Looking Forward

After this first meetup, one thing is clear: this is only the beginning.

There are already many ideas for future events, and I’m excited to see how the PostgreSQL community in Vienna continues to grow.

>> If you’ve ever thought about organizing a meetup yourself, consider this your sign. <<

Communities don’t appear out of nowhere — they grow because someone decides to take the first step.

Let’s keep growing the PostgreSQL community together and fill the gaps on the map!