As you may have seen I have joined the team (Andrew Pruski, Mark Wilkinson, and Anthony Nocentino) that pulls together the EightKB conference. This team did a tremendous job during Covid of pulling together a conference that was completely virtual and covered deep technical content. It is a small conference that focuses on deep technical content that is useful to everyone in the data community.
While I love getting together in person and meeting face to face, I still think there is room for virtual conferences that are done well. And who did it better than the EightKB team? So after lockdown when I saw the EightKB team in person, I asked them to let me know if they ever needed help. I was happy to help proctor a session etc.. Instead they asked me to join the team, and I am deeply honored.
My ask to those of you reading this short blog is to continue supporting the community. The EightKB call for speakers is currently open. So if you know a particular topic extremely well or or passionate about something in this space. Please take the time to submit. Experience being a public presenter is not required.
About eight years ago I went to my first event and talked to people in the community about this idea I had for a talk. While I am passionate about several areas in the database space, no one I knew ever talked about storage. Most of the DBAs I knew did not care about it at all because modern SANs negated the need for the data community to discuss storage. I was not an experienced speaker, I did not blog, and no one really knew who I was. I was just a good DBA with a topic I was passionate about. Talking about my passion changed my life.
Everyday when I meet data folks in the course of my day job, I meet exceptional database professionals who are doing great things. So if you are one these folks with a topic you are passionate about, please take the time to submit. The data community is only as strong as the people who participate within it. We need diversity within our community and speakers. You do not have to be an experienced speaker . The EightKB team is experienced and is here to make sure their speakers are successful. I am looking forward to reading your submissions!