Interview with Kevin Davin
Talks
- SELECT 'amazing_features' FROM "postgresql"
- Thursday, 11:15
- Louxor
Social Media
- Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Hello, I'm Kevin, Google Developer expert on Google Cloud & Kotlin, GitLab Hero and OpenSource Contributor. I'm Principal Software Engineer at Gradle on the Develocity product. I'm passionate about code, from development to operation, and with, of course, database and PG at the center of it!
- How do you engage with the PostgreSQL Community?
I'm mainly a developer, so I'm part of this community as a user. I don't qualify as an "advanced" user; I try to leverage PG best. I interact through talks and best practices; I summarize what I've learned over the years about "how to use PG" for the best of our apps.
- Have you enjoyed previous PostgreSQL Europe conferences, either as an attendee or as a speaker?
It's my first time attending or speaking at any PG conference! So I will discover it… I can't wait to be here! It's an honor to have been selected for a special event like this.
- What will your talk be about, exactly? Why this topic?
The talk I give is named SELECT 'amazing_features' FROM "postgresql"; it's about everything PG and SQL can offer, and we often forget as a developer… and then reimplement it in our code. I chose that because, as a GDE, I've worked with many people who don't even know PG could do X or Y. I decided to present that in a talk. Most of the examples (if not all, I need to double-check) come from real prod cases I had.
- What is the audience for your talk?
Developers using PG and who would like to use it more!
- What existing knowledge should the attendee have?
The bare minimum is SQL92… Not so much in the end.
- Which other talk at this year’s conference would you like to see?
All? With performance, optimization. multi-tenancy, community… and even bad practices; every talk is interesting!
- What is the one feature in PostgreSQL 16 which you like most?
As a developer, it's mainly the enhanced JSON support. It's another iteration of unstructured data management in PostgreSQL without all the downsides of NoSQL databases.
- Which measure, action, feature or activity would - in your eyes - help to accelerate the adoption of PostgreSQL?
First, it would be to communicate better what we can do with SQL & PostgreSQL, so people don't reinvent the wheel. The second is scalability because people would like to have PG distributed to match the pattern they have for apps.
- What one action could pgDay Paris take in the future that would make it more inclusive and diverse?
As a blind speaker, inclusivity & diversity is something close to me. However, it's hard for me to propose a solution for such a complicated topic. I feel, and I've seen interventions of the pgDay Paris committee in favor of diversity to help people realize how important this topic is… and this is perfect for me!
- What PostgreSQL event in 2024 are you most excited about?
pgDay paris of course! My first talk in a PG Conference… you don't know how much I wait for it!