Fostering Inclusivity with the PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee

As promised during the session, I'm sharing the slides from the "Fostering Inclusivity with the PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee" presentation at the New PostgreSQL Community Members - Summit at PostgreSQL Conference Europe (PGConf.EU) 2026.

The community day sessions weren't recorded, so there won't be a video of this one. I've made an attempt at a transcript to go with the slides!

As with most people in the Postgres community, I wear multiple hats.

• In my day job, I’m a Senior Software Engineer at Snowflake.
• I talk about databases at Postgres events and at developer events to help spread the love for Postgres outside of the Postgres community.
• I’m on the org team for PGConf.EU.
• I chair the PostgreSQL Europe (PGEU) Diversity Committee.
• And I dream of "just quietly getting on with techie stuff"!

The PGEU Diversity committee wants to encourage increased diversity of all kinds within the Postgres Europe community. Whether that's ethnic diversity, gender diversity, work background, education, socioeconomic situation...

Why do we have a diversity committee?

Because we know that diversity is good for the whole Postgres project. Diverse people bring unique skills and viewpoints, making the Postgres project better for all of us.

One of our main goals is to make sure that everyone feels welcomed, represented, and valued within our community. and I know that the vast majority of people in the Postgres community also want everyone to feel welcome.

But if you look around, and you don’t see anyone else who looks like you, or who does the same type of job as you, or who has the same type of background as you, it can sometimes be hard to believe that you really belong.

This is an anonymised but sadly pretty accurate picture of the org team and the speaker lineup for a Postgres event in Europe in 2025, so it’s easy to see why sometimes not everyone feels represented.

Fortunately, the vast majority of the folks in the Postgres community really do want people to feel welcome. We just need to make sure they have the knowledge and the tools available to them to make that a reality at all of our events and in all of the spaces where Postgres folks gather, whether that's in real life or online.

These are the founding members of the Diversity Task Force, as we were known at the time. The photo was taken at PGConf.EU 2024 in Athens, where we had our kick-off meeting. We had sticky notes and whiteboards around the room whilst we discussed and defined our initial goals and started to put plans in place.

We're very fortunate that many of the original Task force members have confinued working with us in our continued efforts on the Diversity Committee. Floor Drees, Jimmy Angelakos, and Stefanie Janine Stölting are still on the committee. Stacey Haysler is still very kindly helping us out as an advisor from the United States PostgreSQL Association (PgUS). PgUS is several years ahead of us in putting these efforts in place, and Stacey and I work closely together to share ideas and to make sure we're not always re-inventing the wheel.

Flavio Gurgel, Gülçin Yıldırım Jelínek and Valeria Kaplan were instrumental in getting the comittee up and running but have since stepped down from the committee due to other commitments.

New members José Antonio Morcillo Valenciano, Cornelia Biacsics and Martins Otun have since come on board in their place.

https://www.postgresql.eu/diversity/diversity_committee/

This is a slide that I used in a talk at PGConf.dev 2025 where I shared the things we'd achieved so far.

Up to that point, we'd been doing a lot of background work:

• Defining our goals and short term actions.
• Research and planning.
• Setting up our infrastructure.
• Agreeing a budget with the PostgreSQL Europe (PGEU) Board, who provide our funding.
• Designing a logo and creating stickers.

But we also:

• Set up the first Diversity Celebration Board* at PGConf.EU 2025.
• Distributed tickets for various conferences.
• Updated and shared guidelines for talk selection committees to help them get a more diverse lineup at events.

* Now the Community Celebration Board.

These are the things we've put in place for PGConf.EU 2026. I'm super proud of everything the Diversity Committee members have achieved this year.

• We've granted Travel Scholarships to folks who wouldn't otherwise have had the means to attend the conference.
• For the 2nd year, we're a Sunflower Friendly event, supporting the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyards.
• We've got the new Conference Buddies scheme (thank you, Cornelia) where new attendees can be paired up with an experienced PGConf.EU attendee to help them navigate the event.
• We've got the Community Celebration Board again, now with activities like the badge/button maker so you can design and wear your own Postgres celebration.
• We once again had a Quiet Room available, complete with comfy chairs, fidget toys and earplugs, as a space for attendees to rest and decompress.
• New for this year, we brought you Conference Bingo - a chance to have a friendly competition with friends and colleagues to see who's done more conference activities.

We have plenty of other ideas for future activities and initiatives, but we really want to put in place the things that the community wants the most, and the things that are the most important/impactful. Please don't hesitate to contact us and share your suggestions.

Even if you don't want to get involved in any official Diversity Committee work, there are lots of simple, everyday things that all of us can do to help make the community more inclusive and welcoming. Things like:

• Try to use inclusive language, and call out the people around you if they say or do things that aren't helpful.
• Learn about and challenge your own unconscious bias.
• Practice empathy and be kind and patient.
• Listen to what underrepresented folks have to say, and amplify their voices
• Like and share the Diversity Committee's social media posts to help us get the word out.

To find out more about the task force, including reading about each of the committee members, visit the PGEU website (link in QR code) And follow our LinkedIn Page or connect with us on Mastodon or Bluesky to stay up to date. And most importantly - pick up a sticker for your laptop! Not only do they look adorable, but they’re great conversation starters.

• Telegram: https://t.me/+_uR_iRsvDDY4OTQ0
• Website: https://www.postgresql.eu/diversity/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/postgresql-europe-diversity-task-force
• Mastodon: @PostgreSQLEuropeDiversity@hachyderm.io
• Bluesky: @pgeudiversity.bsky.social

But, of course, diversity and inclusion isn't something that can just be implemented by a committee!

Everyone in the community has a role to play and can make a difference in their own way. You obviously don’t need our permission or blessing to implement things to improve diversity and inclusion, But if there’s anything we can do to help with whatever it is you want to do, please let us know, and we’d love to hear about the things you’re doing, and help you to get the word out to the rest of the community.

Thank you for reading!

I already shared the Diversity Committee contact details, and here's how to get in touch with me. I'd love to hear from you:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenhjex/
Mastodon: @karenhjex@mastodon.online
Bluesky: @karenhjex.bsky.social