Tech conference season is in full swing, and it’s only the middle of March. Between Grant, Steve, and I, we’ve attended or presented at about 10 events so far. And within my community of developers and database folks, I’ve seen pictures and posts of many more. As I’ve said a few times in previous editorials, it’s the community that makes it worth all the prep, travel, and time.

The majority of what I do is with the PostgreSQL community. This past week, there was a two-day track at open-source conference Scale 21x in Pasadena, California. About two dozen volunteers presented sessions while another handful of volunteers worked the booth in the exhibit hall talking to hundreds of attendees. Among both groups were people fairly new to PostgreSQL and contributors that have been with the project for more than 20 years. I’m thankful that I have these opportunities to see such a diverse group of people working together in support of the larger community.

But this time I was struck by one other thing. From new contributors to the veterans, many people were freely giving something away to those around them. Sometimes it was part of a talk and other times it was in the hallway track. Just a few examples that I witnessed included:

• a veteran of 15+ years telling a presenter with significantly less experience that they learned something new from the talk
• another veteran with 20+ years working with PostgreSQL sitting down with a few people to share the new logging and tracing work they’ve developed at their company and how others could get started themselves
• groups of people in the hallway track meeting new friends and inviting others into their conversations

I know there were many of these encounters, each requiring someone to give away their time and knowledge freely. I was reminded, yet again, that the old saying is true - “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

So once again I’d like to encourage you to give something away this week. Your time, experience, and knowledge will help raise those around you. You won’t regret it.