PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2025

Main Responsibilities

Our community conferences would certainly not be possible without the help of many volunteers.

As a Room Host you will be charge of a specific room, you need to:

• Help the speaker get set up
• Announce the start of the presentation to the audience
• Photograph the speaker and post on socials
• Help keep the speaker on time
• Assist in fielding questions during the Q&A
• Be on hand to help the speaker with any technical problems during the presentation
• Moderate the questions and auidence behaviour
• Distribute speaker gifts after the presentation

Hosting a presentation (Room Host) is the most common and most preferred task for volunteers. It gives the volunteer a guaranteed seat in the front row of a presentation they might want to see anyway.

Who can select the room host task

For most tracks, we have a primary room host and a shadow room host. The primary room host should be someone who has previous experience hosting a presentation. The shadow room host is optional, and a good opportunity to learn how to host a presentation and ask questions if necessary.

How you can volunteer to be a room host

We issue a call for volunteers ahead of the conference and invite any volunteer into a Telegram channel. Currently, we are using Telegram for communication; this might change in the future. It is therefore currently mandatory to have Telegram installed on a mobile phone. We also have walkie-talkies for every room host, to quickly reach the registration desk or other volunteers.

In the volunteer channel, we publish the link to the conference system where everyone can select volunteer tasks. The channel can also be used to discuss and switch volunteer slots, or ask about primary and shadow room hosting slots.

What room hosts need to do

At the start of your shift

You should be in the room before the speaker, ie: around 15 minutes before the first scheduled presentation of your shift.

Collect speaker gifts from the registration desk: one gift for each speaker who will present during your shift (note that some presentations may have more than one speaker).

Make sure you collect the room host bag, this will either be in the room (with the previous room host) or at the registration desk. This bag should contain:

• Time cards: (15, 10, 5 minutes, stop, etc)
• Video adapters, USB-C or DP to HDMI, etc
• Clicker to move between slides, should have a USB dongle with it

Ensure the room has water, the venue should take care of this, but you might need to ask someone if there is none.

Before the presentation

You should greet the speaker and get them set up, during the scheduled 10 minutes change over time before the scheduled session start time. You should get the speaker set up, as follows:

• Get the laptop connected to the projector
• Get the speaker set up with a microphone, this will usually be a headset, check the battery level too
• Check the clicker functions and the speaker can move between slides
• Confirm with the speaker that they consent to the presentation being recorded
• Make sure you have the second microphone, for your announcement and the Q&A.
• Ask the speaker and take a photo for socials, this is easier before the presentation starts
• Discuss with the speaker how to intro them.
• Discuss with the speaker what time cards they want to see, and if that should include or exclude time for Q&A

If the speaker has not arrived between 10 to 5 minutes before the scheduled session start time, let the conference organisers know, by placing a message into the volunteers Telegram channel. If the speaker has not shown up 5 minutes before the scheduled start time, escalte this to the conference organisers immediately.

Announcing the presentation

At the scheduled start time, you should stand at the front and announce the presentation. Get the audience's attention and quiet them down, then announce the speaker and their presentation title. You should aim to start the talk on the schedule time, not immediately once the speaker is set up. If a large number of attendees are still entering the room you may wish to hold back at most 1 or 2 minutes.

It's good to discuss with the speaker how they want to be introduced. It's worthwhile getting the speaker to pronounce their name, to make it easier for you to get right. Ideally you don't want to just repeat what is on the speakers first slide, and try to make the introduction engaging, so the audience can learn a little more about the speaker. Think through what you'll say before hand, so it does not look like you are reading from the first slide.

Maybe ask the speaker for a fun and interesting fact about them, that you can use in your announcement.

Posting on socials

Make sure the speaker is happy to be photographed and posted on social media.

It's worthwhile getting a good photo of the speaker in front of their presentation during the set up time. It's a lot easier to get a good photograph position and much less presure than when the presentation starts.

In the few minutes after the speaker has started is a good time to post of social media. You can post via the conference system, where you select the photo and write the post text. The text should include the speaker name, presentation title and be engaging. The system will automatically include any conference hashtags.

To post to social media via the conference system, access your registration dashboard by following the 'Your Attendance' link on the website. Your registration dashboard will have a 'Social Media Posting' button at the top of the page. Click on 'Post Tweet' to enter the social media post content and select a photo to use on the post. This post will then be placed in a moderation queue before being posted to social media.

During the presentation

Pay attention to the presentation and to the time. It can be useful to start a stopwatch on your phone when the presentation starts.

Remember to hold up the time cards at the correct points in time. Display them for at least 30s, you don't want to distract the speaker, but gauge that they saw it.

If the speaker allows questions during the presentation, be alert that you might need to run the second microphone to audience members.

The speaker should finish 10 to 5 minutes before the schedule end of the session, this is to allow time for a Q&A with the audience, which you are moderating.

Should anything technical go wrong during the presentation, you are there to assist the speaker and co-ordinate between the AV technician. Message the organising committee via the Telegram channel if anything significant is going wrong. Eg: if the projector fails, there is lots of noise outside the room.

You may need to close the room door, if a late arrival leaves it open and it does not close, to keep distractions to a minimum.

During the Q&A

The speaker will likely ask for questions at the end of their presentation. You will need to run the second microphone to members in the audience to ask their question.

If no one asks a question, try to have a question of your own prepared. This will likely prompt the audience for more questions.

You are there to moderate the Q&A. It's important to make sure different members of the audience get chance to ask questions, don't let one attendee keep asking questions.

Attendees should be asking questions, and they should be on topic for the presentation and not long rambling multiple questions. If a question is clearly off topic, you can skip to another question. If attendees are using the Q&A to make comments about the presentation, you should move on to other attendees asking questions, potentially remind the audience to ask questions.

Keep aware of time, the Q&A cannot overrun the session scheduled time. If the speaker overran, there might be no time for a Q&A.

After the presentation

Announce the end of the presentation and thank the speaker, the audience should applaud, clap yourself to encourage people.

Announce what is next in the room or if there is a break.

Help the speaker close down, collect any adapters and the clicker dongle from them. Help them take the microphone off.

Thank the speaker for the presentation and hand over their speaker gift.

The difficult parts

If it's obvious that a speaker is going to underrun by a significant margin (ie: 20 mins early), make a post in the volunteers Telegram channel, the organisers might be able to fill the time.

It is your task to keep the speaker to time, the presentation must end at the schedule end time. If the speaker is still going, you will need to step in and stop the presentation. Worst case you'll need to use the second microphone to announce that time is up and thank the speaker.

If attendee in the audience are talking between themselves, you may need to discreetly go to them and ask them to stop and be respectful to the speaker.

At the end of your shift

Ensure that everything expected is in the room host bag.

Hand the room host bag over to the following room host, or return it to the registration desk.

This information draws heavily from the Room Hosting Guide by Boriss Mejías, et al. Which is well worth reading.

General Expectations

When on duty please dress and behave professionally, interacting with attendees politely with understanding. If a situation is becoming difficult, please escalate this to the organising committee.

If you are feeling unwell or cannot perform your scheduled duties, please tell a member of the organising committee and cover will be arranged.

You must follow the Code of Conduct at all times, especially when you are on duty.

Communicating With Attendees

When interacting with attendees please ensure that you are professional. Converse with a polite manner using plain English, simple language.

Remember many attendees are unlikely to be native English speakers, so avoid using idioms or other turns of phrase, be patient and understanding.

Above all treat attendees in the manner you would expect to be treated.

Contacting The Organising Committee

Should you need to escalate issues to the Organising Committee or if you need help with something, there are a number of ways to contact them during the event.

The easiest and least disruptive way to contact the organising committee would be via the volunteers Telegram channel. Before (or during) the event you can email contact@pgconf.eu.

There will always be a member of the organising committee (staff) available at the Registration Desk. The organising committee will be wearing staff t-shirts when they are on duty, but they will likely assist you even if they are not on duty.

Worst case you can contact the CoC committee using the phone number published on the website.

Volunteer Training

Please take the time to read through all the information here, including the general overview information and the specific details about any tasks you've signed up for.

If you have any questions about volunteering then please contact the organising committee.

There is generic event / community volunteer training happening at the Community Events Day, please attend this if you can.

All volunteers must attend the Volunteer Briefing that is held on the Wednesday morning before the event starts. You must attend even if you've volunteered in previous years.

Volunteer T-Shirts

You must wear the conference volunteer t-shirt when you are on duty. Anytime you are wearing the volunteer t-shirt, you are on duty.

You should not wear the conference volunteer t-shirt when you are off duty.

You must not wear the conference volunteer t-shirt when behind a sponsor booth.

You must not wear any company or corporate branding when you are on duty.

Hidden Disabilities Sunflower

PGConf.EU is now part of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme. This is to better support our attendees who may have an invisible disability, there are many and often will not be obvious, see the non-visible disabilities index.

Some attendees may be wearing a Sunflower lanyard. This means they are voluntarily sharing that they have a disability or condition that may not be immediately apparent, and that they may need a helping hand, understanding, or more time

Sunflower lanyards will also be available at the registration desk for any attendee who wants one.

You should watch this summary training video: