Social events at Percona Live Santa Clara

One good thing about going to the MySQL UC is the fact that you will interact with many people and you benefit from social events in the evenings. In its heyday, I recall you get no more than 4 hours of sleep a night, because you’re busy with people for up to 20 hours a day. Meetings, drinks, the hallway track are also all very interesting. That’s the added value of going to an event besides just the learning.

Monday is open source appreciation day and I know there will be drinks planned on Monday evening (31.03) at least from the CentOS Dojo crew. Tuesday (01.04) brings on the welcome reception (4.30-6.30pm), while Wednesday is the community dinner at Pedro’s (7-10pm). MariaDB.com (SkySQL) has graciously offered to pay the first $500 of the bar bill, and as a Pedro’s regular I can tell you the martinis are pretty good.

Thursday (03.04) is the Community Network Reception (5.30-8.30pm) with the awards and lightning talks, which is a must attend event. While not part of the conference, after the reception I’d personally head over to Taste restaurant for more community bonding.

Friday is sadly the day many of us will leave (I am no exception). I expect to usually be all around the Hyatt as well as at the Evolution Cafe/Bar (hotel bar) which is where lots of conversation happen.

Bits of advice: drink plenty of water. It is costly in the hotel but I’m sure you can be creative with getting a bottle and filling it regularly. Bring some cash – split dinners are hard to do with a credit card, so cash goes a long way. For the non-Americans reading this, have some dollar bills – tipping is customary. Bring plenty of business cards, and carry a notebook + pen in your pocket at all times (you will have long action items post-conference week, I’m sure of it).