Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Cornelia Biacsics, and I see myself as a community advocate for PostgreSQL.

I have a background in marketing and marketing strategy, but since joining PostgreSQL, community work has become central to what I do. A big part of my role is bridging the open-source project with its commercial reality. It's a balancing act, since companies and contributors both need each other, and the relationship only works if it stays mutually beneficial for both sides.

Within the community, I'm involved in a wide range of initiatives: I am a co-founder of the Open Alliance for PostgreSQL Education, a co-organizer of PGDay Austria and PGConf Germany. This year I joined the European Diversity Committee, the advocacy task force and started a PostgreSQL User Group in Vienna. I'd describe myself as sitting at the intersection of community, technology, and advocacy.

How do you manage your time with so many projects?

I would really love to do more. I see all the potential everywhere. I think that's also the reason why I started joining so many different groups. I try to use every minute of my free time to work on these projects. That means evenings, mornings, weekends, wherever possible.

Did you study marketing?

I studied marketing at a university of applied sciences in Austria. That gave me, I would say, the foundation of my career in marketing and strategy. But today, my career has definitely taken me into areas I didn't expect when I was studying.

When did you first hear about PostgreSQL?

Since we mentioned university, I remember there was a course about databases, and I'm sure that PostgreSQL was mentioned there. But I didn't really have a connection to PostgreSQL back then. When I joined CYBERTEC in 2022, that was the point where I really entered the PostgreSQL world and discovered the community around it.

What were the key moments in your career?

It started when I joined Pfizer UK in project support and content management. Later, I worked as a project manager for digital projects at a web agency called MMC here in Austria. These jobs helped me a lot to learn more about communication and project management.

In 2022, as mentioned, came the turning point that led to my current situation, I would say: the entry into the PostgreSQL ecosystem. I worked there as Head of Marketing. I built and led a team of 17 people. I started to understand that PostgreSQL is not only a technology. I suddenly understood that there's a vibrant global community behind it. During my time there, I also co-founded the Open Alliance for PostgreSQL Education.

Most recently, I joined Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager for PostgreSQL, bringing me even closer to community work. I see my role as a symbiotic one: my work at Microsoft helps drive PostgreSQL adoption, while my involvement in the community helps me bring its perspectives and needs into the commercial world. In that sense, I have the privilege of serving both sides and helping strengthen the connection between them.

What does a typical day at Microsoft look like?

A typical day for me involves working closely with a wide range of people and teams, including software engineers, product managers, people from the field, as well as external partners, and of course members of the PostgreSQL community.

A significant part of my role focuses on events and community engagement. I oversee Microsoft's sponsorship of PostgreSQL events and coordinate our participation, working closely with both the PostgreSQL community and teams across Microsoft.

An important part of that work is making sure both sides have what they need to collaborate effectively and support one another. At the same time, I help ensure that Microsoft's work and contributions around PostgreSQL are represented in a way that is authentic, relevant, and respectful of the community.

You joined Microsoft after the Open Alliance?

Yes, I co-founded the Open Alliance for PostgreSQL Education before I joined Microsoft. I'm a volunteer as are the rest of the team. So this is something that I still do in my free time.

What is it, and how can someone get involved as an individual? Is it for everyone?

The Open Alliance for PostgreSQL Education is a volunteer-driven initiative creating a vendor-neutral certification for PostgreSQL knowledge, a community-driven standard that lets professionals validate their skills independently of any vendor.

Right now we offer certification exams for DBAs, with more certifications planned. We'll run the first exam this year in Valencia at PGConf Europe, a huge milestone for us, followed by online exams.

There are several ways to get involved: companies and institutions can join as supporting organizations, individuals can become members, or simply volunteer. You don't have to be deeply technical. We also need help on advocacy and communication, and we're always looking for volunteers to review exam questions and maintain the question bank.

Everyone's welcome to reach out. Our advocates attend a lot of events, and we have a website and email where people can get in touch.

Did your contributions lead to this job, or how did it happen?

My involvement in the community grew very naturally. I simply wanted to contribute to something I believed in and serve the common good. But looking back, the skills, knowledge, and experience I gained through those contributions most likely played an important role in leading me to my current position.

What skill do you think matters most for someone trying to join a company like Microsoft today?

In my role, you need a solid understanding of your area, PostgreSQL in my case. Understanding the market matters too: current challenges, where the industry is heading, what customers and the community need. Working in open source specifically means understanding the community perspective. The community isn't just a stakeholder or customer; you need to understand what matters and how the community operates.

I think the most important skill is the ability to turn curiosity into impact. It's about being willing to learn, ask questions, take ownership, and use what you know to make a meaningful difference not only for the company, but also for the broader world we live in.

“The most important skill is the ability to turn curiosity into impact.”

Any advice for someone starting a user group?

The user group that I started is an Austrian user group, because I'm from Austria. I started it in Vienna, because that's the biggest city in my area.

My advice is: if you think that someone needs to create something in the area that you are in, and you already have this kind of thought, then it's your call to start something. It doesn't need 100 people, a perfect venue, or a huge program. Just start by bringing people together, announce it, and use your connections. There are PostgreSQL people everywhere around the world, and people really appreciate a place where they can meet, exchange, and get together.

And most importantly, ask for help. There are so many resources already available for PostgreSQL meetup organizers. I'm also happy to help here, in case someone doesn't know where to start.

“It doesn't need 100 people, a perfect venue, or a huge program. Just start by bringing people together.”

Have projects like the user group or the Open Alliance opened up networking connections for you?

Yes, absolutely. When you start contributing to a community or helping people, connections happen naturally. You meet people because you are working with them towards something. That's where you meet people and relationships are established. And that's also a really nice aspect of working in a community, because everyone is working towards a common good, in the same direction. That's a very beautiful thing to experience.

How do you use AI tools in your day-to-day work?

I work a lot with Microsoft Copilot. I think AI is particularly useful when you're working with large amounts of information. It really helps with analysis, identifying patterns, and summarizing information. For me, it helps to find a starting point for broader research and for exploring ideas.

It's not a replacement for your own thinking, but it can definitely help you ask different questions, challenge ideas, or look at challenges from other perspectives. I think it doesn't replace knowledge, because you still need to understand the context. I see it more as support for making your own decisions based on information and inputs.

Will AI replace juniors?

I don't agree with that idea. I don't think that AI will replace juniors. I think the opposite is happening: AI is helping juniors learn faster. It helps them explore concepts, get explanations, and experiment in ways that would have taken much longer in the past. So it can be an incredibly powerful tool. But I don't see AI replacing real experience, critical thinking, or the connections that people have with other people.

What advice would you give to a junior in this era?

Always stay curious. Listen first. Be open to learning, and never be afraid to ask questions. Seek connections. Find people you can learn from. Take time to learn and to listen. Technology changes super fast, and curiosity is everything that you need. You should always ask yourself: what if?

But there's a lot of information today, on social media and elsewhere, and it's difficult to focus on one thing. How do you choose what to learn?

That's true. Somehow you have to stay focused on what you really want to learn and get to know. And you have to find a starting point somewhere, of course. By learning more, you will learn what you don't know, and that's one of the biggest challenges. Because as soon as you open this box of learning, you see what else is in the box.

In my opinion, you learn best if you are curious. By using this curiosity, you will grab one piece of information after another, evolve over time, and add to the knowledge that you have already learned.

How did you learn databases and PostgreSQL?

That's something I mention in every one of my talks at PostgreSQL conferences. I was very stunned when my first talks at PostgreSQL conferences got accepted, because I don't see myself as super technical.

I always had a curiosity for technical things, especially when the first websites came up. I really wanted to learn how to create my own website. And suddenly I had my own web page somewhere on the internet that everyone could access. That was just a wonderful feeling, to create something and have something out there that I created. And that fueled my curiosity even more.

PostgreSQL is something completely different, and also completely different from marketing. Marketing is always something that you can see, feel, or touch, right? Databases are about structure, architecture, single data inputs, queries. It's usually something that you can't see and can't touch. But there's also a kind of beauty behind it, which is also interesting.

My background is different from that of many people in the PostgreSQL community, who come from deeply technical roles, so I'm particularly grateful for how warmly the community welcomed me. Marketing may not seem like the most obvious companion to backend engineering, but I discovered that there is room for very different skills and perspectives and that they can complement each other in valuable ways.

“There is room for very different skills and perspectives, and they can complement each other in valuable ways.”

Over the years, I've developed a solid understanding of the technical foundations. I've participated in many customer conversations where we worked to understand their challenges and identify the right products, services, and solutions. There was usually someone with deeper technical expertise alongside me, and I learned enormously from working with those people. Especially by asking questions, listening, and gradually understanding more and more of what was happening under the hood.

On the personal side, are there any books or resources you'd recommend?

In my early career, like 20 years ago or even more, my former account manager recommended a book to me. The title is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It sounds a bit weird or bad, because, you know, "influence people." But it's a really, really good book about collaborating with people, with a lot of examples. It's about the fundamental ideas of human nature and collaboration. It's one of my favorite books.

I would also recommend The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I don't agree with all of its content, but it gives some good ideas and examples of how to look at certain challenges.

And something that has no professional connection is definitely The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. But I think this is at the top of many people's reading lists.

I also can recommend a podcast when it comes to the PostgreSQL community: Talking Postgres by Claire Giordano. It's sponsored by Microsoft, but it doesn't have any commercial angle. It's a very, very useful podcast to get to know community people and people who work with PostgreSQL and inside the community. I find it especially helpful when you plan to listen to talks by these people, because you get the full background of the individuals, which helps put their talks into context.

How do you spend your free time?

I have a ton of hobbies. I'm a very curious person, and I tend to find something interesting and think, "I want to try that." That has led to quite a mixture of things over the years: from soldering to gardening, carving, and spending time with animals. Last year, I learned to kitesurf. And I never stop doing new things.

Is there anything you would like to share with readers: a project, a reflection, a message?

It's something that I recommend to everyone who wants to get involved in projects, in open source, or whatever it may be: before participating in something, always start by listening. Listen first, learn as much as you can, and then act.

“Listen first, learn as much as you can, and then act.”

Where can people find your work online?