Presenting at ConFoo 2025

With 191 presentations chosen out of 895 proposals, being accepted to speak at ConFoo is not something I take for granted. This year, my first talk was "Local-First Web Development With the Help of WebAssembly" where I walked the attendees through how SQLite and PGLite compare and work in the browser. My second demo extended the PGLite database to showcase ElectricSQL's approach to synchronizing your data with a server in a local-first architecture. My second talk, "Using WebAssembly in a Web Component as a Polyfill", explored using WebAssembly as a polyfill to extend a feature that might not be in all browsers yet. I showed the attendees how to compile the libjxl library to WebAssembly and I used the module in a web component to decode and render a JPEG XL image.

With 191 presentations chosen out of 895 proposals, being accepted to speak at ConFoo is not something I take for granted. I invest a lot of time into getting the code ready for the demos, preparing slides, and practicing to ensure each talk goes as smoothly as possible while providing the latest cutting-edge information to attendees.

This year, my first talk was "Local-First Web Development With the Help of WebAssembly" where I first walked the attendees through how SQLite and PGLite compare and work in the browser. These products enable web developers to interact with their data in a familiar way by being able to run SQL statements against the database. My second demo extended the PGLite database to showcase ElectricSQL's approach to synchronizing your data with a server in a local-first architecture.

My second talk, "Using WebAssembly in a Web Component as a Polyfill", explored using WebAssembly as a polyfill to extend a feature that might not be in all browsers yet. For this talk, I showed the audience how to go about compiling a library to WebAssembly, in this case libjxl, and then making use of the module in a web component to decode and render a JPEG XL image.

Because my second talk was before lunch on the second day of the conference, no more practicing was needed so I was able to take it easy for the rest of the conference. That evening, I decided to do some sightseeing. Not knowing Montreal very well, I did a quick online search and found that some people recommended checking out the Saint-Laurent area so I jumped on the subway and then did some exploring.

The following are some of the pictures I took that evening. The left image is from inside the Lionel-Groulx Metro station, the middle image is the Place des Arts building when looking at it from the Saint-Laurent Metro station, and the right image is from my walk down Saint-Catherine Street near the Place des Arts building.

In 2022, I met a couple guys at ConFoo who were from Fredericton, a city that’s close to where I live. We stayed in contact and would joke about how we had to go all the way to Montreal to meet fellow developers from near us.

This year, the guy who used to lead the developer user group in my city posted on Facebook that he was at the Montreal Canadiens game. I gave his post a like and thought it was neat that he was in Montreal at the same time as me. Much to my surprise, the next morning when I was grabbing breakfast at ConFoo, I heard my name! It turns out that he was in town for ConFoo and we got to hang out a bit.

At the end of each conference, there's a time for lighting talks by anyone who would like to present. If you're ever at ConFoo, I recommend it. This year, one of the volunteers gave a presentation talking about Postgres and he kept flipping to a slide promoting an upcoming conference... in Montreal... in May. It was quite humorous and I was glad he was able to join the group of us later that evening for supper. The conference he was talking about is PGConf if you're interested.

I mentioned to my friends that speaking, especially at ConFoo, is a high. Weeks of work go into preparing and practicing my talks. Then, as the time draws near to give the talk, the nerves hit. Thankfully, the internet stays up, the demos work, and all the practicing pays off as the talk goes well. As soon as the first talk is over, the mind shifts to the next talk I need to give and I practice more to ensure I'm as ready as possible for the next one. In between the stress and nerves leading up to the talk, and then the relief that the talk went well, there's the networking and meeting of friends from previous years and the making of new friends. It's a rollercoaster of emotions but, as soon as it's over, I can't wait to do it all over again.

Speaking of wanting to do it all over again, if you have a conference and want someone to speak about WebAssembly, something WebAssembly related, or building a Slack bot, I'm your guy. If you'd like to reach out, you can find me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gerard-gallant

If there's interest, I'd also like to put together a pre-conference workshop related to WebAssembly at ConFoo next year. If you'd be interested in attending and, if there's anything in particular that you'd like to learn, please fill out the following form: https://forms.gle/GSkU923A1k8fdYCG8