| Sumario: | This year, the conference is held in the city center of Amsterdam, capital of The Netherlands. Amsterdam is an internationally oriented city, home to people with origins from all over the world. This used to be already the case even back in the 16th and 17th century, when Amsterdam was the world's biggest trading and financial center; establishing the world's first stock exchange in 1602. SIGMOD/PODS 2019 is held in the original Amsterdam Stock and Commodities Exchange, constructed by Dutch architect Berlage between 1896 and 1903, which now serves as the wellequipped Amsterdam Conference Center. This architect and his apprentices (the school of Berlage) left an important mark on the city, being responsible for a major expansion of the city in the early 20th century. The sculptures and drawings in the Exchange building refer to the people behind the commodities traded in the various rooms ("Effecten" - stock; "Graan" - grains), e.g., depicting farmers in the grain exchange room; as a reminder that trading affects society. Amsterdam is a city that offers many cultural activities, including the world-famous classical Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as many museums (Amsterdam Museum, Rijksmuseum, Rembrandthuis, Anne Frank Huis). In a slight break with SIGMOD tradition, the SIGMOD opening reception will be held one day later, on Tuesday night, when the SIGMOD/PODS attendees will have exclusive access to the Van Gogh museum. The Wednesday conference dinner is organized across the water in Amsterdam North, in Noorderlicht Cafe in a festival-like environment. This used to be harbour area and was less-populated and industrial, but in the recent decade has become a hotspot for nightlife activities. Amsterdam is also increasingly a hub for data science companies and services, with multiple universities and CWI in the vicinity; which all participate in the organization of SIGMOD/PODS 2019. On Thursday night, after the SIGMOD program finishes, there will be a meetup of Amsterdam Data Science, where the local data science community will be able to mingle with our data management research community.
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