Social Events

SIGMOD Reception (sponsored by MonetDB)

The Van Gogh Museum maintains the world's largest collection of the works of the world's most popular artist - Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), his paintings, drawings and letters, completed with the art of his contemporaries. Each year, it receives 1.6 million visitors, making it one of the 25 most popular museums in the world.

SIGMOD/PODS'2019 and the event's sponsor MonetDB, are proud to offer all participants registered to the main conference exclusive access to the Van Gogh Museum for the SIGMOD reception on Tuesday July 2, 2019, from 20:30 until 23:00. Your badge is your ticket into the museum, you must bring it with you!

There will be time to visit the museum; at the end of the walking route, back in the foyer, there will be drinks and snacks served. The reception food is intended to be dinner-replacing under moderate appetite.

Please note, again, the SIGMOD reception is on Tuesday evening (not Monday evening as usual in SIGMOD). That day, the main program ends around 19:50; so participants have 40 minutes to get to the Museum, which is in the south center of Amsterdam (whereas the Beurs van Berlage conference center is in the middle of the center). You can find the directions in the next page.

Leave the venue taking a left and walk south to Dam square, and straight on into Rokin. Continue walking on Rokin until its end, at Munt tower. Continue into Muntplein which becomes Vijzelstraat until crossing the first main canal bridge, after which you take a right onto Herengracht. At the first opportunity you then go left into the Nieuwe Spiegelgracht. Continue this one straight, crossing no less than 4 canals (Prinsen, Keizers, Lijnbaans, Singel). The road passes under the Rijksmuseum; and continuing straight you will hit the Van Gogh museum.

You can follow the same route as with walking, above. Use the bicycle path (or street), though, rather than the pedestrian sidewalk.

Leave the venue taking a left and walk south to Dam square, and straight on into Rokin. Earlier than indicated on the Google map, right after leaving Dam Square, there is a metro entrance, in front of Hudon's Bay. Metro 52 is Amsterdam's newest metro and its stations are quite beautiful. Take the metro in southward direction (Station Zuid) and exit at the very first stop (Vijzelgracht). Outside, take a right at the big roundabout into Weteringsschans. At the first main crossing, take a left onto the Museumbrug (bridge). The road passes under the Rijksmuseum; and continuing straight you will hit the Van Gogh museum.  

Leave the venue taking a left and walk south to Dam square. At the tram stop just before Dam square, take tram 24 in southward direction (VU medisch centrum). At the 4th stop (Marie Heinekenplein), just after passing the former Heineken Brewery building (now hosting the "Heineken Experience") leave the tram, walk a few steps back and turn left (westward) into Eerste Jacob van Campenstraat. Continue staight on westward, crossing a canal, until Museum Plein (Square) opens in front of you. On your left-hand side, across the grass field, you see the new entrance hall of the Van Gogh Museum.  

Leave the venue taking a left and walk south to Dam square. At Dam square, go right and walk in between the Palace and the Church to the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. There is a tram stop there, where you can either take tram 2 or 12 -- they take the same route up until its 7th stop, Van Baerlestraat, where you exit. The tram will just have passed the Van Gogh museum (it is on the left side seen from the tram), so you have to walk back a bit and cross the street.  

You can of course also try to take a taxi or Uber, but taxi drivers will not be enthusiastically accepting such short trips; doing so will also not be much faster than the other options (or even slower, when stuck in a traffic jam) and quite expensive. Using a car is only recommended if walking is impossible for you. If you just want to minimize walking distance, the last option above (Tram 2 or 12) involves least walking.

In case you feel like playing it safe, here is a printable map.

SIGMOD Banquet (sponsored by Facebook)

For this year's SIGMOD we have organized something different: The dinner will take place outdoors in a festival-like atmosphere in the post-industrial setting of the former shipyards of Amsterdam-North. Though only 15 minutes away from Central Station, the NDSM-yard is an open space for serenity, creativitiy and festivities all throughout the year.

With a magnificent backdrop of the river "IJ", our dinner location "Noorderlicht" is a well-known counter-culture location for hanging out with friends, having a drink and listening to music. We trust the relaxed atmosphere there will rub off on SIGMOD attendants. We will serve locally sourced and produced food and beverages from several food trucks. There will be tents, barbecue, fire places and more. We do have a plan B for if it should rain unexpectedly.

Hereby we would like to thank Facebook for sponsoring this event.

Beurs van Berlage → Stromma jetties

Attendants will be transferred to Noorderlicht by way of a canal cruise passing through the UNESCO world heritage canals of historic Amsterdam. The cruise will leave close by the conference venue (at the Stromma jetties, close by the venue on your right-hand side when exiting it) and will take ca. one hour. The cruise concludes right in front of the dinner location. Everybody will be assigned a time slot ticket for the start of their cruise, please keep to your assigned time, or swap tickets with somebody else.

Noordelicht Cafe → ferry terminal

For the way back to the city center, we will take the free municipal ferry service back to central station, with the last ferry leaving at midnight. The ferry terminal is a short (400m) walk away from Noorderlicht.