The Distributed SQL Summit was held in September 2019, featuring keynote speakers from Pivotal and Facebook, as well as panel discussions on distributed databases, including Facebook's evolution of their database technology. The event also featured presentations on scaling microservices architecture, using YugabyteDB, and other topics related to cloud-native applications and distributed SQL. Key highlights included the challenges and benefits of transforming enterprise IT in a cloud-native world, the importance of data-tier simplification for GDPR compliance, and the successes of companies like Narvar and Plume Design in adopting YugabyteDB for their applications.