There are lots of resources for learning: articles at SQL Server Central, blogs, user groups, SQL Saturday and other events, conferences, and more. In most of those cases, the editor, author, or speaker is deciding what they want to write about. If you want to learn something different, you need to go search out that information. You can certainly request topics from others, but they may or may not listen to you.

At least not as an individual.

Steve Rezhener put together a survey for what topics you’d like to learn about. A few others, including myself, gave him feedback and he’s published this for people to use. It was intended for SQL Saturday organizers and speakers, but it can work well for anyone producing information. I’ve created some shortlinks at SQL Saturday that you can use to take the survey and see the results.

• https://sqlsaturday.com/survey
• https://sqlsaturday.com/surveyresult

This is open-ended, and none of the items are required. It’s long, but just answer the items you care about. While it does ask for places you’d attend events, you can answer or leave this blank. I love surveys like this one, since I can pick and choose and don’t have to answer every question.

I plan on analyzing this data every month or so and publishing a report, which helps me decide what to request or publish here, but also which topics I might speak on in the future or what I might plan a SQL Saturday around. I would love to see more niche events, especially virtual ones. If some of you out there want to be an MVP, run a virtual event on your niche topic. Ping me and I’ll help you get going.

The results of a survey like this might also help you decide where you should drive your career. If a lot of people are interested in something, likely it’s relevant to their jobs. Perhaps you ought to follow the crowd a bit if you aren’t sure what things might bring opportunities for you in the future.

If you’d like to see more topics or different choices, drop Steve a note and I’m sure he can add to the form.

Steve Jones

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