Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • The 2013 SQL in the City Tour

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    Once again, Red Gate is planning on a tour of the US for the SQL in the City events. Last year we had a large tour, hitting 6 cities in the US during October and November of 2012. It was great fun, and very well received by the attendees. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it was a bit of a stressful time for me with all the travel.

    This year we’ve scaled back slightly, but we’re still moving around the US. We have three dates scheduled, all packed into a week: Pasadena, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

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    Our first stop will be in California, on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2013. Red Gate has a sales office in the Pasadena area, and we’ll have a large staff coming out to meet customers and the SQL community. This event will be at the Pasadena Convention Center, in the North East LA area. It’s close to Arcadia Wilderness Park, where I’m hoping to get in a #sqlrun Winking smile

    Register today and join us if you are in the area.

     

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    Atlanta has a great SQL Server community. They consistently have the largest SQL Saturday events every year and there is a lot of excitement about the platform in this area. It would be a great place for a future Summit (hint, send your feedback to PASS).

    We’ll be in Atlanta on Friday, October 11, 2013 at the Blackburn Conference Center. This is at the John Marshall Law School in the heart of the city. I’m expecting this event to sell out soon, so register today.

     

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    The PASS Summit is in Charlotte this year, and once again we’ll open the week with a SQL in the City event in Charlotte on Monday, October 14, 2013. If you’re in town early, or live there, register and come spend a fun day on Monday with us, talking about lots of development and DBA SQL Server topics

    You can register now to join us at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Charlotte.

     

    That’s our 2013 tour (along with sold out London), and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you and meeting even more this fall.

  • The Bicentennial SQLSaturday–#200 Philadelphia

    When Andy Warren (b | t | Li)started SQL Saturday with #1 in Orlando, we weren’t sure it would succeed. After a few events, we dreamed and wondered if we’d ever get to 50 events. Despite our success in the past, we weren’t sure if a free event, supported by advertising (essentially) would survive over time. We also weren’t sure if we could replicate and grow this event in other locations.

    It grew, and prospered, and then exploded, thanks to Karla Landrum (b | t). Under Karla’s guidance and nurturing, we’ve seen a tremendous number of events taking place all over the world. Not only did we get to 50 events, the SQL community blew past 100 a few years ago and earlier this year event #200 was posted.

    It’s somewhat fitting that in one of the cities that helped birth my country, and houses the Liberty Bell, will host SQL Saturday #200 in a little over a week. I’ll be traveling next week, along with Andy for the event. There’s an exciting lineup of speakers, bringing you a wide variety of SQL Server learning sessions.

    I’m looking forward to seeing friends and meeting new people, as we celebrate the bicentennial SQL Saturday. If you can’t attend this event, there are lots of SQL Saturday’s scheduled for the rest of the year. They’re free (other than lunch at a few events) and it’s worth your time to learn something new about SQL Server and network with some of the people in your local area.

    If you’re attending an event, you might even think about bringing kids and perhaps organizing a session for them.

  • Fun at SQL Bits

    Last week was the eleventh SQL Bits conference and it was a fun time in Nottingham. I traveled over to the Red Gate offices for a few days before driving to Nottingham for the event. This is my second SQL Bits and it’s one of my favorite conferences. It’s a little bigger than most SQL Saturdays, with more amenities, but it’s a low cost and it retains the charm, casual atmosphere and fun that many of the larger events have lost. Spouses and children typically have little problem attending with the data professionals, and the less formal proceedings seem to make this as much of a social event as a professional one.

    The format is a little different from many events in that there are paid days (a nominal fee for a conference event) and a free day. You can attend part of all of the conference, and all of the sessions are filmed and available online. The event moves around the UK, and I’ve been to the Liverpool, and now, Nottingham, events. The East Mindlands Conference Center was a very nice facility, nice conference rooms and facilities, one of the better venues I’ve seen. The highlight of the event was the Friday night social, with a medieval theme. It was very surprising how many people participated.  I had expected the organizers to dress up:

     

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    However I was surprised to see many others, including the Red Gate staff

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    And dozens of others. As I was leaving the Red Gate office on Thursday, someone gave me a bag and told me to wear it. I hadn’t checked it until Friday afternoon, and I was a good sport in just putting it on.

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    I had fun walking around throughout the evening, seeing the various costumes, some of which were amazing. The Lego costume was really stunning. I’m not even sure how I’d make that one. I haven’t seen a picture yet (and forgot to take one), but it was incredible.

    You can see more pictures here or check out the Facebook page.

    I delivered my Searching Binary Data talk, and it went well (I think). I also attended Matijah Lah‘s talk on semantic statistics and learned a few things. I saw an amazing advanced DR/HA talk from Christian Bolton, and a few more interesting sessions. I also marked a few more to watch later.

    I love most events, but typically the smaller ones, however I am looking forward to the chance to come back.

     

  • SQL Saturday #175–Fargo

    One of the goals early on with SQL Saturday was to spread them far and wide. Andy Warren and I used to chat about how long it would be before we had 12 events in a year, or one event a month, or an event in every state. Karla Landrum (b | t) has made many of those milestones come true and is working hard to try and get an event in every state in the US, as well as in as many countries around the world as possible.

    SQL Saturday #175 comes to Fargo, North Dakota, on Saturday, April 27, 2013. The first event in this state, and also my first time visiting the state. I’ll be heading out Friday morning, and seeing what Fargo has to offer that day before talking on Saturday. I may just have to see the Wood Chipper.

    My talk is The Encryption Primer, but there are some other great choices if you’re looking to increase your SQL Server knowledge. The schedule is up and includes these:

    • Aaron King giving you a complete BI solution in an hour.
    • Powershell from Jim Dorame
    • Dimentional Modeling from Jason Horner
    • Indexing from Jes Borland
    • T-SQL from Kathi Kellenberger
    • and more

    Lots of great sessions, and it should be fun.

    If you’re close to Fargo, consider registering and joining us at the first North Dakota SQL Saturday.