Tag: speaking

That’s where we were on Friday. 780 Third Avenue, in the middle of Manhattan. The start of our 2012 US SQL in the City tour.

I arrived Thursday, getting into the city in time to go running in Central Park. A solo #sqlrun, but one I enjoyed on a beautiful fall afternoon in the city. Then it was a short walk to rehearse a few things for the event.

Coming out of the elevator, I could see a bunch of new swag on the book shelf. Water bottles? Very cool. I snagged one for my daughter, and she loved it.

A nice setup, lots of demo booths, all ready for people to arrive.

Plenty of coffee cups, sugar, etc. ready to be stocked

And a big banner in our library. There was a set of almost every book we’ve published over the last couple years, and it’s quite a list of books. We have most of these available as free ebooks on SQLServerCentral, so check them out.

Rehearsals went fine in the main room. I think everyone checked out their laptop on the projector. Since I walk, I took a few minutes to see how the projector would affect me. It was right in my line of sight, but I mentally prepared myself to cross over it a few times.

Then it was off to dinner and an early bedtime. Friday morning I was up at 6:15 for a run. As I came downstairs, I noticed Grant had already run, and checked out his route. Not the one I was planning on.

The streets were wet, and I almost went back inside, but decided not to. I ended up having a nice run as the sun came up on the city. Lots of people out in the early morning, which is strange for someone that lives in the middle of nowhere. Even in most cities I visit, there aren’t that many people running at 6:30am.

As you can see, my run was more organized. I cleaned up and headed to the venue, arriving just before the rain came down.

We had banners outside, but had to bring them in. Fortunately I had my hat to keep dry. People wandered in and filled up the main room. Simon Galbraith, one of the joint CEOs at Red Gate, gave a nice keynote, talking about the challenges we face as an industry and how Red Gate is working to better serve our customers. Not only are we trying to build great products at value prices, but we are also putting on events like this, working with the community to educate users. We even support Open Source, funding the Glimpse project.

I had the first two sessions, talking about essential database maintenance and preparation for disaster. Lots of developers and accidental DBAs in the crowd and while I didn’t have many questions in the session, I did get some in the hallways later.

I watched a bit of other sessions, but mostly ended up chatting with different people throughout the day. It’s great to meet people at events, and the diversity and variety of people I meet in New York is amazing.

We had a great time, though I ducked out just before the closing ceremony, prizes, and drinks. With a busy tour, I wanted to get to the airport and get home Friday night. I made it, though it was a challenge. Huge thanks to United for outstanding customer service in moving my flight arrangements.

A great start to the tour, and I’m looking forward to Austin today.

Last year I had the pleasure of speaking at two SQL in the City events: London and Los Angeles. It was a great time and I was hoping we’d do more events this year.

We did, with 2 events in London in July of this year and now we’re about to embark on the US portion of our 2012 tour. Over two weeks in September and October the Red Gate crew, including myself and Grant Fritchey, will hit five cities.

• New York, Sept 28, 2012
• Austin, TX, Oct 1, 2012
• San Francisco, Oct 3, 2012
• Chicago, Oct 5, 2012
• Boston, Oct 8, 2012

At each event we’ll have a few special guests speaking, people like Adam Machanic and Brent Ozar. The line up changes slightly in each city, so check the agendas.

We also added another event on Nov 5, 2012, in Seattle, just before the PASS Summit. If you’re planning on going to Seattle that week, think about joining us on Monday for a free day of training.

All these events are free, and I’m looking forward to them. I wrote a post about my views for each event, and you can check those out if you are interested. If you want to run with me, I’ll be up early in each city on the day of the event, and sometimes the day before.

• Running in Central Park at SQL in the City New York
• Amazing Margaritas in Austin – SQL in the City US Tour
• The Embarcadero – SQL in the City San Francisco
• The Field Museum – SQL in the City 2012 – Chicago
• The Charles River – SQL in the City Boston
• Sleepless in Seattle – SQL in the City 2012

This is a free event. FREE to you, with lunch provided, snacks, and a refreshing beverage at the end of the day.

If you are in any of these cities on this date, I’d be happy for you to attend and shake my hand.