A few last minute prep items for DevConnections and I leave in a few hours for Las Vegas. My first trip since last November, and it’s been a welcome break from being on the road. I suspect that won’t last and I’ll be traveling to more spots in the future, but for now I only have a few things planned.
SQL Server Connections is a great conference, in a fun city, and I look forward to attending. Not as much social activity as the PASS Summit, but a more intimate feel, and a diverse audience, with the chance to see talks on Windows, Exchange, development topics, Sharepoint, and more.
I’m doing three talks this time:
Unstructured Data in SQL Server – a look at Filestream and Filetable
Contained Databases in SQL Server 2012 – as the name says, a look at partial containment.
An Encryption Primer – a basic look at encryption options and techniques in SQL Server.
If you’re at the show, please stop by and say hi, either around one of my sessions, or anytime you see me walking around in the cowboy hat.
If you’re a runner, we’ll likely be running each morning (Tue, Wed, and Thur) around the MGM at 6:45 or so. We should be in the lobby, and if you’re interested in joining us, feel free.
I enjoy Las Vegas and am glad to be heading back to present at the Spring SQL Server Connections conference in March. If you wear a number of hats at your job, and deal with a variety of platforms in the Microsoft technology stack, this is a great event to attend. There are nine conferences taking place at the same time, in the same place, and you get the chance to see sessions from Mark Minasi on Windows, Scott Hillier on Sharepoint, Miguel Castro on Visual Studio, and more along with your SQL Server sessions.
I know you can’t attend every session, and you can’t see all the content that week, but the sessions are recorded and attendees can get DVDs of the content. I love that, and it means I can pop in and out of sessions, checking out the content and topics, and mark those in a program that I want to watch later. It also means that I can focus on the important parts of the conference: meeting people.
When I’m looking to learn, I try to make time to talk to the people that can teach me something or answer a question I have. I can always email someone later, but the chance to have a meaningful conversation is worth the time spent at events.
I like going to Las Vegas, but not for the reasons that many people go. I don’t gamble, having bet exactly $0 on my last two trips. I don’t stay out too late, or attend the shows. I go because the weather is great, it’s close to home, and I get the chance to network and bond with people in this amazing SQL Server community.
Ask your boss for some training money, and come join me this March in Las Vegas.
I got the PASS speaking results today on the new speaker portal. They posted the top sessions as well, overall and in each track. I did two sessions, and here are my summarized results:
Branding Yourself for a Dream Job
67 attendees, 39 surveys.
Overall, I was mid 4’s (4.59, 4.72, 4.74, 4.56, 4.56) for the various questions. Anything over a 4 means that I was doing a good job overall. I got some great comments, many of them in caps. I hope that means people were excited, but in any case, here are a few:
IT IS TIME TO VAN SP_UPDATERESUME
GREAT, GREAT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TIPS! ESPECIALLY LIKED THE PART ABOUT BLOGGING. WELL DONE!
IDEAS FOR FINDING EMPLOYEES AND OWN CAREER
THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGING MY IMAGE
STEVE OPENED MY EYES TO THINGS I ALREADY KNEW BUT WASN’T REALLY AWARE OF.
LEARNED SOME GREAT TIPS FOR IMPROVING "BRAND" TO HELP IN KEEPING/FINDING JOBS
GLAD I CAME. VERY ENJOYABLE AND INFORMATIVE.
SUPERB PRESENTATION!
I GOT SOME GREAT TIPS TO IMPROVE MY ONLINE PRESENCE.
DESIRE TO PROMOTE ONLINE PRESENCE
I ALREADY STARTED TO UPDATE MY ONLINE PRESENCE AND I’LL BE UPDATING MY RESUME WHEN I GET HOME.
GREAT STUFF! MORE GOOD INFO THAN EXPECTED!
Nice comments, and I enjoyed the session. Got some great questions during this presentation.
In the PD track, I was third, and I regret not going to see Plamen’s talk on great presentations. The slides look good.
The Top Ten SQL Server Skills You Need
188 attendees, 80 surveys.
I was worried about this session a bit because it was near the end of Friday, the last day, and it’s a basic 100 level session. Also, I was in a huge room, the one that Adam Machanic filled up with 500+ people that morning.
However I was pleasantly surprised to see similar scores here in the mid 4s (4.43, 4.66, 4.6, 4.45, 4.34). I guess that means I do a decent job presenting, even when I’m not at my best. One comment caught my eye:
Voice was more monotone than yesterday. Sounded tired.
Very, very true. I was wiped out, and after this session I left immediately for the airport for a flight. I dislike speaking late in the day, and after being in Seattle for a week, I was definitely tired.
This is a tough session since it’s basic, and I suspect some people come to see me, expecting something more. I was actually surprised this session was picked by the program committee, though clearly wanted. I was more surprised it was scheduled so late in the week. I had some nice feedback:
several of the tips were useful and possibly the links to more information is most helpful
go home and use what I learned
finally someone at this conference who teaches people new to sql server the basics and not something over my head Thanks Steve!
how to train my entry level dba’s
Glad I met the need. Some not to great feedback, though I’m not sure how I can fix some of these. It’s listed as a 100 level session.
Could have said for beginners. This was a very low level presentation of many basics that most dbas do every day.
I expected sql server dba function more advanced than types of joins and how to create basic indexes
Could use a little more just like most sessions
I’m not sure what “more” I could do, especially with 10 things. I suppose I could cut it down, but my aim was to point people in a direction, not teach them deep skills.
I think I’ll retire this one, unless I get a call for it. I don’t love it, and with a mixed skill level audience, I always find people complaining that it’s too basic.
I spoke at the SQL Inspire event this last weekend and it was a greart experience. This event was sponsored by Linchpin people (founded by Andy Leonard, Brian Moran, and Matt Velic) and supported by Robert Pearl, Melissa Demsak, and others in the New York/New Jersey area.
The event is modeled after the TED events, which was inspirational and informative talks that bring people together to discuss ideas and thoughts about various topics. In this case all the speakers were technologype focused people, but bringing different points of view or frames of reference to our SQL world.
The event was held at the Microsoft office in Manhattan, the same place as the SQL Saturday event held there last year. I arrived just as the event was starting, and had breakfast. There was plenty to go around, which was good as I’d forgotten to pack the protein bars I normally eat in the morning.
There was plenty of coffee as well, and I had a cup while watching the event start with Robert Pearl talking about telecommuting. He had some good ideas for people that want to work from home, including some data and arguments that you could give to your boss.
The event was structured as a series of 20 minute talks, with a few breaks throughout the day. Tom LaRock had come down from Boston with his daughter. He had a great talk about “Someday”, which as he noted, “isn’t one of the seven days of the week.” Tom cautioned people against waiting too long to do things, or putting off the parts of their career that are important to them, or even the simple things that need to be done in every environment, like making sure you have good backups. He had one point in the talk where he was looking forward to things in the future, and he choked up while mentioning the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. It was a touching moment, and I was choked up as well thinking about my little girl.
SQL Someday
Michael Coles talked about the job market, Andrew Brust talked about Big Data, and Brian Moran talked about Linchpin people and how he is trying to change the way that people view their work and their business. Michael Corey had a great talk about how he had grown his career from DBA to CEO of a consulting company and how he runs a successful, moral, well balanced place to work. I grabbed a card from him and will keep NTirety, his company, in mind if I ever need a job. They seem to work the way I’d like to work.
My talk was right after lunch and titled “Finding Balance”. My focus was on the ways in which we can all manage to improve our careers, get raises, promotions, etc., while still managing to have a life. I’ll blog about it more, but the main ideas were three things I think are important to balancing out your life.
– Learn to say no
– Play your own game
– Balance
The entire event was video taped and recorded, and I believe that the videos will be available in a few weeks for people to view. There were about 60 or so people there throughout the day, and they seemed to enjoy the talks. Quite a few people came up to me and other speakers at the end to thank us for the information we presented, and they seemed to be making notes or engaged with the speakers during the day.
Video by And Now Video
There were a number of sponsors that helped bring this event to fruition, including my employer, Red Gate Software, along with Confio, Embarcadero, and Microsoft.
This was a much different type of event than many SQL Saturdays. The talks focused on abstract, more soft-skill topics, that were designed to inspire you, and get you to re-think the way that your career is progressing. I hope there are more of these events, or even that they can be held alongside other SQL Saturday events as a change of pace from the strictly technical presentations.
New York City was great, with mild weather on a November weekend. The sun shined as I went for a run out to Central Park on Saturday morning. I stayed at The Pod hotel, which is a hostel, and an ecclectic change of pace from many other places I’ve visited. We had a few people come out after the event to share a few beers and talk about the event, life, and a few other topics.
My thanks to Andy, Brian, and Matt and I hope they are able to run a few of these events in other places in 2012.
Voice of the DBA 