It’s your career. It’s something you have to take ownership of and work on. I know that life is busy, and training budgets are tight. That’s one reason we started SQL Saturday; it’s a way to bring a training event and a conference experience to many people.
I posted this tweet almost a year ago, seeing Brent in a class somewhere, learning and taking notes during some session. It was in humor, but I’m a little serious here. We all have more to learn, and while you don’t need to cram it all in this year, you should be taking advantage of your user group, local events, conferences, classes, even reading something in a newsletter on a regular basis.
Many of us are out here to help. I’ve spoken at 12 events this year, 10 of them free, and will be at another free event this week (SQL in the City – LA). However, you’ve got to make the effort to improve yourself. I , and many others, will try to help you, teach you, but you’ve got to do some work yourself.
Pace yourself, learn at a reasonable rate given the other responsibilities in your life, but don’t ignore this aspect of your career.
PS – If you’re in the LA area, there’s still time to register for SQL in the City and get a free day of training. I’ll also be at DevConnections next week and SQLInspire the week after that.
Buck Woody wrote a fantastic post this morning for speakers to think about. All too often I have seen some speakers at technical events adopt the prima donna stance, expecting gifts, special treatment, free food and drinks, and more. I do think that events should try to recognize speakers when they can, but for smaller events, gifts and dinner can be hard. Ultimately I want events to be sustainable, with 100 SQL Saturdays a year and there isn’t enough money to make them all lavish smorgasborghs of delight for those that present.
There was a bit of a discussion recently about cancellations and penalties for speakers at events. Cancellations happen, and sometimes are unavoidable, however they have a huge impact on organizers. There are any number of reasons for cancellation, some legitimate, some suspect, and since Andy Leonard likes elegant solutions, I have one:
If you cancel speaking at an event, the event bans you from speaking the next time they have the event. You get an appeal to the program committee to state your case, but their decision is final.
But Steve, my wife broke her arm and I had to leave early. Why can’t I speak next year?
I completely understand. If you have a family emergency, or you’re sick, cancel. Take care of you and yours. That’s understandable, no one can blame you, and you can appeal to the committee and state your care.
However do your penance. There’s no entitlement here for speaking. I believe in making the decisions that are ethically and morally just for each person, but then be man or woman enough to stand up for your decision, regardless of the consequences.
I cancelled on SQL Connections a couple years ago because my wife broke her arm as I was landing in Denver between events. I wasn’t speaking, but had committed to help cover the event for my company. They would have been justified in telling me they wouldn’t pay for me to attend anymore. And I would have accepted that as a result of my decision.
I cancelled on the Louisville SQL Saturday this past January, after I had submitted a session and been accepted. I gave them as much notice as I could, in this case I told them in Nov and they had two months. My reason: my middle son’s black belt test was the same day.
I am still apologizing to Malathi for my decision, and if she decides not to allow me to speak anymore, or any other SQL Saturdays cite that as a reason to not choose me, I accept the consequences.
We are adults, we are professionals, and if our other obligations intrude and override our commitment to speak, accept the consequences. It might suck, but it’s the adult thing to do.
Last week was the PASS Summit in Seattle (again, but only for 1 more year) and I was up there for a long week of shaking hands and talking SQL. It was a good time, and I’m sorry I didn’t do a bit more while I was there, but I’m a bit worn out with traveling this year. It’s been hectic, and if I didn’t meet you, my apologies. I needed a bit of downtime during the week.
The week started with me arriving on Monday, early afternoon and going on my annual Best Buy shopping trip for the SQLServerCentral party. I joked about the trip on Twitter:
I have a good time grabbing prizes, trying to balance some quantity with quality, and ensure that lots of people have the chance to win something during the night. We have a casino night and give things away randomly for the most part. In case you’re wondering, here’s the picture from that tweet:
I dragged everything back to the hotel and then got ready for our Monday night networking event. Last year Andy Warren (LinkedIn | Blog | @sqlandy) and I rented out Lowell’s in the Pikes Place market for a one night event and it was busy, with over 100 people coming down on Sunday night.
This time we did it again, and it exploded. I arrived around 6:10 and there was a line out the door as the restaurant took orders as you walked in. It was supposed to be a pay-your-own-way, but there was confusion at first. Andy and I greeted people, and the staff put everything on one tab. We straightened it out, and my apologies for any confusion. Some people got a free meal, some didn’t, and that’s OK. Andy and I planned on a little cost, so we covered the early birds.
It turned out over 180 people came down, and we had a line for a few hours as people waited to get in, but it worked out. People had the chance to talk to each other and network, which was the idea. After 8 I had a chance to chat with Andy Leonard (blog | @AndyLeonard) and Jason Horner (website | @jasonhorner) , and a few others.
A long night, made longer when I stopped by an MVP event for an hour or so to say hi to a few of my friends that were attending, including the very funny Rob Farley who I haven’t seen for a few years.
Tuesday was pre-con day for me. I heard from a few people in other pre-conference sessions that they were great, and the one I attended was outstanding as well. Adam Machanic (Blog|Twitter) gave an all day session on No More Guessing! An Enlightened Approach to Performance Troubleshooting that talked about how he benchmarks, baselines, and troubleshoots performance. I need to write up detailed notes, but it was a great walkthrough with lots of demos and details on how you can find out what’s wrong with your system. Fixing it is up to you, but this talk shows how to find what’s wrong, and it’s worth paying for if he comes to an event near you.
One amazing thing was his use of spatial data to build graphs of performance data, compared with baselines, in SSMS. Very cool, and quicker to do if you know how than putting the data into Excel. Easier to update as well
The one funny event was right before lunch. I left about 15 minutes early to return my rental car to the airport and as soon as I walked out of the room, Adam made a SQLServerCentral plug that I heard about on Twitter. My timing isn’t that great
Tuesday night was the SQLServerCentral / Exceptional DBA party. I missed the opening quiz bowl party as I was getting ready for my party. You can see I had a lot to pack up:
The total prize count was 98 and it exceeded my pre-party-ticket-sales-party by quite a bit. The Best Buy total was $2500, in case you were wondering, which was a couple hundred $$ above the ticket sales. However we had quite a few people pay at the door and ended up on a slightly positive. I don’t need to ask my boss to approve any expenses, and I bought some coffees and drinks the rest of the week for people to even things out.
A long night, and I was tired at the end. Some good conversations with people throughout the night and a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll do it again next year.
Wednesday
Wednesday started with some excitement about #sqlrun. Jes Borland had organized it and I was expecting 10-15 people to come. I walked up to the Sheraton a little early and saw one person getting their GPS synced. Nice, I thought.
I walked in to find about 25 people, which soon swelled to 40-45 people for a run along the water. It was fun, not too fast, and I had the chance to talk with Greg Gonzalez of SQL Sentry, Allen Kinsel, Tim Radney, and a few others while we jogged for a couple miles.
A ton of fun, and many thanks to Jes for getting it organized.
Already tired, but excited about the big Red Gate announcement. After the keynote, I went to the expo hall where Red Gate had decorated their booth with a space theme. If you haven’t heard, Red Gate is sending a DBA into space!
It’s a cool contest, accompanied by some B-movie clips to have fun with. I’m even in one. Enter today and get the chance to fly into space on a rocket, which is amazing.
At lunch time I left and headed out to do my Grey’s Anatomy impression by riding the ferry over to Bainbridge island for a little break. It’s been a long year, and two hectic days wore me out. I needed the chance to sit and write a bit, so I headed over on the ferry.
My wife asked me if I was McDreamy or McSteamy on the ride, and I think I was McDreamy. At least as best I could with headphones, a laptop, and a geeky backpack on. A nice break for me and a beautiful little town. My kind of place after the crowds and bustle of Seattle.
I returned in time to run over my Thur session in the hotel and then hit a few parties. It seems that every year there are more parties and this was no exception. I hit two on Wed night, skipping two others for which I had invites.
Thursday
Marginally better keynote, but not much better. I’m not sure why Microsoft insists on marketing to us in the keynotes. We’re already excited about SQL Server. Give us a technical fellow that can talk about what happens behind the scenes and we’ll be much more excited.
I had the first session, giving my Branding Yourself for a New Job talk on the Modern Resume. Well attended with 50-60 people, some good questions, and one that I really enjoy giving. I’d switched to doing a few technical talks this year instead of this one, but I like this one. I’ll do this one a few times next year in different places.
I walked around to a few other sessions, including a lightening talk with the Scary DBA. A short clip below:
Lots of people walking around, and more people outside of sessions than in years past. The talks are good, but the DVD is relatively cheap, especially compared with the chance to sit and talk with other SQL Server people. Networking is important, and not just for your career. You can make contacts and get ideas to help with your current job.
I took a couple hours to go over my Friday talk. I didn’t change anything, other than correct a typo I found. I’m not fond of changing talks the week I’m giving them, preferring to just practice. Then it was back out to parties. 3 parties this night, including a Friend of Red Gate dinner at Farestart. Afterwards our waiter, who is a volunteer and works for Boeing, talked about the program. It’s amazing, and if you are in Seattle, I recommend going there for dinner. The food is great and it’s a wonderful program.
Friday
Evidently I had too much fun and stayed out too long, despite walking back to the hotel just after 11. I was exhausted and struggled to get up and run, but I had a busy day planned.
First was another amazing keynote from Dr David DeWitt. Worth watching, and in fact I was watching it again today. The other keynotes had nothing of note in them worth watching, but this one does. Take an hour when you can and you’ll enjoy it.
Then it was most of Adam Machanic’s amazing 500 level memory session. He packed a 500-700 room audience and it was great. I stepped out early to check on my laptop and get my presentation ready. My VMs have flaked before, so I took 20 minutes to double check they were really ready to go for the talk.
After lunch I was worried. I had the same room as Adam, and was right before Kimberly Tripp. With 15 minutes to go, the 500 seats had about 15 people in there, but they filed in and when I started there were about 200 people in there. For a 100 level basic session, I was amazed. Mostly first timers as well, which was cool. Lots of good questions, and glad I had 75 minutes.
I answered a couple questions (I’m very thoughtful here ), but I had to run to the airport for a 5:00 flight.
An easy trip on the light rail to the airport (highly recommended) and then an easy flight back to Denver, though I didn’t get home until 11. A long day, and a long week, but lots of fun.
Overall the conference felt like three days of SQL Saturday’s, which is a testament to how those events have grown. The networking is wonderful at the larger conference if you can go, but if not, get to a SQL Saturday, or Tech Fest or some other event. It’s truly recharging and exciting to go see so many people in your profession excited about their careers.
It’s been two years or more that I’ve been invited to SQL Bits. Not by email, but while shaking the hand of one of the organizers. Mostly Simon Sabin, but I think Darren Green, Allen Mitchell, or someone else has cornered me at PASS, the MVP Summit, or elsewhere asking if I’ll come over. I was ready to come in the spring, but a potential conflict with SQL in the City had me hold off a submission. I knew that time would be tight in the fall with PASS coming October, but I also realized that there probably wasn’t any good time to come, ever, so I should just do it. With Brad not coming, I decided to submit a few sessions, and a pre-con and see what happened.
My pre-conference session wasn’t selected, but I understand that completely. I’m not sure I’d pay for a pre-conference “career-based” session, so I wasn’t offended. However one of my regular sessions was voted in, so I made plans to come over, trying to limit my time away from family. This is the second trip in a 60 day time period where I’m gone 20 days, so shortening the trip was preferred. I planned on flying Wednesday, returning Sunday, and that worked out well. In fact, this is the first “smooth” trip across the water I’ve had. Four planes, four segments booked and four planes, four segments flown, with only a delay in Heathrow on the way back that didn’t affect my bookings. Whether it was SQL Bits or my trip through Canada, I don’t know, but I’ll be booking through Canada in the future.
A nice, smooth, easy flight on Air Canada
I arrived Thursday morning and went to Cambridge to visit the Red Gate offices. I was only there for a little over three hours, arriving in time to eat lunch, shake a few hands, and say “hi” to some people before a via ride to Liverpool for SQL Bits 9. Traffic was heavy at first, but lightened up and I managed a short nap on the drive. I think that, combined with a nap on the way to Cambridge had me feeling fine when we arrived. I checked in to the Adelphi Hotel, near the university, and just a short walk from the docks in Liverpool and skipped an 8:15pm dinner in favor of a run. I hadn’t run, had been traveling for 24 hours in real time by then, and needed a run. I took off through the streets of Cambridge, envisioning a 15-20 minute run. After turning around at the 10 minute point, I got lost, jogging for about 15 minutes before I realized something was wrong. I jogged a bit more, trying to sort things out, found a bus map, wasn’t sure where I was, and stopped a gentleman having a smoke outside a pub. He gave me directions that had me back at the Adelphi in 15 minutes, catching Allen White outside at the end of my run.
A quick shower, and then I was back downstairs, protein bar in hand, meeting people at the opening night party. I’d missed Chris Testa-O’Neil’s band, but caught part of the Fab Beatle’s second set while chatting with various people and enjoying a lager or two. The hotel was a nice, medium sized hotel, old, but with lots of architecture and trim everywhere and 25 foot ceilings in the exhibition hall. A nice looking place, made better by conversations with the various SQL people I’ve gotten to know over the years. Not a late night, I called it quits around 11, not exhausted, but tired and looking forward to the morning.
Friday was my day to speak in the afternoon, but I wanted to get the chance to see how the event ran. Up at 6:30am, running a couple miles with Allen White at 7:00, showering and then back down for breakfast at 7:45am. I’m not a big fan of English cuisine, especially breakfast and while the breakfast rolls and sausage were edible, they weren’t great for my limited American palate. Fortunately there was a large cauldron of coffee next to the cauldron of tea and that helped.
Laerte Junior came all the way from Brazil
The event was similar to PASS, or a SQL Saturday, but in between. Friday was the paid training day and there were plenty of people, over 200 there. Volunteers checked in the attendees, food was catered in the middle of the large exhibition hall, and sponsors had booths around the edges. Rooms were all around the exhibition area, spread out in various places, as you might expect in a hotel setting. It was easy to find any room and says to walk from one to the other in five minutes or less. Not as strict or formal as PASS, more organized than a SQL Saturday, but very well run. All sessions had video and audio recording, and I took advantage of that, popping in and out of sessions for 15 minutes, trying to decide if it was something I’d watch later. I did watch a few full sessions, but mostly I wanted the chance to meet and talk with people.
And I did. I had long stretches of conversation with many of the SQL Bits organizers, as well as a few UK SQLServerCentral community members. I don’t remember a lot of names (my apologies), but there were a few highlights. I met Laerte Junior, coming all the way from Brazil. We’ve talked before and exchanged emails, but this very talented Simple Talk author and I have never shaken hands or spent significant time together until this week. I met the famous Ola Hallengren, author of probably the best backup script out there for SQL Server, and I met Ed Vassie, author of the FineBuild automated install for SQL Server. The highlight, for me, has to be meeting David Poole. He and I have exchanged many emails over the years, and he’s been a very popular author on SQLServerCentral for 6 or 7 years. Getting the chance to talk with him for 15 or 20 minutes on a couple of occasions was great.
I liked the way the conference was organized overall. The sessions were 60 minutes, which I don’t like (too short for me), but there were 20 minute breaks in between. With coffee and snacks catered during those breaks, in the same room with the vendors, it was a great way for people to mingle, to talk to vendors, and get on their feet. I’d like to see 75 minute sessions instead, but this seemed to flow well throughout the day. The rooms were various sizes, but having audio (mics for speakers) and video meant that people could see and hear the sessions.
Food was plentiful and though I’m not a fan of everything that was served, I’m an ugly American and I wasn’t hungry. Breakfast and lunch were buffet lines, with vegetarian options. Coffee and tea were plentiful in large servers to start, supplemented by smaller thermal pitchers. There were plenty of mugs, milk, and sugar around and bottled water (still and sparkling) was everywhere in large bottles. I took advantage of this to fill a plastic bottle I carry, but there were real mugs and glasses available for others. Lunch and dinner were buffets with plenty of food. In between sessions there were snacks of all sorts placed out on trays. Usually sweets, so I didn’t partake, but they looked good. During the evening events, all the speakers and volunteers were able to give out lots of drink coupons and I think very few people paid for drinks. I know I had 2-3 drinks each night and still had coupons I gave to others.
Saturday night was casino night, with a series of tables set up in the back room for roulette, blackjack, craps, and more. There were also shooting and racing simulators. I’m not a gambler, even with fake money, but Andy Leonard, Allen White, and I took a chance on the virtual skeet shooting, proving that Americans might appreciate the second amendment, but they can’t necessarily shoot well. The organizers, and a few people dressed up in tuxedos or evening dresses. The ladies in the crowd definitely took it more seriously than the men as most of them were dressed up. I was in my normal clothes: Hawaiian shirt and jeans 😉 Everyone seemed to have fun, and the tables were plenty busy with those gambling their “free money” away. Like the SQLServerCentral party at PASS, this isn’t a real casino and everyone got $1000 of fake money when they walked in.
The downside, at least for this SQL Bits, was the wi-fi. It was very flaky in the conference area, seeming to die out on Friday after lunch and be very spotty on Saturday. However that wasn’t the big problem for me. The bigger issue was that the hotel didn’t have wi-fi. With a CDMA phone, I was hoping to use wi-fi to keep in touch with family and work while I was there, but that didn’t work out. Slightly annoying, but I lived with it across the 2 days I was in Liverpool, sending emails and letting them sit in my outbox, assuming they’d send when the wi-fi did work for my phone. I think most of my emails went, but with delays. Not a huge big deal, and for attendees, I’d assume most of them were UK people with data plans if they needed email or Internet access. I’ll plan for issues in the future and just not worry about any access problems.
The Main Exhibition Area at SQL Bits
A large crowd on Saturday, the free day, with people coming from all over England to the event. Again, a nice run in the am with Allen White, taking advantage of the great weather in Liverpool this weekend. A tank top and shorts were plenty for me at 7am, and I wasn’t cold at all. The hotel didn’t have AC, and it was definitely warm at times. There was one room on the mezzanine level that was closed off and fairly warm. Andy Leonard (blog | @AndyLeonard) did fine with a packed room, moving slow in his Southern style, but the next hour Gert Drapers was struggling a bit as he’s more animated and the room was packed again.
I left Saturday afternoon during the last session, for a long journey back to Heathrow to my hotel for the night. I am sorry I missed the prize raffles, which I hear go around the exhibition hall, allowing each vendor to say something and draw for a prize they are sponsoring, but I can’t control the trains and wanted to get to my room before midnight.
Overall it was a great event, and about half the people I had a chance to sit and talk with for 5 or 10 minutes had been to multiple SQL Bits events. Holding a 3 day event, with both paid and free days, is a great accomplishment and I applaud the SQL Bits organizers for making it work. Not once, but 9 times. I hope that someone will consider this format in the US, which is great.
Will I come back? I don’t know that I’ll make a dedicated trip to SQL Bits as I did this time. The travel is hard, and despite it being a smooth trip, it wears on me. However I do plan on coming to the UK once a year for a 2-3 day summit with my group at Red Gate Software. If I can convince them to schedule it during the SQL Bits week, I’ll definitely submit some sessions or plan on attending. I enjoyed it, the people were very friendly, and it was a very well run event.
Voice of the DBA 