Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • Not Selected for the PASS Data Community Summit 2024

    I got this in an email about a week ago from the PASS Data Community Summit.

    2024-06-19 10_16_28-Inbox - steve.jones@red-gate.com - Outlook

    There’s more to it, but essentially I submitted 3 talks (2 on deployments, 1 pro dev) and none were selected.

    It’s slightly disappointing, as it is a rejection, but it’s not really a rejection of me. It’s that the talks didn’t make the cut. I’ve spoken there before, and I have other engagements coming up at events. I’m also still going to the Summit and I’ll likely still have some speaking slot from Redgate.

    For others, this might be very disappointing, but it’s not a rejection of you as a speaker. It’s that there are only so many slots, and there is a lot of competition. The program committee is a volunteer one, and while the conference organizers review their selections, they don’t make many changes. I know because I was one of the final reviewers where we looked at the breakdown of sessions in different topic areas, the diversity, the experiences, and we really only made 3 changes out of a few hundred where we saw a gap.

    I don’t want to give too many specifics, but Grant noticed we had no Extended Event sessions in there, so we removed another DB Administration talk and added an xEvent one.

    This year had over 1,100 submissions for 108 slots. There are a few more slots for vendors and a small few for first time speakers specifically, but that is a lot of competition. My Pro Dev talk has been popular elsewhere, but it wasn’t better than the others that were selected. Same for my other submissions.

    They were good, just not good enough.

    I do get rejected by some events, as do most other speakers. I don’t know anyone that is picked 100% of the time.

    It’s OK. It doesn’t stop me from submitting, and it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do a great job at this conference. It just means not this time.

    If you feel bad, that’s OK. Just keep submitting, working on your presentations, ask for feedback from others, and keep sharing your knowledge. You’ll get picked at another event.

  • Speaking at SQL Saturday South Florida 2024

    I’m heading to SQL Saturday South Florida 2024 next week. This is my second time attending the event and if you’re in the Miami area (or want to take the train down from N Florida), register today and join me.

    This is my second time attending the event after missing them for many years.  Andy always said this was a fun place to go, but timing often didn’t work. It did last year and again this year.

    I’ll be doing two sessions next week, but the schedule is packed with a wide variety of talks on ML, DevOps, Performance tuning, T-SQL, Fabric and more. I’m doing a talk on Blogging and one on Zero Downtime Deployments.

    Register today and let’s connect, learn, and share next week.

  • Denver Dev Day – Best Practices for Database Deployments Resources

    I delivered a talk today on database deployment best practices at the Denver Dev Days 2024. This is a great event, and I have been lucky enough to attend a few and speak.

    The deck I presented from is here: BestPractices Database Deployments_DenverDevDay.pptx

    The main sections covered in this talk:

    • Feature Flagging
    • Rollback/Undo
    • Release Branches (Cherry Picking)
    • Observability
    • Best Practices

    I’ll do some blogging on these topics separately in the future.

  • The Costs and Rewards of Speaking

    Most of the people I know who speak at a SQL Saturday or user group aren’t paid for their efforts. At many of the community events, the speakers are volunteering their time. Many are also paying for their own way to those events not located in their area. A few, such as me, might get a company to cover their travel expenses, but often this doesn’t include time. If I attend a SQL Saturday, I still have a bunch of work on M-F that needs to be done. No comp time for these events. That being said, I’m happy to donate some time and money to community events.

    Some speakers build and teach full-day sessions, usually called pre-conference sessions, for which they are paid. There can be competition at large events like the PASS Data Community Summit and SQL Bits to get a session since the payment can be rewarding. I’ve seen some speakers make USD$1k or so, which can cover travel expenses, and others make over USD$10k, which is a nice payday.

    Most of us don’t want to teach a full day of sessions, usually because it’s a lot of work to build a day of training. It’s also very nerve-wracking to try and teach people who have paid you. A lot of speakers don’t really want to deal with that stress. I’ve done it, and it is hard work. I don’t deliver pre-cons at events because I get expenses covered at lots of events and prefer not to compete with others who might want to earn some money while growing their careers.

    However, lots of people want to share their knowledge and teach others something useful. It’s been amazing to me how many people have stepped up to submit sessions and present them at events all over the world. I’ve been lucky and honored to meet many of these volunteers and call them friends.

    When Andy, Brian, and I started SQL Saturday, we weren’t sure there would be enough speakers to run 10 events in a year in 10 cities. At the time, the PASS Summit and a few other conferences were the only places to speak outside of user groups and we weren’t sure there would actually be enough people in a community willing to speak to run a conference. We also weren’t sure that many people would travel outside their home area to speak.

    I’m thrilled we were wrong. So many people have volunteered their time and energy to build a session and then deliver it at user groups and local events that there are often more speakers than spaces available for them. I’m also glad that so many of you attend and support local events.

    Speaking can be intimidating, but I know many of you can do it. It’s scary, and it’s something I never thought I’d do when I left university. It is a lot of work, it interrupts your free time, and it doesn’t pay you any hard currency after a session. However, it’s also thrilling to help others, exciting to have them listen to you, it hones your communication skills, and it is impressive to employers. On balance, I’d say that even delivering a presentation at your local user group is a profitable endeavor and a memorable experience.

    I hope we continue to see more of you willing to deliver a session for your peers, share some of your knowledge. I also hope that we see more of you stepping up to help organize a SQL Saturday or another local event in your community.

    Steve Jones

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