Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • Creating a Speaking Failures Support Group

    Earlier this week the emails went out to speakers who submitted to the PASS Data Community Summit 2023 conference. These were acceptances and rejections, letting people know the results of the volunteer review.

    I got this one:

    2023-07-13 10_39_20-PASS Data Community Summit 2023 – Call for Speakers Results - Message (HTML)

    I had only submitted one session after being buried last year, and I assumed (we know what assume means) that this one would get picked. It wasn’t, and that’s OK.

    A Speaking Failures Support Group

    I know I’m not alone. I’ve had many speaking submissions rejected. From big conferences and little ones. It is disappointing, but I’ve learned not to take it personally.

    I know this is a hard message to get, especially for less experienced speakers. So I decided to a) publicly disclose my rejection, and b) create a place to get support.

    Since I am the editor of SQL Server Central, that’s a natural place for me to do this. I set up a forum for a Speaking Support Group, which you can use to post questions, ask for feedback on your submissions or ideas, get spell/grammar/phrasing help from others, commiserate with fellow speakers, and give them support/encouragement to try again.

    Feel free to join me there, and comment on my first post, hopefully telling me to not take this too personally.

  • Talking about the New Open-Source SQLCMD on Data Exposed

    I was on the Data Exposed: MVP Edition show recently, talking about SQLCMD. I’ve written a few articles on the topics as well, and a blog post about setting up a node HTTP server, which I show in the demo.

    Check out the show below:

    Read these articles for more info:

  • Bringing DevOps to the Database – SQL Saturday South Florida 2023 Demos

    With some projector issues at SQL Saturday South Florida 2023, I had to lecture without demos this past weekend. I told everyone I would record the demos, so I’ve done that. The three demos are shown below, and if you download the deck, you can see where they fit into the talk.

    Powerpoint: Bringing DevOps to the Database.pptx

    Demo 1- Getting code into a VCS
    Demo 2- Continuous Integration

  • Heading to That Conference

    I’ve been working with Ryan Booz a bit more and as we’ve talked over the last few weeks, he has asked me a few times if I’ve booked travel for That Conference, or if I’ve gotten my presentation ready for That Conference, or when am I going to be at That Conference.

    I have to keep reminding myself it is That Conference 2023 and not that conference, as in some other event.

    He wanted to go to the event and we submitted a few sessions together. We didn’t get those picked, but we did get a few others, and so I’m heading to Wisconsin in July for That Conference. It’s a fun, geeky, family event near a water park. My kids are too old to go, but my wife is coming, and I’m looking forward to visiting a new place.

    This is a quite a mix of sessions, lots of developer talks and a few database ones. I’ve got a talk on Wednesday, but I’m looking forward to seeing a few other sessions during the week along with some hiking and other activities.

    If you’re near Madison, or want to have some fun with your family, this summer, consider heading to That Conference with me.