This captures the schedule from the 2020 event, where I delivered a talk on Building a Database DevOps Process.
Tag: speaking
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Speaker Guidance: Save Your Data
The PASS organization (and likely SQL Saturday) are shutting down their sites on 15 Jan, 2021. This means that potentially lots of links and data will disappear.
There are people in the community saving some of the data, and images. I’m hoping to put some of those in an archive that will live on and remain accessible, but for speakers, the links to events are part of our living CV. It may be important for you to capture some of this.
I’ve got a few things for you to do, especially those of you that are Microsoft (or other) MVPs, or nominated. I have thoughts here on image schedules and your living CV.
Note that you might not care about this, or you might not be sure. However, once the data is gone, it’s gone, so you might want to get it now and decide on its value later.
Sections here:
Image Schedules
I should have done this years ago, as some events (like DevConnections), get rid of their site for particular events and only show the schedule for the next one. As a matter of fact, they’re done.
For SQL Saturdays, you can get the schedule for an event on their page. For example, I spoke at SQL Sat 997 – Salt Lake City. I can get the schedule from an image capture:
Or at the bottom, there is an export to PDF. I recommend you save these, then upload the image/pdf to someplace you can link to from your CV.
Going forward, I’d continue to do this, and even take pictures on a marquee when we get back to live events.
Speaking CV
I track lots of activity for my Microsoft MVP award, but I also keep a Speaking CV I can point to from my resume. For me, this is a static page on my WordPress blog that I update, but I separate things by year and include the events and links.
Typically I link to a schedule page for an event, but these will all be broken, or some of them.
One of my tasks this winter will be to go capture some of the visual evidence of these, if I can. That way I can preserve things.
One other note is that the first day back to work after I speak, I usually update this and ensure it’s current.
Preserving SQL Sat Data
For posterity, or maybe just for me, I was curious what activity I’d had. If I log into the PASS site, I can go to My SQL Saturday, and see the events where I submitted things. If you’re curious, go here, and then you know where to go save an image.
The footer gets in the way, but you can copy/paste and resort this all if you need to.
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Join the New Stars of Data
Standing in front of a group, large or small, was one of the most intimidating things to me as a young man. I hated making presentations in school and university to others. As I moved through my career, however, I realized that this was an important skill for my career.
Often in many positions, I had the chance (or need) to debate, argue, or just present a viewpoint to others on my team or inside my organization. I had to train others, teaching them about our systems. I had to explain my decisions to management and defend actions. All of these moments required speaking and communication skills.
You can take a chance and share something with others by submitting to The New Stars of Data. Their next event is in March, which gives you lots of time to prepare, practice, and get feedback before delivering a session. If that’s too soon, I’m we’ll see another GroupBy conference, SQL Saturday, or other virtual event that will consider you. I’d ask that all of these events reserve 10% of their slots for new speakers to their event. After all, it can be less intimidating to speak virtually, and there are lots of opportunities right now.
Many of you might not think you’re smart enough, or an expert in some area. I’ll share a little secret with you: I’m not either. I often see questions at SQLServerCentral or in the Microsoft MVP email list that amaze and surprise me. I truly feel like an impostor at these moments, when I realize I don’t know or understand something.
At some point in life I started to take chances and deliver small talks at work or user groups. I realized that I didn’t need to be an expert to teach something to others. I realized I could have some success, even without being the smartest person in the room. There are always people that know more, but there are always others that want to learn something simple. Level 101 talks are always popular and in demand.
Take a chance today, and submit to the New Stars of Data. I’m happy to help you with an abstract, or give you feedback on a practice talk. William, Ben, and many others will help as well. Submit a talk, ask for help, and continue to grow your career.
Steve Jones
Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.
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Is there a Difference in Virtual Events?
I’ve been to many SQL Saturdays across the last decade. I know I’m close to having spoken at 100 events, and I’ve enjoyed going to different cities, meeting lots of new people, and enjoy the local atmosphere. I love exercising at University Lake in Baton Rouge before their event. I’ve enjoyed wandering around Memphis to see sites, the music in Nashville is wonderful after a day of speaking. Getting up early and visiting Central Park in NYC or jogging through the city in Oslo are great memories. Evenings in Madison, San Jose, and Sioux Falls, and many other places have kept me entertained.
Above all the hospitality of organizers and attendees has been wonderful. I still get plenty of warm welcomes from organizers of virtual events, but the local flavor is gone. In fact, I’m not sure that there is a difference between SQL Saturday Salt Lake City Virtual and SQL Saturday Slovenia. Organizers are still sending out gifts, and doing all the things that I’ve appreciated in the past, but it’s not the same.
In fact, as both a speaker and attendee, I don’t see a difference between virtual events, and I wonder how many of you feel the same way. Are we just having events on different days of the week or different weeks and they all blend together? Is there any event that stands apart from the others, or do you just appreciate having events occurring constantly and weekend and being able to fit them in your schedule.
I’m torn as to whether there is value in more of these virtual events, other than scheduling. I certainly can see that having SQL Sat Slovenia and SQL Sat Minnesota on Dec 12 makes sense, as the time zones allow people to attend sessions when they are convenient. As a speaker, it would be neat to “speak” at a Slovenian event and a US event on the same day, something I’ve thought to try in the real world. As an attendee, is there a season SQL Sat Plovdic occurs the same day as SQL Sat Slovenie? I’d rather one of them be a week apart since they’re both in the same time zone.
I do like the accessibility of these events. Many more people can attend at that might not be able to spare the time, or make the trip to a live event. The cost to add more attendees isn’t something organizers worry about, and I could see there being a SQL Saturday on every Saturday throughout the year. That would be amazing.
It likely doesn’t matter if we allow organizers to link an event to their city, or differentiate it from other events. To me, whether it’s New Stars of Data, GroupBy, SQL Saturday wherever, or any other event, it’s neat that I have lots of chances to watch a live talk and interact with a speaker. It’s still lacking something that a live event has, but I do appreciate the opportunity to tune into a talk and try to learn something when I have the time.
I do think we need technology improvements to better deliver sessions, speakers need to learn to present differently when the entire screen might not be available, learning to explain what we’re doing, zoom in more, and use bigger fonts. I also think we need some type of mixed recorded/live/camera/chat evolution would make the experience better.
I’m am thankful that we can continue to run events during this pandemic and find plenty of people to speak. I am even more grateful that I have the chance to continue learning.
Steve Jones
Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.
Voice of the DBA 