Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • Learn about Encryption at SQL Saturday #265

    You can learn about encryption at SQL Satuday #265 is Portland, Oregon in a couple weeks. I’ll be heading out to the event on November 16, 2013, my first visit to Portland in 15 years.  In addition to my session on the various encryption options in SQL Server, I’ll be talking about your career with my branding talk, plus there are many other amazing sessions.

    A few quick links:

    Register for SQL Saturday #233

    Register for the FRIDAY, November 15, 2013, FREE Red Gate Seminar

    With the MVP Summit in Redmond the following week, you have the chance to learn about:

    Check the schedule for the details and to pick the best sessions for you. It’s a tough choice, but no matter what you choose, I’m sure you’ll learn a lot.

    It’s a busy day for me, as I’ll also have a lunchtime session where I’m looking to talk about Red Gate Software’s vision and experience with database deployment. We’ve been working hard to find ways to deliver our software faster, and we’ve put that knowledge into a few products. Our goal is to try and make it easier for you to deploy changes to your databases, so come let me know what challenges you face and what holes are in our solutions.

    It should be a great event, and if you’re in the area on Friday, November 15, 2013, and you want to learn about better database development and deployment strategies, Red Gate has a free SQL in the City Seminar that you can register for. Grant Fritchey and I will be talking about version control, continuous integration, and deployment in this FREE, half day seminar. It’s aimed at beginner to intermediate level people, so register today if you can attend.

  • Three Trips

    I’m down to three trips, with most of my busy month behind me. It’s been a hard year at times, easy at others. This month I was in Vegas, LA, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Charleston, with one more trip to Vegas next week. The travel is hard, and in addition to wearing on me mentally, it compresses the rest of my time at work. That adds some stress, which bleeds over into family life for me. Some people separate well; I don’t.

    That’s OK, Despite the hard travel, I’ve enjoyed seeing so many people I know and meeting new ones. Across the 11 talks I gave this month, I enjoyed them all. I met at least one new person at each, if not more, and had some great conversations.

    Three trips left.

    The next one is SQL Intersection in Las Vegas, which will be a fun trip as my wife is coming along. Then it’s Portland for a SQL in the City seminar and a SQL Saturday in November, and a repeat in Washington D.C. in December.

    Plus vacation. I desperately need to take time off. Both for mental health, and because I’ve accumulated too much that needs to be used before the end of the year. After searching out a bit of balance last year, I didn’t do a good job this year, and need to pay more attention to things. I love my job, and I enjoy going to work, but the last month+ has been hard.

    I’m just making a note here, partly to remind you to take your own time off from work, but also to warn you I might be gone in Nov/Dec a bit from work.

     

     

  • Speaking at the October Denver SQL Server User Group

    I have a talk this Thursday at the Denver SQL Server Users Group. I’ll be talking about Continuous Integration for databases, looking at ways you can automate database builds and perform some automated testing as you move forward in your development.

    If you’re in Denver, come out and do some networking. I’m happy to do either talk, or even something else if people want.

  • Two Weeks to SQL Intersection

    If you haven’t made it to a conference this year, you’ve still got a great one to think about: SQL Intersection. The second installment of this conference, run by SQLskills (Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal) takes place in two weeks. Come to Las Vegas and learn a ton about SQL Server on October 27-30.  You can register now and if you choose the SHOW package, you’ll get an XBOX One or a Surface RT.

    I spoke at this event in the spring and it was interesting. There were some amazing speakers (Brent Ozar, Kendra Little, Joe Sack, and more), which meant I didn’t have too many questions (or attendees) at my sessions. That’s OK. If I had the chance, I’d probably rather go see those speakers talk about performance rather than some of my niche topics.

    This fall I’ve redone some sessions and built new ones. Perhaps I’ll do better as I have some developer focused topics and there will be developers and hybrid technology folks at the rest of the Dev Interestion event. With ASP.NET, Visual Studio, Azure, and Sharepoint events taking place as well, perhaps I’ll get a few people to wander over as I walk about Version Control for databases along with Automated Building and Testing of your database changes. My employer, Red Gate Software, has tools and does a lot of work in this area, and while you don’t need our tools, you do want to be sure you implement these concepts in your environment.

    I’ll also be talking about branding, but tell your boss not to worry. I’m not trying to get you a new employer, but help you stand out in your current one, get a raise, or find a better job that fits what you want to do.

    It will be chilly in most of the country by late October, but it should still be beautiful in Las Vegas. If you stick around for the weekend, Halloween in the city is something to see. Come to the conference and extend it into a vacation that you’ll never forget.

    Register today for the last big SQL Server conference I’ll be at in 2013 and I hope to see you there.