I just got my acceptance to the DevConnections, SQLConnections in September for two sessions:
I enjoy the Connections events, usually finding time to go check out an ASP.NET or developer session of some sort.
Now’s the time to register and save. There will be some great pre-cons as well, including one from a scary individual that I know well.
This fall is the DevConnections SQL Server Connections conference in Las Vegas again. It’s at the Bellagio, setting for one of my favorite movies, Ocean’s 11. It’s a smaller conference this time, and SQLServerCentral only has 4 slots for the event. Both Grant Fritchey and myself will be speaking on the Monday. At least I think we will. The schedule isn’t out, but that’s what I was told.
I haven’t decided, but I’d like to try for a tweetup/meetup one night there, perhaps in front of the famous fountains. It would be neat to see a few SQL Server people at the spot shown at the end of the movie.
In any case, I’m heading back to Las Vegas. I enjoy visiting, and am looking forward to wandering around a bit.
I’ve also got a lot of work to do. I have two sessions, one on binary data search in SQL Server, using the Integrated Full Text Search, and another on Policy Based Management. Both interesting topics to me, and areas where I’ve done some work, but I have to dig in over the next month or two and build a couple great presentations.
If there is anything you want to learn about these topics, let me know. I haven’t quite decided where I’m going to focus, other than what’s in the abstracts. I have some room to speak in a few areas, but I’ve learned time goes away quickly when you’re presenting, so I need to be sure I’m focused.
Hopefully I’ll meet some of you at the event. SQL Server Connections is a neat conference, one where you have the chance to learn a lot in a bunch of different areas. With 8 other conferences co-located, I always find a few sessions outside the SQL world that I find very interesting. A lot of the private cloud, SVVM, and related topics I’ve seen talked about recently were things I saw at the last Connections event in March. I expect there will be a lot of Windows 2012 stuff in the fall, just in time for you to plan for the 2013 budgets.
Check out the event, and think about joining me in Las Vegas. It’s a good place for an event, easy to get to, and there are lots of activities to join in outside of the conference.
I returned late last night from the Spring DevConnections event, delivering three sessions in the SQL Server Connections conference. I talked about Encryption, Filestream/Filetable, and Contained Databases. Always cool to see your name in print
It was a nice event, with decent crowds in the SQL Server. I didn’t have a ton of people, but when you’re competing with the SQLskills crew, Brent Ozar, Allen White, Glen Berry and a few others, it’s hard to draw a large crowd.
Grant and Brad both presented as well, filling up the slots in our SQLServerCentral track, and talking about a wide range of topics. Grant’s talk on continuous integration and deployment was really good, with lots of interesting information. It was good to hear from a few people in the audience that face challenges on this particular topic. We have a whitepaper from Red Gate that talks a little about how we solve this, but Grant gave some other alternatives that you could use to tackle this.
The show was at the MGM Grand this time, and I have to say I really like that resort. Things seemed a little closer together, more food/dining choices, and close to other places on the strip. A walk to the Bellagio was no big deal. There were also three of my favorite morning stops on the road
It wasn’t just me that liked the hotel. I left Paul Randal, Kimberliy Tripp, Brent Ozar, and Glenn Berry at Craftsteak Thur night to go to the airport. I say down before my flight to see a tweet that the First Lady of the US was having dinner that night in the restaurant.
The sessions I attended and delivered were interesting. Lots of system administrators and developers mixed in with the DBAs, looking for information on various features. It was a twist to get questions that sometimes were more basic for DBAs, and at the same time, had a different view and some challenges when presented from another perspective. On a panel with Grant Fritchey and Brent Ozar, we had some interesting HA/DR questions from the audience about 2012 as well, things that made us think a bit.
The exhibition hall was a little small, but it’s nicely set up with long breaks between some sessions for people to wander around and see what new third party tools are available. I spent a little time at the Red Gate booth and had some very interesting conversations with people, including a nice long one about .NET development.
As I do everywhere on the road, I start the mornings out with a run. This time the loop around the MGM complex is a little over a mile and a half, which I enjoyed all three days with Allen White at 6:30 every morning. #sqlrun in Las Vegas!
This time the Windows and Visual Studio tracks were on another floor, and with three sessions to prepare for, I didn’t get the chance to visit those tracks. I did see a great talk from Allen on Server Core, which I’ve been wanting to experiment with. Look for most of my future server VMs to be Server Core, which should make things run faster on my little Air.
I also saw a couple talks from Mark Minasi on Windows 8 and that looks rather interesting in a few ways. I’m not sure I like the client interface, but some of the architectural changes look like good moves on the part of Microsoft. The server side, especially seems like it will end up being a good server OS for management by IT staffs.
The other great thing about a show in Vegas is the wide variety of shows. I asked in my sessions and a few people saw Ka, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. Someone saw David Copperfield as well, which I would have liked to see. Oh well, there’s always next time.
My entertainment this time was a wonderful dinner with Brent Ozar and Grant Fritchey at e by Jose Andres in the Cosmopolitan. Brent invited us and I wasn’t sure since it’s a very fancy dinner. However I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not sure I’d go back myself, but I’d take someone else, just for the experience. The food was very interesting (I’m not a foodie), and the presentation amazing. I had a great time. Here was one of our “courses”
Overall a great show, and a fun time. SQLServerCentral is one of the sponsors, and we have a track there every show.
We should be back in the fall, this time at the Bellagio, Oct 29-Oct 1. Hopefully you can join us, and we look forward to seeing you then.
The Spring SQL Server Connections conference will be one of the launch events for SQL Server 2012, the next version of the platform that we write about every day. This spring SQLServerCentral is sponsoring a track again, with Brad McGehee, Grant Fritchey, and myself speaking in one room. We’re all focusing on SQL Server 2012, trying to get ready to upgrade and use the new features.
However we’re only a small part of the SQL Server track. SQLskills.com headlines the track, as they have for many years, with Kimberly L. Tripp, Paul Randal, and Jonathan Kehayias presenting some amazing information based on their years of experience (go to one of the SQLskills.com classes if you can). Paul and Kimberly have also invited a number of other great speakers, including Aaron Bertrand, Allen White, Brent Ozar, Glenn Berry, Mike Walsh, and more. These are the people that write many of books, blogs, and articles that you read to learn more about the SQL Server platform.
The DevConnections conferences are a great place to not only learn about SQL Server, but also learn about all parts of the Microsoft technology stack. There are nine conferences in all taking place at the same time, covering Windows, Visual Studio, Sharepoint, Exchange, and more. There’s even a Cloud Connections, dealing with those issues that you’ll find when working with the Microsoft Azure products.
It’s still winter in many parts of the US, so schedule your own “spring break” from work and come to Las Vegas this spring. The weather will be great, and you’ll have the chance to learn about all different type of Microsoft technologies and platforms in a fun environment. You can even take in an amazing show one of your nights in town and let your brain relax from all the tech talk during the day.
Steve Jones
Voice of the DBA 