Voice of the DBA

Tag: SQL Saturday

  • A 22 Hour Layover

    I joked about having a 22 hour layover in Denver yesterday and a few people were wondering what airline screwed me this time. That made me laugh, because they didn’t get the joke.

    I got home yesterday at 3:30pm from SQL Server Connections in Orlando. I’ve been there all week, and after some travel delays, I got back at in time to pick up my son at 3:45 from his school bus.

    Today at 1:15 or so I need to leave the house, heading back to the airport for my trip to Dallas and SQL Saturday #63 tonight. Essentially I got a 22 hour layover at home before my next trip.

    I hate that, and as much as I’m looking forward to seeing people in Dallas, the travel wears on me. Fortunately I’ll be shutting things down until June when I got to Pensacola and SQL Saturday #77. That won’t be a bad trip as my daughter will come and we’ll spend a few days at the beach and make it a nice Daddy/daughter vacation.

  • ConFab Conference Scheduling – SQL Saturday Advice

    One of the things that’s hard to manage for all events is scheduling. Larger events print a brochure, and smaller ones tend to post schedules outside of rooms. Most SQL Saturdays also seem to give a printed schedule out in the bags in the morning when people check in. However a few events have found a better, way, at least for some users.

    Confab is an app for iPhone/iTouch/iPad that allows you to have a conference schedule online. I got a note that it was available for SQL Saturday #45 in Louisville, but couldn’t attend, so I didn’t try it. However I did use it for SQL Saturday #60 in Cleveland, allowing me to quickly and easily see what sessions were available at each time slot. I haven’t found an app for Android or Blackberry, or WP7, but if anyone knows of one, please let me know.

    I know the printed schedules are nice, but those can be out of date, especially for last minute cancellations. Also, they’re not as convenient to me, someone that always has my phone, but hates digging around in my laptop bag. The SQL Saturday site is slow for the schedule, and hard to read on a small device.

    I’d consider using an app for scheduling, and hopefully we’ll get some for other platforms as well.

  • Rolling to SQL Saturday #60

    I’m still stunned as I see numbers above 50 in the hash tags for SQL Saturdays. Yet here we are, #60 in Cleveland this weekend and I’m on the road this morning. Or in the air, catching a flight to Cleveland from Denver.

    I’ve never really been to Ohio, only having driven through the state on my way to someplace else. Stopping for gas and coffee doesn’t count as a visit, so I’m looking forward to this. Allen White, a friend I’ve known for years, will be my host, along with a number of other SQL people I’m looking forward to seeing again, or meeting for the first time.

    The event is sold out, which is a good thing. It shows interest in the free training and I hope this means that a few of you will help out and get another SQL Saturday in Cleveland sometime in the fall.

    I don’t have any great plans of things to see, other than run with Allen on Sunday morning. If any SQL runners are out there, feel free to join us, and follow the #sqlsat60 tag on Twitter. I’ll post some info about where/when as I get it.

  • SQL Saturday Advice–Upload Decks Early

    One of the neat features for the SQL Saturday site is that it allows the speakers to upload a deck that is attached to their session. If you go to the schedule after the event, and pick a session you attended, you can get the Powerpoint deck, the code, anything the speaker has uploaded. That’s handy, and too often I’ve been at events where speakers point you to some location they use and it’s easy to forget where this is, or where the information is stored.

    However the organizers have to send this note to speakers, and in most events, this has come after the event. I’ll admit that sometimes I’ve been busy and have forgotten to upload the deck, or I’ve been slow to do so. However Saturday night, Sunday, or early the next week is when the attendees are thinking about the event, and if the deck isn’t there, they might not go back.

    This week I got the link early for SQL Saturday #60 in Cleveland. I was changing a couple slides in the presentation, based on feedback from previous events, and was a day late in uploading, but I have finished, and my deck is uploaded. Now I don’t have to worry about it, and the link is live, people can get the deck for themselves.

    I know some speakers are working on their decks at the last minute. I don’t think that’s a great idea, but I understand people have busy lives and they might be trying to add something on Friday that they learned recently. Or they remember to correct something from the last session as they’re reviewing the night before. That’s OK, and the organizers can always replace the code with a new download.

    I do think, however, that most attendees would appreciate having the downloads available right away, and by sending the upload link to speakers before the event, you can improve the chances you’ll have all the downloads uploaded and ready.