Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Traveling in Wales

    It’s SQL Relay Cardiff day today. This is my first time in Wales, and it’s a busy day at SQL Relay. It’s a bit of deja vu with me delivering the same session on Version Control today that I presented 18 ours ago at SQL Relay Bristol.

    It’s interesting being on part of the SQL Relay tour, with some of the same speakers, some different, the rapid travel from one city to the next, and orienting myself in a new environment. The venues are much different, with a set of hotel conference rooms yesterday and a large arena facility (the Motorpoint Arena) today.  It’s surprisingly confusing trying to find toilets, speaker rooms, and more.

    However the people are nice, and friendly, although quiet. I got lots of good questions both days, on a semi-confusing topic, and that will help me revisit the session and make some changes over the next few days.

    I get to help on a second session today as we have a speaker that’s ill. Then it’s some work as I prep for travel back to London and SQL in the City in London on Friday.

     

  • A Long Trip Ahead

    This is my last day at home for a long time. At least long by my standards. I head to the airport tomorrow for a ten day trip, not returning to CO until Saturday, Oct 17. I rarely travel more than 4 or 5 days at the most, so this is one of my longer ones.

    My first stop is Orlando. I’m heading over to help teach a DLM workshop for Redgate Software on Friday. This is our Database Source Control workshop that covers some in depth work with SQL Source Control and version control systems. I’ve done a few of these, so this should be easy for me.

    Saturday is SQL Saturday #442 in Orlando. I haven’t been to a SQL Saturday in Orlando in a long time, so I’m excited to get back to the place where these all started. I’ve got one talk on Saturday, talking Encryption, around which I’ll be hanging out with friends and trying to learn a few SQL things along the way.

    Sunday I travel, though at a relaxed pace. I’ll spend the day making my way to Houston before an overnight flight to London on the Dreamliner. It’s a leisurely day, where I’ll probably spend time catching up on Python work because Monday is crazy.

    Monday is a day I dread a bit. I land in London and immediately drive to Cambridge for a few meetings. I’ve got some SQL in the City rehearsals planned before I turn around and head back to London to catch the fun bus to Bristol for SQL Relay. If you map this out, it seems silly, but that’s what I got myself talked into somehow.

    Tuesday is SQL Relay in Bristol. I’ll be previewing my talk for SQL in the City, so I’ll apologize in advance if things aren’t 100% set. However after a day at the conference, I’ll be heading over to Cardiff where I’ll get dinner and try to fix all the things I did wrong during the talk.

    Wednesday is SQL Relay Cardiff.  A repeat of Tuesday in a new city. I’m not sure if everything is the same, but I’ll be (hopefully) delivering a better talk on Wednesday. Wednesday night Grant and I aren’t doing anything, so it’s a few hours to unwind.

    Thursday morning we make our way back to London. Hopefully we manage the train system fine because we have lunchtime and afternoon meetings with people coming down from Redgate during the day. This is the final SQL in the City prep time, as well as a few other in person events, including seeing my boss for only the 3rd time this year.

    Friday is SQL in the City 2015 London. Redgate puts on a great event, and I’m looking forward to another exciting day. Three times on stage for me, so I’m sure when things wrap up around 5 I’ll be quite tired. However no rest, I head to Heathrow for a night in my 5th hotel on this trip.

    10 days. Orlando, Cambridge, Bristol, Cardiff, London.

    I have the feeling I won’t be doing much on Saturday night or Sunday when I return.

  • SQL Saturday #403–Louisville

    This weekend I’ll be attending SQL Saturday #403 in Louisville, KY. If you’re in the area, think about taking a few hours out of your Saturday and coming to learn some SQL Server stuff. There’s a great schedule, with 6 tracks and 6 sessions per track.

    That’s 36 opportunities to improve your skills and career!

    I’ll be delivering two sessions during the event. I have my Branding Yourself for a Dream Job first thing in the morning at 8am. I know it’s early, but I like to give you some ideas for networking and planning your career for the rest of the day.

    My second session is Continuous Integration for Databases at 10:30. I’ll give you a taste of how to improve your software development process by using version control and a build server to verify and test your database code.

    There are some great afternoon sessions, but I likely won’t be there as I have family in town and want to spent a few hours with them. However come grab me in the morning and say “hi”. I really enjoy meeting the SQL Server community and look forward to another great SQL Saturday in Louisville.

  • The Company Meeting

    I’m leaving today for a trip to Cambridge, UK. I do this 2-3 times a year, but this one is a little different. I’m being joined by most of my American colleagues at Redgate, all of whom are being flown over to attend a company meeting and a company day out on Friday. It’s one of the rare chances, and quite possibly the only one that will happen again, to get everyone together in the company.

    It’s an expense, arguably an unnecessary one, but it’s also a treat. Spouses and partners have been invited to come along and participate in some fun on Friday. It’s something that stands out in my mind, and it solidifies that Redgate is a great company.

    It’s the kind of company I’d want to build, and it’s run as I’d want to run a company.

    That might be the highest complement I can pay to an employer. They run a company as I would want to do so. They treat people fairly. They treat people with respect. They try to treat customers well, as well as participate in the community. The company is not perfect, but they acknowledge mistakes and try to do better. They work to make a profit, but profit isn’t the most important thing. Perhaps best of all, the management work alongside employees and set good examples. They don’t treat themselves as above or more important than the other employees.

    I’ve worked at a lot of companies in my career, and almost none of them have been companies that I thought were well run with respect for employees balanced with the profit motive and participation in the community. Most were unbalanced in some way, often with respect to profit meaning much more than individuals.

    I’m proud to work at Redgate and am looking forward to the trip with my wife, and a nice weekend in Dublin.