Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • Final Prep for SQL in the City

    I can’t believe this will be the fourth SQL in the City in London next week. It’s amazing to me that we’ve managed to build this great series of one day events that is so popular with SQL Server professionals.

    I’m heading back to London next week, a quick trip, but one I enjoy (once I’m there), as I get to see lots of old friends and meet new ones at the event. It’s always fun, and despite the long trip, it’s worth it.

    However I still have lots of prep. A few days off  this week to spend with my kids (I’ve been gone too much lately), so I’ll be pressed to finish my talks this week, and then have lots of rehearsals next week before I fly (and probably more while flying).

    If you’re in the UK and can get to London next Friday, we still have some space, and we’d love to talk to you about better database development, and administration, for your SQL Servers.

  • SQL in the City 2014 – Two countries in two weeks

    I have had a fairly busy travel schedule the last few years. While I don’t love sitting on airplanes and being away from home, I do look forward to the events and seeing the amazing #SQLFamily and community we have for SQL Server. I’ve also learned a few tricks to make travel smoother, which reduces stress.

    It’s a good thing since the SQL in the City 2014 event schedule is going to be short in duration, but long in miles. We have two days coming this fall: London and Seattle. We open in London on Fri, Oct 24, 2014 and then a little over a week later will be in Seattle on Mon, Nov 3, 2014. It’s a packed schedule that has me flying 6,000 miles to the UK before returning home and getting ready for a 1,300 mile trip up to the Pacific Northwest.

    However I’m excited for both events. London draws a bit crowd, with a variety of SQL Server professionals that are excited to learn new ideas, tips, tricks, and tools to help them in their professional work. We’ll once again be near the center of town, at St Grange, just off the St Pauls and Blackfriars Underground stations.

    Seattle is a great town, and while I’m sure I’ll see some Summit attendees, I look forward to meeting lots of local SQL Server data professionals that won’t attend the Summit. I hope that if you’re in the area, you come to our event. After all, how can your boss say "no" to a free day of training? Especially if you’re not attending the Summit later that week. We’ll be at McCaw Hall, near the Space Needle.

    It’s a short tour this year, but an exciting one. We’ll also continue to expand our SQL in the City seminars to other cities in the future, and hope we get the chance to meet more of you as we look to support, educate, and participate in this amazing SQL Server community.

  • Back from DevConnections

    I spent a few days at DevConnections this week and really enjoyed the conference. The location was Aria in Las Vegas, where I’ve never been, but it was a new, really nice hotel and there was one amazing thing:

    The wi-fi worked.

    Not on and off, pretty much the entire time I was sitting in sessions, I had access from my devices. I think that was the first time this worked for me at a conference. Congrats to DevConnections and Aria.

    The conference itself was short for me, with too many other commitments for presentations and talks, I had to cut short my time there. Tues afternoon – Thur morning, which mean I saw a couple talks on Tues, only one on Wed, and gave two Wed.

    That’s disappointing. There were other things I wanted to see, and I wish I had the chance to do more. I’ll be looking to schedule less trips next year as more and more I am finding myself picking up things from really interesting sessions.

    One of the great things about DevConnections is that I can get a variety of knowledge from the event. I watched a session on Azure diagnostics, as I’m curious how to actually track the performance and issues of your application. I still hope to port some (or all) of SQLServerCentral to Azure, so understanding the telemetry is something I’d like to have.

    From there, I went to an interesting logical query processing talk from Itzik Ben-Gan, which I really enjoyed.  If you get the chance to see Mr. Ben-Gan talk, you should take it.

    That’s hard to do at many events, where we often have the focus on one technology. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we have some amazing events in the SQL Server community. However there are times that I want to learn a bit more about development, Sharepoint, Azure, or something else. DevConnections gives you the chance to do so, as does DevIntersection/SQLIntersection (coming in November).

    If you wear multiple hats, think about coming to one of these conferences in the future.

  • The BBQ Crawl at SQL Saturday #300

    This weekend is SQL Saturday #300 in Kansas City. I’ll be traveling Friday for the event, hoping to arrive in time to go on the pre-event barbeque crawl that the organizers set up every year. It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 years since I was last in KC. I still have, and often wear the shirt I got from SQL Saturday #53 when I travel and was surprised to note recently that it’s a 4 year old shirt. How time flies.

    Kansas City is a neat city, and the event is a lot of fun in a very unique setting. An old river casino, converted to a training center. I still remember driving up and being unsure if it was the right place, and then enjoying the view inside.

    This week I’ll be talking about Continuous Integration for Databases, so if you’re in the area and have time Saturday, then register and come by,