On the corner of my rather messy desk is little recognition item in the image to the right. It’s a 5 year marker, representing my 5 years as a Microsoft MVP. I’m honored that they think I’m doing enough for the community to be recognized.
Next week is the annual MVP Summit in Redmond, where MVPs from all over the world get together and have a chance to see advance presentations from Microsoft developers, and get the chance to get to know each other, and the staff at Microsoft.
From past experience, it can be a lot of fun, and it’s a good time to network and bond. The presentations can be hit or miss, but overall it’s been an enjoyable experience when I’ve gone (3 times). I’ve learned things, and getting to know someone on the SQL Server team face to face is invaluable. Those contacts have been helpful when trying to work with Microsoft or get more information about topics that I present to the community.
I’m not going this year, and a little disappointed in that. Despite the fact that it’s a good experience, it’s not worth the time to me right now. My wife has been traveling almost every week this year (12 trips so far) and I miss her. Travel for work is stressful, even when you’re not the one traveling, and it feels very chaotic at the ranch.
I’ve also got a lot of prep still to do for future presentations coming up at Dev Connections, SQL in the City, and more. I’ve still got more to learn about SQL Server 2012, and time is getting short.
I’ll miss seeing friends in Redmond, but I don’t regret not going. Even if I had the time, I would have skipped the Summit in favor of a week with SQL Skills in Tampa. I know I’d learn more, and definitely would prefer the weather there.
It’s been a long year for me. This year I’ve attended:
SQL Saturday #60 – Cleveland
SQL Saturday #66 – Colorado Springs
MVP Summit
Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta v3.0
SQL Saturday #63 – Dallas
SQL Saturday #77 – Pensacola
SQL in the City – London
SQL Saturday #64 – Baton Rouge
SQL Saturday #91 – Oklahoma City
SQLBits #9
PASS Summit
SQL in the City – LA
DevConnections Fall 2011
SQL Inspire NYC
That’s a lot of trips, and a lot of time away from home. It’s also possible I missed one or two in all the chaos of the year.
Next year will be much quieter for me. I’ve already avoided a few trips, telling some people that I would not be attending their events in an effort to slow down and not be so burned out with travel.
It’s been a good year, but a hard one and next year needs to be a little quieter for me.
I spoke at the SQL Inspire event this last weekend and it was a greart experience. This event was sponsored by Linchpin people (founded by Andy Leonard, Brian Moran, and Matt Velic) and supported by Robert Pearl, Melissa Demsak, and others in the New York/New Jersey area.
The event is modeled after the TED events, which was inspirational and informative talks that bring people together to discuss ideas and thoughts about various topics. In this case all the speakers were technologype focused people, but bringing different points of view or frames of reference to our SQL world.
The event was held at the Microsoft office in Manhattan, the same place as the SQL Saturday event held there last year. I arrived just as the event was starting, and had breakfast. There was plenty to go around, which was good as I’d forgotten to pack the protein bars I normally eat in the morning.
There was plenty of coffee as well, and I had a cup while watching the event start with Robert Pearl talking about telecommuting. He had some good ideas for people that want to work from home, including some data and arguments that you could give to your boss.
The event was structured as a series of 20 minute talks, with a few breaks throughout the day. Tom LaRock had come down from Boston with his daughter. He had a great talk about “Someday”, which as he noted, “isn’t one of the seven days of the week.” Tom cautioned people against waiting too long to do things, or putting off the parts of their career that are important to them, or even the simple things that need to be done in every environment, like making sure you have good backups. He had one point in the talk where he was looking forward to things in the future, and he choked up while mentioning the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. It was a touching moment, and I was choked up as well thinking about my little girl.
SQL Someday
Michael Coles talked about the job market, Andrew Brust talked about Big Data, and Brian Moran talked about Linchpin people and how he is trying to change the way that people view their work and their business. Michael Corey had a great talk about how he had grown his career from DBA to CEO of a consulting company and how he runs a successful, moral, well balanced place to work. I grabbed a card from him and will keep NTirety, his company, in mind if I ever need a job. They seem to work the way I’d like to work.
My talk was right after lunch and titled “Finding Balance”. My focus was on the ways in which we can all manage to improve our careers, get raises, promotions, etc., while still managing to have a life. I’ll blog about it more, but the main ideas were three things I think are important to balancing out your life.
– Learn to say no
– Play your own game
– Balance
The entire event was video taped and recorded, and I believe that the videos will be available in a few weeks for people to view. There were about 60 or so people there throughout the day, and they seemed to enjoy the talks. Quite a few people came up to me and other speakers at the end to thank us for the information we presented, and they seemed to be making notes or engaged with the speakers during the day.
Video by And Now Video
There were a number of sponsors that helped bring this event to fruition, including my employer, Red Gate Software, along with Confio, Embarcadero, and Microsoft.
This was a much different type of event than many SQL Saturdays. The talks focused on abstract, more soft-skill topics, that were designed to inspire you, and get you to re-think the way that your career is progressing. I hope there are more of these events, or even that they can be held alongside other SQL Saturday events as a change of pace from the strictly technical presentations.
New York City was great, with mild weather on a November weekend. The sun shined as I went for a run out to Central Park on Saturday morning. I stayed at The Pod hotel, which is a hostel, and an ecclectic change of pace from many other places I’ve visited. We had a few people come out after the event to share a few beers and talk about the event, life, and a few other topics.
My thanks to Andy, Brian, and Matt and I hope they are able to run a few of these events in other places in 2012.
I’m off to New York City, center of the universe, and SQLInspire today. This is my last trip of the year, and I am very glad for that. This will be my 15th event of the year and that’s a lot. I’m looking forward to a run in Central Park, however, and seeing the bright lights and big city for a day.
This is one event, however, that I’m very much looking forward to. The SQLPeople people, Andy Leonard (blog | @AndyLeonard) and Brian Moran (Linchpin People | @briancmoran), put together this event based on the TED events that occur all over the world. I love TED talks, and find myself learning some amazing things from them. This event is more SQL focused, but designed in the same way. To bring new ideas to you, inspire you, and get you to think about the world around you.
My session is Finding Your Balance, and I’m hoping to goes over well. I’ll post a transcript of the talk after the event. If you attend, please come by and shake my hand.
On the corner of my rather messy desk is little recognition item in the image to the right. It’s a 5 year marker, representing my 5 years as a Microsoft MVP. I’m honored that they think I’m doing enough for the community to be recognized.
Voice of the DBA 