Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • DevOps Days Minneapolis

    Once again, I’m off to a conference next week. This time it is DevOps Days Minneapolis. I haven’t been to a DevOps Days event, though I always enjoy DevOps events because the attendees and speakers are very passionate about building better software faster. Some of them have great stories and experiences (and successes), while many also struggle with the same restrictions, priorities, and lack of attention to quality that most of us do.

    In any case, this is a fairly small event, but I like Minneapolis and I’m looking forward to the trip.

    If you’re coming to the event, say hi. If you can’t, there are lots of other DevOps days events coming up.

  • A Quick Turnaround

    I visited a customer last week and attended SQL Saturday Baton Rouge 2024. Both were fun events, and an enjoyable week, though I was away from my wife for 4.5 days, which she didn’t love. Today, I had a quick turnaround, heading to Wisconsin Dells for THAT! Conference, which I attended last year and enjoyed. I didn’t submit this to the event, but got asked to go as part of my job. I accepted, and I’m gone from home for a week between these two trips.

    I do travel a lot, but these trips got me thinking about how many of us might handle the unexpected demands from our companies. In this case, I had planned on SQL Saturday Baton Rouge, but not a customer visit. I got asked a month ago to add this in, which was fine, but two weeks ago the trip got extended by another day. Just before I got the update from that call, I agreed to go to THAT! for a quick presentation.

    As a developer, I’ve been given last-minute work. It might have been a bug that was discovered or a new request that was high priority. In those cases, I’ve often had to work more hours for a short period, usually long days or even weekends. I’ve lost personal time because of the hours, but also the stress, as my mind is elsewhere. As an Operations person, I sometimes get stuck at work overnight or for long parts of many days.

    In most of my jobs, I’ve been a strong performer and had a good relationship with management. I’ve almost always been able to negotiate comp time for the extra hours spent. In some cases, I’ve been paid for them, but usually, there is the equivalent of shorter days for a period or even missing some days of work. Often this is off-the-books as most HR systems don’t cope well with this.

    For those of you who get unexpected demands, how do you handle things? Do you get something back from the company? Time, days, compensation, maybe even a thank you and a gift? It’s not something that I think is universal, but I’d like to think it’s common.

    And if you’re at THAT, say hello to me this week. I don’t know when I’ll get some shorter days, but likely they’ll come in the next month as I try to catch up on ranch work.

    Steve Jones

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  • THAT Conference 2024 in Wisconsin Dells

    THAT ConferenceI’m headed back to Wisconsin Dells next week for THAT! Conference 2024. This is my second time in Wisconsin and third THAT overall. This time I didn’t submit, but Redgate is sponsoring the event and they asked me to deliver a session. I’ll be talking about Best Practices for Seamless Database Deployments on Tuesday morning, but there are a bunch of other good sessions taking place on Tue-Thur.

    Each time I’ve gone, it’s been an enjoyable experience, learning about various developer and database technologies from others. It’s a fun family atmosphere and I recommend this conference as one to consider if you want to learn about any development topics.

    Last year I learned about Rust and hummus in one talk, about containerized builds, and TDD. I also learned about Mind Over Milkshakes, which inspired that piece.

    If you’re near Madison, this is a short drive. It’s worth checking out THAT and trying the conference if you want a family friendly developer event.

  • The Annual SQL Saturday in Baton Rouge

    I’ve been to quite a few of the SQL Saturday Baton Rouge events. There have been 10 with the 11th coming in a couple weeks. The crew down there has done a great job over the years, and I’ve met lots of friends there: Patrick LeBlanc, William Assaf, Kenny Neal, and more. Too many to list, but this has been one of my favorite events.

    This year, SQL Saturday Baron Rouge 2024 is on July 27, and it’s once again at LSU. You can register today and join me for a fun day of learning inside, away from the heat. There is a packed schedule of all kinds of data related sessions. Learn about performance topics, Power BI, app dev, cloud, Data Ops, and more.

    I used to fly to New Orleans each year and drive up. It’s an easy drive, and I even went to the Saints training camp one year. This year I’m going to Baton Rouge direct (well, I change planes) because I’ll be visiting a customer the day before.

    However, if you don’t have plans Friday, there are two precons:

    These are great ways to get some fairly inexpensive training. Ping your boss and ask him to send you to one.

    Register for SQL Saturday Baton Rouge and join me next week. Hope to see you there.