Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • 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.

  • 25 Years of Redgate

    Redgate Logos_RGB_AllinOneI’m in Austin today, ready for the Redgate Software 25th Birthday celebration. The company started in 1999 and this is their 25th birthday. All of our offices are celebrating, with most of us in the US coming to Austin for a party last night. My wife (and many partners) are here as well, emphasizing that we care about our people and recognize that partners support our employees.

    I haven’t known Redgate for 25 years, but I have known one of the founders for 22 years. I first met Simon Galbraith in 2002 at the PASS Summit in Seattle. They were our first advertising customer at SQL Server Central in 2001 and the relationship continues through today. Redgate purchased SQL Server Central in 2006 and I’ve been working for them ever since.

    In that time, it’s been interesting how my job has changed and evolved. I remember the early days of SQL Monitor being released and me demoing it from horseback.

    There was the DBA in Space promotion, which I was only lightly a part of, but it was fun.

    We had the
    SQL in the City events, which included a tour around the US.

    I still remember the first one in London at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. That was a treat.

    and SELECT Star beer.

    We ran that series for a long time, with quite a few live and virtual events. It was a fun time for my coworkers to get together in various places in the world. One of our last live events was in Cambridge at the Redgate office, with our 4 advocates.

    2024-07-15 11_37_41-Window

    Now we’ve evolved to the Redgate Summits, one of which is coming to New York next month.

    I’ve watched Redgate grow to include Flyway (I’ve got a tips series), SQL Provision, and now Test Data Manager. I’ve done so many blogs and promos, the latest of which is TDM in 10 minutes. One of my favorites was a photo shoot in Cambridge, where they got me on another horse.

    dbateam8

    It’s been a great time for me and I’ve enjoyed my job with Redgate. I continue to do so today and look forward to the future. I truly hope this is the last job I have.

  • Speaking at SQL Saturday South Florida 2024

    I’m heading to SQL Saturday South Florida 2024 next week. This is my second time attending the event and if you’re in the Miami area (or want to take the train down from N Florida), register today and join me.

    This is my second time attending the event after missing them for many years.  Andy always said this was a fun place to go, but timing often didn’t work. It did last year and again this year.

    I’ll be doing two sessions next week, but the schedule is packed with a wide variety of talks on ML, DevOps, Performance tuning, T-SQL, Fabric and more. I’m doing a talk on Blogging and one on Zero Downtime Deployments.

    Register today and let’s connect, learn, and share next week.