SQLSaturday #47 Postmortem

ex·haus·tion

[ig·zaws·chun]
–noun

1. extreme tiredness; fatigue
2. the condition of being used up; consumption: exhaustion of the earth’s resources
3. the act of exhausting or the state of being exhausted

(Dictionary.com)

Exhaustion is the first thing that comes to mind. Wow is a close second! To put it into perspective: imagine you have been tasked with instructing Amy Winehouse about sobriety… Yeah it’s gonna require a lot of time and energy! This was my first event so without any shadow of a doubt I was on pins and needles up until the end of the after party. Like anyone else you want your event to be successful from start to finish. Essentially you want things to go according to plan, in short… perfect. We all know Murphy’s law so there is no denying that things will not always go according to plan, so don’t let it bother you.

However I do feel that being experienced does help you roll with the punches much like an agile process. You are able to adjust as things come your way. That is exactly what Chris Coneybeer (blog | @coneybeer) brought to the table… experience among several other things! So I commend Chris on doing an exceptional job on adjusting to everything that presented itself.

volunteers

I want to say thank you for helping SQLSaturday #47 come together. It’s not easy and our time is valuable so thank you for taking time out of your schedule to help with the preparations of the community event. There is nothing like supporting our community.

So thank you: (in no particular order)

• Anthony Williams (blog | twitter)
• Qui Ly (blog | @QLy27)
• Steve Cable (LinkedIn | twitter)

presenters

Because of your willingness to share the wealth of knowledge SQLSaturday #47 was able to offer five tracks of information packed sessions. The fact that our presenters actually participated in the event on their own dime speaks volumes about the their commitment to the community. That’s right! The flight, hotel, car rental and other incurred expenses were out of their own pocket. So thank you for your generosity and thank you for being you!

So thank you: (in no particular order)

Presenter	Topic
Dale Cunningham (blog | @fly_scuba)	Using Confio Ignite 8 for Production
Jonathan Atkins (blog | @JonAtkins57)	TSQL Fun – Avoiding cursors
Amy Lewis (blog | @amy_lewisAZ)	First Flight: Taking off with Analysis Services First Flight: Earn your ETL wings with SSIS
Janis Griffin (blog | @DoBoutAnything)	Performance Management – 2008 MDW – How & Why Tuna Helper – Proven Process for Tuning SQL
William E. Pearson III (blog | @Bill_Pearson)	Entity Strategies: Structuring Your Consultancy Getting Started with MDX
Robert Miller (blog | @RobertMiller)	Mirroring 101 Manage and Monitor Your Mirror
Colin Smith (blog | @smithco32)	Powershell for the DBA
Michael Collins (blog | @mfcollins3)	Database Development using Visual Studio Introduction to Microsoft SQL Azure
Ira Whiteside (blog | @irawhiteside)	Creating a Metadata Mart w/ SSIS – Data Governance (SSIS, TSQL and MDS) – Record Linkage(Fuzzy Matchi
Bill Ramos (blog | @billramo)	SQL Server Data Collection Strategies The Making of the SQL Server Denali Always On Dash
Meredith Ryan-Smith (blog | @coffegrl)	Work/Life Balance? Just A Myth? Backup Basics – Knowing your Options and When to
Denny Cherry (blog | @mrdenny)	SQL Server Clustering 101 Back To Basics; Getting Back To The Basics of SQL Where should I be encrypting my data?
Orion Gebremedhin (blog | @OrionGM)	SSRS-Subscriptions & Render Device Settings SSAS Partitioning and Usage Based Optimization
John Racer (blog | @speedracer)	Where Are My Reports? Managing Reporting Services Empowering End Users with Report Models
Zach Mattson (blog | @WIDBA)	Powershell Eye for the Monitoring Guy
Denise McInerney (blog | @denisemc06)	DBA as Protector of the Data: Notes from the Field
Tara Kizer (blog | @TaraKizer)	Performance Tuning with Traces

sponsors

Without your support SQLSaturday #47 would have never happened. Your contributions help more than you know. You provided valuable information about the many services and tools available to help us do our job better, easier and faster. Thank you for your generosity and continued support for the SQL Community!

So thank you: (in no particular order)

Website	Logo
SQLPass.org
Confio.com
CozyRoc.com
FusionIO.com
Quest.com
GoDaddy.com
Idera.com
Neudesic.com
SQLMag.com
Statera.com
MelissaData.com
Gerasus.com

venue

Thanks to the generous staff at Chandler-Gilbert Community College for letting us use their awesome campus to host the event. It was a beautiful venue and we look forward to continuing our partnership for events to come!

thank you

So to the volunteers, presenters, sponsors, CGCC and to all that attended… THANK YOU!. We couldn’t have done it without you and I look forward to seeing and meeting you at the next one!!!

Top 5 Reasons to Attend SQLSaturday #47

I am going to take Jose Chinchilla (Blog | Twitter) approach to help promote SQLSaturday #47. Though he listed the “Top 10 reasons to attend SQL Saturday #62 Tampa” I am only going to touch on the Top 5.

SQLSaturday #47

When: Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011 — Where: 2626 E Pecos Rd Chandler, AZ 85225

Reason-5: Free Training

SQLSaturday permits people in the industry to offer real world examples of some of the challenges they faced. It promotes a fun, laid back learning experience for persons with different professional backgrounds. If you’re a seasoned professional or someone looking to get into the database world SQLSaturday #47 is guaranteed to have a session for you. Sessions covering topics on Database Administration, Database Development, Business Intelligence, Troubleshooting, writing T-SQL and much more… so don’t delay and sign up today!

Reason-4: Perfect Weather

February is spectacular in Arizona. It provides the opportunity to escape the colder climates and get cozy with terrific weather. Arizona is a beautiful during this season and the greens are ideal this time of year. Perfect weather for outdoor networking, the facility is beautiful and only compliments the entire experience like that perfect bottle of wine to make the dinner experience awesome.

Reason-3: Rockin’ Sessions

We have a fantastic lineup. Excellent speakers delivering high quality content. A great mixture of experience working with small to VLDBs combined with great presentation skills is what you have to look forward to. Looking for an SSIS session… we got it. Looking for a powershell session… we got it. Looking for a clustering session… we got that too! I am telling you we got what you need!!!

Reason-2: Getting Involved

Getting involved with the community returns several benefits for everyone involved:

1. you get to know different people whom you might have not known otherwise
2. knowledge exchange — share experiences and war stories
3. you build new friendships and expand your network
4. you’re not alone… help (#sqlhelp) is there if and when you need it
5. you can become an acronym and twitter hash tag junkie
6. you can hang-out with the cool kids

Reason-1: Networking

Come out and meet and greet fellow database professionals. Learn something new while making a new friend. We are a community and SQLSaturday is about community involvement, in a nutshell peers helping peers. You never know… the people you meet at SQLSaturday #47 might lead to a new and exciting career. Why would you pass up a chance like that? You still have time to sign-up!

http://sqlsaturday.com/47/eventhome.aspx

SQLSaturday Phoenix Edition

his is a tad overdue as work has been interfering with my personal life along with other things I like to do. After our initial attempt at launching SQLSaturday #47 here in Arizona which we regetfully had to postpone for specific reasons, we are excited to mention that we are back on the saddle and gearing up for our Feb. 19, 2011 launch. My partner in crime @coneybeer has been intertwining himself very nicely within the community and managed to land Chandler-Gilbert Community College after some discussions with the great folks at the City of Chandler. Chandler has proved to be very welcoming to technology and business so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Mr Coneybeer has been very vital and I owe him a lot of credit so be sure to thank him for all his efforts thus far, but you still haven’t seen anything yet. The guy is magical I tell you! His networking skills are definitely paying off and SQLSaturday #47 is reaping some benefits. Even though we are about four months away I just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciate Chris and everything he has done.

Arizona PASS Chapter President Pete Miller is also playing a crucial role and his efforts need to be highlighted. This guy knows everyone… I started to toss out names and he was like, “Yep I know them”. So I figured I would see how this worked in reverse and I started to throw his name around and almost got beat up. I am kidding… everyone knows and love Pete. Between the three of us and Pete’s extensive network and tight relationship with the local Microsoft folks and vendors SQLSaturday #47 will be a hit.

SQLSaturday #47 – Postponed!

As you have probably heard SQLSaturday #47 – Phoenix has been postponed. Though this decision was difficult to make, we felt it was in the best interest of the SQL community and the event. The summer season played a significant factor and from it we lost presenters and event goers. We began to receive emails, DM’s and such from registered participants that decided to withdraw due to the excessive heat and other planned summer activities, which is completely understandable. So without surprise we made a decision after meeting with the folks from PASS.

Our goal is to provide the best experience possible for everyone involved. So when the community spoke we listened and we will continue to listen. We take extreme pride in this event and we do not look at this postponement as a failure, but as a learning experience! Like John Powell said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing”. Rest assured that we will not make the same mistake twice.

Please keep in mind that is merely a postponement… not a cancellation! We are still actively organizing SQLSaturday and will post more information about it as we cover more ground. As always we are available if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Feel free to drop us a line and we will gladly try to answer all inquires to the best of our abilities.

We still need your involvement and we will still need presenters, event goers, sponsors and volunteers. So take this time and think about the sessions you would like to see and the possible tracks you believe we should have. We are all ears and would love to hear from you.

Being the organizer responsible for sponsorship relations I want to take this opportunity to tell you that we appreciate you supporting SQLSaturday Phoenix. I also want you to know that if you wish for a refund I will do everything possible to expedite the process. I will make my rounds to touch-base with all sponsors, hopefully before you have to call me.

Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to seeing you at SQLSaturday #47 – Phoenix!

–samson
samson[at]wetmatter.com | @sqlsamson