SQLSaturday Atlanta 2011–advance notice

Last night a small group of us (Aaron Nelson, Audrey Hammonds, Julie Smith, Tim Radney, and me) met to discuss this year’s upcoming SQL Saturday; our goal is to make it a bigger event than last year, but still try to keep it very community-centric.  Here’s a couple of bullet points that I can tease you with now:

• We’re still looking for a venue, but our hope is to have at least 7 tracks of content.  We know that we’re going to push for attendee numbers between 300 & 450 (limited seating in the Atlanta area).
• Our tentative date is September 24; that’s right before PASS Summit.
• We’re playing around with the idea of a pre-con on the Friday before.  Deep-dive for a low-cost.
• The event shirts WILL kick a$$.
• We’re trying to figure out how to work with sponsors to make sure that they get a lot of value out of this; after all, they’re footing the bill, and we want to make sure they leave our event satisfied with the exposure they get.
• If we can swing it, we’re thinking about one MAC-DADDY prize for attendees.  

A lot depends on finding the right location; good location = more attendee seating = more sponsor funds. Hopefully, we can secure something in the next week or so.

Keep you posted as things develop.