Education

Happy New Year!

So, sitting up and watching Double Impact and cruising the web, I read Andy Warren’s Thoughts for 2009, and I thought I should probably contribute my own ideas as well.  I definitely want to spend more time blogging and contributing to the user groups at large.  Obviously, I’m going to be tied up with SQL Saturday for the first part of the year (speaking of which, I need to get my sponsor letter organized), but I still want to do more. 

Professionally, I need to find more leadership opportunities in my company.  This year’s a bit of a challenge because we’re understaffed with a lot of projects coming down the pipe, and there’s not a lot of openings in management positions, BUT I need to find a way to make my name known.  I want to be the SQL guy for not just my division, but I also want to expand beyond that to the company level as well.

I want to complete my MCITP certs for database administration and development this year.  One thing I learned at PASS Summit was that I need to continue to find ways to expand my knowledge.  I feel very confident in my ability to code T-SQL and design elegant database solutions, but I have 0 experience in Microsoft’s BI solution, and my DBA skills are a bit rusty.

I like Andy’s suggestion to play chess; I’m going to open that up and say I want to play more games with my kids.  They’re getting older, and soon they’ll be too old to hang out with me.  I want to find ways to encourage them to think, and I want to spend time just having fun with them.

Finally, I’m going to get healthy.  As soon as this shoulder recuperates from surgery, I’m back on the workout routine.  I am going to find 30 minutes a day to work out, and I’m going to stick to it.

How about you?

2009-01-02 by Blogging is FUN! Education Health 0

SQL Saturday #13 Call for Speakers NOW OPEN!

We just opened up the call for speakers for the first Atlanta SQL Saturday. This is becoming more real by the minute 🙂

If you’re in the Atlanta Area, and would be willing to help out, please check out our event page for details. Nutshell: it’s being held at the Microsoft offices in Alpharetta on April 25, 2009. All details are subject to change, but that’s where we’re at for now.

2008-12-24 by Conferences 0

We’re committed now!


Tonight, during the AtlantaMDF planning session, I finally took the bait and committed to planning a SQL Saturday. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but was delaying until I got more information about the other user group experience in the region (Code Camp). I finally got word that they’ve picked a date (mid March), so we can begin moving forward with our plans.

I’m a big proponent of the code camp model, so I’m looking forward to helping set the wheels in motion; however, I’m a little worried that I’m in over my head. I’m probably going to be blogging about this a lot over the next few weeks (months), so be prepared. Here’s my short list of stuff to do:

  • Contact Andy Warren to officially say we’re doing this.
  • Report back with some tentative dates to the rest of the AtlantaMDF leadership team.
  • Start identifying vendors, volunteers, and speakers.

Our local Microsoft rep has suggested that we could use the Microsoft office if we limited the number of attendees, which is reasonable. That’s a big chunk of time time that we can save. Looks like this is really happening; exciting times ahead.

2008-12-09 by Conferences 0