I’ve tried to do these wrap-up posts over the years to give advice to the upcoming SQLSaturdays based on our experience, but I wanted to do this one a little differently. Before I go too much further, let me do two things:
- State the obvious: SQLSATURDAY 111 ROCKED!!!!
- Thank a whole bunch of people: Audrey Hammonds, Aaron Nelson, Tim Radney, Julie Smith, Rob Volk, Kristina Mishra, Erin Hicks, Lorra Newton, the AtlantaMDF leadership team, and a whole bunch of speakers and volunteers who helped make this show work (far too many to thank here; it was inspiring to see the people who gave their time to make this work).
This was the second year that I served as a member of the team, rather than trying to pull it off. Audrey did an amazing job of pulling everything together. We may have had a few bumpy spots along the way, but from all of the feedback we got, the event ran extremely smoothly for the attendees (all 460 out of the 650 registered). However, as I was reviewing the twitter feed, one tweet in particular stood out for me:
This is what it’s all about; an attendee at our event left wanting more. It made me think about the nature of this post; I usually write up some practical advice on HOW to do something (and lessons learned). This time I wanted to focus on WHY you should do something. I guess this is my attempt at inspirational writing, so breathe deep, assume the lotus position, and read on.
First, it’s the people.
SQLSaturday’s are a big party, and there’s enough of them going on around the country world now that we’re starting to become a traveling band of gypsies. Many of the people who speak at these events speak at a whole bunch of events, and this becomes a little family reunion at every event. I love that, but what I loved even more was the fact that I got to see a bunch of my local database people “get their learn on”. It’s really easy to get caught up in the moment of working at the event, but at the end of the day, the point of this event was that you should inspire somebody to learn something new, to change the way they approach a problem.
Second, you are people.
If you’re hosting a SQLSaturday, don’t neglect yourself. I went into this event tired, grumpy, and a little worried because I knew there were some last minute issues that I had neglected. Guess what; nobody cared. The party rolled on. I spent a great deal of time running around trying to make sure that I touched base with people, and I didn’t attend a single session (other than my own). That was a mistake. I should have totally taken advantage of the great training opportunities that were there, and learned something myself.
I’m pointing the finger square at myself on this: I need to invest more in me. Not that I should neglect others, but I’ve neglected studying and learning because I’ve let other things take away my time. When I was a kid, I used to always hear the mantra of “Faith, Family, and Work”; I still believe that, and for the most part, I’ve done that. What I’ve forgotten is that Learning=Work! If I’m not investing in my own education, and not investing in putting my own ideas to digital paper, I’m starving the creative process, and thus starving my own career.
To that end, I guess the person that left this event the most inspired was me. If you’re thinking about hosting one of these events, don’t forget to learn something yourself.
