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For the term "sqlsaturday".

A tiny step in the right direction #SQLPASS

Ah, summertime; time for the annual “community crisis” for the Professional Association for SQL Server.  I’ve tried to stay clear of controversies for the last couple of years, but it’s very hard to be a member of such a passionate group of professionals and not have an opinion of the latest subject d’jour.   The short form of the crisis is that there’s questions about how and why sessions get selected to present at the highly competitive Summit this year (disclaimer: I got selected to present this year).  For more details, here’s a few blog posts on the subject:

The point of my post is not to rehash the issue or sway your opinion, dear reader, but rather to focus on a single tiny step in the right direction that I’ve decided to make.  One of the big issues that struck me about the whole controversy is the lack of a repeatable objective tool for speaker evaluations.  As a presenter, I don’t always get feedback, and when I do, the feedback form varies from event to event, meeting to meeting.  Selection committees are forced to rely on my abstract-writing skills and/or my reputation as a presenter; you can obfuscate my identity on the abstract, but it’s tough to factor in reputation if do that.

While I agree that there are questions about the process that should be asked and ultimately answered, there’s very little that I can do to make a difference in the way sessions get selected.  However, as a presenter, and a chapter leader for one of the largest chapters in the US, I can do a little something.

  1. I am personally committing to listing every presentation I make on SpeakerRate.com, and soliciting feedback on every presentation.  To quote Bleachers, “I wanna get better”.
  2. I will personally encourage every presenter at AtlantaMDF to set up a profile and evaluation at SpeakerRate for all presentations going forward.
  3. We will find ways to make feedback electronic and immediate at the upcoming Atlanta SQLSaturday so that presenters can use that information going forward.
  4. I will champion the evaluation process with my chapter members and speakers, and continue to seek out methods to improve and standardize the feedback process.

Do I have all of the right answers? No.  For example, SpeakerRate.com seems to be barely holding on to life; no mobile interface, and a lack of commitment from its members seems to indicate that the site is dying a slow death.  However, I haven’t found an alternative to provide a standard, uniform measure of presentation performance.

Do I think this will provide a major change to the PASS Summit selection?  Nope.  But I do think that a sea change has to start somewhere, and if enough local chapters get interested in a building a culture of feedback and evaluation, that could begin to flow up to the national level.

2014-07-01 by PASS SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 5

Back on the trail…. #sqlsatnash

I realize that I should probably be blogging about my New Year’s resolutions, but meh… I’ve been super busy surviving the holidays.  So busy in fact that I’ve failed to mention that I’ll be presenting at the SQLSaturday in Nashville on January 18, 2014.  I actually got selected to present TWO topics, which is HUGE for me.  Hoping that I can refine a presentation, and get ready for our own SQLSaturday in Atlanta.

Working with “Biggish Data”

Most database professionals know (from firsthand experience) that there continues to be a “data explosion”, and there’s been a lot of focus lately on “big data”. But what do you do when your data’s just kind of “biggish”? You’re managing Terabytes, not Petabytes, and you’re trying to squeeze out as much performance out of your aging servers as possible. The focus of this session is to identify some key guidelines for the design, management, and ongoing optimization of “larger-than-average” databases. Special attention will be paid to the following areas: * query design * logical and physical data structures * maintenance & backup strategies

Managing a Technical Team: Lessons Learned

I got promoted to management a year ago, and despite what I previously believed, there were no fluffy pillows and bottles of champagne awaiting me. My team liked me, but they didn’t exactly stoop and bow when I entered the room. I’ve spent the last year relearning everything I thought I knew about management, and what it means to be a manager of a technical team. This session is intended for new managers, especially if you’ve come from a database (or other technical) background; topics we’ll cover will include:*How to let go of your own solutions. *Why you aren’t the model you think you are, and *Why Venn diagrams are an effective tool for management.

2014-01-06 by Conferences SQL SQLServerPedia Syndication 0

#SQLSATATL simply rocked…

sqlsatatlSo, last Saturday, I went to the first SQL Saturday in Atlanta that I had absolutely no responsibility on the actual day of the event.  I wasn’t an organizer, I didn’t really even volunteer.  As a chapter leader for AtlantaMDF, I do have to go in and pay the bills later this week, but for the most part, I got to walk around and revel in the day. 

And it was a good day.  The team (led by Geoff Hiten) pulled off another great event; 555 people attended the event, and there were some AWESOME sessions throughout the day.  I was in the 9 am slot, and my session on Biggish Data went well, even if (as usual) I had WAY too many slides.  Speaking of slides, you should be able to download the deck from the SQLSaturday 220 schedule (as well as many other great presentations).  I did have to slip out early since this weekend was my weekend with the kids.  My current youngest (Grace) had to get service hours for beta club, so she got to hang out with me, but I needed to get back home early to hang out with the oldest one.

So what was cool?  What did I learn?

  1. The number one highlight for me was watching Louis Davidson demo Red Gate’s SQL Monitor tool, and he chose one of my custom metrics to use in the show.  I respect Louis a lot, and it made my day.
  2. I learned that I need to cut out about 10 slides out of my presentation.
  3. I had a great conversation with a few people about table partitioning and performance gains; I think there’s enough material for a future session explaining why you will or won’t see performance benefits from partitioning.  Hmmmm….
  4. I had another excellent conversation with Robert Cain regarding the growth of SQLSaturday’s, and bounced around a few ideas about moving to a mid-tier model.  Kind of like what SQLRally was supposed to become, but different. 
  5. I also got to hang out with Andy Leonard.   He and my Grace had a good time discussing movies (Where’s my super suit?).

Mostly, I just got jazzed about being back in the #sqlfamily.  Hopefully, I can build off that momentum, and start blogging again.   Granted, the next few months are going to be personally interesting, but I need to make time to share again.

2013-05-20 by Conferences SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 0

Couple of upcoming presentations

I know; I suck at blogging.

Anyway, I have a couple of upcoming presentations this month, so I figured I needed to get back and gear and at least post a notice about them.  First, I’ll be presenting at A Bunch of Devs (http://www.meetup.com/A-Bunch-of-Devs/) on the Red Gate development suite of tools.  Funny story; I actually work in that building.  The organizers reached out to Red Gate to see if they had a Friend nearby.  I guess I qualified.

Next, I’ll be back at SQL Saturday Atlanta to present on Biggish Data; this is the first Atlanta SQL Saturday that I actually had almost nothing to do with (as a chapter leader, I helped with some basic decision, but very little).  I’m excited that it’s continuing to thrive.  Says a lot about the infrastructure that PASS puts behind these events; they just need a little help from the local chapters, but they don’t rely on the same person getting burned out year after year.

2013-05-07 by Conferences PASS SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 0

post #summit12 write-up

Everyone does one, so I figured I should Smile  Unfortunately, I barely recovered from my trip to Seattle, and am now rushing out the door to Dallas for company training, so I’m afraid this will be brief.  I do intend to blog more in the future (promises, promises), but for now, here’s the highlights:

  1. Day 1 Keynote rocked; it looks like SQL Server vNext will be an awesome release for DBA’s.   2008 and 2012 brought a lot of cool things to the table development/BI – wise, but less love for administrators (IMHO).  Hekaton will change that.
  2. I was really burning out on the whole chapter leader/SQL Saturday/community activist thing; three days in Seattle changed that.  We’re now planning Atlanta SQLSaturday 2013  (woo-hoo!!)
  3. The Chapter Leader meeting format was very effective, and a big difference from previous years.
  4. Session planning seemed a little “off” this year; too many people trying to cram into too small a space.  I missed some good sessions because the rooms were too full.
  5. I got bit by the cert bug, and passed exam 70-461 Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 on the second try.  I flunked it on Wednesday, got pissed off about it, crammed that night, and passed it on Thursday.  More on that later.

All in all, it was awesome.  I had a great time reconnecting with people, and I’m looking forward to the year to come.  Gotta run;  the Atlanta airport is an hour away.  I have no clue how you road warriors do this….

2012-11-12 by PASS SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 0

Back in the saddle….

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted anything; I blame it on a strange blend of workaholism and laziness. However, before I drifted off to sleep tonight, I did want to mention that I would be presenting a topic at SQL Saturday 167 in Columbus, GA on September 9.  On September 11, in Columbia, SC, I’ll be presenting the same topic at the Midlands PASS Chapter.  If you’re around either one of those meetings, please feel free to stop by and say hello!

The Agile DBA: Managing your To-Do List

Agile development is all the rage, but how do the principles apply to database administrators? This presentation will introduce the basics of the Agile Manifesto, and explain how they can be applied to non-development IT work, such as database administration, maintenance, and support. We’ll cover scrum (one of the most popular development methodologies) and kanban, and identify some of the common struggles with implementing them in an organization. This is an interactive discussion; please bring your tales of success and your horror stories.

2012-08-30 by Blogging is FUN! Conferences User Groups 0

#SQLSat111 is a wrap…

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:

  1. State the obvious:  SQLSATURDAY 111  ROCKED!!!!
  2. 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:

image

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.

2012-04-16 by Conferences SQLServerPedia Syndication 2

A day with Andy (and Matt..) #SQLSAT111 #SQLPASS

I first met Andy Leonard at my first PASS Summit (2008); he was sitting at the back of the room in the Chapter Leaders meeting.  At the time, there was this newfangled social technology called Twitter (perhaps you’ve heard of it), and everybody was live tweeting during the meeting (shades of things to come).  I had been following his twitter stream for some time, and I saw a tweet of his go by.  I responded with something clever like “I’m watching you tweet @AndyLeonard”.  Immediately his head popped up, and looked around the room.  After the meeting, I walked over and introduced myself. 

Talking to Andy is probably one of the easiest things to do in the world; there have been time throughout my association with the SQL community where I’ve bumped into him at some event or another, and he always seems to remember who I am, and what’s going on with me.  I’m nowhere near the prolific writer that he is, and neither am I as plugged in to what’s going on, but yet he always seems to slide into a conversation with me like an old friend.  Andy is just a good guy to know, and I’m glad he’s a friend of mine.

Now, we haven’t always agreed on things; during the PASS elections of 2010, Andy and I looked at the process from two very different perspectives.  Some of our discussions got heated online, and going back and reading those posts today makes me a little sad.  But then I have to pause and think about the face-to-face conversations Andy and I had regarding the same subject, and it’s clear that he really does have a heart for the SQL community; even though I don’t always agree with him, I know that he’s trying to encourage people to do the right thing.  Again, he’s a good guy.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it’s because I’m on the team to bring SQL Saturday 111 to Atlanta on April 14.  We’ve invited Andy Leonard to do a precon for us on April 13; $100 to spend a day with Andy (and Matt Masson).  I know that Andy brings that same outlook to his teaching that he does to his community activities; with a certain amount of encouragement, people can do better.  If you’re not already registered for his class, you should.  You’ll learn something about SSIS, and maybe a little bit about friendship.

2012-02-17 by Conferences PASS SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 2

New Year’s Post 2012 (the where-have-YOU-been post)

OK, so around November last year, I fell off the grid.  Stopped posting in the middle of a series.  Just walked away.  And now, like a bad high school relationship, I’ve popped back up and begged you to start reading my blog again.  I swear I had good intentions, and I promise I didn’t cheat on you with that other set of readers; you know, the ones with the short skirts and the car…  I digress.

November and December were a career-changing period for me; things happened that were good, but left me extremely busy at work.  I chose to spend my free time focusing on family time, and I let other things (like my blog and my contributions to the SQL Server community) slide.  Since it’s now a week into January, I thought I would start anew, and try to kick off the year on a good foot.   Instead of making specific resolutions (which I’ll probably break), let me pick a direction and head that way.

First, I want to continue to focus on my family. Last year was an amazing year for me; I got married during the summer, and I had to relearn some things about a healthy family structure.  The first rule is that it takes more than just time; it takes an effort to communicate about things, including those things that are not always easy to say.  If you’ve followed my blog at all, you know that this is my second marriage; my first marriage ended in part because I stopped participating.  Hopefully, I’ve learned from that.

However, I didn’t just bring me into this new union of souls; I have two teenage daughters that I’ve brought along with me.   They need time to get to know their new extended family as well (they now have 10 grandparents, and uncles, aunts, and cousins), and I need to make sure that I keep investing my time in them as well as my wife.   I love these three women very much, and I need to do everything I can to make sure that they know that.   I guess I’m just stating that to lay out the framework for the principles that are following.

Second, I need to focus on my new career.  I got promoted to a management position in mid-November.  I’ve worked for this company for 9 years, and although I’ve been the senior member of the development team for most of that time, this is my first management position ever; I’m now the manager of a newly-formed team of Database Administrators, which means it’s a strange new world for me.  I’ve got to learn to do things a little differently; my goal is not to solve problems, but rather to empower others to solve problems.

Third, I want to be more diligent about my contributions to the community.   This means that I need to lay out specific time for blogging, and other community activities (I’m the treasurer for AtlantaMDF, as well as the organizer for the Eleventy-First SQL Saturday).  I also need to be more focused in my activities; I’ve spent a lot of time recently on StackOverflow, and I probably need to be less obsessive about that; I need scheduled activities, not hit-or-miss.

 

So there you have it; my simple return to blogging and my New Year’s “resolutions” all wrapped up in a simple package.  I’m still going to have to find time to finish the last series I started, but I’m hoping to find some time in the next few days.  Take me back, just one more time. Please?

2012-01-09 by Blogging is FUN! SQLServerPedia Syndication 0

#sqlsat89 XML 201 Slide decks uploaded

Just a quick note to say I uploaded my slides from last weekend’s SQL Saturday 89; the event was a blast, and I hope to have my wrap up posted soon.   Thanks to all of those who attended; I felt like it was a great class, and I’m hoping to continue to improve in the future.

SQL Server XML 201

The xml datatype in SQL Server expands the potential of the relational platform to store increasingly complex forms of data, but without the use of the appropriate query language, much of that potential can remain unused. This session will cover the basics of SQL Server XQuery and FLWOR; the assumption is that attendees will have some basic exposure to XML (including the use of XML in SQL Server). Learn how to “run queries within a query”, and how to extract XML data into a tabular format. Coverage will include the five basic XML methods (.exist(), .value(), .query(), .nodes(), and .modify()) and FLWOR (for, let, where, order by, and return).

2011-09-19 by Conferences SQLServerPedia Syndication 0