Category: Conferences and Events (Page 3 of 5)

SQL Saturday Recap: #392 – Atlanta, GA

May 19, 2015 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #392 – Atlanta, GA

This past Saturday a time-honored event was held in Alpharetta, GA. That tradition, straight out of past — or is it future? was SQL Saturday Atlanta. Called by some the “PASS Summit of the South,” SQL Saturday Atlanta was the 392nd event in the SQL Saturday series and continues the yearly streak in Atlanta since SQL Saturday #13 in 2009.

It seems each year, the stakes are raised higher and higher as far as size, quality, and theme — and this year was no exception. With this summer marking the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future, it seems appropriate that the event was called Back to SQL Saturday and given a full, over-the-top Back to the Future theme. But, before we talk about Saturday, we first have to travel back in time — to Friday…

SQL Saturday Recap: #391 – Jacksonville, FL

May 11, 2015 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #391 – Jacksonville, FL

Being only about a 5 hour drive away, when I saw the session schedule for SQL Saturday Jacksonville publish this year, I couldn’t resist signing up for a road trip down. A session list rich with professional development and data visualization topics, both of which I tend to really enjoy. So, on Friday, I hopped into the car and had a nice drive down to Jacksonville for SQL Saturday 391, and it didn’t disappoint!

As per usual, the event was very smoothly run. Check-in was quick and painless (thanks, SpeedPass), and the sponsor area was easy to navigate with many familiar faces. Always good to see repeat sponsors! With a jam packed day of sessions, it was time to get started.

The first session I attended for the day was Mike Davis’s (B | T) presentation on Handling Interview Puzzles. Being someone who conducts a fair number of interviews myself, I was interested in hearing some opinions on those strange and sometimes difficult puzzle questions sometimes asked in interviews. The session did not disappoint with a number of great examples, many of which has been used at some point by Google.

Mike Davis presenting “Interview Puzzles and How to Handle Them”

SQL Saturday Recap: #363 – Nashville, TN

January 19, 2015 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #363 – Nashville, TN

This past weekend, I made the trek to Nashville, TN to visit Lipscomb University for SQL Saturday #363: Nashville and it proved to be a fantastic event. It’d been a couple of years since I’d had a chance to visit Nashville for a SQL Saturday — my last was SQL Saturday #145 in 2012, so I was excited to return!

I arrived on Thursday evening to allow me time to attend a precon being presented by by Stacia Misner (B | T) and Joseph D’Antoni (B | T) — Finding Your Balance: BI in the Cloud, On Premises, or Both since the Cloud is already such a hot topic and most migration efforts typically begin with some form of hybrid effort. It doesn’t hurt that they wrote Microsoft’s official white paper on the topic, either.

The precon was given at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee which I thought was a pretty interesting venue. At first, when I saw that listed on the event page, I figured that had to be a mistake. But sure enough, that’s exactly where it was. While the Food Bank is a large warehouse full of food, they also have conference rooms on the second floor where events such as this can take place. All in all, it turned out to be a great venue — certainly better than the hotel meeting room venues I’ve been in.

Stacia Misner and Joseph D’Antoni presenting Finding Your Balance: BI in the Cloud, On Premises, or Both

PASS Summit 2014 Roundup — Second Summit, First in Seattle

November 11, 2014 / jpries

PASS Summit 2014 Roundup — Second Summit, First in Seattle

Last year, I attended my first PASS Summit in Charlotte, NC and I was hooked immediately.

This year, Summit returned to its usual home in Seattle, WA, and despite the 2,200 miles from Atlanta, GA to Seattle, WA, I knew I had to go! I’ve only visited Seattle once previously — and that was for a very brief visit after a grueling hike of the West Coast Trail in Vancouver, CA so I welcomed the opportunity to spend some actual time in the Pacific Northwest to see the sites. Regardless of the venue, PASS Summit is a very difficult proposition to pass up.

Once again, this year, I took advantage of the early registration for Summit, where the cost to register is almost half of what the final cost can be…yikes. Early registration is open once again this year, and goes until January 11th, 2015. I’ll probably take advantage of this as well again this year, once it gets a little closer.

It’s The Final Countdown — to PASS Summit 2014

October 27, 2014 / jpries

It’s The Final Countdown to PASS Summit 2014! And, now that that is stuck in your head, it’s time to get started. With just a week left until Summit 2014 in Seattle, WA, its crunch time for getting everything planned, researched, registered, gathered, and packed before flying out on Saturday morning to Seattle, WA.

With only 6 days officially left until PASS Summit 2014 begins, it’s crunch time to get things prepared and ready for the event. In actuality, it’s less for me as I’ll be flying out to Seattle a little early — on Saturday — to experience the area a little bit before the insanity starts.

Counting down to Summit!

SQL Saturday Recap: #330 – Charlotte, NC

October 5, 2014 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #330 – Charlotte, NC

Fall is definitely conference season. With SQL Saturday Orlando last weekend and PASS Summit 2014 the first week of November, what could be more fun that squeezing in another SQL Saturday in between?

With Charlotte being nearby, as well as a BI-focused event that I’d intended in the past, it seemed like a no-brainer to make the drive up to check it up for its 3rd year running. So, Friday after work, I hopped in the car and made the drive up to beautiful Charlotte, NC to attend my 13th SQL Saturday!

Unfortunately, with October being a very busy month as is, I didn’t have time to attend anything but the main event itself, but such is the way of the busiest month of the year!

I arrived at the site of the 3rd SQL Saturday Charlotte, Central Piedmont Community College, bright and early Saturday morning. As per usual, signage to parking was very clear and check-in with a pre-printed speedpass was a breeze.

Sponsors were arranged in a long row throughout the center of the building and were very easily accessible while moving between sessions. Seemed like a good representation of sponsors with a few I hadn’t seen before and excellent raffle prizes.

The morning kicked off with a short presentation in the auditorium to introduce the organizers and sponsors as well as logistics for the day. With the conclusion of the opening remarks, we were off to start the day of sessions!

Opening remarks at SQL Saturday #330

SQL Saturday Recap: #318 – Orlando, FL

September 28, 2014 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #318 – Orlando, FL

This past Saturday, I made my annual trek down to Orlando, FL for SQL Saturday #318 at Seminole State College. I’ve learned you can always count on the Orlando team to put on a great event, and this one was no exception. With over 600 registrations and over 450 in attendance, this was one of the larger SQL Saturdays in the region and in my opinion, it went off without a hitch!

On Friday morning, I left Atlanta and began the drive down to Orlando. I would’ve liked to have been able to attend Jason Horner’s (B | T) “Zero to Dimensional Modeling Hero” pre-con session, but that would’ve required an extra day and with how busy things currently are, that just wasn’t in the cards this time.

I’d been following Andy Warren’s (B | T) blog posts regarding marketing for the even leading up to it and was pretty happy to see that they were able to exceed both their registration goal of 500 and their attendance goal of 350 by 640 and 450 respectively. Well done! He really worked hard getting the message out there and it worked.

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early and headed over from the hotel to the campus. Signage was great and convenient parking was easily found. Having printed my SpeedPASS in advance, check-in was a breeze. Additionally, I got to pick up my SQL Saturday Orlando polo at check-in, which came out really nice!

SQL Saturday Orlando polo shirt, sold online prior to the event. Came out great!

SQL Saturday Recap: #328 – Birmingham, AL

August 30, 2014 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #328 – Birmingham, AL

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of trekking to nearby Birmingham, AL for SQL Saturday #328. Seeing as Birmingham is so close to Atlanta and I hadn’t been to a SQL Saturday event since the Atlanta event in May, I figured this would be a great opportunity to make a short road trip to a venue I’d not yet attended.

The first SQL Saturday I attended was in Columbus, GA in September of 2012. Since then, I’ve attended 12 events of varying sizes. I found Birmingham to be very similar to the Columbus event — a small attendee base, but great speakers and a huge Atlanta presence. It looked like quite a few of us made the trek out to Birmingham!

I arrived at the registration desk and check-in was very smooth. As always, I had my SpeedPASS pre-printed and cut out…always make sure to do this, it saves a ton of time!

Being a smaller event, the venue was a tad confusing — a single 1-hall building with sessions and sponsors on both the first and second floors. Despite the initial confusion of finding all of the rooms and sponsors, it was pretty smooth after that.

Samford University campus at SQL Saturday 328

PASS Summit 2014 Sessions Announced!

June 26, 2014 / jpries

PASS Summit 2014 Sessions Announced

Once again this year, the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) will be hosting the premier event for SQL Server and Business Intelligence — PASS Summit.

This year the event will be hosted in Seattle, WA from November 4-7. On Wednesday of this week, the list of pre-conference sessions which will be offered on the 3rd and 4th as well as the list of conference sessions was officially released!

Last year, PASS Summit 2013 in Charlotte, NC was my first opportunity to attend Summit. I found the experience to be incredibly valuable and when early-bird registration rolled around for this year’s event, it didn’t take much deliberation to decide to make the trek out to Seattle.

While the session schedule for the event has not yet been published, the abstracts for this first big batch of sessions is online and very compelling — lots of great session topics and great speakers in the lineup. There are no doubt going to be some tough decisions that will need to be made. I’m seriously contemplating attending a pre-con session this year (as pre-cons at the smaller SQL Saturday events are always great!)

Look forward to more information about the event as the date draws closer.

SQL Saturday Recap: #285 – Atlanta, GA

May 8, 2014 / jpries

SQL Saturday Roundup: #285 – Atlanta, GA

It’s that time of year again! This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the annual SQL Saturday event here in Atlanta (well, Alpharetta, really) and, as always, it was a great time.

SQL Saturday Atlanta is always a pleasure since being local means no travel necessary (hooray) and it’s always a top-notch production. This year was no exception as the event had a great line-up of pre-cons and speakers and was very well executed.

I started off my SQL Saturday weekend by attending Teo Lachev’s (B | T) pre-con session, Deep Dive into the Microsoft BI Semantic Model (BISM). Check-in for the pre-con was a very smooth process and we were each given a giant packet of all of the printed slides for the session. Additionally, the pre-con sessions had what I’d call the best breakfast I’ve seen at a SQL Saturday event, which included a buffet of hot food items such as eggs, etc.

Teo Lachev presenting his BISM deep dive pre-con session at SQL Saturday Atlanta

The pre-con session itself had a great turnout and Teo did an excellent job presenting a very large amount of material in the given time. All in all, it was a great day and time well spent!