Jeff Pries

SQL Server, Power BI, and other Business Intelligence and data technologies

Tag: Nashville

SQL Saturday Recap: #933 – Nashville, TN

January 20, 2020 /

In what has become a yearly tradition, I attended my first SQL Saturday of the year in Nashville — SQL Saturday #933 — Nashville, TN, which took place on Saturday, January 18th, 2020. As with prior years (I’ve attended 4 of their 7 now) the event was well worth the drive from Atlanta.

While the weather wasn’t great (cold and rainy) at least it wasn’t snowy and icy like we’d had in previous years. Fortunately, the entire event takes place indoors — so the cold and gloom outside was easy to ignore with all the action inside. The schedule this year, as usual, was made up of a ton of great options and all of the speakers were fantastic. Lunch in Nashville is always a treat — hot and delicious BBQ and everything was well run and professional.

I had a great time at the event and look forward to attending the 10th anniversary next year!


Morning registration at SQL Saturday 933 – Nashville
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SQL Saturday Recap: #815 – Nashville, TN

January 13, 2019 /

My first SQL Saturday of the year, SQL Saturday #815 — Nashville, TN, took place Saturday, January 12th, 2019. As with prior years (I’ve attended 3 of their 6), everything ran very smoothly and there were no glaring issues that I noticed. Lunch was excellent (a hot lunch featuring catered BBQ — pork, chicken, and mac & cheese!) and the session selection was excellent. The venue split sessions among three floors, but it was easy enough to get from one to the next with plenty of time to spare and no session that I attended had issues with the room being too small for the crowd.

I usually (either consciously or unconsciously) theme the sessions I select to attend. The theme for this event was definitely Data Science, with a number of sessions on Python, Azure Data Bricks, R, and other data science technologies. It’s a pretty rare occurrence for a lunch session to be the most enjoyable of the day, but in this case, I really enjoyed the lunch session which I attended — a panel discussion on the future of the data professional, given by a number of well-known community speakers, many of which are or were Microsoft MVPs and many of which are current Microsoft employees. A really fun and informative session!

The whole day was great and I look forward to Nashville each year. At only a 4 hour drive from Atlanta, and always a great selection of sessions and pre-cons (which I was unable to make this year), this event is always time well spent!

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SQL Saturday Recap: #698 – Nashville, TN

January 28, 2018 /

On Saturday, January 13th, despite a pretty snowy winter weather forecast, Nashville held SQL Saturday #698.   I watched twitter like a hawk in the hours leading up to making the drive, watching for reports on the roads in the area.  All-in-all, the roads ended up being in decent condition for the drive, and I only really encountered any ice in the parking lot when I finally arrived at the hotel.

Saturday morning was frigid and it snowed throughout the day, but that wasn’t enough to stop the event.  The organizers did an excellent job enduring the stress caused by the weather and in my opinion the event was a great success and went off without a hitch.  Lunch was hot BBQ, which was excellent and a great upgrade from the standard boxed sandwich lunches which are typical fare at SQL Saturday events.  As an added touch (and part of the yearly tradition) after the end of day raffle, SQL Saturday customized pint glasses were given out to all the attendees to take home as a souvenir.  Another one for the shelf!

It was a great day and well worth the drive up to Nashville.  Looking forward to attending again next time.

The snow fell throughout the day on Saturday at SQL Saturday Nashville.

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SQL Saturday Recap: #363 – Nashville, TN

January 19, 2015 /

sqlsatlogoSQL 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.

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

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