Upcoming Speaking Engagements

October 19, 2010 at 1:09 pm (PASS) (, , , )

I’ve got a couple of more sessions before the big two at the PASS Summit. Tomorrow night, October 20th, I’ll be speaking at the Southern New England Network Users Group on SQL Server Best Practices. It’s the first time I’ve talked on this topic, so it might be fun to watch. After that I’m previewing one of my two Summit presentations for Brian Knight (blog|twitter) and Pragmatic Works in a webinar on Identifying and Fixing Performance Problems Using Execution Plans. Go here to register.

After that, it’s off the PASS Summit.

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SQL Saturday in New England

October 4, 2010 at 9:41 am (PASS, SQLServerPedia Syndication) (, , , , , )

Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) has put on a SQL Saturday/Data camp event in New England for the last two years. I’ve helped him both years. It’s been very successful. In January we had over 300 attendees, making it one of the larger SQL Saturday events. But, with a single exception (thank you Tim Ford (blog|twitter)), we’ve only had local speakers. Mind you, we’re somewhat lucky with speakers here in New England and have several MVPs and others who are truly excellent when presenting.

I’m taking over from Adam to lead the effort for this year, and due to my schedule we’re moving the event to the spring sometime. We were thinking about maybe making it the the weekend before SQL Rally. But, I’ve got a question for all of you who present at SQL Saturday events. Will you show up? Will you be more, or less, likely to come if it’s near SQL Rally. Will you be likely to come, period, full stop? While I strongly believe Adam has put on a magnificent show for two years running, for some reason we just haven’t received the community lovin’ that the other SQL Saturday events have had. Since I’m the one in charge (although Adam is still pitching in, and I’m getting help from the magnificent Mike Walsh (blog|twitter)), I’d like to make it as good a show as Adam has, so I need the other great presenters to show up, in addition to our fantastic local talent.

Comments, suggestions, questions, feedback?

PS: I hate asking questions like this on the blog, but I’m trying to collect some information so I can make a decision. Feedback is a gift, so if you want skip buying me a present for Yule this year, post a comment.

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Words of Wisdom

July 7, 2008 at 8:04 am (PASS) (, , )

Every week the Database Weekly Update comes out from SQL Server Central. There are always good things to read there. Links to interesting tid-bits of information posted by really smart people. One of them that jumped out at me this week, to the point that I read it out of order, was a blog entry by Andy Warren. If you ever get the opportunity to listen to Andy speak, jump on it. He’s great. His writing is wonderful too.
Anyway, he wrote an entry giving advice on how to break in to the national scene as a speaker. I know I dwell on this WAY too much, but I’ve been given the opportunity to speak at PASS this year. Notice I said “been given.” I don’t think I earned it quite the way I should have. Regardless, based on my experience so far, Andy’s advice is very good. If you too want to break in at that level, reading what this man (read his About page if you need incentive) has to say is well worth your time.

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PASS Community Summit Program Details Published

July 1, 2008 at 7:46 am (PASS) (, , )

I’m pretty jazzed to see that the PASS Community Summit has finally put up the list of sessions and the abstracts. However, I’m more than a bit nervous to see my name at the very top of that list. I couldn’t have been buried somewhere in the middle? It’ll probably change. I don’t doubt I’ll be delivering during the final session on Friday.

This sure makes it more real. I’ll have to get to work on the slides and demo’s now.

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Be Afraid

May 27, 2008 at 10:13 am (PASS) (, , )

I mean me, not you. I’ve been accepted to present at PASS. I’m jazzed and totally freaked at the same time. I put in two abstracts, one based on my book, “Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans” and the other based on an article I wrote published at SQL Server Central, “Deploying with DBPro to Multiple Environments.” Why then am I freaked? I’ve spent a year delving into execution plans. I won’t say I’m an expert, but I’m comfortable. I’ve been using DBPro for two years now, but I’m hardly eating and breathing it on a daily basis. Well, I wasn’t. From this point forward I’ll be neck deep in it daily. Watch for posts on this topic.

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