skreebydba

I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with some of the best and brightest folks in the SQL Server world. Friday I attended the second SQLFriends lunch with Aaron Lowe (b|t), Jes Borland (b|t), Ted Krueger (b|t) and a number of other great people. It was three hours of good food and better conversation. Any opportunity to spend time with Jes is welcome, as her energy is infectious. I had not met Ted Krueger before but it was a privilege to talk to him at the lunch and throughout the weekend. Many thanks to Aaron for organizing the event.

After lunch, I joined Aaron, Ted and others at DeVry University in Addison to help set up for SQL Saturday #119. After several hours of stuffing bags, I was off to the speaker dinner at Dave & Buster's. It was a wonderful evening of conversation and camaraderie with the likes of Jes, Ted, Aaron, Brent Ozar (b|t), Tim Ford (b|t), Ben DeBow (b|t), Allan Hirt (b|t) and Bill Lescher (t). It was another reminder of the strength of the SQL community. The willingness of these experts to share their time and knowledge is really inspiring.

David Klee and Andy Galbraith on Virtualizing SQL Server

I was back at DeVry at 8 a.m. Saturday, having lost an epic battle with my snooze bar. By that point, other volunteers had registration under control so I spent some time catching up with people before the first session. It was Virtualizing Business Critical SQL Servers by David Klee (b|t) and Andy Galbraith (b|t) of House of Brick Technologies. Andy and David were in the SQLskills Immersion Event with me in April. Also, I worked with David and House of Brick on a VMWare proof of concept last month, so David asked me to talk about my experience.

For the next session, I planned on seeing Ted Krueger present on Query Tuning for Developers and DBAs. By the time I made it to the room it was standing-room-only. Instead, I went to hear Christina Leo (b|t) present on What's Buried in the Plan Cache. Christina connected a number of concepts I was aware of, providing some very powerful tools for investigating and troubleshooting issues. After the session, I talked to Christina about the upcoming SQL Saturday she is running in Nashville October 13. You can find information about all of the upcoming SQL Saturdays here.

Ted Krueger Talking About Installing SQL Server

After lunch, I went to the computer lab. To thank DeVry for donating its campus for SQL Saturday Chicago the past two years, three sessions were scheduled for DeVry students and alumni. Ted Krueger presented on installing SQL Server and the components of SQL Server (Analysis Services, Intergration Services and Reporting Services) and I talked about building your first database. I arrived in time to hear the second session while making sure everything was set for my presentation.

Me Talking About ACID Properties

I got started around 4:15 p.m. and spoke for about an hour. I think I did alright, but I was so fried by the end of the day I don't remember much. It was my first time presenting on SQL Server outside of work, and I am glad to have that under my belt. I am already looking at upcoming SQL Saturdays in the area with the idea of submitting abstracts.

I've come a long way since attending my first SQL Saturday last year. I am really happy to give back to the community that helped me get here.