SQL Saturday 119 Recap

Chicago, Chicago... my kind of town...

Well, not specifically. I could do without the Skyway and the expensive tolls. "Welcome to Chicago! Now, pay up."  However, it was a pleasure to be back in the Windy City for SQL Saturday 119.

A little side adventure, first. I had the pleasure of staying with some very dear friends of mine on Friday night, who treated me to a wonderful dinner out, and provided an excellent night's sleep. It was good to connect with them, and I'm glad I didn't do the overnight drive that I usually do to these kinds of things. So many thanks to Matt, Brandi and Simone for a fun visit. You have an awesome family, and I was glad to share a little of your time with you.

Saturday morning, I headed over to Addison's DeVry campus, which is a perfect venue for a SQL Saturday. Also kudos to the organizers for putting SpeedPass together for the attendees.  It's a subtle, but important difference, and makes for a very smooth process. It didn't take long before I'd had the requisite coffee and donuts, and was exchanging hugs and handshakes with people I see every day on Twitter, but rarely face to face. This, for me, is the primary reason I attend SQL Saturdays. I can get free training online if I want it, just about any time. It's what people have taken to calling #SQLFamily that brings me to the events. I think it's incredibly important to spend face time with people. I never tire of it, and always find it inspiring as a DBA, as well as a member of the community.

Meeting and greeting done, it was time for the sessions to begin.  You'll see links to each presenter's Twitter profile below. If you're a SQL Server professional and you're not on Twitter, you are missing a lot. Get on it!

Session 1: Administering the BI Stack - Josh Fennessy (@JoshuaFennessy)
Josh is a very knowledgeable and engaging speaker. He had a lot of material to cover and I think did a good job staying on track and focused despite a few minor interruptions. This session was on the BI stack of SQL Server, including Integration Services, Reporting Services, and Analysis Services. Not having had a lot of exposure to SSAS, I was pleased with the high level coverage of it. I also picked up a few gems about SSRS, which I am getting more involved with lately.
Things I need to research: dig more into the perfmon counters for the BI stack.
Action Item: Make sure the SSRS config files are getting backed up separately from the VM snapshots.

Session 2: NoSQL: Know Your Enemy - Shelly Noll (@ShellyNoll)
Shelly put together some really hilarious slides for this one. Being a mid-level Star Wars fan, I appreciated the Darth Vader reference. :-)  This was a completely unfamiliar topic to me, and I think Shelly kept the talk high level enough to keep both the DBAs and the Developers in the room, interested. It sounds like NoSQL is still controversial territory, but I can see where some use of it might make sense for data that isn't time or accuracy critical. (And yes, I do think there is data that fits the bill.)
Interesting Note: Even proponents of NoSQL can't agree on implementations. (Unstructured, indeed.)
Research Point: Read up on the CAP Theorem.

Lunch: WIT Panel
I then had the pleasure of being in on the Women In Technology discussion during lunchtime, with Wendy Pastrick (@Wendy_Dance), Hope Foley (@Hope_Foley), Shelly Noll (@ShellyNoll), and Erin Stellato (@ErinStellato). Most of the discussion centered around relating to others in the workplace, and how that is sometimes, but not always, different for men and women. There was a lot of agreement that you need to strike a balance between being assertive enough to make things work, but not so aggressive that it becomes problematic. I think this is true for anyone, regardless of gender. The discussion was well worth the time, and remained impassioned, but civil. If you haven't attended one of the WIT panels, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Session 3: Reporting Services 201, From Basic to WOW - Jes Borland (@Grrl_Geek)
I usually feel bad for the presenters that have the dreaded "after lunch" slot, where most of the attendees are feeling a bit lethargic. Not this time. Jes' energetic presentation style, deep knowledge and friendliness keep people very engaged and wide awake. This was the session I probably learned the most in, since SSRS is slowly becoming more familiar territory for me. I have a basic idea of some of it's capabilities, but it was very helpful for me to see these capabilities in action, and to be extended beyond what I was aware that they could do.
Important Point: Always make sure your data is right, first.
Research Point: Make sure to get the RDL files from Jes' blog for playtime later.

Session 4: So I started this Blog... now what? - Colleen Morrow (@ClevelandDBA)
I was completely unfamiliar with Coleen before I attended this session, but have since added her to my RSS reader. I liked her presentation style, which was lower energy than Jes' but seemed very focused and concentrated. The content was much of what I expected, but with further details that helped me. This blog has been somewhat neglected due to much outside interference, but I'm hoping that with the guidance and inspiration Colleen provided, I can get this party started again.
Research Point: Read up on Betty Flowers' "Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge" theory of writing.
Action Item: Blog more, dammit!

Session 5: Join Us! Getting Started as a Technical Speaker - Eddie Wuerch (@EddieW)
I've seen Eddie speak many times before, so I won't go into detail about what an excellent speaker he is. Eddie has a definite method when it comes to putting together abstracts and presentations. The formula can be roughly summarized as: tell the audience what they will learn, teach them, then give them the opportunity to use it.  This was evident in the way we talked about the presentation being given as it unfolded, and how we came up with our own presentation abstracts at the end of the session.  Well done, as usual.
Interesting Note: Sometimes the title really does matter.
Action Item: Get a copy of ZoomIt.

Once the sessions were over and the raffle prizes distributed, (to *other* people.. *grumble**grumble*), I headed over to my now traditional dinner spot for SQL Saturday Chicago, IHOP. After a quick, but tasty omelette and short stack, it was time for SQL Karaoke! If you were there, you know what an incredible, fun, and entertaining time we had. If you weren't, then you *really* missed something special. When DBAs party, we party. :-) There was much food and alcohol consumed, and many, many fine songs sung. Some with alternate lyrics. Some with unicorns. (I'm sure pictures will surface eventually...) The party continued late into the evening, on into the morning, and I don't think I got back to my room until about 3:30 AM. I wouldn't have missed that for anything. ;-)

So, with all that said, if you have never attended a SQL Saturday before, I hope I've given you reasons to do so.  My next one will be SQL Saturday 117 in Columbus, Ohio.

See you there?