If you missed out on some of the 24 free, live sessions that made up the 24 Hours of PASS, some of them can now be viewed here. To view them, you will have to register, whether or not you originally registered for the 24 Hours of Pass. As of Wednesday, September 9, the available sessions included:
Starting Saturday, September 26, 2009, I will begin a 30 day, 9 city, and 11 session speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand. While I have been on several 2 and 3 week speaking tours, this will be my longest and most complex.
I have spent nearly a year making the arrangements, coordinating the tour with various user groups so I could make as many presentations as I could in the shortest time possible. This past two months have really been intensive, as I have had to book flights, train rides, and hotels for all these locations. The entire journey will include nearly 20,000 miles of traveling.
My first stop will be in Perth Australia, where I will be speaking at the .NET Users Group on Thursday, October 1, and the SQL Server Users Group on Friday, October 2. Mitch Wheat, who is the leader the .NET group, has helped me a lot in coordinating the Australia part of my tour.
Next, I speak at the Newcastle Coders Group on Wednesday, October 7, then I head to Wagga Wagga to make two presentations at the SQL Down Under Code Camp, on the weekend of October 10 and 11.
From the SQL Down Under Code Camp, I head to Melbourne to speak at the Melbourne SQL Server Users Group on Monday, October 12, and the following day, Tuesday, October 13, I speak at the Sydney SQL Server Users Group.
Next, I fly to New Zealand to speak at four different groups, one after another, four days in a row. My first stop is at the Auckland SQL Server Users Group on Monday, October 19, which is headed by Dave Dustin, who helped me a lot in coordinating my travels in New Zealand. On Tuesday, October 20, I am speaking at the Wellington SQL Server Users Group. Then on Wednesday, October 21, I speak in Christchurch, and on Thursday, October 22, I speak in Dunedin. Finally, I fly home on Sunday, October 25, back home to Hawaii.
Unfortunately, I won’t have much time to recover, as 4 days after I get back home, I am off to Seattle for the PASS Community Summit, and the following week I fly to Las Vegas to speak at SQL Server Connections. I will end up being on the road for 6 weeks, with only a minor reprieve. Fortunately, once I get back, my traveling for the rest of this year is over, and I will be taking a three week vacation the last three weeks of December, before starting the new year in 2010.
As I am on tour, I will try to blog almost every day, letting you know how things are going, and hopefully to provide you with some photos of the adventure as well.
On July 21, just a few short weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Rick Heiges, who is on the Board of Directors for PASS, asking me if I was willing to participate in the 24 Hours of PASS virtual conference, to be held on September 1, 2009. This was the first I had heard of this new project, which by the way, was Rick's idea.
I wrote him right back, saying yes, and offering several different sessions I could do, and he picked one on “How to Use SQLDiag to Troubleshoot SQL Server Problems”. Fortunately, I had done the same presentation earlier this year in Vancouver, at SQLTeach, so I didn’t have to start from scratch, creating a new presentation. The only problem was that my original presentation was designed for 75 minutes, and I would only have 40 minutes to give my presentation at the 24 Hours of PASS session.
On August 18, 2009, I finally got the PowerPoint presentation template I needed, so I got to work, trimming the original presentation down to 40 minutes, and at the same, transferring it to the new PowerPoint template.
Giving a presentation over Live Meeting--this is my forth time--can be a little tricky. It assumes that Live Meeting is working correctly and you know how to use it properly, that you have a fast Internet connection, that you have your screen resolution set correctly (1024x768), and much more. Because of the opportunities for problems, I scheduled a practice run with Rick and Kalen Delaney, where Rick lead both Kalen and myself throughout all of the steps, helping us to get used to using Live Meeting, besides going over the procedures for the event.
While I had used Live Meeting before, one new twist this time around was that I was going to use video as part of the presentation, and this, in itself, brought about new problems. For example, when you only have a 1024x768 screen to work with, and part of it is taken up with video, there is not much room left for showing much, especially if you want to do a lot of live demos, which I had intended to do.
Once the lesson from Rick was over, I was given two Live Meeting accounts, one for a speaker and one for a viewer, so I could simulate my actual presentation. I used one computer to practice the presentation on, and another computer to see what it would look like to the viewer.
After much experimentation, I determined that including both the video and live demonstrations did not work well, so I decided to use live video only for the introduction to the session, and for the Q&A session at the end of the event. That way, it was much easier to perform the demos so that they were easily seen on the screen.
I was scheduled to be the fifth speaker of the event, which was at 6:00P PM Hawaii Standard time, which was convenient for me, although for the east coast of the United States and Europe, it was a little late for them.
The moderator for my presentation was Richard Baumet, who is the president of the Vancouver PASS SQL Server users group. He introduced me at the beginning of the presentation, and at the end, read me the questions that people had submitted throughout the session.
Overall, I think my presentation went well, and I had slightly over 300 people attending at the peak of attendance. While I have not been able to watch all of the other sessions for the 24 Hours of PASS, I have watched some, and they all seemed to go very well. I think this is a result of the thorough planning that Rick did when he organized the event.
One thing that I found out shortly after giving my presentation was that the electricity in most of the buildings around the area where I live had a blackout right in the middle of my presentation. My home was only one of the few which had electricity, so I was very lucky. I am not sure what I would have done if the power had gone out in the middle of the presentation.
I want to thank Rick Heiges for coming up with the idea for this unique event, and for putting many, many hours into making it happen, along with many other PASS volunteers. I also want to thank the speakers, all of who donated a lot of time in preparing and giving their sessions. It is really great to see the SQL Server community come together to put on an event where we can share our knowledge among our colleagues.
While a recording of all the presentations from the 24 Hours of PASS will eventually become available on the SQLPASS.org website, you can download my presentation here.
If you haven’t heard yet, PASS has started commissioning articles to be published in the new PDF version of the SQL Server Standard. If you are an experienced DBA with writing experience and want to participate, then you need to check out this link. It provides all of the information you need to get you started on your way to writing for the SQL Server Standard.
On the other hand, if you don’t have time to write an article, but would like to help out, I am looking for volunteers to help perform technical reviews of the articles that will be published in the SQL Server Standard. I have volunteered to be the lead technical reviewer, but while there are many SQL Server topics I know well, there are many others where I have little or no experience, and that’s where I need your help.
If you would like to volunteer as a technical reviewer, please e-mail me at bradmcgehee@hotmail.com, and tell me where your SQL Server interests and strengths lie, and then when I have an article that matches those areas, I will send it off to you for technical review. All you need to do is to read the article, and if you see any technical mistakes in the content, then make a note in the article, and we will send it back to the author for correction.
This is a great opportunity to get involved with PASS, and to contribute to the greater SQL Server Community!
The 2009 European PASS Conference, which was held April 22-24, 2009, had 254 attendees from 22 different countries. In spite of a difficult economy, attendance was up from 187 attendees last year.
The event was held at the Swissôtel Conference center, which over looks the Rhine river, in Neuss, Germany, which is just outside of Düsseldorf.
On April 22, there were two pre-conference sessions, and on April 23-24 there were 36 different sessions in four different tracks.
The keynote address was presented by Rushabh Mehta, the Executive Vice President of Finance and Technology for PASS, who at the last moment had to take over the keynote, as the scheduled keynote speaker, Donald Farmer, had to cancel at the last minute.
Some of the many speakers included András Belokosztolszki, Brad M McGehee, Christian Bolton, Bill Graziano, Ross Mistry, Simon Sabin, Dejan Sunderic, Dejan Sarka, Steve Simon, Bob Ward, and many more.
The Rhine river as seen from the conference center.
If you have been procrastinating about submitting a speaking abstract for the 2009 PASS Community Summit, you have been given a short reprieve. The Call for Speakers has now been extended until midnight on April 24, 2009. See this link for more details: www.sqlpass.org/Community/SpeakerResource.aspx.
If you have already submitted an abstract for the 2009 PASS Community Summit, or you are still thinking about it, be sure to check out the new information that has been added to Speaker’s Resource page.
Specifically, two new content pages have been recently added to the original page. They include the “Minimum Criteria to submit a Pre-/Post-Conference Abstract” and the other is ”Understanding How the PASS Community Summit Abstract Selection Process Works.”
You may find both useful in your understanding of how the 2009 PASS Community Summit selects speakers.
As most of you know now, the Call for Speakers for the 2009 PASS Community Summit is open from March 20, 2009 through April 10, 2009. Each year, the PASS Program Committee, which is responsible for selecting the sessions offered at the Summit, receives many more speaking abstracts than they can accept. If you want to increase the odds of being selecting, please consider the following suggestions:
Disclaimer: I am a PASS volunteer in charge of Speaker Management for the PASS Program Committee. While I have been involved in helping create the Call for Speakers website and the Call for Speakers Resource page, I don’t have any direct involvement in selecting abstracts. That task is done by separate PASS Program committee volunteer members.
This year, I was asked to participate on the PASS Program Committee Management team as the “Speaker Manager.” One of my tasks is to create a Speaker’s Resource page on the SQLPASS.org website to aid speakers who want to submit session abstracts for the 2009 PASS Summit, which will be held in Seattle, WA from November 3 — 6, 2009.
As part of this Speaker’s Resource page, I want to include a section called “Speaking Tips,” which will offer general tips on how to create and present a great session.
Instead of trying to write all the tips myself, I am soliciting your help. If you have spoken before any audience before, and have learned any tips of the trade that would benefit other speakers, please share them with me with on this blog. Once I get everyone’s suggestions, I’ll compile them and include them on the PASS website’s Speaker’s Resource page.
If you are asking yourself, where is the Speaker’s Resource page on the SQLPASS.org website, you are right, as it has not been released it. We are still working on it, but it will become available shortly before the PASS Community Summit Call for Speakers, which opens on Friday, March 20, 2009. When the page becomes available, it will be announced in my blog, on the SQLPASS.org website, and in the PASS Community Connector newsletter.
If you are thinking about, or planning to attend the 2009 PASS Community Summit, here is your opportunity to tell PASS what type of sessions you want to see included. The following link will take you to a survey form that you can complete to indicate your interests. It will take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and you must complete it by Friday, March 13, otherwise you will be too late.
Click here to take survey.
The European PASS Conference will be held in Neuss Germany (near Düsseldorf) from April 22-24, 2009. It will include 36 technical sessions, with tracks for DBAs, Developers, and BI Experts. It will also include several full-day pre-conference sessions.
I will be speaking at the conference on the topic of “Database Maintenance Optimization Strategies for the Database Professional.” This will be my first trip to Germany and speaking at the European PASS Conference. If you have the opportunity, please introduce yourself.
I will be attending the PASS Community Summit in Seattle, November 18-21, and will be making two presentations:
The first session, "DBA 101: Best Practices for All DBAs to Follow" focuses on key best practices to help ensure that your SQL Servers are not only performing optimally, but are also highly available. While this session is geared more toward novice DBAs, I am sure even experienced DBAs will pick up a new tip or two.
The second session, "How to Become an Exceptional DBA" offers advice on how to distinguish yourself as an Exceptional DBA. The content is based on my book of the same title. If fact, if you are attending PASS, you can get a free soft back copy of the book at the Red Gate booth (supplies will be limited). If you can't attend PASS, you can get a free copy of the e-book version at this URL: www.exceptionaldba.com.
If you are attending, please be sure to stop me and say hello.
As most of you know, PASS (the Professional Association for SQL Server) is an independent, not-for-profit association, dedicated to supporting, educating, and promoting the Microsoft SQL Server community. Among its many activities, PASS sponsors the annual PASS Community Summit, which is the largest gathering of SQL Server DBAs and developers in the world.
PASS is governed by a Board of Directors that guide PASS’s direction, and as a member of PASS, you get to elect who is on that board. Board members actively guide PASS’s direction, and because of this, who you elect to the board significantly affects where PASS is headed. So if you want to influence where PASS is going, it is important that you vote for those individuals who you feel will move PASS in the direction you feel is best for the SQL Server community.
To find out who is running for the PASS Board of Directors, you can check out the PASS website at the end of the day on Friday, November 14, 2008, where you will be able to review short biographies of those who are running. If you are not familiar with any one of the candidates, you might want to consider doing an Internet search on them to learn more about them.
If you are attending the PASS conference in Seattle, November 18-21, 2008, there will be an Election Booth that will list all of the candidates, along with their biographies. And of course, if you are attending the PASS Community Summit, you will have the option of seeking out each candidate, and asking them any questions you like before you make your vote.
Voting will be done electronically. If you are a voting member of PASS, you will receive an e-mail at your PASS-registered e-mail account on Sunday, November 16 that includes a link to an on-line Electronic Ballot, where you will be able to cast your vote, beginning at 12:01AM, Monday, November 17, 2008. Of course, you don’t have to vote as soon voting begins. You can vote anytime between Monday, November 17 and Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 3:00PM PDT.
People who are eligible to vote include:
· Those who attended the PASS Community Summit 2007 (speakers, volunteers and full-conference attendees).
· Those who are attending the PASS Community Summit 2008 (speakers, volunteers and full-conference attendees).
· Active Volunteers.
The winners of the PASS Board of Directors will be announced on the PASS website by the end of the day on Friday, November 21, 2008.
I strongly urge you to consider each Board of Director nominee’s carefully, and cast your vote accordingly.
If you have ever considered taking a leadership role in PASS, you should seriously consider becoming a SQL PASS board member. Information on the required qualifications and the nomination process are available at:
http://www.sqlpass.org/CallforNominations.aspx
The PASS Community Summit 2008 is coming up fast (November 18-21, 2008), and if you are attending and you are a novice- to intermediate-level DBA, I want to recommend the two sessions I will be presenting.
The first session is called "DBA 101: Best Practices for All DBAs to Follow." It is intended for for novice DBAs who want to learn what it takes to become a production DBA. It includes best practices for what DBAs need to do on a day-to-day basis. The first part of the session focuses on a basic checklist of best practices that every DBA needs to implement on their SQL Servers, and the second part focuses on routine tasks that every DBA needs to put into action. After attending this session, you will be able to go back to your office and immediately begin implementing them, helping to boost your SQL Server's performance and availability.
The second session is called "How to Become an Exceptional DBA." Becoming a DBA doesn't have to be just a job; it can be a very rewarding career. While many DBAs are happy with just getting by, the Exceptional DBA is not only outstanding in their knowledge of SQL Server, they are consummate professionals who are in high demand, and command high salaries. Unfortunately, there is little to no guidance on how to become a successful and Exceptional DBA, you have to learn it on your on. In this session, I will focus on the following topics: • Why You Should Become an Exceptional DBA • Characteristics of the Exceptional DBA • Specialize: You Can't Do It All • How to Hone Your Skill Set • Is Professional Certification Really Necessary • How to Participate in the SQL Server Community • Manage Your Career, Don't Let it Manage You • How to Manage Your Brand Within Your Organization • How to Manage Your Online Brand. With the information provided in this session, you will be well-prepared to become an Exceptional DBA.
If you can attend, please stop by after my sessions to say hello and introduce yourself. I'm always interested in listening to what DBAs have to say.
