October is going to be a very busy month for me!  Three conferences and a pre-con are on the agenda.

This weekend, on October 3, I’ll be in Kansas City for SQLSaturday #444. This will be my third trip to KC for their event, and it’s always a treat. I’ll be speaking at 9:00a about using AlwaysOn Availability Groups for disaster recovery – always a great topic! They’re in a new facility this year, which I hear is fantastic. (And did I mention that they have BBQ?)

On October 9-10, I’m heading north to Minneapolis for SQLSaturday #453. This one has also become an annual tradition for me. This year, I’m giving one of the pre-conference sessions on Friday, October 9 – “SQL Server Security Master Class”. This is a full-day, soup-to-nuts overview of SQL Server security, including a deep-dive into the built-in security mechanisms, current threats and defenses, and monitoring. The session in Omaha was fabulous, and this one should be even better!

On Saturday, October 10, I’m presenting my session on encryption at 1:35p. This has been a popular topic all year, and I’m looking forward to presenting it again in Minnesota.Unfortunately, this SQLSaturday is sold out, but there are still seats left in all of the pre-cons (and all pre-con attendees are guaranteed admission to the Saturday conference!). If you’re not into security, there are three other pre-cons by great presenters: Power BI by Mark Vaillancourt, Hadoop by Bill Preachuk, and a session titled “Building World-Class Data Organizations” by Pragmatic Works.

And finally… I’ll be finishing out the year at the PASS Summit. This is the world’s largest SQL Server conference, and I’m thrilled to say that this year, I’ll be among the speakers for the first time! I’m presenting a session with my friend David Klee about building a virtual test lab for SQL Server. We’re scheduled for 3:30p on Friday, October 30, in room 611-614. It’s a fitting way to end the conference – after you’ve filled your brain with all of the new things you want to try, we’ll show you ways that you can try them safely, with options ranging from free to not-too-expensive, from a VM (or several!) on your own machine to a full-blown test lab in your home or office. If you’re going to be at the Summit, stay until the end and come to our session!

Whew! That’s a lot of travel in a short time, but I’m really looking forward to all of the conferences. If you’re in the area, come out and say “hi”!