In the next few months, I’ll be giving a couple of talks on SQL Server business intelligence.  For October, I have the pleasure of presenting for SQL Lunch, a new online learning series pioneered by Patrick LeBlanc.  On October 12th, I’ll be discussing ways to leverage SQL Server Report Builder 2.0 against your existing SSRS infrastructure to allow users to create their own ad-hoc and published reports.

Also, I’ll be visiting the Ft. Worth SQL Server User Group on November 18th.  I’ll be discussing Intermediate SSIS, demonstrating some of the more complex tasks and transformations and demonstrating how to leverage these tools to assist with challenging ETL scenarios.  Hope to see you there!

The monthly North Texas SQL Server User Group (NTSSUG) meeting will be held this Thursday, September 17, at 7:00pm at the Microsoft campus in Irving, Texas.  Our guest will be SQL Server MVP and consultant Geoff Hiten, who will be presenting “Bad SQL - Why Does This "Perfectly Good" T-SQL Run So Slow?”

Admission is always free, and pizza and drinks will be provided.  Bring a friend!

For more information on this event or the NTSSUG group, visit our website at http://northtexas.sqlpass.org/.

At times it felt like a party, it had enough content to be a mini-conference, and we learned that some people get a little punchy after 24 straight hours of SQL Server.  Regardless if you were a presenter, a casual observer, or stayed engaged for the whole event, the 24 Hours of PASS event for 2009 was a memorable experience.

I was fortunate to have participated in several sessions, but several recent family illnesses and a late project kept me from getting engaged with all 24 sessions as I had initially planned. 

I started out by listening to Allen White’s session on PowerShell for SQL Server. Allen’s depth of knowledge and excitement about this topic shone through, and I’ve listed several things that I want to try based on his presentation.  Notable takeaway: PowerShell can be used to browse a SQL Server object hierarchy much like a filesystem.  Very cool!

Two nontechnical presentations were particularly good.  Having moved into a team lead position last year, I found Kevin Kline’s “Team Management Fundamentals” discussion to be particularly valuable.  I also listened to Steve Jones’s presentation, “Building a Better Blog”; for anyone working to improve the quality and consistency of their blog, a lesson from a hard-core blogger such as Steve is not to be missed.  Notable takeaway: Short blog posts are fine, but blogging consistently (weekly or even monthly) is critical.

I was able to catch one of the two SSIS presentations.  John Welch presented “Delivering Good Performance with SSIS”, which had several good tips for those with beginning to intermediate skills in SSIS.  Most people working with SSIS focus on the mechanics and accuracy of ETL operations, and don’t spend a lot of time optimizing data flow.  Notable takeaway: Be aware of nonblocking, partial blocking, and fully blocking transformations in your packages, as they can significantly impact performance.

Although I missed a good part of it, Adam Machanic’s session entitled “SQLCLR or T-SQL? A Brief Survey of Performance Options” was helpful.  He demonstrated some scenarios where T-SQL outperforms SQLCLR, and vice versa.  I also missed most of the session “Embed Reporting Services Into Your Applications” delivered by Jessica Moss, but I saw enough to learn that SSRS can be used with Windows applications as well as web apps.  I got a refresher course on recovery models in the session “What’s Simple about Simple Recovery Model” from Kalen Delaney, who is a wealth of information on SQL Server internals.

There were a few sessions I missed entirely that I wish I’d been able to dig into.  There was a text mining session in the middle of the night (CDT) that looked very interesting.  I know very little about SQLdiag, so I wish I’d been able to attend Brad McGehee’s session on that topic.  MVPs and fellow SSC’ers Gail Shaw and Grant Fritchey discussed indexing and performance tuning, respectively, and I’m sure they both hit home runs.

There were a couple of things that could have gone better.  First, several of the session the links listed on the PASS website were incorrect.  This issue may have been minimized by the prolific use of Twitter, since people were able to ask for a valid link when the original one didn’t work.  Brent Ozar also posted a correct set of links during the presentation, but many were still using the PASS site (as one would expect).  I’m sure everyone had their hands full, but having a person on standby for those logistical issues is important when the link is the very gateway to the event. 

Also, Tom LaRock had a feed of his own for the duration of the 24 hours; I started off watching both the session and Tom, but between the commentary and the echo on his audio became too districting, and I turned off his feed after just a couple of sessions.  I like the idea behind this – it gives the event a more personal, interactive feel – but I’d suggest reserving more of the commentary for the Q&A time or the gap between sessions.  And Tom, I’ll spring for a comfy set of headphones for next year to avoid the cursed echo... :)

All of the sessions were recorded, though that fact wasn’t widely advertised before the event – a wise move, in my opinion, since many would have skipped the live event if they’d known that they could watch the rerun later.  Some of the recorded sessions will be available for viewing as early as next week, with all of them ready by late November or December.  If you missed any of these sessions (or if – gasp! – you skipped the whole thing), keep an eye out for these recordings on the PASS website.  I’ll definitely go through and catch the ones I missed, and will likely replay the ones I attended when I can fully focus and make notes for myself.

I have never heard of another group having this type of unique content delivery.  Pushing out sessions for 24 hours straight shows the kind of fresh, community-focused ideas coming out of PASS these days, and will hopefully provide incentive to get engaged for SQL Server professionals who are not currently involved with PASS or a local chapter group.  This organization is focused on growth, and it’s a very exciting time to be involved.  If you’re not a member, join PASS today!

When I talk to other SQL Server professionals, I’m often surprised at how many do not have any involvement in their local SQL Server user group.  As best I can tell, the problem is not limited to SQL Server types – many technical pros do not even know that there are user groups in their area, much less participate in any of them.

Local user groups are incredible and underutilized resources for technical professionals.  Most active user groups meet monthly, generally in the evenings or on weekends, and most are free.  These groups are not closed social groups as some may perceive, but are quite accepting of newcomers.  In all but the largest user groups, everything is run by volunteers, so there are opportunities to get your hands dirty if you feel led to give back to the community.  These groups offer a venue to share ideas, socialize with fellow techies, and some informal peer technical assistance.  If you are looking to improve your presentation skills, most groups are open to new speakers at group meetings.

If you’re not already involved, I encourage you to check out one or more local user groups.  I’ll take the opportunity to plug my local group, the North Texas SQL Server User Group, which meets at the Microsoft headquarters in Irving on the 3rd Thursday of each month.  The PASS website also has a domestic and international list of recognized chapters of SQL Server users.

I received word earlier today that I’ll be presenting at the upcoming SQL Saturday event in Tampa, Florida on January 24.  I got to present at one of the first SQL Saturday events last year in Jacksonville and it was quite a well run event.  A good lineup of content along with a significant attendee turnout made for a highly successful event, and I hope the Tampa event will match the success of the previous experience.

As an aside, I’m hoping to use what I learn attending and presenting these two conferences to put together a similar event.  I’ve had some talks with Andy Warren, one of the founders of SQL Saturday, and he’s very excited about the growth of this community event.  I pinged my local SQL Server gang (North Texas SQL Server User Group) about the possibility of bringing SQL Saturday to Dallas, and I got a lot of positive responses.  So if you’re in the Dallas area and would like to be a part of an upcoming SQL Saturday event, please let me know.

I received notification a few days ago that I was selected again to participate in the We Are Microsoft charity event in Dallas.  For those not familiar, this event is intended to seek out and assist qualified charities whose technology needs exceed their budget for same.  Developers, DBAs, and designers come in from as far away as Arkansas to spend the weekend designing, coding, and consuming large amounts of caffeine and sugar.

I haven’t found out who my teammates are or which charity we will be representing, but I’m looking forward to jumping into this again.  There may still be spots available for volunteers - if you’re in Dallas the weekend of January 16th, you should come by.  If you’re attending, please give me a shout.