I've been working on  basic presentation about SQL Server to give the layman an idea of what the product is and how it works. I have seen a few requests over the last year at SQL Saturdays for a basic presentation that can help someone get started. The was surprising to me since I had assumed that everyone attending an event like a SQL Saturday would have an idea of what SQL Server is used for, but apparently not.

At the same time, I've heard similar complaints from attendees that there are too many sessions that don't dive in deep enough into topics and there are users who don't learn enough from attending events like the PASS Summit or SQL Saturday.

The lesson here, is that we have a very wide and deep community, full of people at all levels, with all different types of skills and interests. We have many people that are brand new beginners to working with SQL Server as well as those that are well skilled, but hungry for more knowledge. That doesn’t even  account for the tremendous variety of topics that SQL Server covers (SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, and other areas).

Having worked with event organizers as well as speakers and writers for years, I think that we all could use a little more depth to our list of presentations, in both directions. It would be great for more speakers to cover topics at both a very light, beginner level, as well as diving deep, and speaking quicker, but the inner workings of some feature. Building separate presentations that cover different levels allows for organizers to choose a wider variety of speakers, as well as types of presentations.

Maybe we'll even get to the point where some of our larger cities will actually put together a SQL Saturday - SSIS, or a SQL Saturday - TSQL to focus in on one aspect of the product and get a variety of types of training.

And if you are one of the people that doesn't seem to learn a lot from hearing someone else speak, maybe you ought to be writing your own presentations and helping to grow the pool of available speakers.

Steve Jones

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