Today I had the privilege of working with a great bunch of folks to help coordinate and host Omaha’s second SQL Saturday. I had an absolute blast. These events take a tremendous amount of time to plan and coordinate, and the team for this event is top-notch. I especially would like to thank John Morehouse (b | t), co-President of the Omaha SQL Server Users Group, for taking the reigns and making this event happen!

I was also fortunate enough to be selected to co-present a session called Oracle vs. SQL Server – The Throwdown with fellow DBA Joe Grant (b | t) – a great coworker of mine from House of Brick Technologies. Joe is just getting started in social networking (hey – better late than never, right)? so welcome him to the #SQLFamily (even though he’s an Oracle guy – he’s forgiven ).

Our session abstract was:

SQL Server vs. Oracle: The Throwdown!

Come see David Klee (@kleegeek) and Joe Grant (@dba_jedi) in a “discussion” with a competitive comparison between SQL Server and Oracle in a highly interactive dynamic session. Each database engine has its place in the IT world, and we will discuss which is the right tool for the job. The goal is to be objective and compare features, strengths and weaknesses, and editions. Check your opinions at the door and come join us for an educational session!

I also finally took the plunge and puchased a kilt to wear (for those who do not know the community reference, reference 1 | 2 | 3), and sported it with gusto! Joe also joined me in our encouragement for women in technology. Look out SQL PASS Summit in October – you’ve got another kilt-bearing geek to deal with.

The slides from our presentation today can be downloaded for you to review at this link.

Next, lunch with fantastic! Parker’s Smokehouse from Ashland NE provided the great BBQ lunch that everyone enjoyed.

Parker’s Smokehouse

After lunch, one of the great consultants on my team and first time SQL Saturday speaker, Shawn Meyers (t), did a great session on how to performance baseline your new SQL Server instance.

The session abstract was:

Performance baseline your new SQL instance

Using freely available tools to baseline your new SQL server instance. Using Crystal disk mark, SQLIO, Memtest86, and Dell DVDstore tools to measure, baseline and compare results of your new hardware. Crystal disk mark and SQLIO will test IO subsystems ; memtest86 will test your memory before you put it into production. Dell DVDstore will be used to create a database enabling you to put a synthetic load simulating numerous users to your SQL server instance, enabling the creation of solid baselines when putting the server under a heavy load. Using the benchmarks to determine capacity of the hardware and will it met the expected load.

Fantastic job Shawn! Kudos for your first time speaking at a SQL Saturday as well!

I cannot thank our sponsors and attendees enough for sponsoring and attending this event. Without you all, these events would not be possible. The outstanding SQL Server community is the reason that SQL Saturdays are growing in popularity and springing up all over the place! The community involvement from presenters, sponsors, coordinators, and attendees is unparalleled in the IT world, and I am extremely proud to be a part of it!

I feel bad that I had to skip out on the last session to head to the airport (where I’m typing this from because of a flight delay *grumbles*) because I wanted to get photos of the recipients of the awesome swag that we were able to get for the end of day giveaways! Checkout this display table! And this is not including additional giveaways from our wonderful sponsors!

Awesome swag

(Photo from Phil Brammer MVP – b | t )

Thanks again, and I look forward to making this event happen next year! I’ll see you all at SQL Saturday Chicago next weekend for my session on Database Health and Performance, and watch out for more upcoming appearances at other SQL Saturdays around the country, like Fargo and Atlanta coming up soon!