There’s a First for Everything – Fargo SQL Saturday #SQLSat175

This past weekend, we had the first ever SQL Saturday in Fargo, North Dakota. It turned out to be an awesome event, in more ways than one!

I was fortunate enough to be part of the organizing committee for this SQL Saturday event with Jason Strate (@StrateSQL|blog), Jes Borland (@grrl_geek|blog), and Ted Krueger (@onpnt|blog). Although all four of us have experience planning SQL Saturdays, this one was unique in that we were planning it completely remotely. Jes and Ted are both on the East/Southeastern side of WI, Jason and I are in the Twin Cities in MN. Microsoft was generous enough to not only offer us the facilities for the event, but also took care of many of the details for us. Being that the event was at one of Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Centers, and there was going to be a certain important visitor later, they had pretty high security in place. The staff printed hard plastic name badges for everyone registered. They had them all laid out, and had lanyards for attendees to grab. They also told us they’d be printing signs for each of the rooms with the schedule for the day. I expected a printed sheet of paper, instead, they printed very large, very professional signs for us!  They also printed out Event Evaluation forms for attendees to complete. There were two staff members, Star and Kelly, available to help us. They were amazing!

When we got there, we got right to work setting everything else up. Paul (@mnDBA) and Jen Timmerman (@JenUMN) were extremely helpful volunteers, in that Jen “manned” the printing station for those who did not print their Speed PASSes. Paul helped with that as well, I cut the tickets once they printed, and made sure people got their swag bags with information from the sponsors, and their SQL Saturday lanyards, courtesy of PASS. We tweaked the process once or twice, and it went as smooth as I’ve seen registration go! That was a good way to start the day.

Once sessions start, the organizers got to sit back and just let the day flow. Over lunch, Karla Landrum (@karlakay22), Community Evangelist for PASS, Jason, and a few other Regional Mentors and Chapter Leaders met with some locals who wanted more information on getting a user group started in the Fargo area. The goal of holding this SQL Saturday, was to get a user group going in that area. It sounds like it’s really going to happen soon! As they say in the twitterverse, “#winning”!

The second session after lunch, we were asked to make sure everyone was in sessions. We were on the second level of the Briefing Center, and could see a stage set up just below us. We knew Bill Gates happened to have a Q & A session scheduled for his employees and their families that day. We didn’t realize we’d be able to see and hear him! Microsoft expected about 900 employees to come hear him talk, that’s why they wanted us to clear the area. Some of our attendees were disappointed. Shortly after Bill Gates began, they told us that our attendees were welcome to watch him talk as well. They said community is very important to him, and he would not want anyone to feel they weren’t welcome. I think the fact that it wasn’t as crowded as they had expected also helped with this decision.

A quick aside that’s very exciting for PASS: There were two smaller “Executive Briefing Rooms.” We were using one for sessions. Bill Gates was apparently in the room next to it, waiting for his turn to go on stage. He saw the signs, and asked what SQL Saturday is. The employees told him a little about it; that it’s day of free training for SQL Server professionals, etc. He asked how often they have them, and couldn’t believe they are are happening almost every weekend all over the world. He thought it was really cool. When we heard this, we got very excited! There were a few “You guys, we are on Bill Gates’ radar!!!” exclamations going around!

Bill Gates wrapped up shortly after the session got out. Most attendees got the opportunity to listen to him, at least for a few minutes. Then it was time for the last session of the day to begin. Jen and I left during the last session. We wanted to make sure we got the signs picked up, and got back to the Hampton Inn where our social hour was to be held. We wanted to make sure everything was ready when SQL Saturday attendees came. We ordered pizza, pasta, and breadsticks from Pizza Hut. Dinner was sponsored by PASSMN. We figured pizza was the easiest thing to order when we didn’t know how many people to expect. It would be easy to order more if we had more than the estimated number of people came. It ended up being a good thing, we ended up needing to order a few more pizzas!

After the social hour was all cleaned up, those of us who remained decided to head out to a local karaoke bar for some #SQLKaraoke (yes, it IS necessary to put the hashtag first). 😉 We went to Divas & Rockstars, a pretty cool little place, located in a strip mall. Some of us sang a few songs, but it was a hopping place, so not everyone got to get through all the songs they put in. What started out as mostly country when we walked in, ended up a good mix of rock, pop, and a hodge podge of other styles of music. This was a good thing, as far as we were concerned! Oh, did I mention, they had a decent sized dance floor, so some of us got a little dancing in too. It was a perfect way to end a great day. I’m pretty sure everyone who came with had a great time too!

Heading to Fargo – #SQLSat175

In just over a month, I’ll be heading up to Fargo, ND for another SQL Saturday (#SQLSat175 if you’re following twitter hashtags). It’ll be the first one I’ve been to in a while. I’m excited to see some friends in the SQL Community, and to make new ones.

I have been a part of planning this event with Microsoft MVPs Jason Strate (@StrateSQL|blog), Jes Borland (@grrl_geek|blog), and Ted Krueger (@onpnt|blog). We are looking forward to hosting a SQL Saturday in an area that does not currently have a user group. We hope that the spark created by bringing this free training event to the area, gives birth to a wildfire of excitement from the community up there. Wouldn’t it be great if a new PASS user group starts up after this?!

The concept of SQL Saturday is all about being able to offer a day of quality training for free. That’s what this event is all about – the training. The speaker schedule will be posted soon. We have great speakers coming from different parts of the country to share a lot of great information!

We are so grateful to our sponsors. We literally couldn’t hold this event without them! The Microsoft campus in Fargo has generously donated the space for us to hold this event. Other sponsors include Confio, PASS, PASSMN, Steve Stedman (blog sponsor) and Aaron Stanley King (blog sponsor). There are many different levels of sponsorship. If you or your company would like to sponsor this day of training, please visit our site to determine which level you are interested in.

Registration is still open. While the event itself is free, there is a $10 fee for lunch. We’d love to see many SQL Server professionals attend this event, whether you are local, or traveling in.

The Hampton Inn in Fargo has graciously offered a discounted Microsoft rate for those coming in from out of town. To book your room, just follow this link to the SQL Saturday personalized booking page. This hotel is just miles from the Microsoft campus, and will also host a Mixer on Saturday evening for attendees and speakers. PASSMN has agreed to sponsor hors d’oeuvres for the evening. Details for the mixer will follow as they are finalized.

I hope to see you on April 27th in Fargo!

Let’s get registered!!

Women in Technology Panel – Kalamazoo

During lunch at the SQL Saturday in Kalamazoo, a group of women got together to talk about what it’s like to be a woman in the technology field. The moderator was Shelly Noll (@shellynoll).  The panelists were: Hope Foley (@Hope_Foley) – consultant and manager; Tammy Clark (@tameraclark) – Database engineer and self proclaimed XML extraordinaire (SSRS, DBA experience); Wendy Pastrick (@wendy_dance) – DBA; and Colleen Morrow (@ClevelandDBA) – DBA at a law firm. Josh Fennessy (@joshuafennesy) “accidentally” crashed the party for a few minutes – he said he’s been part of  WIT for about 3 years.

The panel had no particular agenda. They asked for questions from the audience.

The first question from the audience was: “How does the pay scale compare?”

One panelist responded that she had been cleaning her office. When she moved her desk, she found review/pay stub of a former employee who was male. The other person did not have as much work to do as this panelist did, and yet, he still made $40K more than her. He had a degree in Computer Science, she has a degree in something else. The was the only factor that he had to his advantage. The audience asked: “How do you handle that?” The panel member said she discussed it with management.

Panel member 2 (PM2) then answered: She previously worked for an insurance company. She had a male co-worker with the same career path, etc. PM2 had one year more experience, but the man still made $2K more than her. She brought it up to her manager. She believes the “glass ceiling” does exist for women.

Panel Member 3 (PM3) chimed in that she previously worked for a school where salary is public. There was not much room for negotiating, because it was all out there. When pay is based on position, then you don’t have the issues of man’s pay vs female pay.

Panel Member 4 (PM4): Works with 2 other DBAs, one has more experience, one has less. She doesn’t know what they make, and she doesn’t want to know. She says as long as she’s happy with her pay, that’s all that matters.

An audience member then asked the panel: “What other issues do women face?”

PM2 responded saying that some people assume she doesn’t know anything. She “dares” them to say she doesn’t know something, and she will prove them wrong.

Question: What about training? Have you noticed differences in opportunities there?

PM3: In this economy, the training budgets may or may not be there. The issue isn’t usually men vs women, it is often the travel budget. People don’t want to pay for training. At her company, she was the only woman ever to have been sent to the PASS Summit. She had previously shown she is able to train others. She was sent with the expectation that she would go, and come back to share what she had learned. She suggested finding free training opportunities (such as SQL Saturdays). She also recommended finding things that are close. This will eliminate the need for a travel budget.

PM1 said “Show how it benefits others too. Don’t be afraid to branch out and explore groups that are a bit further. You might need to drive a bit.” She called it an easy-sell to employers “This event is free, I just need a few hours off early to drive there.

The audience members chimed in on this question too. They had advice such as, “Take control of your own career.” The audience also said that sometimes, “For free training, you don’t get the day off.” Sometimes, you may need to take a personal day. Audience members also said, “If your company doesn’t provide training, or work with you for training days, leave. Today’s market for DBAs is hot. You can find a job somewhere else, and negotiate for what you want.”

PM3 acknowledged that it’s scary to negotiate. Women in general have a hard time asking for things.

Audience members said, “Don’t be passive aggressive. When it comes to training, there’s a myth that if it’s free, what’s the value? The PASS website has a great ROI page.” As a group, we also talked about the importance of pointing out if a solution you found is related to something you learned at a training. When your employer is happy with the resolution you found, say, “Thank you, I was able to solve this because of what I learned at that training you sent me to.”

PM1 said,”Take the initiative and go to trainings on your own time. Show that you are serious about growing in your knowledge and your career.”

PM4 registered herself with the early-bird discounts. Her boss came back later, and offered to pay for it.

Question: How does your level of Community involvement reflect on your job?

PM4 said she tends to do most of her Community activities on her own dime, not paid for by her company. Her employer is very supportive of what she does.

PM1 says it’s kind of a double-edge sword. She was a top candidate for her job because of her community involvement. On the other hand, she has also run into her employer asking “You’re taking another half day?”

The audience talked a bit about how social media has been so helpful in connecting and growing the SQL Community.

PM3 said that people are asking her about the community. She’s been trying to let people know about all they have to offer, but still has people asking her, “Have you heard about this PASS, they have free training.”

PM2 said her involvement doubles as marketing for her company, so they are very supportive.

The audience members pointed out that networking is just as helpful as training. The networking can be very helpful when you need help with things outside of events.

The next question pertained to young girls – “When I was in Junior High, science and math weren’t cool, so I quit liking it. How do I keep young girls interested?”

Three of the panel members had almost the exact same response, “Bring them to things like this. Let them see there are normal women who make good money, and it’s because of things like math and science.”

An audience member talked about The Ada Project (TAP) to get girls interested and keep them interested

PM1 mentioned that the Girl Scouts have been very involved in STEM. She also said we need to keep talking about STEM related topics to keep girls aware. Less women are going into Computer Science today, than in the 60’s. She said the NCSD – just published data (I was not able to find said study to link to).

One audience member said that in the 60’s, math and science were pushed in schools. There was the Space Race, etc. Things are going away… where are women being pushed then?

Shelly (Mod) said that she has seen women being encouraged into health care if they are interested in math and science.

Question: “Is segregating girls out with other girls, discouraging them? Are they ostracized by boys?” (such as all-girls schools, or all-girls classes)

An audience member mentioned that it might be impeding on their social interaction. When girls spend all their time learning to socialize with girls, they may not know how to negotiate with boys.

PM4 asked, “Aren’t girls leaving because of how they are treated by men?”

Mod said “Girls only know how to be girls. They don’t know how to work with boys if they don’t have those experiences.”

PM1 said that the more experiences girls have with both genders, the better they get at dealing with diversity.

PM3 brought up another issue that she has run into, the issues of parents vs non-parents. Her experiences have covered both men and women. When people who are parents leave early, they often get the “Go, be with your kids” treatment. People who don’t have kids, but have put in their hours, get a “where are YOU going?” The point here is that there are inequalities in many areas, not just men vs women.

It was at this point, we ran out of time.  There was a a lot of great audience involvement and conversation throughout this entire WIT Panel. I enjoyed sitting in on it, and hearing audience members such as Dustin Mueller (@sqlcheesecake), and Eddie Wuerch (@EddieW) chime in with their experiences as well.

SQL Saturday #160 – Kalamazoo

I hadn’t seen this at night before, and thought it looked cool – even if it DID mean we were heading through later than we expected.

OK… better late than never!  A couple weeks ago, we road-tripped to Kalamazoo, MI for a SQL Saturday. We ended up only leaving about an hour later than we planned, but with LOTS of construction through most of WI, and hitting Friday afternoon rush hour in Chicago, we ended up getting into town MUCH later than we expected! We were bummed, because we had been looking forward to hanging out with a couple friends of ours that live an hour north of K’zoo. Their baby was about to turn 1, and we hadn’t gotten to meet her yet. Since it would have been after 10 pm when we got to their house, we decided to wait until the next day to see them. We stopped at the speaker dinner at Tim Ford‘s house for a brief time, then headed to the hotel to get a decent night’s sleep.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early. We had breakfast at the hotel, then headed over to Kalamazoo Valley Community College to set up the Community Zone (PASS table) at SQL Saturday. I spent most of the day helping Jason Strate (@StrateSQL|blog) at the Community Zone (CZ).

Aside:  Sometimes people ask me what I do when I’m at the CZ. I’m not a SQL person, so what could I possibly have to offer? Well, I have been to a lot of SQL Saturdays (11 at last count), I have been officially on the planning committee of one in MN, and unofficially helped behind the scenes at another in MN. I am also working with a great team to help plan the first SQL Saturday in Fargo, ND next year. I attended last year’s PASS Summit, where I volunteered as an ambassador and helped at one of the booths in the vendor hall (I can’t believe I never blogged about this). I am on the First Timers Committee for this year’s PASS Summit, and I’m helping with a few other things there too. I have also had the privilege of working at the CZ with PASS Community Evengelist, Karla Landrum (@karlakay22|blog) in Atlanta, and Jason in Colorado Springs. I apparently have gotten so comfortable talking to people about local user groups and PASS sponsored events, that more than one person at the MN SQL Saturday asked me if I worked for PASS. HAHAHA! My answer has become, “Yes, yes I do (just not for pay).” I tell them my side job is as a professional PASS volunteer.

One of the awesome things about hanging out at the Community Zone all day was being visited by so many awesome people! Some of our friends hung out the majority of the day with us. I may or may not have been involved in a prank that was played on Jason. It involved some snarky remarks on his Speaker Eval sheets…

One of the times I was not at the table, was when I went into the Women in Technology panel discussion. I will write a separate post about that so it doesn’t get too long.

The day overall was great. I can’t say there was any one favorite thing about the day. Everything seemed to run smooth, despite a few hiccups the week before that almost gave organizer Josh Fennessy (@joshuafennesy) a heart attack. It was great to see so many of our friends; even the SQLUnicorn made an appearance! The unicorn tried to eat the left over lettuce from the taco bar, but other than that, he was fairly tame…

The after party was at the Kalamazoo Beer Exchange. We had our friends Greg and Tasha meet us there for dinner. Unfortunately, with a one year old, we didn’t get to spend as much time as we’d have liked with them, but it was great to see them while it lasted! After dinner, we went to Kinko’s to pick up the game Cards Against Humanity that we had printed. We brought it back over to Tim’s house for a crazy good time! If you don’t know what that game is, it’s a very inappropriate card game that resembles Apples to Apples. We laughed so hard, I’m surprised I didn’t pee my pants! My abs did hurt from all the laughing for about 2 days though.

Once again, another SQL Saturday in the books. Once again, we had a great time!

Tammy’s round up

SQL Saturday #149 – Minnesota

It’s a little hard to believe that it was already a week ago that I was at SQL Saturday #149 in Minnesota. It’s nice not to have to travel for these once in a while! This was a busy one for me, as I was part of the Planning Committee. I’d like to take credit for how awesome the day was, but I really can’t. While I did spend quite a bit of time talking through the various aspects of the day with Paul Timmerman (@mnDBA) and his wife Jenny Timmerman (@JenUMN), they really did a majority of the work. There were many others on the committee that also worked hard.

Lots of ideas from Atlanta were used, because they were good ideas! The planning committee had bright orange polo shirts. Volunteers had these really cool dark orange/heathered shirts. They were great for fall! They also stood out, so that anyone who needed help could find orange polos or t-shirts and ask away! This was especially helpful, since sessions were held in two different buildings on the University of Minnesota campus. There was GREAT signage everywhere (and smart, since they are reusable) to point people in the right direction. Between Jenny and I, each of us stayed near a different building for the first part of the day. We also occasionally walked people back and forth between the two buildings. Let’s just say, it became apparent by the end of the day (and the next), that I hadn’t done much walking since The 3 Day. Despite having the event in two separate buildings that were a courtyard away, things went very well! It was a gorgeous day out, so people didn’t seem to mind the walk so much. The only complaint I heard, and I only heard one, was how hot is was in the 2nd building, because the University was having some air conditioning issues. Other than that, I think everything went incredibly well!

My main duties in preparation for the day were two-fold. One, I was the eyes and ears at all the other SQL Saturdays I went to this year, and was to report back to Paul what went well, and what I would change. I was also helping with the volunteer responsibilities, and the evaluation forms. After talking to speakers at other SQL Saturdays, we decided that if we had room proctors, great, if not, oh well. Many speakers told me they didn’t mind collecting their own evaluation forms, and appreciated being able to take them that day. We basically used the ones that are on the SQL Saturday Admin page. I tweeked it somewhat to make editing more effective, and updated the logo. Rather than recording all the scores for the speakers, we had an event evaluation form that we asked people to fill out. It seemed many people did. Again, we used one from the SQL Sat Admin page. This form asked attendees who their favorite speakers were, and who needed a little more practice. It also allowed them to comment on the event as a whole. The information on these was what the Board wanted to know anyway…

As far as the event itself goes, we had lots of great speakers from both local areas, and from around the country. I couldn’t possibly name them all, and rather than missing someone awesome, I’ll refrain from naming any here. People were raving about all the great things they were learning, and couldn’t wait to see many of the speakers again at the PASS Summit! By mid-morning, people seemed to know where to go, so I got to sit in on my husband, Jason Strate (@StrateSQL)’s session on indexing. I have seen many of his presentations before, but not this one. It was really good! If I was a DBA, I think I would have gotten a lot out of it. 😉 He threw in several little tidbits as side notes, “by the way, did you know…”  I think he gets better every time I watch him.

The end of the day came with a buzz around the raffle. I don’t know how many people were in the room for raffle, but there were a lot (oh, and one unicorn). Monkeys were flying around the room. It was fun. Unfortunately, I once again, did not win any of the kindle fires or tablets that were being raffled off. I also did not win any of the huge gift cards. I’m going to keep trying. One of these days, I’m bound to win SOMETHING, right?

Being that Jason is a bit famous in the Community for his love of #sqlkaraoke, he planned the after party at Elsie’s in Minneapolis. Their website says they were voted best karaoke in 2000. We could see why they haven’t been voted that since. Their food was good, but the karaoke was terrible! For most of the night, we couldn’t hear the singers, because the music was turned up so loud. The KJ that night was also less than impressive. Despite all that, we had a great turn out, and a lot of fun!

One more highlight: Jes Borland (@grrl_geek) got to sleep over. We ended up being so busy (picking up Jason at the airport) that we couldn’t really do the slumber party thing. 😦

Here are a couple of other posts about the day. If you wrote one, and I missed it, please feel free to link to it in the comments. 😀

Joe Sack’s recap

Hope Foley’s recap

Jason Strate’s quick recap and materials

SQL Saturday 119 – Chicago 2012

The weekend started with a road trip. A road trip with me, my husband, and 4 other SQL guys from Digineer. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how a 7 hour trip would go with a bunch of “geeks.” The answer? It wasn’t bad! I did feel bad for them though, as they didn’t have much leg room in our Traverse. It’s great with 5 kids in the back, not so much with 4 adults. They were troopers though!

Once we got to the hotel and got checked in, we decided to head over to Famous Dave’s for a little appetizer before the speaker dinner. After joining with friends there, we came back to the hotel to wait until it was time to go to dinner. By some chance, Jason Strate (@StrateSQL), his co-workers, including @markvsql, and another friend, Bill Fellows (@billinkc), all started playing hackey sack. It was pretty comical watching this group of guys, mostly in their 30’s, working the sack. They actually had some decent skills, too!

We went to Dave and Buster’s for the Speaker Dinner. We had a section near the bar, with pool tables, shuffle board, and a tasty buffet. I was kind of wishing I hadn’t filled up on those appetizers. The dinner was lots of fun.  Many of our SQL friends were there, and we met some new people. We chatted the evening away.

After that, we headed back to the hotel for an impromptu pool party. Jason’s quickly-becoming-famous unicorn mask took a jump into the pool, and there was fun with beach balls. So far, the weekend was all about play. That didn’t change too much!  😉

Saturday

We got to the SQL Saturday event early, since I was volunteering at the PASS table. The organizers had Speed Pass set up, so check-in was very smooth. They had one table set up with a computer and printer for those that didn’t have their things printed out. Everyone else just had to hand in their admissions ticket, in exchange for their sponsor info and swag, a backpack that will be perfect for me to wear on The 3 Day walk.

The event was held at DeVry. Because it was held in the college, there was a large population of college students attending the event. I had many people stopping by the PASS table asking what the next (or first) step for them should be. I talked to a lot of people about joining local user groups, getting on twitter, etc. I also talked a lot about the PASS Summit (of course).

Something VERY cool the organizers of this event did, was to hold a hands-on lab for the students of the college as a “thank you” for letting them use the space. One of the organizers, Aaron Lowe (@vendoran), blogged about it here.

In the center of the area where everything took place, there was a huge break room/cafeteria space. This is where many people hung out as the day went on. It was where breakfast and lunch were served, as well as snacks and vending machines. The lunch line was very long, and wrapped all the way back through the sponsor room. It was great to have that small chance to talk with people who may have otherwise skipped coming through. Luckily for them, the lunch line moved pretty quickly, as people couldn’t wait to get their Portillo’s and start eating!

The day went amazingly fast! This was probably due to the fact that I had people at the PASS table talking to me most of the day. Overall, things seemed to go very well. People seemed to be very happy with the sessions they gave, and the sessions they attended. I was able to sneak away for a few minutes to get some pictures of speakers giving their presentations to full rooms of people.

After the SQL Saturday event, many of us went back to the hotel for some catered Famous Dave’s and #sqlkaraoke. While things got a little crazy, as they usually do for karaoke, it was a lot of fun!

I can’t say what was or wasn’t my favorite part of the weekend – probably catching up with friends we haven’t seen in a while (some since October). It was another successful SQL Saturday in the books!

SQL Saturday #111 – Atlanta

It’s been over a week since Jason Strate (@StrateSQL) and I got back from the Atlanta SQL Saturday. Once again, Jason was speaking, and I was volunteering at the PASS table. This time, I got to watch the fabulous Karla Landrum, Community Evangelist for PASS (@karlakay22) do her thing! It was great volunteering side by side with Karla, picking her brain about SQL Saturdays, etc. Here is a brief recap of our Atlanta adventure:

We arrived at the Atlanta airport around noon on Friday. After sitting through some not-so-fun traffic, we finally made it to the hotel, where we met up with our friend, Denny (@mrdenny). The three of us were planning on meeting Kerry (@airbornegeek) and Tamera (@tameraclark) at the World of Coca-Cola. Jason’s grandpa had worked for Coca-Cola for many years, so it was a big deal to him to go. After a minor transportation mix-up, and some navigation errors, we finally made it there. We were slightly rushed for time, but ended up making it in time to explore most of what we wanted to see. We also tasted several different types of soda from all over the world. We tried “The Beverly”, a beverage we heard was nasty. At first sip, it wasn’t so bad. Then, all the sudden, there’s a horrible after-taste! My tongue went numb. BLECH! My favorite quote of the day, was when Denny said, “Where else can you go drink Coke with your friends all day, and have as much fun as if you were at the bar?”

After our tour, we hopped back on the MARTA (public transportation), and headed back for the Speaker dinner. The location was very nice, though it would have been nice to have a slightly larger gathering area. There were WAY more people than I had ever seen at a speaker dinner. AWESOME! We moved to a table towards the back, just to alleviate some crowding, and ended up kind of stuck in one spot. Sit down dinners don’t allow for much mingling. My only criticism of the speaker dinner, was that the appetizers came way after we expected dinner to start. Then, there was a long wait for salads, a long wait for dinner, and a long wait for dessert. People were ready to leave before dessert was served. I was told later that this was by design, but since we didn’t know, we weren’t prepared to go that long before we ate. I also felt a bit under-dressed (having just come from touring the World of Coca Cola, and not knowing what kind of place the dinner was at). The food was good. We got to choose from chicken, salmon, prime rib, or penne pasta. I heard the salmon was meh. The prime rib was good. I heard the chicken was a tad too salty, though cooked just right. It was a nice evening, hanging out with a lot of friends.

The SQL Saturday
As we drove to the event, they had signs all the the way out at the main road that guided us in like lights on a tarmac. I loved the signs!! They also had a huge sign in the back of someone’s truck that unfortunately kept blowing over in the wind. One of the smart things about the signs? No numbers or dates – they just had the SQL Saturday logo with an arrow, so they can be used year after year.

Registration was outside, that was something new. The name tags were in plastic holders, with the raffle tickets in them, set up in foam boards in rows (pink insulation). They were all ready to go! I’m not sure I described it well, but it seemed like a very efficient way to do this. Later, (about an hour after lunch), the registration volunteers went through all the name tags that were left, and entered them into the spreadsheet (downloaded from the SQL Sat Admin site) as no-shows.

During registration, there was one person designated to handling “waiting list” people. That line tended to back up. They maybe should have had 2 people there? In talking with Karla about it, while registration went fairly smooth, she still recommends all SQL Saturdays use the Speed Pass system! This is where people print their own nametags and raffle tickets. I’m curious to see how this works in Chicago in a couple weeks.

I loved the way they did their shirts. There were shirts galore! The organizers wore blue polos, the speakers got green polos, the volunteers had bright green t-shirts with their logo on the front, and the word “VOLUNTEER” across the back. There was no shortage of people available to answer questions, track down things like power chords, etc. They also had t-shirts that arrived mid-morning for attendees. After talking with the organizers, it was an accident that the shirts arrived part-way into the day. They had them all stacked on a table around lunch time, and just let whoever wanted them take one. Jason, Karla, and I came up with a good idea for future SQL Saturdays; “The first 100 people who come and have their speed pass in hand, get a t-shirt” I thought that was a good idea, since some people might not want a shirt, or have too many from other events they’ve attended. We’ve also heard that some speakers may not want shirts, because they have a closet full from all the events they’ve spoken at. We thought it might be a good idea to ask the speakers if they want a shirt. We’ve heard that some throw them away or donate them. Why waste the money if they don’t want one?

When I first looked at the schedule for the Atlanta event, I was surprised to see so many MVPs and/or well-known speakers in the same time slots – how were people supposed to choose who they wanted to see. I was talking to Karla and Aaron Nelson (@SQLVariant), one of the organizers, about why they did the schedule that way. They both pointed out that putting MVPs against newbies makes it harder for inexperienced speakers to get as many people in their rooms. Karla suggests putting all newbies in the same slot, all advanced in the same slot, etc. That makes a lot of sense! Aaron also said they wanted to anchor the first slots and last slots with MVPs, have a heavy MVP slot just after lunch (with a longer time slot), then have a couple of slots with other speakers, including some newer speakers.

There was some debate about the best way to handle speaker feedback. One thing I heard from many of the speakers in MN, was that they wanted to get their feedback right away. One idea is to have the room proctors fill out room counts, take a quick overview of the feedback from their rooms on their own forms, and give the speakers the feedback (without names – found on SQLSAT website). An idea that came out of the conversation, was to have a line on the event evals (separate from the speaker evals) with “best speaker of the day” and “needs more practice.” This way, the event organizers can get the feedback they are looking for in making decisions for who to bring back next year, and the speakers can get their feedback right away. Sounds like a win/win to me!

The after party was held at a restaurant/bar just down the street from where the SQL Saturday was held. It was well advertised, and had a great turn out. Like the Speaker Dinner, it was probably one of the best attended after parties I have been to (rivaled only by Kalamazoo). I wonder if it was because it was a “sponsored event.” Thank you Redgate! Appetizers were served, though they ran out of food at least once. Luckily, they were able to get more. As someone who has been on the planning side of the after party, it is hard to know how many people will attend, so planning is tricky. We had an entire patio area devoted to the after party; which made it easy to move around and mingle. It was a lot of fun (as was the after-after party unofficially held back at the hotel).

There were many things I really liked about how the Atlanta event was run. From an attendee standpoint, things ran quite smoothly. Everyone seemed to work together quite well. It was a lot of fun – before, during, and after!

SQL Saturday #104 – Colorado Springs

Two weeks ago, I tagged along with Jason (@StrateSQL) to yet another SQL Saturday event. This time in Colorado Springs, CO. I hadn’t been to Colorado since I was 5, but I’ve always thought it was a beautiful state. It’s on my short list of other states I would ever consider moving to. The mountains are gorgeous, and we were lucky enough to have a fantastic view from our hotel room window.

We flew in to Colorado Springs on Friday evening. After checking in to our hotel, we stopped to say hello to a whole posse of people we knew hanging out in the hotel lobby. We then walked next store with our friends Christina Leo (@christinaleo) and Doug Lane (@thedouglane) to a restaurant called Black Eyed Pea. We walked in about a half hour before closing time (not realizing they closed so early). The service was tremendous, the giant baked potato was darn good, rolls were awesome, and $3.99 for a giant margarita? Yes please! After dinner, we went back to the hotel, hung out with some more SQL Peeps, and went to bed.

Saturday morning, we got up early, and headed to Mr. Biggs, the location for SQL Saturday. It was a very cool location for this event. I would have loved to spend time there playing laser tag, go bowling, playing pool, checking out the arcade, and driving go carts. Immediately after walking in, I noticed the awesome Speaker Gear – a red vest that said “SQL Patrol” (made to look like SKI PATROL). The team that put this event together, Chris Shaw (@SQLShaw|blog), his wife Gia (@MsSQLShaw) and a whole crew of people, did a great job! They were very creative. They brought the ski theme into every element of the day – from the banner at the door, to the speaker swag, to the map of the venue (done up like a ski mountain map).

I was volunteering as a representative of PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) with Jason Strate (Blog|@StrateSQL) and TJay Belt (@tjaybelt). We did our best to answer questions about PASS (I’m still amazed how many SQL people don’t know what it is). We used my laptop to show people the website. We also talked with people about training, networking, the PASS Summit, and twitter as a tool. While several vendors held contests during the “breaks”, our table had people asking questions, and/or hanging out. It was a lot of fun – of course, I got to meet a ton of new people which was right up my alley!

The large area where the vendor tables were set up, was also the room where meals were served, and some speakers presented. I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to 5 speakers while sitting at the PASS table. While I didn’t understand everything they were talking about, I did “get” bits and pieces. I guess that is a perk of reading Jason’s blog and parts of the book on indexing that he is writing. While it was a great idea to have the vendors in this main room, I wondered if it was distracting to the speakers to have people having conversations to the back and sides of the room.

The day of speakers started with Tim Ford (@sqlagentman) presenting on his Periodic Table of Dynamic Management Objects. Being one who loves science, especially chemistry, I thought it was WAY cool the way he broke things all down. I even understood a bit of what he was talking about. Tim’s way of presenting his info was laid back and easy to understand. He even poked fun at himself a bit when he showed the whole periodic table and said “We make fun of people who’s slides look like this. There’s no way you can read it all.” He also “pimped out” Adam Machanic’s (@AdamMachanic) sp_whoisactive, saying “The best code you can use, is code someone else wrote and actively maintains. As long as you can trust it. It makes your life so much easier!” By the end of his time on stage, Tim was living his “talk show host dreams.” He jumped off the stage, and ran out into the audience to let them ask questions. Finally, Grant Fritchey (@GFritchey) was standing at the side of the stage waiting his turn to present. Tim turned the microphone over to him by saying, “Have you seen Grant? He’s big.”

Grant took the stage next. He was talking about parameter sniffing. I tweeted about it, asking “What’s that smell? It’s the parameter” (or something like that). It was re-tweeted several times. Who knew? Anyway, Grant’s style of presenting was fun. He was very casual. He could be quoted as saying “Cool” several times in his presentation (as seen in the photo). His talk was “all about the statistics.” He worked hard to get a tired audience to participate, at times asking questions such as “Are we in London?” When he got some chuckles, he said “Good, we’re awake.” While he was very dynamic in his presentation style, I didn’t understand what he was talking about (there was a lot of code in his presentation). I don’t blame him for that – I’m a preschool teacher sitting in technical training.

One thing I thought was really cool, were the built-in break times. Vendors sponsored activities such as pool and bowling tournaments, and laser tag, all for cool prizes. During this time, the vendor tables were hopping! The only thing missing during these times (especially in the afternoon) were snacks. Cookies would have been perfect about 2 hours after lunch.

The 3rd presenter in the room of vendors (and lots of other people) was Jim Murphy (@SQLMurph). I seem to not have a picture of Jim. I thought I took one, but I must have been too wrapped up in what he was saying? He was presenting about AlwaysON, a new feature of SQL Server 2012. His take on AlwaysOn? “AlwaysOn will solve: world hunger, peace on earth and goodwill toward men.” Some highlights I had written include: “Mirroring – now with clustering” and that “mirroring now includes synchronous and asynchronous; automatic failover.” Jim also said “The configuration wizard is so simple, even Quacky (Idera duck) can do it.” He had what seemed to me to be a fairly high level (read: lots of code) presentation. That said, Jason (who was also presenting on AlwaysOn later in the evening) had explained some of the features to me, so I understood what Jim was talking about (mostly) when he showed how mirroring can be used to run tests without the end users noticing outages on their servers.

After Jim wrapped up, we had lunch. Baked potato bar. Unique and tasty! One thing that didn’t happen during lunch, was the WIT panel. I was disappointed, as I was REALLY looking forward to hearing Tom LaRock (@SQLRockstar), Karen Lopez (@datachick), and Meredith Ryan-Smith (@coffegrl) speak. It ended up being more of a round table discussion with only 3-4 other people. Without it being a presentation, I was unable to join their small table of people.

Next up, was my husband, Jason Strate. He was teaching us how to be like Sherlock Holmes, and Investigate the Plan Cache. He taught us that the information in the plan cache can be really useful for pulling out specific pieces of information that you may need for performance tuning. He also cautioned that information that hasn’t been used in a while may be dumped out. Also, he pointed out that queries that haven’t finished running won’t show up in the plan cache yet. In other words, keep an eye on your plan cache. Get to know it, and check back often.

The next session I sat in on was Tom LaRock and Jason Strate together. They were using a unique new style of presenting, and I was curious. They basically broke a database, and had a room full of DBAs figure out as a group how to fix it. They had a goal to speed up the time it took for a report to run. Tom’s job was to do guide the adventure, Jason’s job was to “drive” – he clicked on items, and followed the path the group was taking. Sort of like turning the pages in a Choose Your Own Adventure Book.

As in many cases where a room full of people are problem solving, a couple of people tried to dominate the conversation. Tom did a great job of redirecting, and including everyone in the discussion. He used humor to let people know that what they were suggesting might not be the best way. Some examples, “We are costing the company 5 million dollars every minute we don’t figure out what the problem is. You could do it that way, but is it going to tell you exactly what the problem is? If not, don’t waste your time (and the company’s money).” “He does it that way because he bills by the hour. The rest of us need to solve this now.” Tom suggested that when touching base with users, point out things such as: “I see this stored procedure running, and it’s taking about 20 seconds. Is this normal?” It’s important to ask that question, because it may seem slow to them, but may actually be normal. Or, it may show them that you’ve slightly fixed the issue, and you are still working on it. His advice was also, “If you ever need to buy some time, blame the network. The Network guys blame Management for not buying the better equipment. The management will tell the people “You need to live with that performance for now.” It’s not an end-all solution, but it will buy you time to dig deeper into the issues at hand.

The final presentation of the day was from Karen Lopez. She was presenting on Contentious Database Design. She asked “Why contentious? Because people are contentious.” Her presentation was very interactive. She asked her listeners to vote (on a scale of snarkiness) on various topics. She then talked about the results of the voting, and why what the general population was doing was a good idea, or if there were better ways to do things or think about.

After raffles and wrap up of the event, we were all invited to have dinner at the hotel. There were 2 presentations during dinner. As I mentioned earlier, Jason was speaking on AlwaysOn (sponsored by SSWUG). While Jim had a much more technical presentation earlier in the day, Jason’s was much more of an overview. Jason compared availability groups to tacos, and had some interesting graphics to talk about different options/users/needs.

A dinner-time presentation was also made by Chris Randall (@cfrandall) (sponsored by SolidQ). He talked about some of the new T-SQL features in SQL Server 2012. He was very excited about what he was presenting on, and made it fun to listen to. People seemed very excited about more windows commands being able to do more things, and how simplified some things are going to become. I told Jason that if Chris had been my DBA teacher way back when, I probably would have liked it a lot more. Who knows how it could have affected my chosen career path!

The next morning, we hopped on a plane VERY early! The SQLSaturday event was a lot of fun, for reasons different than other ones I attended. I loved all the networking I got to do, and didn’t miss the fact that we didn’t party as much as we have in the past. One highlight for me, was when @SQLGlenn introduced himself to me. He told me he had read my blog post about my accident, and how he was both touched and inspired by it. Another was when Gia emailed me a couple of days later. I’m not going to go into the details of the email, but it was a huge warm fuzzy to me from one SQL Wife to another. What a great way to end a great event.

My First SQL Saturday – on the Other Side.

Last weekend was my first SQL Saturday (on a Friday). My husband, Jason Strate (@StrateSQL|blog) , was one of the many coordinators for this event. I offered to help. He put me in charge of the after party, and later, asked me to help get the shirt orders taken care of. I also helped him stuff 350 swag bags (we had 4 younger helpers too).

Being behind the scenes of a SQL Saturday gave me a new perspective of all the hard work that goes into these great events. What makes it so great? Duh – FREE training!! You might get a free shirt, and cool swag from different vendors. One of the vendors even gave out screaming monkeys.

Dealing with budgets, payments, etc can be quite stressful. I was glad I didn’t have to deal with all that. I only had to ask the question “How much do we have to spend?” We ended up finding a GREAT place for shirts. Underground Printing in Dinkytown, Minneapolis, MN, were wonderful to work with. We got very nice green polos for the speakers, and good quality grey t-shirts for all the attendees. People were excited to receive a t-shirt.

The day of the event came, and it was crazy! I had been up until 2:00 am (maybe later) cutting apart lunch tickets and name tags. 5:30 in the morning came WAY too early! I didn’t realize when I committed to helping with the event, that it was a non-school day for my kids. They had to come with. We brought plenty of things for them to do. My 10 year old ended up being a great help with the passing out of t-shirts. I was very thankful for our good friend, Ted Krueger (@onpnt) who helped distract the kids while I was helping out with registration.

We got to Grace Church (where the event was to take place) and got the registration table set up. People were already waiting when we were ready, and we started the check-in process. It was nuts! Over 300 people, all showing up at the same time, waiting to get checked in. I’m not sure how other SQL Saturday events have done it in the past – I’d love to hear. We had 4 people at the table, with names divided up by letter of the alphabet. There were also about 4 (or more) of us grabbing t-shirts, helping people who showed up from the waiting list, and generally helping manage the madness. At one point, I was walking up and down the lines, passing out L and XL shirts to help speed things up some. With so many people working together, I think we did the best we could do. There were some people missing from the lists, some raffle tickets that got mixed up, and weren’t found until later… needless to say, despite the details, things went pretty well.

People had great things to say about the many wonderful speakers, the venue, the swag, etc. With close to 350 people that showed up, I think the event was a success! There’s no way it would have been nearly so successful without all the volunteers that helped put the event on, run the tables, etc. Thank you to EVERYONE from MNPASS who put the event on.

As for the after party, we really wanted to go somewhere where there was karaoke. After all, what’s a PASS event without #sqlkaraoke? Unfortunately, I was unable to find a nearby location that had karaoke. None of the sites I could find on the web had enough information to warrant booking an after party there. Instead, about 20 of us ended up going to Green Mill for appetizers and pizza. I called earlier in the week, and they were able to reserve an area in the back of the restaurant for all of us. The food was delicious! My favorite? The MVP pizza. Of course, I had to post a picture of a slice on facebook saying “Enjoying an MVP with my MVP.”

3 Questions for the WIT

At SQLSat 84, in Kalamazoo, MI, I attended the Women in Technology Luncheon. I am NOT a Woman in Technology per se, but I do USE technology, and I am all for other people using it. I also try to teach kids about computers. It’s becoming more relevant at younger ages. More and more, I hear about schools going to textbook-free classrooms. My own daughter (in 5th grade) says at her school, each child has their own laptop to use there. Many homework assignments for the kids end up being on the computer, or related to something on the computer. Anyway, I digress… I attend the luncheons when I can to support my friends, and because I think it’s important.

The WIT Luncheon today was moderated by Shelly Noll (@shellynoll). Other panel members were: Kendra Little (@kendra_little|blog), Wendy Pastrick (@wendy_dance|blog), Yanni Robel (@Yannirobel|blog), and Erin Stellato (@erinstellato|blog).

Shelly started out with some statistics from 2010 on women in different job positions. DBAs, Computer Programmers, Software Engineers, Systems Analysts were all dominated by men by over 50%. She then asked panel members 3 questions: Question 1: How have you been able to leverage your differences to compliment a team? Question 2: Are there any communication techniques you’ve developed as a result of working in a diverse environment? Question 3: How would having more woman in IT benefit the workplace as a whole? Throughout the entire panel discussion, Shelly brought the panelists’ comments back to how what they were saying benefits both genders, and everyone in a group. I thought she did a great job!!

There was some great discussion on these and other questions. It went a little something like this:

Question 1: How have you been able to leverage your differences to compliment a team?
KL: Likes to suggest different ways to look at things, just to explore other options and to think outside the box. She acknowledges they may go back to the way they were previously talking about it, but it’s worth looking at things from different angles.
WP: Differences are in managing people and their expectations. “Let’s find the common goal.” Helps them find ways to communicate together. She says maybe because she’s a woman, also her personal style. Internal customer service/mediator. Wendy told a story about phone with buttons on the outside. It was being created by a group of men. A woman came in and said she wouldn’t use it because she’d throw it in her purse, and it would get wrecked.A good reminder that sometimes, you need feedback from everyone, other points of view may exist.
YR: Collaborates a lot. Part of personality. Sits back and listens, gathers information, and then finds a way to meet most needs, also sneaks in other helpful pieces to what’s being done
ES: Likes to be in control. Also sits back, listens, and figures out where she can fit in. She sometimes takes control, sometimes finds another way to fill a need.

Question 2: Are there any communication techniques you’ve developed as a result of working in a diverse environment?
KL: Talked about a director she once had who stood back in a meeting, yet still participated. He didn’t sit at table. She says it broadened the focus of the group to everyone, not just those “at the table.” she said he was engaging and dynamic, which spread to the whole team.
WP: Stressed follow up, and wrapping up after a meeting, etc to make sure everyone’s on board. Too easily things can follow through the cracks if there is no record of discussion. Recap, record, follow up
YR: Is in charge of a DBA team. She makes sure to include all managers in one on one discussions. She approaches everyone, and often needs much patience and repetition. She said her monthly one-on-ones with managers, and all DBAs makes the team stronger (and she doesn’t let them back out more than one month in a row). She allows herself to be in a direct line with everyone on her team. Yanni stressed the personal approach. She “sneakily” gets what she wants.
ES: Erin talked about e-mail. She sometimes has a hard time interpreting if there was a hidden message in emails. Her way around this problem is to go have a conversation before writing an email (even though it goes against her natural tendency). The personal contact avoids some of the mis-interpretation of intent behind what needs to be said. Interestingly, Erin pointed out that she is pro-emoticon (though it’s not always appropriate for work). 🙂
KL: Also admitted she’s pro-emoticon, which prompted another interesting discussion on webcams and other ways to communicate with customers, co-workers, etc. Webcams can help the conversation (conference calls) seem more personal, and is a subtle way to connect with people. When you later meet them in person, there may be a feeling that you’ve met before or “know” the person. Being able to read facial expressions helps other people understand the meaning behind what’s being said.
KL: The conversation lingered on diversity for a while… Kendra mentioned being on a team of people from all over the world. There were Russians that kept referring to “Taking a dump of the system”. Because of the meaning of that phrase in the US, the Americans had to mute and giggle. No one else seemed affected by the phrase. Diverse teams work together better. Everyone learns something from other people.
YR: Yanni represents another piece of the diversity, being from another culture. She agreed that diversity benefits people on many different levels (with what they learn from each other).
WP: Wendy pointed out that diversity is important even on different socio-economic levels. They may provide different perspectives. She pointed out that there can be untapped resources when a group is missing out on different people. She then talked about an interview she was in where she was told “We think you’d be a good fit for our team.” Her thoughts were, “What about my skill sets?”
KL: Kendra piggy-backed, saying “Team fit” isn’t always a “good fit.” People need to be more open minded when interviewing candidates.

Question 3: How would having more woman in IT benefit the workplace as a whole? (I’m not actually sure where this question came into play, since the conversation was flowing so naturally at this point).
ES: Talked about her company looking for an Oracle person… she interviewed a woman. Erin admitted she really liked her, and felt like she didn’t interview her as thoroughly as she could have because she liked her so much.
WP: Talked about expectations of people based on her past experiences. Her manager is a woman, and doesn’t relate the same as her expectation of how women relate to each other. She connected with other members of team who had all good things to say about manager, so she was able to put pre-judgments aside, and take the job. She is happy she did.

A guy in the room asked if there is an assumption that because they are a woman, they AREN’T the IT person. Erin gets it often with customers. Wendy says when she says she’s a DBA, people assume she does Data Entry. Yanni has had people assume she’s a vendor or with a vendor.

KL: Kendra talked about a recent conversation using the word “expert” about yourself. She said sometimes it feels a bit pretentious. She does like to call herself an expert when it applies. To be able to call yourself an expert shows confidence. She then talked about a Twitter study that uses programs that can determine what words men vs women are using when talking about certain words. Talk about technology to show women can talk about it too and not just men. (Oh, and there actually are men who are BAD at computers too). Wendy – wants to be seen as technical.

A woman in the room works in a manufacturing company, she said when men come for support, they pass the women by and go to the men for answers on questions on the systems that the 2 women in the room support. Erin suggested putting up a sign that says “Stop here for questions on…” Wendy asked the question, “Where do you first go when entering into a room, where do cool kids sit on the bus or in a room???” Those can be important to keep in mind. The tendency is to go to the receptionist first… Yanni said she is often asked, “So you’re the manager of the DBA team, so who do I go to on a technical matter?” Kendra and Wendy both said that as a consultant, people are pleased to see them come in to help.

All in all, there was great discussion on diversity, communication, and somehow, it snuck in there that Brent Ozar (@BrentO), Tom LaRock (@sqlrockstar), and Jeremiah Peschka (@peschkaj) were “booth babes.” Gotta have a little comedy in a WIT panel too!!