SQL Saturday 74 – Jacksonville FL

I made a 700+ mile round trip down to Jacksonville FL where I was fortunate enough to get to speak about SQL Server.  This was my third SQL Saturday to present at and my fifth SQL Saturday to attend.   I should mention here that I am also now planning a SQL Saturday in Atlanta.  At the time of this article the location is TBD and the prospective date is September 17^th.   I made it to Jacksonville in time to get checked into my hotel and set the thermostat to LOW and then head out to the speaker’s dinner.  I had a good time meeting some new people and getting to reconnect with others I haven’t seen in awhile.  When I walked in I was greeted by Tom Brenneman and handed an extremely nice speaker’s shirt.  When I complimented the SQL Saturday crew for getting such nice shirts they pointed out Don Myers and said he was the master mind behind the shirts.  I ended up talking to Don about his company and what all they do (we will need shirts for Atlanta too).  You should check out his website for some really cool products.  Then I bumped into Scott Gleason.  That is one crazy guy.  He looked just like he did the last time I saw him which was at the Summit the day after a group of folks stayed out singing karaoke until 4:00 AM, however this time Scott was just beat down tired from being up since 3:00 AM and working until midnight all week (or so he said).  We chatted a bit about SQL Saturday stuff and what each of us would be presenting on.  Oddly enough I ended up attending his session first thing Saturday morning (the fact I was up next in that room had nothing to do with it).  Believe it or not, Scott’s session wasn’t half bad.   Once the food was brought out I fixed a plate and sat down at a table with John Welch and Andy Warren .  The conversation was great and I learned a great deal about the roots of SQL PASS from these two.  As the evening progressed and several different people ended up joining our table, Doug Brendle from scalabilityexperts.com joined us.  It was really nice meeting Doug and I ended up sitting in on his session regarding plan cache.  Of course an event in Jacksonville Florida wouldn’t be complete without our friends at Pragmatic Works.  I spoke with Brian K McDonald, Mike Davis, Brian McKnight, Adam Jorgensen and Shawn Harrison at the restaurant and various times on Saturday during the event.

Finding the University of North Florida wasn’t too difficult even though my GPS didn’t recognize 1 UNF Drive as an address.  It did however have UNF listed as a school in its data set.  I was fortunate for that.  As I got off the interstate there were at least two signs that pointed me in the right direction.  Directions were good enough that I made it so no complaints there. (I will make sure the route in ATL is very clear J)

Check in was seamless.  This crew really had it altogether and the layout of the facilities was top notch.  Nothing was ever too crowded and traffic flowed really well.  There were plenty of rooms for all the vendors and for setting up lunch.  It was obvious that the Jacksonville group had put plenty of time and energy into planning this event.  I saw Tom Brenneman at the SNI Technology table and he introduced me to John Perton and Derek Rix.  If you are ever in Jacksonville and need a recruiter, these guys will take care of you.  Tom even did a lunch presentation on professional development.  The session was very well attended and he gave a lot of excellent pointers to the crowd.

More excellent sessions happened after lunch; Doug’s being one of them.  He really helped educate us on how to beat up our developers for not writing the best SQL code.  Thanks Doug!   Next I attended Adam Jorgenson’s session on Intro to Analysis Services.  I picked up a few things and got an answer to a production issue I am having, next up was Jose Chinchilla with what is new in Denali, then the big smack down with Iron Chef.  Adam Jorgensen verses Brian Knight.  Lots of tweets went out about that session however most involved something about Scott Gleason getting slapped.  Once Iron Chef wrapped up, give always done, everyone moved out to the after party and closed the lid on what is being called the best ever SQL Saturday in Jacksonville to date.  I am very proud to have been a part of it and to get to meet some really cool people.  Some folks like Jason E Bacani and Julie Bevington who I got to sit with at the after party to name a few.

Thank you to all of you who attended my session, I had my largest crowd yet.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 folks and several of you have already reached out to me on twitter, linked in, and email.  You all are the reason we do this.

Now time to plan SQL Saturday Atlanta and time to get ready for SQL Saturday 77 in Pensacola.  June 4^th will be here soon.

You can download a copy of my presentation here <<<Inherited_Database