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Austin Texas SQL Saturday
Austin Texas SQL Saturday was a Success!

Austin Texas SQL Saturday was a success! Procure SQL would not exist if it wasn’t for #SQLFamily and the SQL Community. Therefore, we always want to help connect, share and learn with our local data community.

In 2010 I hosted my first SQL Saturday #36 in Wheeling, WV. One thing in common with my first SQL Saturday and last week is that I honestly had no idea how many people would show up. My first event had 70 attendees and I wasn’t sure if this one would surpass it when we decided to commit and make it happen in November 2022.

We were not 100% sure if the Austin Data community would welcome in-person events. We figured doing this event would help us decide if we should try going back to in-person events.

Austin Texas SQL Saturday – The Final Numbers

Our final numbers are as following.

  • 140 people signed up in Eventbrite to attend our SQL Saturday.
  • 78 Sessions Submitted by 34 different individuals.
    • 64 additional people on the waitlist.
    • 40 People attending Bob Ward’s All-Day SQL 2022 Workshop
    • 82 total in-person attendees.
    • 18 Sessions by 18 Speakers
    • 6 Microsoft Employees as Speakers
    • 6 Volunteers running the event. Couldn’t have done this without the following (Jay Falck, Dora Klutz, Shawn Wiestfield, LaShanna Sterrett, Conor Cunningham, Allen Kinsel and myself. )
    • 4 Concurrent tracks
    • 1 Pre-Con aka All-Day Friday presenter.

Things that worked.

  • Using Microsoft’s Office as venue – While starting the budget all over from scratch for the Austin Texas SQL Saturday. It helped to have a great free venue. In the past, we would use a bigger venue like a conference center or college. With an unknown number of attendees, it made a lot of sense to use a smaller venue. I have presented and attended Azure Bootcamps in the Microsoft Office so I knew this would be a good fit.
  • Volunteers were amazingJay Falck, Dora Klutz, Shawn Wiestfield, LaShanna Sterrett, Conor Cunningham, and Allen Kinsel were amazing.
  • Recorded Sessions – We were able to leverage Shawn’s UserGroup.TV setup to allow us to have a place for everyone to see the sessions once they are published. Publishing the sessions is still in progress. Hopefully, we will get these up soon.
  • Sessionize for Event App – All of the things we would typically print except the attendee badges and vendor raffle QR cards could be fully replaced with Sessionize. Next year we will reduce a lot of the printing and just have attendees use the individual app you can create in Sessionize.
  • Speakers were amazing – We had an amazing amount of speaker interest. We did release our call of speakers at the PASS Data Summit intentionally. We think this did help us get a lot of amazing speakers.
  • Food was good – We did a volunteer/speaker’s dinner where you got to taste several different great pizzas. It was Brazilian’s Steakhouse meets Pizza. We reserved a big separate room in the restaurant so people could space out if that was their preference. With Covid still being a concern, we also opted to go with box lunches for both Friday and Saturday.
  • Thank You, Sponsors – Thank you so much for being patient and understanding of us. Thank you, AzureAustin, Microsoft, SolarWinds, DBeaver, Quest, and SIOS.
  • Eventbrite Collections – This made it easier for there to be a landing page for both the SQL Saturday and All-Day Training on Friday. We noticed this was helpful for people who found us on eventbrite.

Things that did not work or needs improvement.

  • More Concurrent Sessions – One of my biggest disappointments this year was having to say, “NO!” to speakers who I greatly respect. Writing this now I still fill bad about not having enough sessions to let more people present at the Austin SQL Saturday. I know I never like getting rejected when I submit so it’s even more painful giving that news to someone else. Hopefully, next year we will have at least two more tracks. I greatly apologize to everyone who submitted but didn’t get an opportunity to present.
  • Paying for attendees’ lunch – Traditionally, attendees pay for their lunches. It’s a nominal fee around $15 to $20 dollars to offset the cost of bringing in lunch and drinks. Due to our success with sponsorship, we were able to pay for everyone’s lunches. You might be wondering why would this need improving? It took away that cost of ownership attendees have for committing to attend the Austin Texas SQL Saturday. I had multiple people share the feedback that charging for lunch would help reduce no-shows.
  • We need a bigger venue – While we could hold some more people at the Microsoft’s office it limited us from going all out on trying to maximize our attendees. This provides additional value to our sponsors and the speakers. I think next year we will consider doing Friday’s training session at Microsoft while using another venue near for the SQL Saturday event.
  • Speaker Evaluations – We skipped evaluations this year and need to find a good way to bring this back for next year.
  • Raffle QR Codes – Before the pandemic SQL Saturday organizers had a great tool for generating QR codes for the vendor raffles and producing an electronic list of attendees who chose to participate in the raffle. Unfortunately, it didn’t survive the pandemic and organizers had to come up with an alternative. Jeff Taylor has a great blog documenting a process to generate QR codes for vCard’s. I would like to make this easier for sponsors and find an affordable way to allow them to obtain a list of all QR codes scanned.

Results

The Austin Data Community is ready for in-person events again. We will be starting up in-person events. To start, we will go every other month and grow it from there.

View our Eventbrite Collection of user group meetings. All future in-person meetings will go there. Our first In-Person event is March 21st, 2023, with Cory Brown presenting Azure Synapse Link.

We are also planning to implement our lessons learned by doing another SQL Saturday in February 2024!

SQL Saturday Austin is coming to Austin Texas. That’s right, you heard it here first! Free SQL Server training in Austin, TX!

SQL Saturday Austin Free Training
SQL Saturday Austin Free Training on Feb 24th and Feb 25th

SQL Saturday Austin is Feb 24th and 25

We hope you had a great holiday season. With the new year everyone made goals and resolutions. Are you looking to take your IT career to the next level? If so, we got you covered! The Austin SQL User Group is coming together to see if Austin SQL Server professionals are interested attending in-person training.

SQL Saturday Austin – Why Should you go?

This is a great opportunity to network with your peers in the data community. Since 2020 networking opportunities have been rare and hard to find in-person.

Free SQL Server Training from some of the best trainers in the US. There will be sessions about SQL Server, Azure, and Analytics. If you like to make data fast, secure, available, visible there will be sessions for you!

Learn SQL Server 2022 in an all-day session with Bob Ward. You can travel to conferences across the world and pay hundreds of dollars or come to Austin for the same all-day experience for $50.

SQL Saturday Austin Costs?

How much does SQL Saturday Austin cost to attend?

Great question. Friday is an all-day training event on SQL Server 2022 with Bob Ward and costs only $50 to attend.

Saturday will have multiple 1-hour sessions going concurrently from several Microsoft MVP’s, MCT’s, and national speakers and is 100% Free to Attend. You must sign up as space is limited. Currently, there are only 40 seats available.

Procure SQL is proud to be speaking and sponsoring SQL Saturday Jacksonville this weekend. Join us and several other amazing community speakers as we all share our knowledge with the community. The event will be on Saturday, May 14th, 2022, at University of North Florida. You can sign up for free here. We look forward to seeing you there!

SQL Saturday Jacksonville 2022

I had a blast speaking at SQL Saturday Denver.  To help everyone moving to SQL Server 2017  I have included my slides and demo code below.  If you end up having any questions with the code or need help feel free to contact me.

SQL Saturday Denver Bonus Content

You can also review our SQL Anti-Patterns

The following an Automatic Tuning in the Real-World example with one of our customers during their SQL Server 2017 upgrade.

The Procure SQL team is out and about in September, sharing their knowledge for free at SQL Saturdays as well as online webinars!  We are very proud of our team and their efforts to share knowledge and experiences.  Be sure to say hello and ask questions when you see them!

GroupBy September 7, 2018

We are proud to announce that Martin Perez, close friend of Procure SQL, will be joining John Sterrett in presenting for GroupBy.Org!  GroupBy is FREE online SQL Server training by the community, for the community!  This month’s training  is scheduled for September 7, 2018 beginning at 8:00 AM Eastern, with the last session starting at 2:15 PM!

Registration is free! GroupBy

Martin Perez (11:45 AM Est)

Martin will be presenting “T-SQL Tools: Simplicity for Synchronizing Changes” at 11:45 AM Eastern.
Any DBA or developer that has ever faced the problem of moving data changes across databases will surely benefit from this session.  One of the most common problems a DBA or database developer may face is finding an syncing data changes efficiently between multiple systems.  He will explore different methods focusing on effective use of TSQL, and how these methods can be mixed and matched in your ETL workflows:

  • Brute Force
  • Log Shipping/Read Only Standby
  • Rowversion datatype
  • Change Tracking
  • Change Data Capture
  • Temporal Tables

Martin hopes to assist the DBA or Developer free up time and energy by understanding all the available options.  Come find out why brute force is not the only path forward!

John Sterrett (1:00 PM Est)

Directly following Martin, John Sterrett will be presenting “Make Your Own SQL Server Queries Go Faster” at 1:00 PM Eastern.
Have you ever developed slowly running queries and wondered how to make your own SQL Server queries go faster?  It is how John stumbled into his career in performance tuning.  In this session, you will learn some T-SQL performance tuning tips that can be used in the office immediately. You will learn how to identify top offender queries and be able to benchmark queries. Finally, he will cover some coding patterns that are developer friendly (but are not SQL Server database engine friendly) and show you how to rewrite them so they can run faster.

SQL Saturday #774 – Denver, CO September 15, 2018

If you are in the Denver, Colorado area, be sure to register for SQL Saturday #774!  The free training event will be held on Saturday, September 15, 2018 at the University of Denver in Sturm Hall.  Registration is free!

Two of our team members will be presenting!  Both John Sterrett and Angela Tidwell will be presenting at 9:00 AM.  

John Sterrett

John will be presenting “Automate the Pain Away with Adaptive Query Processing and Automatic Tuning
In this Intermediate level session, John will explore how tuning SQL Server workloads is changing. In the past, you would rely on dynamic management views, execution plan cache, and server-side traces or extend events. In SQL Server 2012 Columnstore indexes were introduced; In SQL 2014 the cardinality estimator got a huge overhaul. With SQL Server 2016 we were given query store to allow us to get more insight into our performance pains and execution plan changes. SQL Server 2017 gave us Automatic Tuning and Adaptive Query Processing to help automate performance improvements. In this session, he will harness ways to improve performance into the new so you can automate the pain away and spend more time identifying and tuning pain points that cannot be automated.

Angela Tidwell

Angela will be presenting “Become the Most Valuable Player: Soft Skills for the Hard Market
This session is for beginners and seasoned pros alike.  Whether you are just starting a career, advancing into senior leadership, or trying to woo a potential client, soft skills can be your ticket to success. Often times we focus on showing how smart we are instead of showing what a good team member we can be.  In this session, Angela will discuss the role and types of soft skills needed to showcase your X-factor.  Need to hone your skills?  She will explore innovative and fun ways in which to do just that!  Get ready, Angela likes to wake you up and make you think: she likes to have fun in this session!

SQL Saturday #802 – San Diego, CA September 22, 2018

Planning to be in San Diego on September 22, 2018? If so, you can catch Jay Falck speaking at SQL Saturday #802!
SQL Saturday San Diego will be held at UCSD Extension – University City Center and Registration is free!

Jay Falck

Jay will be presenting “Introduction to Linux for SQL Server
SQL Server is now available on Linux but you only know Windows, now what?  In this beginner level course, Jay will introduce the Linux version of Windows commands used on a daily basis for administering SQL Server.  He will explore updating Linux, updating SQL Server, moving files between Windows and Linux, and backing up and restoring databases from one system to another.  Also he will dive into default file locations for SQL Server and what can be moved and how to accomplish that.

SQL Saturday #770 – Pittsburgh, PA September 29, 2018

Pittsburgh Technical College will be hosting SQL Saturday #770 on September 29, 2018.  As always, registration for SQL Saturday is free!

John Sterrett

John will be presenting Automate the Pain Away with Adaptive Query Processing and Automatic Tuning at 10:00 AM Eastern.
The way you tune your SQL Server workloads are changing.  In the past, you would rely on dynamic management views, execution plan cache, and server-side traces or extend events. In his intermediate level session, John will explore the ways to improve performance into the new so you can automate the pain away and spend more time identifying and tuning pain points that cannot be automated.

SQLSatHou 2018

We are back this year!  Not only are we sponsoring SQL Saturday Houston, we are also speaking!  All three of us are presenting!  Go here to see the full schedule.

What is SQL Saturday?

SQL Saturday is a free training event for Microsoft Data Platform professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server, Business Intelligence, and Analytics.  SQL Saturday Houston will be held on June 23, 2018 at San Jacinto College – South Campus, 13735 Beamer Road, Houston, Texas  77089.  Check-in and breakfast starts at 7:30am.  The first sessions begin at 8:30 am.  There are sessions for beginners, intermediate, and advanced levels.  Topics covered at this SQL Saturday are:

  • Powershell
  • Application & Database Development
  • BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration
  • Cloud Application Development & Deployment
  • Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment
  • Professional Development
  • Strategy & Architecture

Remember, this is a FREE event, but only a few spots remain!  Don’t wait, click here to register!

Where will we be?

We will each be at the Procure SQL booth with smiling faces, fun giveaways, and answers to your SQL Server questions!  Please stop by and say hello.  If not at the booth, you can find us attending a session or giving one of our own!

Angela will start out the day at 9:45 am in room 117.  She will be presenting her professional development session “Becoming the MVP: Soft Skills for the Hard Market.”  In this interactive, round-table discussion, Angela explores how soft skills are important at all levels of a person’s career.  The importance of soft skills in the job market, specific skills, and how to hone them will be top priority.  She has been known to give away prizes, so make sure to say hello!

Jay comes in next at 11:00 am in room 149.  Jay’s presentation is “Linux for SQL Server” and is a high-level overview of the differences and similarities between Linux and Windows for those who haven’t been exposed or may need a refresher.  Don’t be mistaken, even though this session is a high-level overview, it is fantastic for beginners!  Jay will introduce the Linux version of Windows commands used on a daily basis for administering SQL Server. Next, he will explore updating Linux, updating SQL Server, moving files between Windows and Linux, and backing up and restoring databases from one system to another. He will round out the session by taking a look at default file locations for SQL Server and what can be moved and how to accomplish that.

John is waking up the afternoon crowd at 1:30 in room 113.  He is presenting “Automate the Pain Away with Query Store and Automatic Tuning” which is an intermediate level presentation which explains how execution plans get invalidated and why data skew could be the root cause of seeing different execution plans for the same query. He will further explore options for forcing a query to use a particular execution plan. Finally, he will discuss how this complex problem can be identified and resolved simply using new features in SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017 called Query Store and Automatic Tuning.  You won’t want to miss out on that!

What happens after the sessions are done?

Stick around after the last sessions because at 5:00 we all gather together for final remarks and sponsor raffles!  We will be giving away a new Super Nintendo SNES GiveawayEntertainment System Classic Edition!  To enter, just drop your raffle ticket in the bucket at our booth. 

But wait, there’s more!

The fun doesn’t stop here.  We leave from the event to an after party which is being held at Main Event, 1125 Magnolia Ave., Webster, Texas 77598.  Party starts at 6!  The after parties are a great way to unwind, network,  and chat up the speakers and new SQL friends you made during the sessions!

In October 2011, after working with SQL Server since 1998, I discovered something called SQL Saturday and PASS. For those unaware, these are local events, setup and run by volunteers. Speakers come in from all parts of the country to share, for free, their knowledge of SQL Server and other topics of interest to data professionals. These events also draw sponsors of various types. Without this symbiosis, the events would not work.

My First SQL Saturday  

At this first event, held on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, I got to meet and learn from some of the big names in the community, referred to as SQL Family. Thomas LaRock (t/b) kicked off the morning with a keynote. Afterwards, I found Tom is a HUGE bacon aficionado. This was my first realization these folks were approachable and not “full of themselves.” Very different from other professions I’ve been around. After the keynote, it was off to learn from the likes of Jim Murphy (t/b),  Wes Brown (t), Joe Celko, and many others.

I was hooked. I started traveling the country to attend these events as an attendee, usually at my own expense. Thanks to SQL Saturday, I’ve been to Portland ME, Atlanta, Louisville, Omaha, San Diego, Houston, Salt Lake City, and countless others.

One Road Leads to Many Paths

In October 2013, while at a CodeCamp in Austin, I met John Sterrett (t/b). He had decided it was time for Austin to host a SQL Saturday, the first since October 2011. It was a big hit and repeated in 2015. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find a suitable venue since; but hope to be able to bring SQL Saturday back in 2019. I tell this part of the story because John is responsible for the next part.

It used to be a standing joke that we saw each other more away from Austin than in Austin. One frequent topic of conversation was, “Hey Jay, you come to these events, why don’t you speak at them?” My answer was always, “I don’t know anything these people don’t already know.” He kept telling me the same thing I had heard other speakers say: At least one person doesn’t know what you know, or you have a different take on something others speak about.

Diving in to Become a Speaker

It took several years of prodding, but I did my first SQL User Group presentation to the Austin community in June 2017. It had been years since I was up in front of a non-work group, but it went well, except for the demos of course. Now I was hooked again, I went to work on my next presentation idea, which was delivered late in 2017. It went well enough I decided, OK, I was coerced into submitting to a couple of SQL Saturday events, Wheeling and Albuquerque. I was selected to speak at Wheeling but unfortunately had to withdraw from Albuquerque.

Fast forward, OK, not really fast, but I’m getting there. I tried very hard not to fall into the trap I heard all speakers talking about: don’t change your presentation last minute, have an extra laptop so you can deal with hardware failures, make sure you have plenty of cables, etc. I made it to Wheeling with extra laptop and redundant cables but found myself updating the presentation on Saturday Morning to include a new item I had seen earlier in the week.

Whew, I did it!

Even with last minute changes, everything went well with my first SQL Saturday presentation. Feedback was helpful even though it was limited. Based on the input, I’ve updated the presentation and been accepted to speak at SQL Saturday events in Los Angeles and Houston. I will also be co-presenting with John Sterrett at SQL Saturday Dallas. I admit to a bit of nervousness as I expect both to be bigger, but I think I’m up to the challenge.

I’m looking forward to preparing new presentations and being a speaker and volunteer at many of the locations I’ve just been attending to this point.

I had the distinct honor of helping John Sterrett (t/b) and Dolph Santorine (t) organize and run SQL Saturday #717 in Wheeling, West Virginia on April 28, 2018.  It was a chance meeting at the event that drove home to me why we invest so much of our personal time and effort into organizing/running/presenting at SQL Saturdays.  The short answer as to why we do it is: We do all of this to promote free education to all who choose to seek it.  That’s right…. FREE.  Education is the best gift that can be bestowed upon and received by anyone.  I met Kyle, this was his first SQL Saturday and his tweet sums it all up:

“Free” means FREE?

Each SQL Saturday is organized by individuals or teams of volunteers.  We do not get paid for our time.  The speakers do not get paid for their time.  Speakers are sometimes compensated by their employers when they present at SQL Saturdays, but most of the time these speakers pay the travel and lodging expenses out of their own pockets!  The events are funded by sponsors.  Thus we are able to give away free education from active industry professionals!

Sponsorship is key.

Like I mentioned, the events are funded solely by sponsorship.  The cool thing about sponsoring a SQL Saturday is that not only are you expanding your marketing campaign for a minimal amount of money, you too are giving back to a noble cause.  Marian Wright Edelman wrote, “Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and the world better than you found it.”  Being a sponsor allows you the awesome privilege of helping make a difference in someone’s life.

Why we do what we do.

During a chance meeting at SQL Saturday Wheeling, I met a USMC Veteran who is trying to find his way in the tech field.  He was referred to the event by a college professor.  Much to his surprise, not only did he walk away from the event armed with tons of information and a new-found excitement for learning SQL, he walked away with a lot of new SQL friends and mentors.  He was introduced to fellow Ex-Marine and Veteran, Jim Donahoe (t/b), who then put him in contact with others in the industry who can directly help make an impact on his career!  That is at the core of who we are as a community.  We left as we rise.

Friends and mentors.

In the SQL community, we pride ourselves in giving back and helping others.  On twitter we even have an open hashtag (#SQLHelp) where you can ask questions and get responses from experts in the SQL community.  If you participate, you will find a friend and mentor who will help provide information, keep your spirits up, and help you find your way through the weeds.  I personally have been blessed through the community, and my mission is to help bless others.

Thoughts on being an organizer.

Helping to organize and run a SQL Saturday is no small task.  There are many moving parts, many small details that can be overlooked or forgotten.  I was so very thankful to have friends who are also organizers who helped me along the way.  I certainly learned a lot about event planning!  More-so, I learned a lot about the value of kindness.  They provided guidance and tips, and I too will do the same for others who want the help.  Standing there Saturday morning before the doors opened I thought to myself “Here we are.  All these months and we are finally here.”  And honestly, I was afraid.  What if no one showed up?  What if the equipment failed?  What if I had forgotten something?  What if lunch doesn’t show?  

And you know what happened?  Attendees arrived, speakers arrived, everything worked, lunch arrived early, we had plenty of coffee, and everyone had a great time!  It was not a huge event. In fact, it was a very small event.  Something I noticed from being at both large and small events is that the quality of education is the same.  It is the same because the presenters are all there for the same thing I am….to share their unique vision and experience in hopes that someone in the audience will gain new perspective and it will grow their career.

Final thoughts on volunteering.

I personally feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when I can help someone else with no expectation of reward.  But there is a reward, there is always a reward!  My reward was smiles from speakers and attendees, but mostly, knowing that we all touched the lives of all those who attended.  

For more information on how to attend or volunteer for a SQL Saturday in your location, please visit the SQL Saturday website!

Last weekend I had a blast speaking at the SQL Saturday in Chicago. It was awesome to share my knowledge and also catch up with some good friends.  My talk was on Automating the Pain Away with Query Store and Automated Tuning.  I hope this session helped people understand Query Store and Automated Tuning as these two new features can help resolve parameter sniffing problems.

John Sterrett Teaching Performance Tuning

John Sterrett teaching Performance Tuning at SQL Saturday Chicago

John Sterrett teaching performance tuning

SQL Saturday Chicago training class

The post SQL Saturday Chicago appeared first on SQL Server Consulting & Remote DBA Service.

Have you wanted to build an availability group but didn’t know where to start? 
If so, we have discounted SQL Server Availability Group training for you!

Nashville, TN learn how to implement and monitor Always On Availability Group Solutions!

Nashville, TN learn how to implement and monitor Always On Availability Group Solutions!

Join us for pre-conference training brought to us by SQL Saturday Nashville! John Sterrett will be presenting a half day precon in Mufreesboro, TN on Thursday, January 11, 2018, from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm!

SQL Server Availability Group Training in Nashville, TN

In this half-day session, you will learn how to build your first availability group while also learning how availability groups work with other components like active directory, storage, and DNS. You will walk away with a checklist to help your future deployments while also learning how to implement, monitor, troubleshoot and use availability groups.

In this session we will cover:

  • Understanding the difference between Availability Groups and Failover Cluster Instances
  • Configure Windows Failover Cluster Service (WFCS)
  • Understanding Quorum in WFCS
  • Pre-staging Active Directory Objects
  • Learn how Availability Groups use DNS
  • Build Availability Groups
  • Implementing Planned Downtime Failovers
  • Troubleshoot Common Availability Group Problems
  • Proactive monitoring Availability Groups
  • Backups for your Availability Groups Databases
  • Managing Connectivity
  • Handling SQL Agent Jobs
  • Making SQL Server Reporting Services Highly Available Utilizing Availability Groups

Space is limited so act fast and Register here now!

Come for the SQL Server Availability Group Pre-con and stay for the full day of free SQL training on Saturday!

SQLSaturday is a free training event for Microsoft Data Platform professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server, Business Intelligence, and Analytics. Join us on Jan 13, 2018, at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), 1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Tennessee, 37132.

Nashville Availability Group Training

Nashville SQL Peeps get Your Learn On!