SQLSaturday #49 – Orlando is Closing In

We are less than an month from SQLSaturday #49 – Orlando at Seminole State College – Sanford/Lake Mary campus on October 16th.  Our preparations are going well, we have a good sponsor base, a great schedule, and several volunteers.  We can always use more sponsors (plan|sign up) and volunteers.  Our registrations are bit lower than we’d like at this point, but we normally see a spike in the last few weeks.  If you have registered please invite your friends and co-workers, our best advertisement is satisfied customer base, and if you have not registered, what are you waiting for (register).  If you need a reason to sign up check out Arie Jones’ take:

Why #SQLSaturday Matters

and for any Oracle folks, here’s a post for you:

SQLSaturday for an Oracle Guy

I’ve been trying to woo some more sponsors.  I’m a bit disappointed we don’t have more local companies as sponsors.  I love to have the software companies as sponsors as they bring some great value and expertise to the event, but I also think that the local companies would benefit and add value as well.  At our most recent OPASS meeting, we had several people who are looking for work, but only one recruiter in attendance that we could connect these people with.  We only have one recruiting company signed up as a SQLSaturday sponsor, yet I’d have to imagine that there will be many people looking for work out of the 250 that we anticipate attending.  I know if I’m looking, the first companies I’d contact are the ones I’ve seen at events.

I’ve also spent time on the event guide.  Graphic design and layout are not strengths, but I think I have something acceptable.  It’s hard as I try to keep the length down so that we don’t have a huge expense for the event guide.

We are trying a some new things this year.  First we have a new sponsorship type for personal bloggers.  For $5 you can be a SQL Blogger sponsor and have your logo on the site and in the event guide.  See Andy Warren’s post for details.  We currently have 7 bloggers signed up.

Next we have a volunteer, Bob Blaydes, who has a popcorn machine, so we will be having fresh popcorn in the afternoon.  In relation to this we have offered our currently signed up sponsors the opportunity to become the official popcorn sponsor by bidding on the sponsorship (min. bid $100).  If you are signed up as a sponsor send your bid to sqlsaturday49@sqlsaturday.com by September 30th.

We also are asking each speaker to take the first 2 minutes of their session to ask the attendees to introduce themselves to the people next to them.  We want to encourage people to get to know each other and do some networking.

Overall the event is looking pretty good.  If you haven’t registered yet, register now!