A Personal Story about Networking

This is not a technical or SQL Server post, but it does illustrate the power of networking.

We recently took my daughter for a checkup at the eye doctor.  Our family has a history of poor eyesight and she has had glasses for a few years now.  Having moved to Florida this was our first appointment with the optometrist and during the visit my wife noticed a flyer about Corneal Refractive Therapy (a method of orthokeratology) and asked about it.  The optometrist then mentioned that our daughter was actually a good candidate for this treatment.  The treatment is that you wear specially designed rigid gas-permeable contact lenses to bed and these lenses temporarily "flatten" your cornea which corrects your vision, thus leaving you contact lens or glasses free during the day. Because of our family history we decided that we should consider this therapy in spite of the cost (~$2000).  In the research we found that the therapy has the potential, not proven, to slow or stop the progression of myopia (near-sightedness) and this could be a great thing for our daughter. 

Now we get to the networking part.  Since it is a relatively new therapy, we wanted more information and I posted on Facebook that I was researching it.  Lo, and behold, my cousin, who happens to be friends with the head of Pediatric Ophthalmology at Boston Children's Hospital, saw my post and offered to contact him about it.  He in turn consulted one of his colleagues about it who recommended a third doctor at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary who has extensive experience in the therapy.  My cousin sent us this doctor's contact information so we could talk to her about the therapy.  My wife called and left a message at her office, and we waited.  After a day or two we honestly didn't think we'd hear from her, but she called us back, answered our questions, and is willing to continue to be a resource for us if we have any other questions.

So what are the lessons here:

1. You never know who will be able to help you.  I didn't know that my cousin had these contacts, but by letting people know what I was looking into, someone was able to help.
2. People want to help.  The doctor my wife finally spoke to doesn't know us or my family, and has no chance of actually making money from us, yet is willing to be a resource for us.

It is funny that I'm always willing to help someone out, but feel like I'm taking advantage of people when I ask them for help.  The reality is that most people want to help others when they can and when they are asked.

Where Will We PASS Each Other?

In my a post on Monday, I talked about who I want to meet while at the PASS Summit.  Today I’m going to post where I plan to be while at the Summit.

Sunday

I’m scheduled to fly into Seattle at 6pm, which means I hope to be at the hotel (Sheraton) by 7:30pm.  I’ll probably try to find someone in addition to my roommate, Tim Mitchell, to have dinner with once I arrive at the hotel.

Monday

I’ll be looking for folks to meet up with for breakfast.  Then I’ll probably head to the convention center and depending on who I meet up with, either hang there for lunch or go out.

In the afternoon I have the Networking Seminar for Volunteers with Don Gabor and then the full Networking to Build Business Contacts seminar with Don Gabor.  I believe there are still some seats left for this session (only $60) and I’m sure you’ll get your money’s worth.  That session leads into the Welcome Reception and Quiz Bowl.  I’ll be finishing the night at the SQLServerCentral party (instructions on how to get a ticket are here).  I’ll likely pack it in after this party.

Tuesday 

I’ll be starting Tuesday by meeting with a group of people of like faith at breakfast, and event I’m really looking forward to.  Then I begin my sessions, of course if I get in the right conversation, I’ll skip a session or two.  Here’s the plan for the day:

• Data Access Layers: A road map to smarter, efficient and effective queries.
• Birds of a Feather Lunch with MVP’s.
• Dr. DMV: How to Use Dynamic Management Views to Monito and Diagnose Performance Issues with High Volume OLTP Workloads.
• A Tale of Careers and User Groups.
• Exploring Index Internals.

Nothing planned for the evening so if you know of any good events to crash let me know.  I’ve already been told to follow Wendy Pastrick (@wendy_dance).

Wednesday

I’m not a morning person normally, but I plan to start with the Quest Vendor-hosted Breakfast with a discussion of DMV’s.  I may not get anything out of it, but I know Brent Ozar (@BrentO) and Tim Ford (@SQLAgentMan) will be there so at least I’ll meet them. Then my session plan for the day:

• Understanding Logging and Recovery in SQL Server
• Lunch with the people of like-faith.
• Database Design
• Insight into Indexes
• Nordic – turn SQL Server into an Object DB – I want to make sure I meet Paul Neilsen.

Again nothing planned in the evening.  Feel free to let me know what’s going on.  Wendy will tire of me following her around.  She may think I’m a stalker.

Thursday

Nothing planned for breakfast, but I’ll probably try to get some time with Mike Walsh (@mike_walsh) to start out the day with some Christian fellowship.  Then the sessions I’ve picked out for the day:

• T-SQL Tips & Tricks
• Lunch  - Featuring Regional Chapter Leaders.  I’ll be the host of the OPASS (Orlando PASS) table as my co-President, Andy Warren, has other responsibilities during this time.
• Troubleshooting applications accessing SQL Server
• Proactive DBA: Manage SQL Server Better
• Advanced SQL Server 2008 Extended Events: Performance Profiling and Troubleshooting Techniques.

Again, nothing planned for the evening.  I figure I’ll be following Twitter to findn out where everyone is.

Friday

My flight home is at noon, so I’ll probably try to meet up for breakfast, then pack up and head to the airport. 

Wow, when you type up the week it seems short.  I’m sure that the week will pass much more quickly than I anticipate.  I’m looking forward to meeting people and getting as much information as I can process.

If you are on Twitter be sure to have a search for the #sqlpass hash tag.  I know I will.

See you in a few days!

People I Can’t PASS on Meeting

One week from today I will be in Seattle for my first ever PASS Summit.  One of the things I have heard is what a great event this is for networking with other SQL Server people.  I think I’ve been able to experience this in a small way at the three SQLSaturday’s I have attended in the last year, but I’m sure the Summit is different.  Tom LaRock (@SQLRockstar) blogged about this back in May and listed some people he has met at the Summit and people he wants to meet this year.  That’s what this post is, my list of people I want to meet and converse with at the Summit.  Most of these people I have interacted with on-line via Twitter or SQLServerCentral, but have not met in person.  The list would be longer, but I met a few who would have been on this list at SQLSaturday #21 – Orlando (Kevin Kline, Andy Leonard, Buck Woody, and Joe Webb) all of whom I look forward to spending more time with, but they don’t qualify for this list as this is for people I have not met in person yet.

Let’s start with the PASS Board of Directors both sitting and new members:

• Wayne Snider
• Rushabh Mehta
• Bill Graziano
• Greg Low
• Christoph Stotz
• Lynda Rab
• Rick Heiges
• Pat Wright
• Douglas McDowell
• Tom LaRock
• Rick Bolesta
• Neil Buchwalter
• Kevin Yam
• Kristina Kerr
• Jeremiah Peschka – Newly elected
• Brian Moran – Newly elected

Why this group?  The board is the group that sets the direction for PASS and I am interested in where they think PASS should go and I have my own opinions on that as well.  They are influencers and I’d like to try to influence them.  I do have an in, as my friend Andy Warren is on the board and can introduce me.  Hopefully they will all be at the pre-conference networking session with Don Gabor.

The next group comes from my peers at SQLServerCentral.  SSC is, in my opinion, a true community and these folks have helped me to be a better SQL Server developer and DBA by being willing to answer questions on their time and sharing their experiences.  I don’t even know if everyone on the list will be going to the Summit or if I am listing real or screen names in some cases, but I’ll list them anyway:

• Grant Fritchey
• Gail Shaw
• R. Barry Young
• Alvin Ramard
• Bob Hovious
• Paul White
• WayneS – obviously a screen name
• Lynn Pettis – I don’t think Lynn will be there this year, but if he is, I want to meet him.
• Jeff Moden

Then there is the SQL Server Twitter community, and I do mean community.  I have received help and given help to people in the Twitter community and think it is a great way to begin a relationship, and has definitely made it less intimidating to attend the Summit because I feel like I already have lots of friends there.  Again I don’t know if everyone I list will be there, but I hope they will be:

• Brent Ozar (@BrentO)
• Michelle Ufford (@SQLFool)
• Wendy Pastrick(@Wendy_Dance)
• Mike Walsh (@mike_walsh)
• Allen Kinsel (@sqlinsaneo)
• Mladen Prajdic (@mladenprajdic) – don’t know that he’ll be making the trip from Europe, but he definitely has earned a spot on this list.
• Paul Randal (@PaulRandal) – yeah, I know, he’s on everyone’s list.  Maybe I can catch him for 5 minutes.
• Kimberly Tripp (@KimberlyLTripp)
• Linchi Shea (@linchi_shea)
• Marlon Rubinal (@MarlonRubinal)
• Robert Cain (@arcanecode)
• TJay Belt (@tjaybelt)
• Mark Wisecarver (@msftwise)
• Marc Beacom (@marcbeacom)
• Aaron Bertrand (@AaronBertrand)
• Jason Strate (@StrateSQL)
• Arlene Gray (@whimsql) – I just live her Twitter handle.
• Tim Ford (@sqlagentman) – another great Twitter handle.
• Eric Humphrey (@lotsahelp)
• Blythe Morrow (@blythemorrow)

I’m sure that I’ve left out someone I shouldn’t have, but this is a good starting point, and I hope all these people will be interested in meeting me. 

This is definitely not an all-inclusive list.  I want to meet as many people as I possible and still get together with the “old friends” from SQLSaturday’s as well.  I’m sure it will be a busy, fun, and profitable week! 

Hope to see you there.  Next up I’ll post what I know of my schedule so on the off chance you want to meet me you’ll know where I plan to be.

Networking Successes

Over the last few weeks I’ve had several instances where I’ve had to learn new things and, in my struggles, have had the opportunity to get help from people I have met recently (both in person and on-line).  Notice I said “opportunity”.  One thing I’ve learned recently is that people like to help other people!   As part of my professional development I’ve been attempting to work on my networking skills, and, in my opinion, networking is more than meeting people, it is interacting with them to help and to be helped.

What the heck is jQuery?

The current project I am working on is using ASP.NET MVC and AJAX for the web site and my HTML and javascript skills are not strong so I was reading and workring with Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0.  As I went through the examples I encountered a jQuery script that was not working.  I posted a question on Twitter which was answered by Jeremiah Peschka (Blog|Twitter).  He sent me his email address and offered to look at the script for me.  He also forwarded on the problem to a jQuery guru he knows.  All that effort and we’ve never met!  See people DO like to help!

How does this work in Powershell?

A few months ago I began interacting with Chad Miller (Blog|Twitter) on Twitter and was able to set him up to speak at my local user group (OPASS).  Chad is a Powershell guru and presented on T-SQL vs. Powershell back in July.  I’m working on a presentation about the Default Trace and I wanted to provide some examples of how to archive the Default Trace files/data.  This seemed like a good opportunity to learn some Powershell, so I sent Chad an email asking him to point me in the right direction, which he did.  I completed a “working” Powershell script and sent it to him for review.  He responded with explanations of what I had done wrong and a corrected script.

Why can’t I get this file processed?

Again as part of the Default Trace presentation I wanted to present a solution using SSIS.  Now I have some experience with SSIS and consider myself to be at an intermediate level so I figured I could get it done without trouble.  Well, I was wrong.  I had what I thought was a working solution, until I got Log_10.trc at the same time as Log_9.trc.  The ForEach File Enumerator orders files by name so the active Log_10.trc file was the first file the File System Task attempted to move and it is locked, thus the task failed.  So once I again I used Twitter to ask an SSIS guru, Andy Leonard (Blog|Twitter), if there was a way to change the sort order on the ForEach File Enumerator.  He said that you needed to script it, unfortunately.  He also emailed me an example script.

Those are just 3 instances where I’ve had the opportunity to truly practice networking (I blogged about another here).  Interacting with people and using those interactions to learn new skills and share your skills.  In my mind this is real networking.  Sure these are examples where I got something from my network, but there have been times where I’ve been on the other side, and you’d better believe if I can help out any of these guys I’ll do it!

Meet, Greet, & Remember?

How many of you have said, “I have a real hard time remembering names” or “Excuse me, I know we must have met, but I can’t remember your name”.  I know I have many times.  The question is what am I going to do about?  I’m glad you asked.  As an addition to the PASS Summit, PASS, at the urging of Andy Warren, is adding a 2 hour networking seminar by Don Gabor, Networking to Build Business Contacts, between the pre-conference sessions and the Welcome Reception.  The cost is $60 and attendance is limited to 100.

There are several reasons why I am attending:

1. To develop confidence in meeting people.
2. To learn how to build and maintain my network.
3. To learn how to help others meet people.

Each of these items will be covered during the session, and the Welcome Session and the rest of the conference will give us the opportunity to apply the principles that will be taught.

This won’t just help me as a technical professional, but also in my work.  I currently serve as missionary with New Tribes Mission and part of my “job” is building and maintaining a network of churches and individuals who see value in what I do and are willing to support my work with prayer and finances.  This makes developing networking skills essential. 

Let me give one example of how networking can work.  Just yesterday, I got an email from the Space Coast User Group leaders asking if I could move up from the September meeting and speak at the August meeting as the speaker had to cancel.  I had a conflict so I couldn’t move up.  As I am on Twitter, I put out a message asking if anyone would be able to fill in the August meeting.  I knew at least one person who would be interested, Jorge Segarra (@SQLChicken), and I heard back from him fairly quickly.  I was able to connect him with the Space Coast User Group leadership and he was able to make arrangements to fill in.  Both parties were happy, and I got to “raise” my profile through helping others.

I hope to see you there!  Then we can practice together.

SQL Saturday 14 – Pensacola Networking Wrap-up

For me the event actually started Friday night at the Speaker/Volunteer party at The Fish House.  We spent the evening out on the deck with appetizer’s and drinks meeting and greeting old and new friends.  It was great to re-connect with Rodney Landrum, Karla Ramail (the event organizer, thanks for a great weekend), Nathan Heaivilin, Pam Shaw, Brian Knight, and Steve Jones, all of whom I had met at SQLSaturday – Orlando and at other events.  Then I was able to meet Brad McGehee, Ken Simmons, and Tim Mitchell, each of whom I had interacted with on-line, but had not met in person.  Finally there are all the new people which included Sven and Li from Troy University, Ryan Duclos from Mobile,  Shawn, Tony Davis of RedGate/Simple Talk and others.  To be honest I’m pretty happy that I remember that many names the next day.  Oh, and of course, old friend, Andy Warren was there, pushing me to meet new people.  I was able to meet Jessica Moss who is an MVP and regular speaker at these events, on Saturday morning.

At the after party I spent most of my time with a group including, Andy Warren, Steve Jones, Tim Mitchell, Nathan Heaivilin, Pam Shaw, Jessica Moss, and Don Demsak.  This is definitely an interesting group to spend time with as the topics range from technical, to professional, personal, and politics, and with Andy around you know there will be some interesting discussions as he likes to be controversial to get other people involved.  Add in the fact that most technical people tend to have strong opinions and see things as black and white, you never know what will be said.  Then this group, minus Don and Steve, adjourned to the Fish House for dinner although we took a round about way there.  How many techies with smart phones does it take to find a restaurant within walking distance of your location?  Well, in our crew it took 2 with the help of the rest of us.  We ended up walking around a couple of blocks before circling around the the Fish House, which was pretty much in sight of Rosie O’Grady’s.  Needless to say it was quite amusing to think we walked about 2 times further than we needed to.  Again, it was a good time of discussion and fun.

Tim Mitchell is from the Dallas area and now the idea is to get him to spearhead a SQLSaturday in the Dallas area.  I’d like to get over there as I have a brother in Texas (about 4 hours away from Dallas) and I could take my family to visit him and do the Dallas SQLSaturday in one trip.  Plus, Tim is a great guy and it would be nice to help him out and get to spend some more time with him.  Not to mention the opportunity to meet more new people from the Dallas area.