SQLSaturday #8 - Orlando Recap

I attended/spoke at/volunteered at SQLSaturday #8 - Orlando today and had a very good time. There was close to 300 attendees and things went well. The sponsors did a great job and provided some great prizes (3 Xboxes, an IHome, an IPod Touch, and a full class at End2End Training). As usual Andy Warren and crew (I had a small part) did a good job organizing and keeping everything moving. I don't envy Andy as being the lead for this event is a full-time job for at least 2 weeks. I did not have the opportunity to attend any sessions as I was busy helping out where needed, prepping for my Profiler session, and meeting people. It was great to meet in person some folks I'd met in forums, particularly on SQLServerCentral. There was Steve Jones, Brandie Tarvin, Brian Kelley, and Fraggle (Nathan, last name not remembered). I also met Rachel from RedGate, who doesn't think Hershey's chocolate is any good, and prefers Cadbury. There were many others as well, and since I'm horrible at remembering names, especially when I spoke with at least 50 people I'll stop naming new names. Then there are the old friends, Andy Warren, Chris Rock, Rodd Harris (also from NTM, where I work), David (who's last name I can never remember), and Dolores Toefel from the OPASS group.

My Profiler session went well and seemed to be well-received. There were no empty seats, nor was there anyone standing. I forgot to look at the session evaluations as I was quickly moving on to let the next speaker get setup and to get to my next task. I think I could have done a little more prep, especially for the trace I used for my replay definition. The next step would be to do an advanced presentation that spends more time on server-side tracing and querying and interpreting trace information.

I also went to the after party which was a lot of fun. It's great to sit and relax with other geeks, talk shop, sports, politics, and just goof around a bit. It looked like about 30-35 people went to the after party which was a decent turnout.

The next SQLSaturday is SQLSaturday #10 - Tampa 2009 January 24, 2009. I won't be able to make it as I'll be freezing in New Hampshire for a few months, but I bet it will be a good event to attend.

Featured Video on JumpstartTV

Cool, one of my videos was the featured video on JumpstartTV today. Here's the link to the video:
http://www.jumpstarttv.com/integrating-performance-monitors-with-sql-server-profiler_451.aspx

Always cool when you see your name out there.

JumpstartTV is putting out a ton of material right now particularly for SQL Server and, not just because I am on there, I would recommend checking it out for some quick How To videos. Most of the videos are under 5 minutes so it's not a huge time sink to try some out. Be sure to rank and comment on any videos you watch and if you want to send any comments to me I'll be sure to pass them along to the owners\developers.

Introduction to DML Triggers published on SQLServerCentral

My third article, Introduction to DML Triggers, was published on SQLServerCentral today. The article was born out of forum questions about triggers and the errors and/or bad practices I have seen in the posted triggers. The goal of the article is to help people understand how DML triggers work in SQL Server so they can avoid the common mistakes.

You can also follow any discussion of the article here.

JumpstartTV Videos Published

A couple of months ago I spent a day with the guys at JumpstartTV creating some videos on using SQL Server 2005 Profiler. Those videos have now been published. Here's a link to the first one:
Creating New Trace With Sql Server 2005 Profiler. Please comment and let me know what you think.

JumpstartTV, in this incarnation, is being filled with 1-5 minute "How to" videos on a variety of topics with a current focus on technology, specifically SQL Server and .NET. I think the nicest feature is the ability to suggest video topics. So if you don't know how to use configuration files in SSIS and there is not a video there already, you can ask for that topicand it will be available to authors, like myself, can "take ownership" and create the video.

The question that still needs to be answered is, "Is this format better than a step by step article with screen shots?". I happen to think the it will be better for some people as everyone learns differently. I definitely like the short format. I certainly hope that it takes off as I consider the guys behind it friends and want to see them succeed. Also, in a more selfish manner, I wan tmy videos to do well so they'll ask me for more.