SQL Saturday Boston 2023 Recap

First Things First

Thank you to everyone who attended my session “Answering the Automator’s Call with Automation.” My slide deck and demo code are now available on my Github.. This was a new session and I’m pretty happy with how it worked out. I wasn’t sure if it would “land,” even after doing my run-throughs at home. Now that I’ve delivered the material to real people and had a conversation or two about it with folks, I’m feeling much more confident.

The Event

This was both my first in-person SQL Saturday and first time speaking to an in-person audience since February 2020. It was also my second time at the Boston event. I’ve really missed presenting in-person - that’s something I wouldn’t have said a decade ago. I had a little difficulty with room technology before my session started but that was cleared up after a few moments. I dropped in on two other sessions (Matt Gordon’s “Who’s On Call For You” and Steve Jones’s “Blogging for the Tech Professional”) in the afternoon and enjoyed both of those. While I know both Matt & Steve, I’ve never seen either give a live presentation, and I like seeing how others present their material as everyone has a different style. Both were terrific.

I Needed This

While it’s been nearly a year since the first post-COVID PASS Data Community Summit, my feelings coming out of SQL Saturday Boston are similar to those I had after Summit. This event was…restorative for me. I’ll get lots of technical content next month at Summit, but my focus for Boston was to get back up in front of people, reconnect with people in a smaller & quieter setting and in some cases, catch up with folks who I don’t get to see at Summit. Mission mostly accomplished - I missed out on talking to a few people I wanted to catch, but I also caught up with a couple people I didn’t expect to so it all balances out.

As another person remarked to me, I feel reinvigorated. Back amongst “my people.” I spoke with a couple people about presenting at user group meetings and possible SQL Saturdays and in one case we went so far as to set a date on the spot so that I can’t talk myself out of it or let time get away from me such that I don’t prepare and I either cancel or deliver a disappointing session.

Thank you to everyone who made SQL Saturday Boston 2023 happen - organizers, volunteers, sponsors, attendees, and my fellow speakers (again, decade-ago-Andy can’t believe I can say that!). I’m looking forward to seeing you at SQL Saturday Boston 2024, if not sooner!