Matt (blog | twitter) is preparing for his first SQL Saturday presentation next weekend in Washington, DC. He’s asked:
I wanted to get an idea of some good, bad, and surprise experiences that people had at everything from a SQL Server User Group meeting to PASS Summit. Things you found out right before, during or even after that you were glad you did or wish you did.
Random Thoughts SQL Saturdays are similar to PASS Summit, but much smaller in scope and budget.
Every year, I spend the Sunday after SQL Saturday Rochester scanning & processing raffle tickets for our wonderful sponsors. Here’s how the system works:
Attendees get tickets (one ticket per sponsor) with their name, the sponsors name, and a QR code on them The QR codes represents a URI, unique to the combination of event, attendee and sponsor. Attendees drop their tickets in a box to enter the sponsor’s raffle prize drawing When the URI from the QR code is accessed, it registers in the SQL Saturday system Organizers run a report for each sponsor that includes the contact info of all attendees who dropped off a raffle ticket, then email the report to the sponsor It works pretty well, but the hangup is that most QR scanners will open your web browser (or prompt you to open it) to the URL on each scan.
A couple weeks ago Carlos L. Cachon (blog|twitter) put out a call on Twitter looking for SQL Saturday organizers to join him on the SQL Data Partners Podcast. When I signed on to record, I learned that Chris Hyde (blog|twitter) and Eugene Meindinger (blog|twitter) were joining us. I’ve met and spoken with all three previously, so it was easy talking to everyone and I thought the conversation flowed well.
Check out SQL Data Partners Podcast Episode 126: SQLSaturday Edition.
I am very happy to announce that SQL Saturday returns to Rochester, NY on March 24, 2018. This is the Flour/Flower City’s seventh SQL Saturday and SQL Saturday #723 overall. This is a little earlier than in years past due to the scheduling of other SQL Saturdays as well as the availability of our venue and key people, and I can’t wait to see how this change works out.
SQL Saturday is a free one-day event for anyone working with the Microsoft data platform.
The Rochester, NY chapter of PASS is holding our 6th annual SQL Saturday on April 29th, 2017! As always, RIT is hosting our event on campus.
SQL Saturday is a free day of training centered on the Microsoft Data Platform. Volunteer speakers come from all over the country (and sometimes beyond) to share their knowledge with attendees. There are sessions available for professionals of all skill levels, whether you’re just starting to learn about databases or a seasoned veteran, in addition to valuable professional development guidance.
Consider this the outtakes from my previous post about speaking at SQL Saturday.
It took a while for me to build up the courage to finally get up in the front of a room at SQL Saturday. As I mentioned in my prior post, I did quite a bit of studying of other peoples’ sessions, read peoples’ studies of other peoples’ sessions (Grant Fritchey’s “Speaker of the Month” series) and talked to a few people at the speakers’ dinner.
That is the first and last Katy Perry reference you will find on this blog or anywhere else in my life.
Last weekend I spoke at the 4th edition of my “home” SQL Saturday, SQL Saturday #383. This was the end of a path that started four years ago, and the beginning of an exciting new one.
About four years ago, I was introduced to PASS. It didn’t take long for people to start talking to me about public speaking.
Slides & demos from my SQL Saturday Rochester presentation “Easing into Scripting with Windows PowerShell” have been posted on the SQL Saturday site.
Thank you to everyone who came out for my session and all of SQL Saturday!
I’ll be presenting my session Easing into Scripting with Windows PowerShell this Saturday, May 16th at SQL Saturday Rochester.
SQL Saturday is a free, all-day event for learning about SQL Server and related technologies, and networking with like-minded professionals in the region.
In addition to speaking, I’ll be tweeting out live updates all day long and posting pictures to both Instagram and Twitter. Watch for the hashtag #sqlsatroc (links to searches on both services).
We’re already in the early stages of preparing for our 2015 SQL Saturday. One thing that was missing from this year’s event was local speakers; we just didn’t have many, and I’m hoping we can change that the next time around.
For a lot of people (myself included), getting into speaking can be intimidating. Do I even have something interesting to say? What if I can’t fill an entire hour (or 75 minutes)?