Events
SQL Social No. 38 – Getting more out of your BI Tools with BIDS Helper
SQL Social: Australia’s Premier Data Networking Event!
Register Here!
When: 2015/10/07 From 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Where: The Governors Lounge, The Royal Melbourne Hotel, 629 Bourke Street Melbourne, VIC, Austrlalia
Cost: Free!
Food & Drinks will be provided.
SQL Social brings together Database & BI professionals, industry experts and those with an appetite for learning more about data & information management, in a relaxed atmosphere to network, share ideas, impart knowledge, and have a great time whilst doing so.
We will provide you with plenty of food and drinks for the evening, all thanks to our fantastic sponsors (see below).
Networking
This is not your usual SQL Server User Group event. At SQL Social our aim is to give YOU the opportunity to meet with MVPs, well-known speakers, experienced professionals & industry experts and ask them about the data-related topics that matter to you. It is an opportunity to meet new people, make new friendships and find out what is going on in the data industry in Melbourne.
Speaking
As we have mentioned at previous events, we want to encourage you to take your first steps as a new speaker. As an incentive, every speaker wiil receive a free 1 month PluralSight subscription as a thank you. We only need a short 10 minute or so session on any SQL Server related topic – from an interesting query technique to an overview of the functionality of a component. Contact us if you’d like to have a go.
This Month’s Speaker and Topic
Darren Gosbell – Getting more out of your BI Tools with BIDS Helper
Darren Gosbell has 15 years of practical experience in building and implementing data warehousing and business intelligence solutions for some of Australia’s largest corporations. Darren has been awarded as a Microsoft MVP SQL Server since 2006 in recognition of his contribution to the community specially in the areas of Analysis Services and MDX. He is the leader of the Melbourne SQL Server User Group and also contributes to a number of open source BI projects including BIDS Helper, DAX Studio and the AnalysisServicesStoredProcedure project.
In his spare time, when he can find a large open space Darren enjoys throwing boomerangs.
If you are looking to get the most out of Microsoft BI technologies you owe it to yourself to check out BIDS Helper which is a free add-in that enhances the Microsoft BI design tools.The tools that Microsoft provides for working with the BI services are pretty good, but there are a few rough edges. BIDS Helper is an award winning free tool which seamlessly integrates with and extends the Microsoft BI designers.
Come along and see this demo rich presentation from the one of the core project contributors.
Our Sponsors:
Once again we are fortunate to have wonderful sponsors on board who will ensure that we are suitably fed and watered. A big thank you to Lobsterpot Solutions, C3 Business Solutions and Pluralsight for their ongoing support of this great community event!
Lobsterpot Solutions:LobsterPot Solutions™ is an Australian company with staff in Adelaide and Melbourne, offering consultancy and training services around Australia. LobsterPot Solutions specialises in SQL Server, including performance tuning, Business Intelligence, and more. LobsterPot Solutions is a company of firsts. When the Microsoft Partner Network went live, we were the first company in Australia to become a Gold Competency Partner, the first in the world to gain the Gold Competency in Business Intelligence. Since then we have become the first to have an APS / PDW trainer on staff, and have been involved in training other trainers in the region. |
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C3 Business Solutions:C3 Business Solutions is an award winning Australian Information Management, Business Analytics and Business Intelligence company that delivers measurable business improvements for our clients. C3 specialise in developing and deploying successful strategies end-to-end for large public & private sector organisations. While remaining vendor independent, C3 work with clients to establish current as well as future needs. Their team of top tier consultants continuously focus on delivering measurable business change. |
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Pluralsight:Pluralsight is the global leader in high-quality online training for hardcore developers. The revolutionary Pluralsight training library provides developers with instant access to a rich collection of online training courses delivered by industry authorities. See what you can learn at pluralsight.com and join the @pluralsight community on Twitter. |
See you there!
SQL Social No 33. Machine Learning as a Service
SQL Social: Australia’s Premier Data Networking Event!
Register Here!
When: 2015/05/06 From 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Where: The Governors Lounge, The Royal Melbourne Hotel, 629 Bourke Street Melbourne, VIC, Austrlalia
Cost: Free!
Food & Drinks will be provided.
SQL Social brings together Database & BI professionals, industry experts and those with an appetite for learning more about data & information management, in a relaxed atmosphere to network, share ideas, impart knowledge, and have a great time whilst doing so.
We will provide you with plenty of food and drinks for the evening, all thanks to our fantastic sponsors (see below).
Networking
This is not your usual SQL Server User Group event. At SQL Social our aim is to give YOU the opportunity to meet with MVPs, well-known speakers, experienced professionals & industry experts and ask them about the data-related topics that matter to you. It is an opportunity to meet new people, make new friendships and find out what is going on in the data industry in Melbourne.
Speaking
As we have mentioned at previous events, we want to encourage you to take your first steps as a new speaker. As an incentive, every speaker wiil receive a free 1 month PluralSight subscription as a thank you. We only need a short 10 minute or so session on any SQL Server related topic – from an interesting query technique to an overview of the functionality of a component. Contact us if you’d like to have a go.
This Month’s Speaker and Topic
James Mao – Machine Learning as A Service – A VoicePrint Example
James Mao is a Cloud Principal Consultant at DWS in responsible for the development of cloud practice.
Prior to returning to Australia last year, James worked at Microsoft as an Azure technical evangelist.
With a combination of solid IT and business background, James is able to smoothly engage with various types of stakeholders, to support them to design and build / migrate scalable solutions on cloud platforms. He has actively developed reusable IPs and best practices for the Microsoft cloud businesses in US, Singapore and China.
James Mao received a Master’s degree in BI and Knowledge Management at Monash University and a MBA from CEIBS, Shanghai China.
Azure Machine Learning as a Cloud based service can greatly accelerate the time to market of new AI based solutions. In his talk, James will use a VoicePrint example to showcase how the Machine Learning service fits into a whole solution picture
Our Sponsors:
Once again we are fortunate to have wonderful sponsors on board who will ensure that we are suitably fed and watered. A big thank you to Lobsterpot Solutions, C3 Business Solutions and Pluralsight for their ongoing support of this great community event!
Lobsterpot Solutions:LobsterPot Solutions™ is an Australian company with staff in Adelaide and Melbourne, offering consultancy and training services around Australia. LobsterPot Solutions specialises in SQL Server, including performance tuning, Business Intelligence, and more. LobsterPot Solutions is a company of firsts. When the Microsoft Partner Network went live, we were the first company in Australia to become a Gold Competency Partner, the first in the world to gain the Gold Competency in Business Intelligence. Since then we have become the first to have an APS / PDW trainer on staff, and have been involved in training other trainers in the region. |
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C3 Business Solutions:C3 Business Solutions is an award winning Australian Information Management, Business Analytics and Business Intelligence company that delivers measurable business improvements for our clients. C3 specialise in developing and deploying successful strategies end-to-end for large public & private sector organisations. While remaining vendor independent, C3 work with clients to establish current as well as future needs. Their team of top tier consultants continuously focus on delivering measurable business change. |
|
Pluralsight:Pluralsight is the global leader in high-quality online training for hardcore developers. The revolutionary Pluralsight training library provides developers with instant access to a rich collection of online training courses delivered by industry authorities. See what you can learn at pluralsight.com and join the @pluralsight community on Twitter. |
See you there!
SQL Social No. 26 – Chris Benson and the Tale of the SSIS Project Deployment Model
Our July Event is just hours away and this month we have Chris Benson back to talk to us about the SSIS Project Deployment Model.
Chris is a Managing Consultant with C3 Solutions, who are also sponsoring tonight’s event (Thank you!). Chris specialises in data warehouse and business intelligence applications, business process management, office development and general software development.
C3 Business Solutions is an award winning Australian Information Management, Business Analytics and Business Intelligence company that delivers measurable business improvements for their clients. We are grateful for C3’s support of our community event and hope to have them onboard for future events as well.
If you haven’t yet registered for tonight’s social event, then please go here to sign up.
Looking forward to seeing you all there.
LH
C3 Business Solutions – New SQL Social Sponsor!
C3 Business Solutions
C3 Business Solutions is an award winning Australian Information Management, Business Analytics and Business Intelligence company that delivers measurable business improvements for our clients.
C3 specialise in developing and deploying successful strategies end-to-end for large public & private sector organisations. While remaining vendor independent, C3 work with clients to establish current as well as future needs. Their team of top tier consultants continuously focus on delivering measurable business change.
“According to a client survey conducted last year, compared to other IM consultants our clients say we’re more collaborative, better at stakeholder management, have a ‘can-do’ attitude and are flexible, and we’re focused on quality.”
C3 Business Solutions will be sponsoring our next event, to be held on November 13th at the Royal Melbourne Hotel. Chris Benson will be speaking on their behalf about the Myths & Misconceptions of Agile Data Warehouse Projects. This promises to be a great talk and I am sure will lead to a hearty discussion. As a BI Consultant working on one the largest Agile Data Warehouse implementations in Melbourne (that I am aware of) I am thoroughly looking forward to this talk.
Chris Benson
Chris Benson is a Managing Consultant with C3 Business Solutions. Chris specialises in data warehouse and business intelligence applications, business process management, office development and general software development for Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing applications.
Chris is a Certified SCRUM Master, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and is also certified in a range of Business Intelligence tools and platforms on the Microsoft platform, and has authored white papers on security planning and strategy in the industry and has presented on Business Analytics at major conferences in South Africa.
Chris can be contacted via LinkedIn.
Details for SQL Social No. 20 can be found on the Eventbrite & MeetUp websites. Please register if you plan on attending the event.
See you next week!
SQL Social No.18 – In the bag
What a fantastic evening!
By my reckoning SQL Social No. 18 has to be the best social event that we have hosted this year. With a +80% turnout, an excellent speaker and attendees that were engaged and willing to get deep into discussion, this event ranks highly on my list.
What made this event work? Well, for me, there are a number of factors that I believe contributed to the success of the event:
- The weather played ball (it was warm and dry!)
- We have a core attendance established through our (ever growing) contact list
- A great speaker with an interesting topic
- Attendees that are engaged and willing to participate
- Sponsors to make it all happen
Thanks must also go to our speaker, Tara Shanka Jana, a Microsoft Premier Field Engineer who presented on the topic of Extreme Transaction Processing (XTP). Tara’s presentation generated a number of good questions and subsequent discussion, keeping the focus for nearly an hour. It was great to see the attendees really engaged and learning a thing or two about Hekaton.
I had a lot of good feedback at the end of the evening, with some attendees commenting that this has been the best SQL Social yet. These are the things that I like to hear!
Our next event is penciled in for Wednesday, October 9th. So keep your calendars clear and keep an eye out for invites and registration in a couple of weeks time.
Want to speak at one of our events?
As always, we on the look out for new speakers. If you haven’t had the opportunity to speak before then this event is the perfect platform to get started. We operate in a relaxed, informal atmosphere that encourages discussion. We want you to present on just about anything data related, whether that’s DBA hot tips, Business Intelligence best practices, data visualisation, T-SQL performance tuning, SharePoint, Data Career paths, Certifications, etc. You name it, we want to hear about it. And if you do speak at SQL Social, you won’t go away empty handed. You will receive a one-month subscription to Pluralsight – Hardcore Developer Training. Pluralsight is an amazing resource for online learning, covering just about every developer topic under the sun; including SharePoint, Business Intelligence, SQL Server, PowerShell, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Virtualisation. The list goes on.
So get in touch with us (luke.hayler at mopani.com.au / sqlsocial at outlook.com) or on twitter @lukehayler , @martin_cairney or @jim_mcleod and we can set a date for you to speak at one of our SQL Social events.
SQL Server Social – 17
Unless you have been hiding, you’ll know that our next event has already been booked in for Wednesday 7th August, 2013. As usual we will be at the Royal Melbourne Hotel from 5:30pm.
Please register at http://sqlsocial17-eorg.eventbrite.com/
As well as the usual opportunity to network and learn more about data & information management in a relaxed atmosphere with plenty of food and drinks for the evening (thanks to our fantastic sponsors); this month we have some extra special treats …
Red Gate Product Demos
We are fortunate to have Dr. Greg Low joins us this month and talk to us about Red Gate and their awesome software.
Greg is the CEO and Principal Mentor with SQL Down Under (www.sqldownunder.com). Greg is a long-term SQL Server MVP and a member of the global Microsoft Regional Director program.
So please come down for something to eat & drink, and find out what Red Gate has to offer. You may even be in with a chance to win some great Red Gate prizes!
Since 1999, Red Gate Software has produced ingeniously simple tools for over 500,000 Microsoft technology professionals worldwide.
Red Gate currently specialize in MS SQL Server and .NET tools. Our philosophy is to design highly usable, reliable tools that solve the problems of DBAs and developers.
See you there!
SQL Social 