SQL Server Social
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 Social 17 – We can now predict the weather
Yes. It’s true. SQL Social is now the official weather forecaster for Melbourne.
Why? Well because for the last 4 events it has rained (heavily I might add) at the precise moment everyone leaves their cosy offices and begins to make their way down to SQL Social. This puts a lot of people off attending. Although I personally don’t see why; we are located right next to a tram stop and but a 150m from Southern Cross Railway Station, AND we have free drinks and pizza!
SQL Social 17 was at least well turned out despite the weather, even if we had a 50% drop-off. With about 25 people in attendance and Dr. Greg Low doing a wonderful job at explaining all that Red Gate Software had to offer, we had a great event. Most of the attendees walked away with a little something from Red Gate, including two lucky people who took home SQL Server Source Control licenses!
The Royal Melbourne Hotel has once again played host to our event and I must thank them again for providing us such as great venue with such wonderful staff. A big thanks also to Lobsterpot Solutions for the ongoing support of SQL Social.
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 No. 16 – Recap
The weather didn’t play nice again last night and so we only had a handful of attendees at SQL Social No.16, held at The Royal Melbourne Hotel on Bourke Street. More’s the pity as we had a couple of great presentations lined up from Jim McLeod and Martin Cairney.
Jim presented on the new features of SQL Server 2014, recently announced at TechEd 2013. The presentation itself was kept to about 10 minutes, but the discussions that it spawned carried on for nearly a hour.
Martin had a demo planned on the use of the PAL tool-kit for consolidating and analysing Performance Monitor traces to give you a quick indicator of performance issues in your SQL Server, but with all the talk about SQL Server 2014 we ran out of time. It is always great to see conversations flow between peers about technology that we love & enjoy.
Call for speakers
We are currently looking for speakers to give 2-3 short presentations (5-15 minutes) at each of our future events. These presentations can be on anything data related and needn’t be constrained to just technical how to’s. We are also very keen to hear about case studies involving issues that you faced and how they were overcome, careers in the data industry, etc.
It’ll be worth it too, as each speaker/presenter will earn a 1-month Pluralsight subscription!
Enjoy the next couple of Month’s while we revamp SQL Social and bring you new content and a better format. As always, we are open to suggestions, so if you have an idea that you think will improve the event we would love to hear from you.
SQL Server Social Survey – We need YOUR feedback!
After nearly a year of SQL Server Social events it’s time to get some much needed feedback.
We, the organisers of SQL Server Social, are constantly thinking of ways to make this event better, more enjoyable, more satisfying. And while we have come up with a few good ideas, we need your help to tailor this event into something that is going to make YOU want to attend time after time after time. So we created a [very short] survey to gather this feedback in a slightly more scientific way than a passing comment after a couple of beers.
And here’s the best bit:
By completing the survey you stand a chance of winning licenses for Red Gate‘s AWESOME SQL Compare Pro AND SQL Source Control! That’s nearly $800 worth of software!!
These licenses, along with a number of other Red Gate goodies, will be given away at the next SQL Server Social event in October 2012. You need to be at the event in order to claim your prize (Details of the event to follow).
You can take the survey now by following the link below:
Take the SQL Server Social Survey Now!
Your feedback is greatly appreciated and will go a long way to making this a better event for everyone.
-Luke-
SQL Server Social No. 9 – New Format!
SQL Server Social No. 9 is just around the corner, if you haven’t already you should go and register right now. This month we are introducing a new format to the event: Ask The Experts.
Ask The Experts
Our Ask The Experts format incorporates the best bits of any networking event: keeping it social, relatively unstructured but with the bonus of having industry experts on hand to answer YOUR questions. These industry experts have kindly agreed to be at the event for your benefit. So do your homework, and come prepared with some good questions.
This Month the focus is on Business Intelligence. Our experts are three of the best. Boyan Penev, Darrren Gosbell and Simon Selves will be at hand to answer your questions and provide advice on the vast topic of SQL Server Business Intelligence and GIS.
Boyan Penev
Boyan is a SQL Server MVP who specialises in all components of the Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence stack.
Boyan’s topics of conversation will include Microsoft SQL Server BI Stack, Microsoft Office and the future roadmap of these products, their current capabilities and features, as well as Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse Best Practices and concepts.
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Darren Gosbell
Darren Gosbell has over ten 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. Darren contributes to a number of open source projects including BIDS Helper, AS Stored Procedures, PowerSSAS and Dax Studio. Last year he was accredited as one of the first 11 Analysis Services Maestros...
Simon Selves
Simon is a GIS Masters Graduate with 14 years of Spatial Industry experience in both the UK and Australia, with strong expertise in the use of MapInfo and ESRI systems.
Simon specialises in Spatial Data Warehouse design and implementation using MS SQL Server 2008 R2 technology, Retail Network planning and analysis, Socio-demographic modelling and analysis for targeted marketing campaigns.
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So come to SQL Server Social next week and meet our experts as well as other Melbourne data professionals. And don’t forget that this is a sponsored event, so we will have food and drinks available for registered attendees.
SQL Server Social No. 9 Event Details
When: 2012/08/08 From 6:00pm onwards
Where: The Bull & Bear Tavern, 347 Flinder’s Lane, Melbourne
How much?: Free!
Duration: ’til late!
See you there!
SQL Social 