We are excited to announce the formation of the PASS Nordic Region, formalizing our support for the tremendous Nordic SQL Server Community. To help us provide this support, we have appointed two leaders of that community who will serve as PASS Regional Mentors. The countries represented in PASS Nordic are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
It is also a pleasure to announce that Johan Åhlén and Raoul Illyés have accepted our invitations to become PASS Nordic's first Regional Mentors. Johan is a Microsoft MVP and Chairman of the Swedish SQL Server User Group.
Raoul is a leading voice in the Nordic SQL Server community and a founding partner of the PASS SQLRally Nordic event. He is based in Denmark and recently joined the PASS Board of Directors as a non-voting member in support of our international outreach efforts.
Our efforts to work more closely with the Nordic Region are in alignment with PASS's global initiative. Supporting this initiative, the PASS Board recently appointed three International Board Members: Rob Farley (Australia), James Rowland-Jones (UK), and Raoul Illyés (Denmark), also mentioned above as a new Regional Mentor.
Furthering our efforts to support the international SQL Server community, PASS SQLRally Nordic will be held in Aronsborg, Sweden, November 8-9.
PASS Regional Mentors have extensive experience with the local and regional SQL Server Community and provide help and guidance to leaders of our local chapters worldwide. The Regional Mentors work closely with the PASS Community Team.
Please join me in welcoming Johan and Raoul as PASS Nordic Regional Mentors, and check out more information about PASS Regions and Chapters here.
-- Mark
Mark Ginnebaugh
PASS Director, Global Chapters
We are excited to introduce some changes to PASS in an effort to connect global SQL Server communities and foster relationships between our professionals – wherever they’re located. PASS began in 1999 with a vision to empower all of our SQL Server communities to connect, share, and learn. To meet these objectives for our global community, PASS needs to change who we are and how we engage with communities. The direction for how we evolve needs to be paved by people representing the diversity of voices we want to support and connect with.
Earlier this month, representatives from PASS traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, to meet with key community leaders Johan Åhlén and Raoul Illyés from the Nordic region, James Rowland-Jones and Simon Sabin from the UK, and Rob Farley and Greg Low representing Australia/New Zealand. These leaders represent regions that have vibrant and healthy communities and bring diverse voices and viewpoints as well as a shared passion for the SQL Server community.
The primary purpose of the two-day meeting was to discuss our shared goals to strengthen and connect global communities and how we can work together to help all of the communities. The team identified an initial set of priorities that we all believe to be important first initiatives, including:
• Localizing communications from PASS
• Increasing the value proposition of chapters
• Supporting global events
• Exposing event content
As a first step, based on the recommendation from the team that met in Stockholm, the PASS board unanimously voted to appoint Raoul Illyés, James Rowland-Jones, and Rob Farley as non-voting members of the board for a period of one year.
We welcome the ideas and enthusiasm that each of these leaders has brought to their respective communities as an opportunity to help shape the future of PASS. These three appointees will join a team that will define a plan to evolve our governance structure so that PASS better meets the needs of global communities. As a secondary objective, this team will actively participate in various board discussions to ensure that the global perspective and needs are central to every PASS initiative.
We recently read a quote from a TechNet wiki that states, “Individuals are smart, but communities are wise.” These changes are based on our belief that the efforts to connect individual international communities will make all communities stronger. We hope you share our excitement about this next stage for how PASS can support you and your local SQL Server communities.
The 2011 Nomination Committee (NomCom) – a team that assesses and reviews all PASS Board of Director applicants – has been finalized. Three community members have stepped forward to serve in this important role: Bradley Ball, Jack Corbett and Roy Ernest.
After the NomCom nomination period, with 3 applicants all meeting the qualification criteria, the election process was no longer necessary and the three applicants were approved by the Board to sit on the NomCom. The final composition of the NomCom is as follows:
• Bradley Ball
• Jack Corbett
• Roy Ernest
• Thomas LaRock (Board of Directors Representative)
• Wayne Snyder (NomCom Chairperson)
To find out more about the NomCom members, please check out their bios and blogs.
If you didn’t apply for the NomCom but are still interested in helping better PASS and building a stronger community, there are more opportunities around the corner. The PASS Board of Director’s Elections are coming up. Applications will open on October 5th, 2011. More details will be posted on the elections website as they develop.
Congratulations to Bradley, Jack, and Roy! The Nomination Committee plays an important role in PASS’s growth, and these members are a valued addition.
PASS community bloggers love their SQLSaturdays, and they love to tell everyone about their experiences, so who are we not to share that love?
PASS SQLSaturdays have been mixing work with play this summer. Despite vacations and summer hours (you know who you are),
hundreds of you have come together for SQLSaturday events for a good mix of technical topics at a variety of skill levels. There's
always something of interest for everyone! PASS SQLSaturday travelled to Birmingham for SQLSaturday #81, to Wheeling for
SQLSaturday #80, then Baton Rouge for SQLSaturday #64 and lastly to South Florida for some fun in the sun at SQLSaturday #79.
For those of you not in the know, SQLSaturday is a free training event for SQL Server professionals and anyone wanting to learn about
SQL Server. Admittance to these events is free as costs are covered by generous donations and sponsorships.
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Bradley Ball digging his new shirt at SQLSaturday#79!
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All work and no play at SQLSaturday #80 in Wheeling
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Beautiful Birmingham played host to SQLSaturday #81 |
Baton Rouge got its SQL on at SQLSaturday #64
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On Twitter? Follow @sqlpass and make sure to check out the #sqlsat and #sqlsaturday hashtags to stay up to date. Besides
attendance at free learning events, there are many speaking and sponsorship opportunities available.
RECENTLY IN SQLSATURDAY #79...
+Wes Brown presented at SQLSaturday #64, Baton Rouge, LA
+Carlos Bossy presented at SQLSaturday #64, Baton Rouge, LA
+ Hugh Thomas participated in SQLSaturday #81, Birmingham
+ Andy Warren participated in SQLSaturday #81, Birmingham
+John Sterret helped organize SQLSaturday #80, Wheeling, WV
+Matt Velic snapped some pics at SQLSaturday #80, Wheeling, WV
+ Bradley Ball presented at SQLSaturday #79, South FL
+ Thomas LaRock presented at SQLSaturday #79, South FL
COMING UP IN SQLSATURDAY...
August wraps with a SQLSaturday double-header! September is all about back-to-school so grab your calendars, it's going to be a busy month.
Aug 27: SQLSaturday #90, Oklahoma City
Aug 27: SQLSaturday #91, Omaha
Sept 3: SQLSaturday #88, Western Cape, South Africa
Sept 10: SQLSaturday #94, Salt Lake City
Stay tuned for more events this fall–PASS SQLSaturdays are added all the time!
IN OTHER NEWS...
| PASS SQLSaturday got a makeover! As you know, PASS SQLSaturday events have been on the rise and also branched out internationally to Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, and Portugal. This growth prompted a refresh of the SQLSaturday website, including an updated logo, a more polished look and feel, and improvements to such features as the schedule builder and login credentials. Check out the updated SQLSaturday website and see for yourself! |
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Want to attend or speak at a SQLSaturday? Check out the SQLSaturday website or "Upcoming In-Person Events" on the PASS Home page for upcoming dates near you.
Want to put on your own SQLSaturday? Click here to get started.
The PASS 2011 elections season is officially upon us with today’s opening of the call for Nomination Committee (NomCom) applications.
The NomCom is at the heart of the elections process, ensuring that each applicant for the four open Board of Director seats in this year’s general election possesses the characteristics and attributes necessary to lead the world’s largest independent, user-led organization for SQL Server professionals. This year, the PASS community will select three of the NomCom members, who will join me and another Board member on the 5-person committee.
To be eligible for the NomCom, candidates must have a demonstrable track record of volunteering with PASS, such as serving as a Regional Mentor, Chapter Leader, Virtual Chapter Leader, Program Committee member, or speaker (at PASS Summit, PASS SQLRally, SQLSaturday, or 24 Hours of PASS) or participating in other volunteer capacities.
If you meet the eligibility requirements and would like to serve on the NomCom, I encourage you to submit an application by August 19. NomCom voting will run from August 24 to September 9, with all PASS members as of June 1, 2011, eligible to vote. The top three vote-getters will be elected to the NomCom and immediately get down to the business of managing this year’s general election process.
Note that the NomCom is an essential part of the PASS Board of Directors elections process and requires a substantial commitment of time and effort. By applying for the NomCom, you are agreeing to the time commitments of the entire general election process – including a lengthy applicant interview process currently set to start in late November or early December.
Serving on the NomCom, however, is also an extremely satisfying experience and one of the most important ways you can give back to the PASS community. If you’re interested in running for the NomCom or know someone who would make an ideal candidate, please review the details on the PASS Elections website, which includes a complete timeline for this year’s elections process. And make sure to follow and join in the discussion on twitter using the #passvotes hashtag.
Thanks for getting involved!
--Wayne Snyder
Today's post is from Allan Hirt who will be presenting "A Deep Dive into AlwaysOn:Failover Clustering and Availability Groups". You can read more about his session here: http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2011/Speakers/CallForSpeakers/SessionDetail.aspx?sid=1076 .
Is there an audience that would benefit especially from this session?
There has been a lot of buzz around all the changes in high availability that come as part of Denali. This session is for those who want to jumpstart their knowledge, and focuses on both failover clustering and the new availability groups feature from a DBA/IT/infrastructure, not a developer, perspective.
After having attended your seminar, what are two or three things that an attendee will be able to take back to the office and put to use right away?
- Learn the essentials of the new AlwaysOn availability groups feature in SQL Server Denali
- Understand how to plan and implement an underlying Windows failover cluster for not only a standard SQL Server failover cluster, but ones that are multi-site as well as for AlwaysOn availability groups
- See live demos to how how DBAs will actually need to implement and administer these features. This will not be just a day’s worth of theory from slide presentations that is not usable in the real world.
What background should attendees ideally have to be fully prepared for your seminar?
Since there is no plan to teach the basics of failover clustering, attendees should have at least a working knowledge of clusters because clusters not only play a role in the traditional failover clustering aspects of Denali, but in availability groups as well.
What experience are you, as a speaker, bringing to this session?
Besides being a Microsoft Cluster MVP who can talk to both Windows and SQL Server, I have been working with one of Microsoft’s Denali TAP customers since Spring 2011 on a multi-site deployment combining both clustered instances and availability groups. I also bring close to 20 years of experience with SQL Server including consulting, training, and writing numerous whitepapers, articles, and books. I do not just do this stuff in a lab; I help customers in the real world.
Today's post is from Rob Farley who will be presenting "Fixing Queries With Advanced T-SQL Constructs". You can read more about his
session here: http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2011/Speakers/CallForSpeakers/SessionDetail.aspx?sid=1204
Is there an audience that would benefit especially from this session?
A lot of people are quite good at T-SQL. They can write queries to solve most of their problems, and they probably understand indexing principles - able to pick the ideal covering index for their queries, and probably know to look in the Execution Plan to look for ‘bad things’ such as Index Scans and Lookups. However, I see a lot of things that people don’t really know about writing queries and the relationship to plans. I know they don’t, because I remember learning them myself. I remember making that shift from being able to write ‘good queries’ to being able to write the queries that matched the plans I wanted to see being produced.
But you don’t have to be particularly good at T-SQL already. The kind of person I think will get the most out of this seminar is the person who is merely comfortable writing queries, and interested in being stretched to think differently.
After having attended your seminar, what are two or three things that an attendee will be able to take back to the office and put to use right away?
My favourite piece of feedback from any of my Advanced T-SQL classes is when someone writes "You’ve made me want to pull up every query I’ve ever written." It’s not because they suddenly have tools to assess their queries better (although they will certainly have the opportunity to learn to assess queries), but because they’ve developed an interest in thinking about their queries more. I’ll show people the profoundness of what they already know, and they’ll probably think of times they’ve used those constructs without considering the impact of them. I’ve had people remote into their machines during my talks to see if they’re taking full advantage of the things I’m showing.
As well as that, people will get renewed hope that they can tune some of their nastier queries even more. We all have queries that we have given up on, and I hope that I can persuade people that there is almost always hope, even for the worst of them. The things I’ll be showing can affect a lot of queries, so I’m sure there will be something for even the most frustrating of queries.
What background should attendees ideally have to be fully prepared for your seminar?
I’m going to assume that attendees are not complete beginners with T-SQL. I figure if I show a simple GROUP BY statement, that someone’s going to understand what I’m showing. But I don’t expect that they should have a certain level of expertise before coming. The biggest prerequisite I see for this is to have an interest in getting the most out of T-SQL. If they’re coming to hear my jokes, they’ll be disappointed - my jokes aren’t really that good.
What experience are you, as a speaker, bringing to this session?
Well, I’ve taught Advanced T-SQL for a number of years, using my own courseware, and have delivered this seminar before with excellent feedback. I’ve done public speaking for a long time, and promise to make the day enjoyable as well as instructional. I’ve had some of the best in the industry say that I’m one of the best explainers out there, and I take pleasure in helping people really get the concepts that I’m showing. I try for a mix of the light-hearted and eye-opening, that generally works well. I don’t try for massively deep and obscure; I go for profound, and may make your head hurt as you start seeing the possibilities for the code you can write.
Oh, but if you’ve never seen an execution plan before, then consider going to Grant & Gail’s session. I’m sure that will be very good too.
(Cross-posted from my SQLblog.com blog)
Are you using your benefits to further your SQL Server skills? The other day, the company I work for (Scalability Experts) had a benefits meeting where open enrollment for insurance and other similar things were discussed. Since we are a small company, we outsource HR/Payroll/Benefits, and I discovered a new benefit that I was unaware of previously. Perhaps you have it too.
There is an Educational Assistance Benefit of $1500/year to help with courses that count towards a degree. I was somewhat familiar with that one. There is also an Educational Assistance Benefit that is geared for attending seminars (especially those offered by a Professional Association). The benefit offered through our plan is $500/year to spend on educational seminars. There is some criteria the seminar must meet under our benefit structure such as: helping develop skills that you use in your line of work and it can't be in-house or custom training.
That sounds like a perfect fit for a PASS Summit Pre-Con! Of course your organization may have different criteria and/or benefit amounts, but don't let that education benefit go to waste. There is a great selection of Pre-Cons to choose from (see the lineup below) that offer a full day of learning for only $395! Tap into your benefits and receive some great learning practically for free!
--Rick Heiges
Monday, October 10:
Tuesday, October 11
Today's post is from Simon Sabin who will be presenting "Advanced Reporting Services". You can read more about his session here: http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2011/Speakers/CallForSpeakers/SessionDetail.aspx?sid=1659.
Is there an audience that would benefit especially from this session?
Are any of these familiar
- You’ve been asked to make your reports more interactive.
- You’ve got 100 reports to develop and you want to avoid doing the same thing 100 times.
- You’ve got a system that is used by 200 clients how can you use reporting services to deliver reports for them securely.
- You’ve seen crescent and would like some of that goodness.
- You know reporting services can do more but you just don’t know how.
- You’ve been sitting at your desk and you’ve got no hair left because you’ve been trying to get reporting services to do something that looks easy.
If any of them are familiar then you need to attend the advanced reporting services precon at SQL PASS
After having attended your seminar, what are two or three things that an attendee will be able to take back to the office and put to use right away?
After attending you will know how to tackle the common problems that on the surface look easy but in practice are very difficult. Like how do you combine data from different sources, how do you display parent child data, how do you add interactivity to your report.
Not only will you learn how, but you will also learn why certain options are better than others. I’ve done the hard work figuring these things out so you don’t have to.
What background should attendees ideally have to be fully prepared for your seminar?
Before attending you should have some experience of reporting services. We will assume you know your way around management studio and BIDS. Some knowledge of VB.Net would be helpful but we will be covering that at a fairly basic level.
What experience are you, as a speaker, bringing to this session?
I’ve got 14 years experience with SQL Server and have worked with reporting services from its first incarnation with SQL Server 2000. I’ve worked on large installations with 100s of reports as well as hosted services where we had to deliver reports for individual clients.
I regularly teach companies on how to use SQL Server and Reporting Services and my experience means I know the pitfalls to avoid and the ways to work around some of the limitations of reporting services.
I’ve been and MVP for 6 years, I’m one of the founders of SQLBits and I am a Microsoft Certified Master in SQL Server 2008.
Go here to register for the 2011 PASS Summit.
I attended my first PASS Summit in 2004. Why did I go? Because of two words: professional association. I wanted to grow my professional skills as a DBA, and I knew that meant more than just technical knowledge. I knew I needed to join a network of like-minded individuals where we could learn and grow together.
The first morning there I met Pat Wright (blog | @SQLAsylum). Well, more like he met me, as he lumbered over and sat down at my table during breakfast. We ended up attending Kimberly Tripp’s (blog | @KimberlyLTripp) pre-conference seminar together and met Allen Kinsel (blog | @sqlinsaneo) there. The three of us hung out together all week, sharing meals and talking about our shops. We came to the Summit knowing nobody but were fortunate to have met each other. We left the Summit and stayed in touch, returning the next year, and every year since.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that many of our first-time attendees arrive at the Summit knowing nobody. They meet no one, they eat alone, they leave, and we don't see them again. How do I know this? Because every year, we have roughly 800 people at our Summit for the first time. If those 800 came back every year, we would be over 7,000 attendees by now.
Clearly, we need to improve our customer retention. That's what led me to think about putting together an Orientation Committee (OC) to help first-time attendees get connected, share experiences, and learn from each other. I believe this will translate into more repeat attendees, which will result in more knowledge, more sharing, and better growth opportunities for everyone.
We launched the orientation program for first-time Summit attendees last year at PASS Summit, and we are doing it again this year. That means we need Summit alumni to volunteer to serve as "Big Brothers/Sisters" for a group of new members – and we need new attendees to sign up to participate.
We are thinking most groups will have about 9 people (8 newbies and 1 alumni). The Big Brothers/Sisters will help the first-timers feel welcome, introduce them around, help facilitate discussions, answer questions, etc. The alumni volunteers will be in contact with their assigned group well ahead of Summit and ideally will arrange a meeting with their group before the Welcome Reception. In case that is not possible, we are going to reserve a room at the Convention Center so that all Big Brothers/Sisters can meet with their groups just prior to the Welcome Reception
If you are interested in serving as a Big Brother/Sister, drop us an email at OC_DL@sqlpass.org. And if you are attending the Summit for the first time and want to participate in the program, I encourage you to sign up – just email newcomer@sqlpass.org. Watch for updates on Twitter as we finalize the details, and participate in the discussion by using the #sqlpass #firsttimers hashtags.
See you in Seattle!
-- Thomas LaRock
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