PASS Community Summit 2009

One of my favorite times of the year is the PASS Community Summit.  It's five jam-packed days of SQL Server sessions by Microsoft employees, MVPs, and the people that you read about in technical books.  It's pre-conference and post-conference workshops on all different levels of topics of SQL Server.  It's a way to meet new people who love to do what you love to do and connect with old friends who you only see once a year.  It's a way to get a job or sell a job.  It's all of this and so much more that I can't even begin to describe.

I'm excited to attend for the third year starting tomorrow.  If you are attending the Summit, I hope you'll come and introduce yourself.  You can find me at one of these locations/times:

Monday, November 2, 2009
4:30pm-6:30pm 
Networking Pre-Con - I'm really excited to learn about the best ways to meet people and meet other people who are interested in the same thing!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009
11:45am-12:45pm
Birds of a Feather Lunch (Expo Hall 4B) - I am hosting a table during lunch on “Is Business Intelligence an Oxymoron?”.  I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can incorporate the business into our data warehouse and delivery design.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
11:30am-1:30pm
Women in Technology Luncheon and Panel Discussion (Room 6BC) - I am one of the panelists discussing “Energizing the Next Generation: Encouraging and Inspiring Young Women to Choose Tech Careers”.

3:00pm-4:15pm
“Adding SSRS Report Bells and Whistles” (Room 612 (165) ) – I am presenting on Reporting Services 2008 design best practices and guidance.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
12:00pm - 12:30pm
Book Signing (South Lobby, across from Summit Bookstore) – I’ll be hanging out by the bookstore as one of the authors of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Problem-Design-Solution.  Definitely come by if you have any question about the book!

Of course, I will also be attending sessions and some evening events, so please come and talk to me there instead.  I’m looking forward to attending the best Summit yet.

Fall 2009 Conference Odyssey

As promised, I wanted to let you know about a few events where I'll be in the upcoming weeks. This Saturday (10/17), I'm making the trek up to East Iowa for their SQLSaturday event. They pulled in quite a few great speakers, and they've also invited me to speak on my favorite BI products: SSRS, SSIS, and SSAS! It looks like registration is still open, so if you're in the area, you should definitely sign up, come by, and say hi.

The following week, I am pleased to be speaking at the Charlotte SQL Server User Group on Extract, Transform, and Load your Data Warehouse. I'll be making the drive down (audio book suggestions, anyone?) on Thursday, October 22 to speak that evening. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and seeing some old friends in the area. I'll also be staying over for a soon-to-be-announced event on Friday.

The first week of November, I'll be at the PASS Community Summit. These is my third year attending the conference, second year speaking, and first time as a panelist on the WIT luncheon. This conference is so big and has so much going on that I will give it its own post closer to that time.

The following week is the SharePoint Connections conference. My friend and colleague, Kevin Israel, invited me to deliver a joint preconference workshop entitled SharePoint BI - Building Dazzling Dashboards and Sizzling Scorecards in SharePoint. Can you tell which section will be my part? *coughBIcough* ;) The all-day workshop is on November 9, so I'll be taking the rest of the week to attend some sessions and talk shop with attendees. Please do look me up and introduce yourself!

Rounding out the list is the SharePoint Saturday event in Richmond on November 21. I'm not sure if I'm volunteering or speaking yet, but either way, I will be there! The SharePoint Saturday events have taken off like a rocket, and I'm excited to participate.

That wraps up the current list. I hope to see you at one of the events.

Update: Fixed SQLSaturday date

I'm an Author and Other Sort-Of-But-Not-Completely-Related News

Over the years, I've read several posts similar to this one, and now it's my turn!  At the beginning of this year, I was asked to participate in writing a new SSIS book with co-authors: Erik Veerman, Brian Knight, and Jay Hackney.  After many late nights and just a few cans of Mountain Dew, I'm proud to say that the book has been completed and will be published at the beginning of November.  Please check out: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Problem-Design-Solution.

Along with that exciting news comes an apology for not blogging as much as I would have liked.  Here's a quick recap from the past several months:

• David Giard invited me to do a short video on Integrations Services on his Technology and friends series.
• I had a great conversation with Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes on Reporting Services on RunAs Radio.
• The PASS BI Virtual Chapter had me speak a few times.  I definitely recommend you check out the line up of great speakers/presentations that they have coming up as well!
• I flew to Nashville to participate in the devLink conference with two presentations on SSRS and SSIS.
• I am honored a second time to be re-awarded a Microsoft MVP Award on October 1.  Thank you all for allowing me to come speak at events and share the exciting things I've learned with you.

Also, if you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know a lot of this.  And if you don't follow me on Twitter, why not?

More posts to follow on future events and, of course, some technical content as well!