My First SQL Saturday event: It was amazing

By Steve Endow

The Microsoft SQL Server community is amazing.

Amazing.

That's not an exaggeration or platitude.

On Saturday, I attended my first "SQL Saturday" event in Orange County, California.  I left speechless.

Several hundred people attended the event at a local college.  On a Saturday.  I overheard one attendee say that she woke up at 4am and had a 2+ hour drive from San Diego to attend. Presenters flew in from all over the country to speak at the event, with several speakers facing a snow storm and flight cancellations trying to return home.  They did this, without compensation, on a Saturday.  And some were planning on attending up to 10 other SQL Saturday events across the country.

And I should mention that the event was free for attendees.  Completely free.

When I arrived at 8am, there was a line of 40 or 50 people waiting to check in.  There were lots of volunteers helping people check in, handing out tote bags, re-printing passes, setting up tables, and preparing the event.  Before the first session started, they had setup tables with gallons of free coffee, bagels, danishes, and donuts.

The event is organized by PASS, a non-profit organization that helps support people who use Microsoft data technologies.

Ten companies sponsored the SQL Saturday event, which has the following mission statement:

Our Mission
The PASS SQLSaturday program provides the tools and knowledge needed for groups and event leaders to organize and host a free day of training for SQL Server professionals. At the local event level, SQLSaturday events:

• Encourage increased membership for the local user group
• Provide local SQL Server professionals with excellent training and networking opportunities
• Help develop, grow, and encourage new speakers

When I signed up, I didn't know what to expect.  I thought it might be a casual user-group style meeting with a few speakers.  But it was much more like a full fledged, single day, intense SQL Server conference.

Several of the speakers that I saw were simply amazing.

Here are the sessions that I attended:

1. SQL Database and Query Design for Application Developers
2. Azure Basics for the DBA
3. PowerShell for the SQL DBA
4. Spotlight on SQL Server by Quest Software (vendor presentation)
5. Data Pages, Allocation Units, IAM Chains
6. The Query Store and SQL Tuning
7. Fundamentals That Will Improve Query Performance

The 6 educational sessions were incredible.  I felt I knew a fair amount about 3 of the topics, but still learned a ton in those sessions.  And the 3 sessions with topics that were new to me had so much valuable content that I was dizzy by the time the session ended.  For example, I learned how the data is structured inside of an 8K data page--down to the byte!  WHAT?!?!

I took pages of notes on my iPad during most of the sessions, as they were all offering real world knowledge, experience, anecdotes, and lessons about how to use different SQL Server features and tools.

It was 6 solid hours of high quality content presented by SQL Server experts.  It was intense, valuable learning, and I was tired at the end of the day.

It was amazing.

If you work with SQL Server and have an opportunity to attend a SQL Saturday event, I recommend it.

Steve Endow is a Microsoft MVP in Los Angeles.  He is the owner of Precipio Services, which provides Dynamics GP integrations, customizations, and automation solutions.

You can also find him on Twitter, YouTube, and Google+

http://www.precipioservices.com