Rick Heiges : SQL 2008, SQL Community, User Group Meetings

September 12 in San Fran

RickHeiges — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 02:04:00 GMT

Just a reminder that I will be speaking at the SF UG SQL Server User Group on Sep 12. Here is a link with all of the details. If you are in the area, It would be great to see you!...(read more)

Speaking at Richmond

RickHeiges — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:32:00 GMT

I am honored to be the guest speaker at the Richmond SQL Server User Group on Monday, Sep 15. They usually have their meetings on the 2nd Thursday of the month, but they made a special exception. I will be speaking about SQL Server 2008 and Consolidation....(read more)

This past Tuesday Night at the Triad SSUG

RickHeiges — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:46:00 GMT

This past Tuesday, I was finally able to attend my local user group meeting. My travel schedule never seemed to match up with the meeting dates this year. It was good to see old friends and meet new faces. John Welch, SQL Server MVP, from Mariner presented on SSRS 2008. The audience had some good questions which made for a great presentation. John will be speaking at the PASS Community Summit in November. This was his second time presenting to this group as he lives just over an hour away in Charlotte. With the price of gas, this is even more appreciated by everyone.

I had started up this group back in 2002 and handed over the reigns to a great team in 2004 as I was going to travel quite a bit with a new position with Scalability Experts in 2005. The group now has an elected Board of Directors and have grown ties with local sponsors and other related user groups in the area. I was happy to see the growth and how it has changed. If you haven't attended a local user group meeting in a while, you are missing out on building your own network , learning something new, and probably FREE Pizza. :-)

In case you did not hear, PASS Call for Speakers is now open!

RickHeiges — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:39:00 GMT

In the latest PASS Community Connector, there is a call for Speakers for this year's summit in Seattle in November. If you have never been to Seattle in November, it really makes you want to learn more about SQL Server in the breakout sessions. ;-) But seriously, it is a great venue to meet other SQL Server professionals and meet the MSFT who actually write the code for SQL Server itself. You know that since MSFT is located in nearby Redmond that the place will be very accessible to MSFT developers and managers.

Also, did you know that the abstracts that are submitted are reviewed/selected by a committee of PASS Volunteers just like you?

Join other industry professionals and help build the SQL Server community as a 2008 PASS Community Summit speaker in Seattle, Washington, November 18-21. Act now and submit an abstract by the March 28^th Deadline.

All speakers receive:

Complimentary registration to the 2008 PASS Community Summit
Industry recognition
Networking opportunities with thousands of attendees

Microsoft employees are encouraged to submit presentations using the online submission website. Please note that any Microsoft submissions will be reviewed and abstract status will be determined by Microsoft.

For more information, please visit our Call To Speakers website at http://calltospeakers.sqlpass.org/ or e-mail any questions to calltospeakers@sqlpass.org.

3 More Weeks 'til Launch!

RickHeiges — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:57:00 GMT

3 weeks from today, the launch party for SQl Serve 2008 will be on! If you are in Southern California, you will be in the "happening" spot. Enjoy!

Why have a launch without the release of the product? SQL Server 2008 is more of an incremental release. There are some great new features in the product, but the bulk of the change was going from 2000 to 2005. From my point of view, there were many more events and opportunities for education on SQl Server 2005 than 2008. I was at the Launch of SQL Server 2005 in San Francisco. It was a great time, but the content at the launch was not new (at least to me). The content at the launch events over the next few months will most likely be more useful than the content at the 2005 events. If you are like many folks who still have 2000 in your environment and have some servers running 2005, these launch events will be useful. If you haven't seen it already, there will be opportunities in your area to sign-up for a launch event. Another great source of information on SQL Server 2008 will be the local user groups across the nation and worldwide that will be involved in launches.