Draft SQLRally Pre-Conference Seminar Proposal

andyleonard — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

Andy Waren (Blog | @sqlAndy), Jack Corbett (Blog | @unclebiguns), and Kendall Van Dyke (Blog | @SQLDBA) have been busy. They're working on SQLRally - a regional PASS event scheduled for May 2011 in Orlando. Andy does a good job explaining the thinking behind the event in his 31 Aug 2010 post: Positioning SQLRally in the PASS Event Universe.

Pre-Cons

Andy's 1 Sep 2010 post on the topic (SQLRally Pre-Con Selection Process – Draft for Comment) includes a draft document outlining a proposal for the pre-conference selection process. I see improvements over the current PASS Summit pre-/post-conference selection process (which I blogged about here). There's even community engagement in the mix.

The Big (Medium) Deal

I think Kendall summed it up well in this tweet:

Andy and the crew also did a good job with this table:

	Summit	SQLRally	SQLSaturday
Attendance	+3000	Max 600	Avg of 250
Price	$995 – $1995	$299	Free
Duration	3 Days	2 Days	1 Day
Sessions/Tracks	160+	40-48	12-50
Keynote	Yes	No	Sometimes
Exhibit Hall	Yes	No	No
Organizers	HQ	HQ/Local Chapter	Local leaders
Meals	Seated buffett	Boxed lunch	Pizza/Box Lunch

SQLRally is positioned as a regional event. I think regional SQL Server events is a market that's currently underserved and look forward to PASS's offering. Given the SQL Server Community talent behind this event, I'm sure it will be awesome!

:{> Andy

A Follow-up to Database Professionals: An Enterprise Requirement

andyleonard — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 01:07:00 GMT

Eric Wise drew some heat from the developer community at CodeBetter.com with this post about the need for a DBA during development (see my post on the subject here).

I think Eric makes a couple good points, one explicit, one implied:

1. (Explicit) A DBA - or Database Developer, more accurately (and there is a difference) - adds value to development.

2. (Implicit) There are Software Developers out there who can step into the Database Developer role long enough to solve most database tuning issues. Eric demonstrates this with himself in profiling and addressing a missing or ill-defined index.

I find most of the comments - presumably by software developers - typical. One developer stated:

My current project didn't have a DBA for 2 years, until recently since we're now at the stage of optimizing for performance. It seems to me that as long as the database is intelligently structured in the first place, a DBA's role would be rather small in most cases.

I agree with the sentiment expressed here - as much as I agree that code-generation tools can replace application developers. It's true that you can utilize SQL Server or any database engine as a dumb file store. And it's equally true that you can build an enterprise application in C# that consists of thousands upon thousands of lines of nested If... Then... Else statements.

</sarcasm>

The question is: Why would you?

This goes beyond arguments over syntax, coding standards, methodology, and design philosophy. This is about putting competent professionals - at the height of their game - into the mix on a project.

You don't have to take my word for it - ask software developers who have worked (or are working) with competent database developers.

:{> Andy

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Draft SQLRally Pre-Conference Seminar Proposal

A Follow-up to Database Professionals: An Enterprise Requirement