Search results matching tags 'Education' and 'Events'

24 Hours of PASS - BA Style

RickHeiges — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:04:00 GMT

Tomorrow will mark another chapter in the 24 Hours of PASS series.I am involved once again - this time in a moderator role. The event begins at 8am ET for me. I will be introducing Alberto Ferrari who will be speaking on "Excel 2013 Power Pivot in Action" which is a great self-service BI story.

This 24hop event will be in a different format. 12 hours of Live webcasts followed by 12 hours of on-demand webcasts from the previous 12 hours. All sessions will be available for viewing on Feb 11, 2013. There is also a new hashtag to follow on twitter - #PASS24hop. And there is a new website as well... http://www.24hoursofpass.com/

I am excited about the event tomorrow and hope that you will join me to learn more about Business Analytics and ramp up for the PASS Business Analytic Conference being held in Chicago this April. Check out www.sqlpass.org for more information.

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!

Sep 10 Week - I'll be on the West Coast Speaking in Irvine and San Fran

RickHeiges — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:49:00 GMT

In my role as a Solutions Architect for Scalability Experts, I often get to present to customers about the work that we performed. Unfortunately, this is often on short notice and I can't coordinate a trip to participate in a User Group Meeting. Next week, I was able to coordinate my west coast trip to be able to present. I am heading to Irvine at the MTC on Sepember 11 and San Francisco at the MSFT offices on Sep 13 to speak to customers who want to learn more about SQL Server 2012.To register for the Irvine event, click here. To register for the SF event, click here.

Topics covered will include:

Always On Overview
Column Store Index
Licensing Overview
Upgrading to SQL Server 2012

All of this will be covered in about 3 hours and is geared for folks who have not spent a lot of time learning about SQL Server 2012 yet.

Since I knew about this ahead of time, I was also able to secure a chance to speak to the San Francisco SQL Server User Group on the evening of Sep 12. You can read more about it in my previous blog post located here.

Hope to see you there!

Presenting at the San Francisco SQL Server User Group - 12-Sep-2012

RickHeiges — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:25:00 GMT

I have a business trip scheduled out far enough in advance for a change. I was able to schedule a presentation at the San Francisco SQL Server User Group on Sep 12 about SQL Server Consolidation Strategies. If you will be in the SF area on Sep 12, I invite you to attend ar just drop by to say hello. You can find out more about the group at http://www.meetup.com/The-San-Francisco-SQL-Server-Meetup-Group/

Hope to see you there!

Speaking at Atlanta.MDF on March 12

RickHeiges — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:55:00 GMT

I am fortunate enough to be speaking to a user group with a really cool name - Atlanta.MDF (Microsoft Database Forum). Although I visit Atlanta often, it usually involves running from one councourse to another and rarely do I get the chance to visit the user group. I have made it to the user group on several occassions in the past, but it has been several years. This will be my first presentation to the group.

I will be speaking about Database Consolidation - something I have been doing for years. Here is my abstract:
SQL Server Consolidation Strategies - There are many approaches to SQL Server Consolidation. Each organization has unique business rules that impact the decision on which approach fits their needs best. This session will discuss the various approaches from Instance Stacking / Virtualization to Appliances and where they "fit". There will also be a discussion on the methods for data collection from Perfmon to Powershell and the Microsoft MAP Toolkit. Data Collection is only part of the process. Strategies to uncover the business rules are also discussed as these will be the true limiting factors of how far a consolidation effort can go.

Please register at http://atlantamdf.com/

Please join me if you can; I'd love to see you!

Rick Review: SQLTeach - SQL345 - 10-Mar-2010 - Kimberly Tripp

RickHeiges — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:17:00 GMT

SQLTeach (Part of the DevTeach Conferences in Canada) has enjoyed success for many years. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak at and attend SQLTeach at various times over the years. Since SQLTeach is part of DevTeach, the "feel" of the event is very different from PASS or SQLRally or even a SQL Saturday where SQL is the primary focus. It does however afford an opportunity for me to understand the challenges of those who need to work with SQL either in a direct or indirect manner. SQLTeach / DevTeach records sessions and post them on the web for anyone to consume (login required, but a login may be created for FREE). Here is where I found this video: http://www.devteach.com/DevTeachVideo.aspx?NoVideo=45

The session that I selected to review is by one of my favorite speakers, Kimberly Tripp. In this session, Kimberly once again simplifies a concept that is often treated as black magic. The session is entitled "Optimizing Procedural Code". This demo-heavy session covers many different options that are available to impact optimization. Do you know the various options to force out a cached plan? Is recompiling bad? What else can I control to help optimization?

Check this session out and consider attending the next SQLTeach/DevTeach (especially if you are already in Canada).

Enjoy!

Rick Review: Day 3 Keynote PASS Summit 2011 - Big Data-What's the Big Deal?

RickHeiges — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:40:00 GMT

I recently did a Rick Review of the Day 3 Keynote from the 2008 PASS Community Summit that featured Dr. DeWitt speaking on new technology that ended up in the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) edition of SQL Server 2008 R2. I decided to also listen again to the Day 3 Keynote from the 2001 PASS Community Summit. While I listened intently to the keynote on Day 3 of this past summit, something seemed to be somewhat familiar. Had I heard some of these concepts before? The keynotes from the most recent PASS Summit may be found here. The theme of PDW and Map/Reduce seem to be similar (at least at a high level) where data is split up into smaller chunks and selected sets of data are then combined to answer the query. Once again, Dr.DeWitt is entertaining as he simplifies a complex topic for the audience. Having access to this recording is great, but being there first hand was even better with a sense of respectful awe in the audience. It is no wonder that the Day 3 Keynote is a favorite of the PASS attendees. If you haven't had the chance yet, I invite you to view the recording and perhaps learn something new.

Rick Review: Day 3 Keynote of the 2008 PASS Community Summit

RickHeiges — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:04:00 GMT

Am I stuck in the past? Not really, but I like to blog about the recordings that I have recently watched. There are a lot of recordings out there on the PASS website and other places.

Recently I have had the good fortune of exploring some of the neat technology behind the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) in SQL Server 2008 R2. In order to get myself grounded in some of the basics around what PDW was all about, I decided to review the Dr. DeWitt keynote (Day 3) from the 2008 PASS Community Summit. The link to the WMV file is near the bottom of this page. As I watched the recording, I could recall the excitement of learning about this new technology. Whether you were fortunate enough to see this live or not, this recording demonstrates how a very smart person can explain such a new technology in a simple manner. I believe that once you watch this session, you'll want to watch the other keynotes by Dr. DeWitt as well.

PASS Summit 2011 - What you can expect at the Conference - Summary

RickHeiges — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:30:00 GMT

As I finish up preparing for the Sep 20 (@1pm ET) webcast, I thought a final blog post may be appropriate in order to quickly reference many of the areas that I have touched upon. Naturally, much of this information is geared towards First Timers, but Alumni are welcome to join in the webcast as well and are encouraged to help spread even more tips/tricks around to all who attend.

PASS Summit 2011 - What you can expect at the Conference - Part 8

RickHeiges — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:30:00 GMT

In this post, Logistics centered around how to get to downtown from the airport (SEA - commonly referred to as SEA-TAC for Seattle - Tacoma).

As you would expect, the Seattle airport is almost always busy. Some airports have periods where almost no activitiy is going on. That is rare here. Signage is good throughout the airport on how to get to Baggage CLaim and Ground Transportation. If your flight comes into the "N" or "S" satellite terminals, you will need to take at least one train to the main terminal.

Denny Cherry has a recorded webcast that does a great job on going over all of the options on getting to downtown. You can find it here. He will go into more detail than I will about transit and after hours as well.

Rental Cars are available at SEA-TAC, but I believe that if you are truly coming for the summit that it will be a huge waste of money. One thing to note is that there are several rental car companies that require a shuttle to get to and makes it a little more difficult to return but are cheaper. If you do rent a car, you will need to park it somewhere. The convention center parking is convenient, but not cheap. Hotels also charge $20 - $30 per night. There are severall rental car locations downtown. If you truly need to rent a car to get somewhere for a day or perhaps to explore the scenery before/after the Summit, I'd recommend planning accordingly.

Taxi Cabs and Town Cars are also readily available. Fares (with a tip) will run about $45-$55. If you share a cab with two other people, the cost isn't that bad. The benefit of course is that you get taken directly to your hotel and do not need to wait until the shuttle is full before leaving.

Shuttle Express also offers a Shuttle service (which is sometimes a bus) to downtown hotels. Costs for using this service runs about $15 and you can also purchase a round trip ticket at a discount. I've used tis service on several occassions. On occassion, you may have to wait until a shuttle is full enough to go.

There is also a fairly new Light Rail service to downtown which costs about $3. There is a stop (Westlake) which is about 2 blocks from the Sheraton. This is Pine between 4th and 5th. Walk up Pine to 6th. Turn Right - Sheraton is one block ahead. The Light Rail service does NOT run 24 hours per day. This option may not be available depending upon you departure time. Denny does a great job discussing this in his webcast.

If you are planning to spend some additional time in Seattle before or after the confeence, check out the PASS Summit "Explore Seattle" webpage located here.

See you in Seattle!