SQLPass 2008: The PASS Summit - Day Two

andyleonard — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:15:00 GMT

Introduction

"Hey Andy? What happened to your Day One post?" Excellent question. I was going to post a Day One post - really I was - but I got side-tracked. I won't mention any names, but I will blame the major offenders by their Twitter handles: @BrentO, @sqlagentman, and @SqlBatman.

These gentlemen forced me - through coercion and peer pressure (you teenagers take note) - into joining them Sunday evening at a cool little bar named Zig Zag near the market in Seattle. Then they forced me to drink beer, which cut into my Day One Blogging Time that I had dutifully scheduled on my calendar. It was horrible, but I am willing to bear these burdens to bring those who cannot attend the PASS Summit 2008 information about what's going on here.

You're welcome.

Volunteer Training

If you're involved (or want to be involved) in a SQL Server User Group, the Volunteer Training is for you. It is awesome. Members of the PASS Board and Executive Committee explain what they do and why they do it. Earlier today, Kevin Kline presented a history of PASS as an organization. It was refreshing and honest.

Rushabh Mehta explained the finer points of financing an international organization that executes a couple large conferences per year.

Others explained their contributions and Areas of Responsibility, reporting on successes and challenges alike. It was enlightening and served to deepen my appreciation for the character and work ethic of these folks. Kudos to all.

Social and Social

There is a social aspect to the PASS Summit. I get to see folks I only communicate with via email most of the year. It's cool. I've met people for the first time that I've been communicating with using social networking tools, primarily (for me), Twitter.

Someone (who will remain nameless but not linkless) posted about some session on SSIS Scripting at PASS and started, well, a stir - at least on Twitter. Jessica M. Moss and I are presenting SSIS Scripting, but we're using a Twitter class to demonstrate the core concepts. In brief, our packages tweet.

But that's not the cool part. We'll write about the cool parts later. I promise. In the meantime I'll give you a hint: Social Intelligence.

Erik Veerman's Pre-Conference Day on Building Scalable Solutions

If you've never heard Erik Veerman present on Business Intelligence, you have missed out. Erik is not only a really smart guy, he communicates well. I'm jealous, actually, of how well he speaks. He's from Atlanta. Despite that, people understand him. Go figure.

His session ranges from the individual pieces and parts of Business Intelligence - the database, Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services - to how to leverage the individual strengths of these products to produce a scalable solution.

Why scalable solutions? What's the big deal? Scalability sinks more business intelligence (and database-related) applications than you imagine. One reason is it's difficult to predict how and where a solution will scale. If you have a single table, it's pretty easy to predict scalability. Add a table and you cut your odds in half. It gets worse as you go.

This is a fantastic presentation and Erik is quick on his feet - drawing from years of experience architecting scalable BI solutions (ever heard of Project REAL? Erik was involved) to answer questions from the crowd.

In Conclusion

There's more to blog about throughout the week. SQLBlog.com is an official blog site for the PASS Summit 2008, and Yours Truly is assigned to cover the Thursday keynote.

:{> Andy

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SQLPass 2008: The PASS Summit - Day Two