Search results matching tags 'People' and 'Conferences'

Come See Me. I'll Probably Be Just Down the Street Soon!

KKline — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:02:00 GMT

Even though I've recently changed jobs, I'll still be speaking at a lot of SQL events across the country and internationally. There are still a few trips that I've yet to finalize, in particular with the fine folks in Houston, run by my friend Nancy Hidy (blog | twitter), and my friends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, run by my friend Mark Ginnebaugh (blog | twitter). Also, do to some missed deadlines, it looks like I won't be speaking at the Nordic SQL Rally this fall. My bad! On the other hand, you can see when checking my roster, that I hardly have time to catch my breath with this travel schedule.

I'll also be doing several on-line events with the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter, run by Mark Caldwell (blog | twitter), through out the year.

Here's what's on the docket up through the start of the holiday season:

New York City

SQL Saturday 158, August 4

The Colorado User Group Tour

Boulder PASS user group meeting, August 14

Colorado Springs PASS user group meeting, August 15 (Register here for Colorado Springs PASS user group meeting).

Denver PASS user group meeting, August 16

Comatose, August 17 (Not an actual city in CO).

Orlando

SQL Saturday Performance Tuning Pre-Con, September 28

SQL Saturday 151, September 29

Online

SSWUG 2012 Fall vConference, Oct 2-4, (Please register using code 'VCKEVIN'. I will personally hug you, virtually.)

Lincoln

SQL Saturday Performance Tuning Pre-Con, October 5

SQL Saturday 165, October 6

Cedar Rapids

East Iowa PASS user group meeting, Oct 8 TBD

Quad City PASS user group meeting, Oct 9 TBD

Nashville (Go Titans!)

SQL Saturday Leadership Skills for IT Pros Pre-Con, October 12

SQL Saturday 145, October 13

Seattle

SQL Connections, Las Vegas, Nov 1-4

PASS Summit 2012, Seattle, Nov 6-9

Let me know if you're nearby and if you're coming to any of these events. I'd enjoy seeing you personally and getting a chance to shake your hand!

Hope to see you soon,

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter!

-More content at http://KevinEKline.com

For Devs - Component Code Challenge and INETA Community Champs

KKline — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:25:00 GMT

Two quick notes from our friends over at INETA:

Component Code Challenge

Ever had these two distinct thoughts - "I have a good idea for an application, however what can I get for it?" and "I would love to go to a big conference DevConnections or Tech·Ed, but how would I pay for it?". Haven't we all had thoughts like that at some time or another?

Well, you are in luck. The INETA Component Code Challenge for 2012 will send one lucky winner to their choice of those aforementioned conferences for slinging some serious code. All you need to do is create an application using 2 approved controls from 2 approved vendors, create a video talking about your application, and submit it to their judging panel. The judging panel consists of Bill Reiss (blog | twitter), Nikita Polyakov (blog | twitter), Matt Hidinger (blog | twitter), and Greg Leonardo (blog | twitter) are on the lookout for innovation and creativity in the use of approved controls. To read official rules click here.

Grab your computer and Visual Studio and GET YOUR CODE ON!

Fine Print: INETA covers one conference ticket, hotel, and travel to the conference as is outlined in INETA's travel policy. Please visit the site for additional rules.

INETA Community Champs

Are you a hardworking community builder in the coding world? Then INETA wants to know about you! Check out the latest round of INETA Community Champ nominations. According to INETA:

The mission of the Community Champs program to recognize and thank those members of our community that make it all possible. The first quarter is flying by, so this is your friendly reminder that you should submit your entries for Community Champs. Are there any "Rock Stars" in your community who should get a "thank you" for their hard work be sure to let us know. The deadline for submissions is March 31, so what are you waiting for go to http://www.inetachamps.com. If you have any questions about the program feel free to contact us at noram.champs@ineta.org.

Enjoy,

-Kev
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PASS Summit 2011, Day 3 - A Tribute to Wayne Snyder

KKline — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:51:00 GMT

First things first, Wayne Snyder is rolling off the board of directors for PASS this year. We'd worked together, shoulder to shoulder along with Joe Webb (blog | @joewebb) and other outstanding members of the SQL Server community, for many years of on the PASS board of directors and I'm certain that my tenure on the board and as president of the organization would've been nothing but trouble had Wayne not been there, covering my blind side(s), at every turn. Here's my tribute to Wayne Snyder:

If you were to mention “Wayne Snyder” to me, I’d instantly start to grin and, probably, nod a little bit. Wayne is the kind of leader who always comes to mind with overpowering and emotional warmth. Sometimes when you visualize a memory of a person, you see them in your mind’s eye stooped over a console deep in thought or pontificating at a meeting somewhere deep in corporate America. But when I recall Wayne, I always see an image of Wayne smiling with his arms out wide as if he’s going to wrap you in the biggest, most comforting, Southern-fried, big brother hug you’ve had all year. And that image is loaded with all kinds of deep positive connotations: supportive, enthusiastic, sincere offer you thoughtful conversation, honest convictions, and straight answers.

To use an analogy, some leaders are only the “thermostat” of their organization – they set the temperature for everyone else. But Wayne was also the “thermometer” as well – he showed what temperature at which our organization was running. And that temperature is warm. As a PASS member, you knew within a heartbeat that it was ok to give a shout-out back to the speaker in a crowded auditorium, that there were no stupid questions, that it was ok to be the one who knew the least in the room because, in fact, he was the guy who knew the least in the room once and here he was to help you become the one who knew the most in the room! I honestly can’t count the number of people who Wayne recruited into the ranks of PASS simply by being Wayne.

Thank you, Wayne, for your many years of service to our community. And thank you most of all for acting as the wellspring of our communities exuberant, uplifting, and just plain fun attitude of embodied in our motto of “Learn. Grow. Share”. No one does it better than you.

Now, it goes without saying that Dr. Dewitt's keynote is one of the singlemost anticipated sessions of the entire event. Why? As Dr. Dewitt mentions himself, the hallmark of his sessions are a semester of graduate school IT learning distilled into one hour of awesomeness. There are lots of great resources discussing NoSQL on the internet (and I've pointed out a lot of them in the past). But who wouldn't rather leapfrog months of on-the-side research learning about NoSQL by enjoying Dr. Dewitt's keynote? Watch the streaming video at this SQLPASS link.

And if you're here at the PASS Summit on Day 3, I hope to see you in my two sessions this afternoon:

Crash! Boom! Bang! 10 Ways to Blow Up Castle SQL Server and the Techniques that Catch Them (DBA-318)
Enterprise Database, Administration and Deployment, Regular Session (75 minutes) in 3AB

Are you a Linchpin? Career management lessons to help you become indispensible. (PD-200)
Professional Development, Regular Session (75 minutes) in 4C4

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Here, There, and Everywhere; Speaking in Fall 2011, Part 1

KKline — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:33:00 GMT

The last quarter of the year is usually my busiest due to the fantastic PASS Summit and SQLBits events. The fall looks a little different ... BECAUSE IT WILL BE EVEN BUSIER! Here's a rundown of where I'll be this fall through mid-October:

BASTA! SQLCON.NET

September 26 to 29; Mainz, Germany

This big developer and admin conference runs from September 26 to 29 in Mainz, Germany. I'll be delivering at least one session and hobnobbing with Quest customers, friends, and in a very weird twist, my oldest daughter Emily, who will be in the Rhineland at the exact same time on a graduation present I'd been planning for her since graduation in June.

SQLBits - Query Across the Mercy

September 29 to October 1; Liverpool, United Kingdom

One of my favorite conferences of the year! The organizers are great. The speakers are great! The attendees are great!! The venues are great!!! The lunches are ... um ... adequate. I'm doing all an new session on SQL Injection attack, this time with LOTS of demos kindly written by an attendee at one of my sessions in Cologne. He like the session so much, he decided to build demos to go along with it. (Thanks again, Volker!) And if you've attended before, you know how much fun our now traditional IT Horror Stories and IT Bingo Trivia sessions are. Make plans to attend these standing-room only sessions, before the fire marshal kicks us all out of the room for overfilling it.

The PASS Summit

Seriously. This is the one. If you can attend only one SQL Server training and community event in a given year, this is the one. Over 150 sessions and pre-conference seminars. Most everyone who is on the list of "who's who" in the world of SQL Server and Microsoft-related data management and development will be in attendance. And a large number of the Microsoft R&D team that builds, documents, and supports SQL Server will also be there.

Plus, more details to come on these events: Netherlands SQL Saturday, Belgium SQL Server Days, and SQLRally Nordic.

I hope to see you there in person!

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter!

Cloud Evolving, SQL Server Responding

KKline — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:49:00 GMT

Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and I did an interview with TechTarget’s Brendan Cournoyer at last summer's Tech-Ed, which as turned into a podcast titled “Cloud efforts advance, SQL Server evolves.” The podcast covers all the major trends at the conference (like BI), virtualization features in Quest’s products (like Spotlight), Brent’s new book and MCM certification, and more. Here’s a link to hear it, appearing on 6/11/10: http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/podcast/Cloud-efforts-advance-SQL-Server-evolves.

Enjoy!

-Kev

Twitter at kekline

See You in St Louis, and then London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and York, UK

KKline — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:55:00 GMT

Good grief, there's a lot of travel in my future. <sigh ... deep breath> It'll be exhausting and it'll be hard to lose so much time with the family. But if I'm able to avoid travel mishaps, it'll be fun.

Meet Me In St. Louis

I'll be speaking in St. Louis, MO on Tuesday, September 14th for their mid-day meeting. The details, as I have them, are:

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 1-4pm

Location: Microsoft St. Louis Office, Three City Place Drive, Suite 1100, St. Louis, MO 63141

http://www.microsoft.com/about/companyinformation/usaoffices/northcentral/stlouis.mspx

Parking is in the garage behind / next to the building. There is an entrance to the building from the 2nd floor in the garage.

Additional details and instructions on how to log in

Speaker: Kevin Kline, Quest Software Topic: SQL Server Internals and Architecture

Speaker: Kevin Kline, Quest Software Topic: SQL Statement Tuning with Query Optimizer Strategies

I'll be giving away free t-shirts, posters, an eBook or three, and backrubs (super-models, only).

SQL Bits, On the Cheap

I’ve tweeted previously about the SQL Bits conference in York on September 30th – October 2nd, but this is my first blog post about it. Now is the time to settle your plans to attend. And while you're settling those plans, take advantage of Quest Software's 20% discount on the Thursday and Friday sessions requiring payment. Just be sure to use the code QST20 when you register. The Saturday is free for everyone. Note - I said FREE. So if you're struggling to convince your boss of the value of the time off and cost required to attend these events, then at least plan to attend Saturday. But as you can see here, the prices are quite low compared to most other conferences of similar quality. I firmly believe the standard for speakers and content at SQLBits is second to none in the UK. I'll be a wallflower in comparison to other friends of mine also speaking at the event, such as Brent Ozar, a MCM SQL Server and former colleague now working with SQLSkills, Buck Woody, the well-known "Real World DBA" and senior technical specialist from Microsoft, as well as many other SQL Server MVPs, authors, and speakers, such as the event organizer, Simon Sabin, and Quest Software SQL Server expert and editor-in-chief of SQLServerPedia, Iain Kick. Some sessions I'm looking forward to include:

Monitoring and Tuning Parallel Query Execution - Part II – R Meyyappan
Where the bl**dy h*** are you? (Spatial Data Visualisation) - Rob Farley (all the way from Adelaide, Australia)
Introduction to Performance Analysis and Tuning – Simon Sabin
Oracle for SQL Server DBAs – Gavin Payne
Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics. Making The Most Out of SQL Server Statistics - Maciej Pilecki
Extreme scaling with SQL Azure – Martin Schmidt
Automating SSIS - Andre Kamman

Attendance will definitely enhance your skills and ability to do your job. The added bonus is that York is a lovely place to visit with a beautiful and storied cathedral, so I highly recommend the event for all SQL Server professionals. Prior to SQLBits, I'll be presenting in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. I hope you can attend an event closer to you if you cannot make it to York!

And Just to Make Sure I'm Thoroughly Frozen...

While I usually have a policy against visiting places cold enough to die between the front door and the mailbox, I'll be stopping in at SQL Saturday 58 in Minnesota for a SQL Saturday taking place on Friday (not a typo), October 29th, the day after my birthday. I'll be 21 years old and, since I'm now of legal drinking age, you should by me a drink. The event organizer, as well as my friend and fellow MVP, Jason Strate, just has to be different by holding the event on a Friday, eh? Track the event on twitter using the hash tag #sqlsat58. Read all the details here and register asap!

Once finished in Minnesota, I'll barely get a breather in before heading right back out for the big PASS 2010 Summit in Seattle from Nov 8 -11. Hope to see you at one of these events soon!

Best regards,

-Kevin

Twitter @kekline

SQL Saturday is Coming to Nashville! Won't You?

KKline — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:42:00 GMT

How 'Bout a Little Context?

Let me be direct with you. I love SQL Saturday. If it were a woman, I'd marry it. (Avoiding all extraneous thoughts of what my real wife would say, etc etc).

Check out this fun Flickr Feed from the recent SQL Saturday in Chicago or these picks by Jorge Segara (blog | twitter) to see the sort of fun that's in store. But who can argue with a day of free SQL Server training and a chance to network with great presenters and a wide swath of your peers?

Keynotes are more fun when the put-downs fly!

I've tried to support SQL Saturday as much as I can since Andy Warren (blog | twitter) launched the program a couple years back and have spoken at several. You might say to yourself, "Self, Kevin works for a vendor. Don't they want him to speak at as many SQL Saturdays as is humanly possible?" Well, Mr. Self, you'd be mistaken. You see there's a keyword in the name that might reveal why my employer doesn't provide unlimited enthusiasm for me to speak ... it's the SATURDAY part of the whole thing. Yes, of course, my employer wants me there. But they also recognize that Saturdays are my own and that, if I spend a day or two there on the weekend (including the travel time), then that's a sacrifice of my own choice. I would still need to be at work and on task bright and early on Monday morning. Not that they'd make me, it's just that my job is the sort that work is never simply skipped, it is only ever deferred. So if I took a comp day, which they'd gladly provide, I'd still have to finish the work somehow, someway. All of this goes to say that I really, really love SQL Saturday, the community vibe that it creates, the volunteers who drive it, the folks who attend. So I'm happy to give up a few days throughout the year to support it.

Come to Nashville in August!

Guitar, Cowboy Boots, Cowboy Hat, and Tight Denim NOT Required

My good friends Joe Webb (blog | twitter) and Louis Davidson (blog | twitter) have been angling to host a SQL Saturday here in Nashville for quite a while. As co-leaders of the local PASS chapter in middle Tennessee, it made a lot of sense to host an event like this. I wasn't at all resistant to the idea, I just didn't want to do the work myself. However, they did a great job of getting the ball rolling and even took on the majority of work themselves. Together with other volunteers in our local chapter - Shelton Dickson, Roberto Lopez, and Christina Leo - we've all set to work to host SQL Saturday #51.

The event will be hosted on Saturday, August 21st at the shiny new facility of Nashville State Community College located at 120 White Bridge Rd. Nashville, TN 37209:

If you'd like to attend, check out all the details here. Joe Webb and Christina Leo get all the credit for logistics.

If you'd like to speak, read the details in our call for speakers here. Louis Davidson is running the program selection process.

If you'd like to sponsor, sign up on-line here. This one is my responsibility.

It's free to register, there is a $10 fee if you want us to provide lunch. And remember, seats always fill up fast!

If you're going to attend and you have a twitter account, be sure to tweet using #sqlsat51!

I hope to see you there in August!

Good News for Women in Technology - Barbie Has Joined the IT Scene

KKline — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:34:00 GMT

Notice the bluetooth ear piece fashion faux pas? Yes, she's truly a geek.

I'm happy to report that Barbie is now a cognizeti, a digerati, ... yes even an IT Professional! This year's new Barbie is Computer Engineer Barbie.

Several months back, I encouraged all my friends and followers on Twitter to vote for the IT job for Barbie in Mattel's recent public job selection for the eponymous doll. That encouragement was founded in an experience I'd had years earlier - becoming a dad to a very beautiful baby girl. When I was growing up as a kid, I clearly recall how odd it was for a woman to have a career outside of a handful of "traditional feminine jobs" like teacher, nurse, telephone operator or secretary. It wasn't until years later, as a new dad, that I realized how asinine this preconceived notion really was (and, in fact, still is in many cultures around the world). I even wrote about this a few years ago in my personal blog, where I mentioned how I'd love to see my daughters grow up and take on an IT career.

Sadly, many IT professional societies report dramatic imbalances in gender demographics. For example, the IEEE Computer Society reports that their membership is only 7% female. Similarly, universities in the USA shows about a 10% representation of female faculty and 14% of their students in computer-related majors.

One of the things I'd always found to be rather amazing about PASS was it's strong emphasis on Women in Technology (WIT). In fact, as far as database professional societies go, PASS was the first to work hard to make WIT prominent within its culture (although I believe that the International Sybase User Group had a WIT group before PASS). I'd like to also give credit to the women within PASS who made this happen. I can't even begin to list them all here, but without them, WIT at PASS would not have been possible. A few women who immediately come to mind include Rebecca Laszlo, Kalen Delaney, Denise McInerny, Kathi Kellenberger, Stefanie Higgins, Lynda Rabb, Kimberly Tripp, and many many more.

All of these outstanding women deserve accolades for making PASS a welcoming place for women. Don't think that it's a big deal? You should attend an IT conference without a strong WIT community - you'll see the difference in 30 seconds flat. (I'm not going to name any names here. But attend the top conferences for certain IT companies headquartered in Redwood City, California or Armonk, NY and you'll see what I mean).

So, thank you ladies, for making PASS in particular and the overall Microsoft SQL Server community much better for everyone by making it better for women. I hope to see this trend continue and for your contributions to continue to improve our community.

-Kevin

-Twitter @kekline

-More content at http://KevinEKline.com

PASS 2009 Lifetime PASSion Award

KKline — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:23:00 GMT

A HAPPY RETIREMENT

January 1st, 2010 marked a very special day for me. It was the first time in the past ten years in which I had no official PASS responsibility at the HQ level. (I'm still serving in the local PASS chapter here in Nashville, along with the awesomeness that is DrSQL (blog | twitter) and the whackness that is Joe Webb (blog | twitter). We also have the irreplaceable Shelton Dickson and Roberto Lopez helping us out). I also intend to stay active as a speaker for PASS. I spoke at the PASS 2009 Summit, earning a top presenter spot in the Professional Development track, and plan to speak there in the future. And I'm also already booked for some upcoming Virtual Chapter meetings as well as local PASS chapters and SQL Saturdays.

10 Years on the Job Takes Its Toll

I have to admit that I've been surprised by the number of friends and acquaintances who've asked if I'll miss it. Isn't it obvious? Ten years of long hours with zero pay and a heavy burden on family time don't rest easily on your shoulders. I'm sure that PASS' first two presidents, Pam Smith and Guy Brown, can corroborate my story - except that they've taken a solemn oath never to speak words that includes the letters S, Q, and L in a single sentence. That makes it really hard to ask their opinion on much of anything these days. The heinous nervous twitch that spasmodically attacks their left and right eye, respectively, whenever they hear the words "Micro" or "Soft" uttered in the same conversation is also telling...

All joking aside, I'm honestly very happy to leave PASS in the hands of the next generation of leaders. For more a much more in-depth discussion about my years on the PASS board of directors, check out Brian Moran's interview for SQL Server Magazine here. The enthusiasm and passion demonstrated by the young turks on the board of directors will keep the organization in stead for many years to come. I'm also very pleased with the new emphasis on community-connectedness (thank you Twitter!) and openness (thank you bloggers!) sweeping the community. It's already produced much goodness within PASS, which I expect to see multiplied many times over in the future.

A PARTING BOW

I was amazed and surprised when, during the keynote of Day 3, Bill Graziano called me on to the stage along with el presidente Wayne Snyder. PASS did an online postings in a few locations. The PASS Volunteers page spotlights my award under the PASSion Awards section. Then, on the PASSion Award page, the award is the top featured article. This write-up includes a link to the interview with Brian that I mentioned earlier. Funny story - I'd been working in the PASS ready room on Day 2 of the Summit, feverishly trying to improve my slide decks. At the exact same time, Bill and the staff were also feverishly working on their slide deck a mere two seats away - of the presentation to come on Day 3!

I had hair when I started this job. Just sayin'...

Normally, I don't care very much about how my slides look and would've caught Bill red handed in his sly surprise. But today was different because I'd seen two ominous portents of doom - a ferret consorting with a chicken (on Cartoon Network) and a woolly caterpillar crossing the threshold of the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center lobby. My keen senses as an Oracle DBA kicked off an internal alarm that even 14 years of SQL Serverness could not suppress - eminent disaster at the hands of the demo gods was nigh. So once I got to the PASS ready room, I equipped myself with several diet Mountain Dews, my favorite MP3 tunes via massive ear-buds, and a bag of mixed nuts. Yes - I never knew, not even for a second, that they were talking about me. Several hours later, as if waking from a daze, I realized that I didn't have any slide decks with demos. Clearly, Graziano had stronger juju than I. Next time, I'll directly divine the future using turtledove entrails - as all good Oracle DBAs are trained to do - rather than rely on those pathetic woolly caterpillars like MS-Access developers recommend. [All elements of the preceding story concerning divination are a blatant lie.] But I digress...

At the Day 3 keynote, Bill and Wayne surprised me by calling me to the stage and presenting me with the biggest award I'd ever personally seen. I was gobsmacked. On top of that, the attendees gave me a standing ovation for receiving the "Lifetime Passion Award" (no relation to Lifetime "TV for Women"). Again, I was taken aback. Wayne had, evidently, intended on giving me the mic to say a few words. But because he was a bit choked up, he left the stage a bit earlier than he meant and never handed the mic to me. Good thing too - I would've blubbered like a baby.

A Special Word of Thanks

Honestly, I can't thank you enough for your kindness as a community. I never got into PASS for any form of praise or profit. To have a hand in the making of something bigger than me which reflected my own values was all I ever hoped to achieve. And thank you again to all the bloggers who had a kind word about the award as well:

Sean and Jenn McGown, - (blog | twitter)
AaronBertrand - (blog | twitter)
Jack Corbet - (blog | twitter)
Kendal Van Dyke - (blog | twitter)
Great photos from Pat Wright (blog | twitter)
Todd McDermid - (blog | twitter)
Steve Jones - (blog | twitter) -
Andy Warren - (blog | twitter) and here.
Grant Fritchey - (blog | twitter) and here.

This year was also a great year for photos like these. If you know of any other mentions about the award that day back in November 2009, please post a comment here.

With a grateful heart to call you all friends...

-Kev