Search results matching tags 'Speaking' and 'People'

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

The Year that was - 2011

KKline — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:01:00 GMT

Looking back on 2011, I'm surprised by two occurances. First, I got a lot of work done, despite myself. My biggest obstacles to high-performance are all self-derived; procrastination, disorganization, and plain ol' laziness. Second, I'm surprised I survived my personal travails. I've had my fill of frowns this year, from wayward children to caring for sick loved ones to self-inflicted injuries in 2011. I'm glad to be closing the door on a few of those chapters and look forward to better times in 2012.

Here's a run-down on my professional activities over the course of 2011:

Articles: 3
Conference Spoken: 14
Customer Calls: 124
Customer Visits: 7
Magazine Columns: 14
PASS Chapter Presentations: 12
Pre-cons/Full-day Seminars: 7
SQL Saturdays: 4
SSWUG Sessions: 8
Webcasts: 16

Plus, I got to got on an awesome SQLCruise and was featured on Richard Campbell's RunAsRadio show at least once (Richard's blog | twitter). (I was thinking that I'd been on twice in 2011. But that other appearance may have been in late 2010. My records aren't clear.)

I was also put in charge of the SQLServerPedia portion of the DBPedias sites. Some statistics there:

133 contributing bloggers
4,500 blog posts added in 2011 (out of a total 9,000 blog posts)
57,000 content items added in 2011 (out of a total 138,000 content items)
Monday-Thursday all Pedias average 8,700 visits combined
1.9 million visits in 2011 (out of a total 3.8 million visits to Pedia sites since SQLServerPedia was started in 2008)

2011 was also my year to jump into Twitter. By years end, I had accumulated:

3,452 Tweets
531 Following
2,656 Followers
230 Listed

I think that my increase in tweets had a direct correlation on my decrease in blog posts. Ironically, I have accumulated even more topics to blog about (I've somewhere around 630 nascent blog posts), but simply run out of time to put them into Wordpress. My blogging activity for 2011 was down to 77 entries, about half what I wrote in 2010.

I'll talk a little about my plans for 2012 in another post. I hope to see you following me on Twitter soon! Thanks,

Kevin

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!

Back in Atlanta! Wed, Feb 9 2011

KKline — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:04:00 GMT

I always enjoy spending time with my friends from Atlanta, as well as meeting folks and making new friends. If you live in the Atlanta area, I hope you'll join me on the evening of Wednesday, February 9th, 2011. Details are at the Atlanta SQL Server user group website.

It's common knowledge that I have a terrible memory for many things. However, one of the few things that my memory is usually really good at is remember names & faces (and remembering stories, but that is another story as well).

It's only in the last couple years that I've gotten to know Atlanta-area folks like Aaron Nelson (blog | twitter), at left. Aaron likes to tease me because the first time or two we talked after our initial introduction, I kept getting his name wrong. That's uncharacteristic of me. But, hey, I was distracted because Aaron had brought his 12 year old daughter along and I kept wishing that I'd brought mine!

Aaron has really good content on SQL Server and PowerShell on his blog and in his presentations. Don't miss out!

Another person in the Atlanta area I've enjoyed getting to know better is Stuart Ainsworth (blog | twitter). Stuart has really stepped up to the plate these last couple years as a leader and a volunteer. I'm really impressed with his efforts, especially because they're in very important but rather invisible and thankless tasks. One example is his work in succession governance for PASS. Stuart, I salute you and thank you for your efforts. I hope to see y'all there! And if I don't, y'all come up and visit us in Nashville some time.

Cheers,

-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

New on KEK.com - Presentation: SQL Server for Oracle DBAs

KKline — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:23:00 GMT

Back in late May, my pal Buck Woody (blog | twitter) and I presented SQL Server for the Oracle DBA. Buck played Jerry Lewis' role, while I played the straight man a la Dean Martin. You can see the recording and slide deck here. Since both Buck and I spent a considerable number of years working on Oracle, we felt like we had pretty good legs to stand on doing this presentation. Here's the abstract:

In enterprise IT, database professionals face a mixed-bag of platforms within their environments -- and the overlapping duties that go along with them. Whether you like it or not, you get asked to support Microsoft SQL Server operations even though you're an Oracle DBA.

In this instructive webcast, experts from Microsoft and Quest with years of experience in both platforms will discuss the biggest issues and areas of interest for Oracle DBAs who need to work on Microsoft SQL Server. You'll learn their tips and tricks for efficiency and gain a deeper understanding of SQL Server to help you add more value than ever to your organization.

Of course, there are always questions and we aim to please. Here are the transcripts of the Q&A chat session (below) that accompanies the presentation. The only editing I did was ... [READ MORE]

Two Free Training Webcasts Open for Registration

KKline — Mon, 24 May 2010 20:59:00 GMT

We've got two sessions that you need to sign up for right away. The upcoming webcast for Oracle-oriented folks has huge registration numbers. So get in while you still can before we hit the limit of what LiveMeeting can handle.

Pain of the Week: SQL Server for the Oracle DBA

Webcast: SQL Server for the Oracle DBA
Date: Thursday, May 27, 2010 (Just a couple days hence!)
Time: 8 a.m. Pacific / 11 a.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. United Kingdom / 5 p.m. Central Europe
Duration: 45-60 minutes
Cost: FREE

In enterprise IT, database professionals face a mixed-bag of platforms within their environments -- and the overlapping duties that go along with them. Whether you like it or not, you get asked to support Microsoft SQL Server operations even though you're an Oracle DBA.

In this instructive webcast, experts from Microsoft and Quest with years of experience in both platforms will discuss the biggest issues and areas of interest for Oracle DBAs who need to work on Microsoft SQL Server. You'll learn their tips and tricks for efficiency and gain a deeper understanding of SQL Server to help you add more value than ever to your organization.

Presenters:
Kevin Kline, SQL Server MVP, Quest Software
Buck Woody, Senior Technology Specialist, SQL Server, Microsoft

Pain of the Week: Easy Ways to Fix Hard SQL Server Problems - Without a Guru

Webcast: Easy Ways to Fix Hard SQL Server Problems – Without a Guru
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Time: 8 a.m. Pacific / 11 a.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. United Kingdom / 5 p.m. Central Europe
Duration: 45-60 minutes
Cost: FREE

In this instructive webcast, you’ll learn straightforward methods for troubleshooting and resolving common poorly performing stored procedures and queries in SQL Server 2008. The presenters will show you how to easily:

Read query execution plans and identify bottlenecks in performance
Record system performance metrics for trend analysis
Design databases and write Transact–SQL code to avoid common problems
Understand what an index is, what it does, and how to build one
Use industry-accepted best practices and develop your own to arrive at optimal database performance

Much of the webcast is based on Grant’s book, "SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled."

Don’t miss this chance to get practical advice from working experts instead of just theories from academics!

Presenters:
Kevin Kline, SQL Server MVP, Quest Software
Grant Fritchey, “Scary” DBA from FM Global

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!

Join Me May 19th for 24 Hours of PASS

KKline — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:16:00 GMT

Join Us for 24 Hours of SQL Server Training

(with a special focus on SQL Server 2008 R2)

Did I mention that your Cohorts in Crime (that be me and Brent Ozar) are presenting?!?

The FREE 24 Hours of PASS event is bringing an exceptional lineup of SQL Server and BI experts to your computer starting at 12:00 GMT (UTC) on May 19.

Get an in-depth look at the hottest SQL Server and BI topics, including (but not limited to!) - the new SQL Server 2008 R2, with its business intelligence and data management innovations, and much more.

When does it start? 12:00 GMT (UTC):

New York: 08:00
Chicago: 07:00
San Francisco: 05:00
London: 13:00
Paris: 14:00
Moscow: 16:00
Mumbai: 17:30
Singapore: 20:00
Sydney: 22:00

The roster of phenomenal speakers features many MVPs and top-rated presenters, including Adam Machanic, Andy Leonard, Brad McGehee, Brent Ozar, Brian Knight, Chuck Heinzelman, Dean Richards, Don Kiely, Don Vilen, Donald Farmer, Glenn Berry, Greg Low, Jacob Sebastian, Jessica Moss, Kevin Cox, Kevin Kline, Louis Davidson, Maciej Pilecki, Peter Myers, Peter Ward, Rushabh Mehta, Sean McCown, Simon Sabin, Thomas Grosher.

Check out all the great SQL Server sessions you can attend for FREE. Share this information with a friend or colleague.

PASS is looking forward to having you join us all for this exceptional event. Please contact us at 24hrs@sqlpass.org with any questions. You can also find lots of general details at http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/2010/.

Collaboration Nation Call to Action! Calling All SQL Server Bloggers and Twitterers

KKline — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:15:00 GMT

The Suggestion

The Modern Language Association hasn't made up all the new rules yet to govern how one blogger should reverence, er, reference another in their blog posts. But they should! Let's get that ball rolling for them.

I'm not exactly sure who started this format, but it's my favorite. When writing a blog post in which you mention another person's blog, let's do it like this:

"blogger name (blog_hyperlink | twitter_hyperlink)"

So, we might read a blog post by my friend Kimberly Tripp (blog | twitter) that might look something like this:

"...the Scottish Terrier was so well known in early American society that as recently as the 1910's, Manhattanite nannies instructed their young charges to be good else the "Scottish Terrier" would eat them, after a lengthy session of slobbery nuzzling and years of canine devotion. It is for this very reason that I've given my Scots/English husband, Paul Randal (blog |twitter), several variations of the nickname "Scottish terrier", "scotty", "snotty", and "scotsnots" until such a time as needed for me to roll up the newspaper, give him a good spanking, and stick his nose in ..."

Well, you get the point. And didja notice that I worked in not just one, but TWO entire examples of the blog-reference syntax?!? I can hardly believe my own craftiness. I went to university for four years to learn that y'know - and to learn how to funnel beer - but I digress.

The Call To Action

One thing I love about the SQL Server community is our very community-ness. (I also like the fact that you'll let me invent stupid words on the fly without too much criticism.) So, let's make the glob, {ah! damned dyslexia!} , blog reference business even easier by having you (yes, YOU) post your own blog & twitter links as a comment here.

I repeat - post a comment here containing your name, blog (with embedded hyperlink to your blog), and twitter (with embedded hyperlink to my twitter, er, YOUR twitter account).

I'll then repost a brand new shiny article with a full compendium to everyone's blog & twitter hyperlinks (except Brent Ozar's (blog | twitter) ) which you can save to some obscure cranny of Outlook or WordPerfect to call up at a moments notice when the urge to both blog and reference other bloggers strikes you.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing your blog reference soon!

-Kev

-Twitter @kekline