Events
I’m presenting in Omaha on Writing Faster SQL at 6PM on December 7th. You can find meeting details on the Omaha SQL Server User Group page. The meeting location requires an RSVP so building security has a list of attendees. The presentation is a series of suggestions on improving performance. It ranges from simple things like comparing indexed columns to scalar values up to tips for reducing query compiles and asynchronous processing patterns. Nearly all of these come from specific issues I’ve encountered working on poorly performing SQL Servers.
I’m going back to speak in St. Louis next month. I didn’t make it last year and I’m looking forward to it. You can find additional details on the St. Louis SQL Server user group web site. The meeting will be held at the Microsoft office and I’ll be speaking at 1PM. I’ll be speaking on the procedure cache. As people get better and better tuning queries this is the next major piece to understand. We’ll talk about how and when query plans are reused. The most common issue I see around odd query plans are stored procedures that...
Our SQL Saturday in Kansas City is coming up on October 2nd. We have over 40 sessions on the schedule. These cover everything from very basic SQL Server administration to database mirroring to professional development topics. If you’re in the area we’d love to see you there. If you’re coming in from out of town you might be wondering what there is to do in Kansas City. We don’t have an arch or mountains or the Magnificent Mile or whatever Dallas has that makes people go there. What we have is meat. Lots and lots of red meat. More...
I’m presenting at the Kansas City SQL Server User’s Group on Thursday, August 13th at Johnson County Community College. Check the monitors when you arrive for the room. We start at 6PM with 30 minutes of announcements and such. I’ll be starting at 6:30PM. I’ll probably go for 60-90 minutes. I have seven PowerPoint slides to open and close the session. All the rest is going to be an ongoing demonstration of installing SQL Server and doing the post-installation configuration. I’ll have my SQL Server installation and configuration checklist as a handout for you to follow along and take...
I’m speaking Tuesday morning on Understanding the Procedure Cache at DevTeach\SQLTeach in Montreal. This is the same presentation I delivered at the recent PASS European Conference. At PASS I missed being the top speaker in the Application Development track by 0.8%. Guess I’ll have to step it up here :) This session is what you need to know after you learn how to read a query plan and improve it. I spend a lot of time talking about stored procedures vs. dynamic SQL and the different types of dynamic SQL. I talk about parameterization, compilation and why procedures run...
I attended the SQL Server 2008 launch in Los Angeles for PASS. It was VERY nice to leave sub-freezing Kansas and arrive in warm, sunny Los Angeles.
My pictures of the keynote didn't turn out all that well unfortunately. The ones I took before it started turned out the best. I also ran into Janette from Idera. Idera and Quest were the only two SQL Server tools vendors that I saw there. The keynote presentation was projected onto some type of clear screen. You could see the presentation and see through it. It gave it...
I'll be in Los Angeles for the launch this week. I'll be the PASS representative at the Heroes Community Booth in the Microsoft Pavilion. When you enter the Microsoft Pavilion we'll be all the way back in the left corner. Come by and say Hi if you get a chance. I arrive Tuesday night and leave Thursday morning. Is anyone else reading going to be there?
The Code To Live video starts with an All-Girl AC/DC cover band. I'm not really sure what else you need to know. Steve Loethen is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft here in Kansas City (or some such related job -- I never really remember what he does). We used to work together at this odd little company years ago. I'm certain he would be voted the Microsoft employee most likely to be mistaken for a biker. He and his co-host travel the country talking to developers. With a Harley. Dressed like bikers. I'm not sure who cast Steve in that...
I'll be speaking to the St. Louis SQL Server Users Group on the afternoon of June 12th at the Microsoft offices from 1PM until 4PM. I'll be doing two presentations back to back. The first is What I Wish Developers Knew about SQL Server. The second is Understanding the Procedure Cache: Writing Efficient Reusable Queries. The two presentations flow very well together. The second really builds on the concepts introduced in the first. The event was organized by Kathi Kellenberger through the PASS Star Program. Thanks Kathi!
You can download the PowerPoint file and demo script from my webcast here. I'll post a link to the recorded presentation when they post it.
You can view the recorded webcast by registering here. The layout of their site is a little interesting. Follow any one of the links for Java, ColdFunsion or PHP and you'll end up at the list of sessions. On the second page, choose the link for Data Access and I'm listed as “SQL Server 2005 Developement Tips and Tricks”.
UPDATED: The content of this presentation has significantly changed. The presentation no longer covers the “What I Wish Developers Knew“ Material. Basically this turns out to be a 45 minute session with 15 minutes of Q&A and I couldn't shoe horn a 75 minute session into that amount of time. This has turned into a session on reading query plans in SQL Server 2005. It's going to start very basic with table scans and work its way up. We'll also cover Profiler and some indexing tips. My presentation is part of a series of sessions geared toward people new to...
Our European Conference kicked off this morning in Barcelona. Ken Henderson, Bob Ward and Bart Duncan are all part of the PSS team. They are doing a day long pre-conference session on SQL Server internals. I think after being in Europe for five days now I'm finally over my jet lag.
The call for speakers for the Seattle Summit is up. You've got until April 28th to submit your abstracts.
I'll be working a booth at the SQL Server 2005 launch event in Kansas City. This is an all day event with developer topics in the morning and DBA topics in the afternoon.
Of all the presentations that MS submitted for the PASS Conference, this was the one that intrigued me the most. It's on Wednesday at 1:30PM and is being delivered by Alan Griver. The original abstract was fairly vague. Lots of references to data manipulation on the client side but no real hint as to what it would actually cover. After the PDC it became clear that this was a presentation on LINQ.
Once the information was public Alan updated his abstract and the whole thing makes more sense. I'm really looking forward to this...
PASS sent out an email tonight with the slate of candidates for the Board of Directors so it's official. I'm running for the Board of Directors for PASS. There are six people running for three slots and it's a great group of candidates. No matter what the results PASS will be in great shape. I certainly would like to ask for your consideration when you cast your ballot. I've been a PASS volunteer for a couple of years and think I'd do a great job. (I've written a little longer bio that they'll hopefully get posted soon.) They are using...
The folks that brought you the SQL Server Roadshow have a free seminar for SQL Serve 2005. It focuses on the DBA side and looks pretty interesting. Their marketing pitch reads:
In this free, half-day event you’ll learn how the top new features of SQL Server 2005 will help you create and manage large-scale, mission-critical, enterprise database applications -- making your job easier. Find out how to leverage SQL Server 2005’s new capabilities to best support your business initiatives. Register now and you will:
Discover what enhancements and improvements have been made to relational engine and business intelligence platforms in Microsoft...
Just a reminder that I'll be speaking at the Kansas City .NET SIG on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005. Suprisingly enough I'm going to be talking about SQL Server. The talk is titled What I Wish Developers Knew About SQL Server.
As an independant contractor I see many different development projects and software packages that use SQL Server. This presentation covers the most common mistakes I see in SQL Server development. It will also provide a variety of tips to improve the development process. The session will cover database application development including database design basics, database builds during development and version control. ...
The SQL Server Roadshow is finally dragging itself to my neck of the woods. I plan to be there. Is anyone else from Kansas City planning to go?
I'll be presenting to the AITP group in Kansas City on May 25th. You can find out more information about the event on their web site. It's a dinner event will a couple of different presentations and you need reservations. I'll be speaking on SQL Server 2005. The topic will be a management level overview of SQL Server 2005. I'll do some basic demos but it will be at a pretty high level.
I've got three presentations coming up. And one today but it's not open to the public.
On March 22nd, 2005 I'm presenting New Features of SQL Server 2005 for Developers to the Kansas City .NET User Group. This is also the presentation I'm doing today. I spent the last few days updating it to add more CLR demos.
On April 14th, 2005 I'm presenting What I Wish Developers knew about SQL Server to the Kansas City SQL Server Users Group. This is a new presentation I've been working on that I hop to present at PASS. It's really a collection of everything I've...
Just a reminder that the PASS Call for Presentations closes this Friday. The conference is the last week in September.
Tomorrow is the first part of the SQL Server 2005 High Availability Webcasts on Technet is Friday. The second part is next friday. (The Profiler webcast is also tomorrow.)
I'm speaking at the AITP meeting in Kansas City on November 17th, 2004. The details are below. There's a charge associated with the meeting since they serve dinner. I don't know how much yet. The presentation will be an overview of the some of the new features with a few demos thrown in for good measure.
Location Marriott Country Club Plaza Hotel 4445 Main Street Kansas City, MO 64111 (816) 531-3000 Free Parking
Schedule 5:00 P.M. Networking Lobby bar adjacent to the hotel check-in desk. 6:00 P.M. Dinner Private dining room, 2nd floor 7:00 P.M. Presentation Technical Track - SQL...
My session yesterday was packed so I'm doing it again today. Apparently quite a few people were turned away when they moved it to a smaller room. It's in the last timeslot at 4:45PM today in the Tampa room. This morning I added a couple of new slides and demos to the presentation. At least the people that had to wait will get some additional information. Fernando Guerrero is doing a presenetation on Profiler at 1:30 today and Gert Drapers is doing one on Trace at 9:45AM tomorrow. Both a regreat speakers and they should be great presentations. Fernando's is focused on...
The launch event for SQL Server Reporting Services is January 27th, 2004. It starts at 9AM PST. You can register to view the event online. Microsoft says it will have “executive keynote speakers, real-world customer testimonials, technical content and demos, and a Q&A session“. I'm not sure how much technical content you'll get in a launch event though.
I just got back from the opening reception at PASS. They are expecting 1,600 people this year making it the largest PASS conference yet. Next year it will be in Orlando at the Gaylord Palms. Hmmmm, warm weather. Plus they are moving the dates up. The next conference is scheduled for September 28th, 2004 - October 1st, 2004.
The layout at the convention center is much better this year. Everything is closer together. I think next year I'll have to attend the pre-conference seminars. I've heard nothing but good things about those. ...
I'm speaking at PASS on Wednesday at 3PM. For some unknown reason, I can't link directly to my presentation (PASS???). You can visit the search page and list the presentations by time. That's the easiest way I've found to get to it.
My topic is Advanced SQL Server Profiler. I'm going to cover a variety of topics related to Profiler. I'll demo trace templates which are very handy if you do much tracing. We'll cover some of the key events to monitor for performance. These include CPU, locks and other events that can affect performance. Next I'll discuss security related events...
Just a quick reminder that the Kansas City SQL Server Users Group will be having their meeting on October 9th, 2003 at 6PM. I (Bill Graziano) will be presenting on Advanced Profiler topics. This is an early version of the presentation I'm going to present at PASS in November. The meeting is at Johnson County Community College in room 318 of the Carlsen Center. Hope to see a few of you there.
If you know of any other SQL Server users groups, please let me know and we'll post the information.
The PASS conference is in Seattle from November 10-14, 2003. I'll be there and giving a talk on Profiler. They'll have a detailed preview of Yukon and you get a free copy of Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition. For half of that cluster in your basement. You'd think they'd give us SQL Server too. You can save $200 if you register by October 10th.