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Exceptional DBA, the Song!
My apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd, although I haven’t exactly forgiven them for writing a song about Alabama when they are from Florida!
My mentor told me when I was a Junior
Come sit beside me, my only one
And listen closely to what I say.
And if you do this
It’ll help you some sunny day. Oh Yah!
Oh, take your time… Don’t code too fast,
Wait stats will come and they will pass.
You’ll find an execution plan, you’ll find performance,
And don’t forget Junior,
There is someone up above.(Chorus)
And be an exceptional, kind of DBA
Oh T-SQL, you will love and understand.
Baby be an exceptional, kind of DBA
Oh, won’t you do this for me Junior,
If you can?Forget your lust, for the BIG DATA
All that you need, is in your soul,
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try.
All that I want for you my Junior,
Is to be satisfied.(Chorus)
DBA, don’t you worry… you’ll find TechNet.
Follow the SQL PASS and nothing else.
And you can do this if you try.
All that I want for you my Junior
Is to be satisfied.(Chorus)
Baby be an exceptional, be an exceptional DBA
Oh T-SQL, you will love and understand.
Baby be an exceptional, kind of DBA
Summit 2012: Lessons Learned
Now that I have been home a day, I thought it would be good to review some of the lessons I learned this week from attending my first SQL PASS Summit.
- This week is a marathon, pace yourself. Enjoy all of the activities but get plenty of rest all week so you will be able to finish the week out.’
- Carrying a laptop and a bunch of crap in your backpack all week was not necessary. Unless you are on call, use an ipad for notes or even your phone. This added weight will wear you down quickly.
- Carrying a power strip was not as necessary as I thought it would be since I didn’t see very many power outlets and since I wasn’t using my laptop. The only thing that needed charging was my phone. The ipad holds a great charge all day long.
- Buy an extended battery case for your cell phone as I saw many people with them, what a great idea.
- Never pass up an opportunity to introduce yourself to someone who you want to meet, I did that a few times this week because they looked busy. I did not get another chance to meet those people again.
- Walk, walk and keep walking. I had no idea the amount of walking involved this week. I usually walk about a mile three times a week, but next year I will need to be in much better shape to handle the rigors of walking everywhere all of the time. I endured it this year but it was not easy.
- Be prepared to stand in hot rooms for long periods of time. Being DBAs, we are usually sitting for most of the day. Many of the activities here at Summit, were standing room only for hours at a time in rooms that apparently had the heat on even though it was only maybe 55 degrees outside making most of these rooms like saunas for me.
- Never pass up an opportunity to hang out and network with someone when it presents itself.
- Buy the session DVDs so that you can watch them after the conference.
- Most importantly, if you want to do #SQLKaraoke, put your song in early! I put my name in every night and did not get called once. What a bummer.
Don’t let this detour you from coming, these are just things I now know and will be better prepared for next year in order to attend the greatest event of the they year, see you then.
Summit: The Final Day
Today is the final day of the PASS Summit 2012. There are still a few great sessions that I want to see today, but I am sad that the conference is coming to an end. However, yesterday I began looking for a hotel room for next year’s conference in Charlotte so that I can see all of my new friends again.
Last night was the Customer Appreciation Party at the EMP museum which was a fabulous venue for the rockaraoke event. I also spent some time a group of SQL peeps from South Africa, Holland, Germany, and a Scottish-Australian. We all had one thing in common: a love of SQL. This conference is simply amazing, come join in me in Charlotte next year. Enjoy!
Summit Women In Technology Luncheon
Today I was honored to attend and blog live from the tenth annual Women In Technology Luncheon at the SQL PASS Summit 2012. This is my first Women in Technology luncheon at any level. I have attended several SQL Saturdays but there has not been a WIT event at any of those events.
There was a phenomenal turnout and many people, men and women alike, are sporting the #SQLKilts in honor of the event. Wendy Pastrick hosted the event and the panel included Kevin Kline, Denise McInerney, Kendra Little, Stefanie Higgins, and Jen Stirrup, the PASSion Award winner for 2012. Wendy noted that the room was setup for 720 people and from my perspective it appears that the room is close to full, I found out afterwards that their were 695 attendees from the count.
The luncheon was streamed live via PASS TV and on twitter with the #PASSWIT hashtag and was sponsored by SQL Sentry. The recording is available here.
Stefanie Higgins, founder of the original WIT luncheon, began by discussing the lack of women in her college computer science program which continued later into a certification course that she attended where she was the only woman in the class. The instructor ignored her throughout the week and later admitted after she passed the course that he ignored her and was intimidated by her presence in the class. Stefanie stated that “I think we’ve come a long way, we have more to go though.”
Denise McInerney then discussed that back at her first Summit in 2002 there were only 1 or 2 women in each session and how WIT has women’s participation in the organization as well as SQL Saturday. She stated that in 2011, the first year that the statistics were collected by PASS, the organization consisted of 15% women among attendees and speakers for SQL Saturdays. She also stated that women leave technology careers twice as much as their counterparts.
Kevin Kline then discussed the SQL community and how the board grew the Summit into a friendly conference as opposed to bigger conferences like those sponsored by IBM and Oracle. He also discussed his perspective in raising six daughters and their struggles with technology coming primarily from their friends and not as much from patriarchal structure of society, which has gotten better but still exists.
Jen Stirrup then spoke about the declining percentages of women in technology across Europe. She also discussed their efforts to grow the WIT organization across Europe. Although they have had low numbers of women attending the SQL Saturday WIT events, they are seeing many men attending and discussing the issues surrounding WIT and it is encouraging for the future.
Kendra Little, MCM and MVP, starting speaking at SQL Saturday events and she discussed how that changed her outlook as an “employee” and then she started connecting with people in her sessions and that led her realizing that she could be a mentor and a teacher. She started to feel like she could be a consultant and own her own business whereas when she was an employee previously it had never occurred to her. Now she encourages other women to start speaking and sharing.
It was at this point that the luncheon was turned over to the floor for questions and comments. There were many insightful observations and questions from several audience members. Many people wanted to find resources for their local area so that they could become affiliated with the WIT organization. They were referred to wit.sqlpass.org, which has resources available for everyone if they are interested in starting their own WIT chapter or looking for more information in order to make their local groups more successful. The wit@sqlpass.org e-mail address is also available.
Personally I would like to see more being done in my area with my user group as well as my local SQL Saturdays throughout the State of Florida. Maybe the discussion will begin with this blog or sometime during the planning of our next SQL Saturday scheduled for March. Enjoy!
Summit: The Third 24 Hours
The third 24 hours in Seattle were even better than the first two, if that is possible. I attended Grant Fritchey’s pre-con on Query Performance Tuning yesterday and was blown away with knowledge. I cannot wait to watch that on DVD to recap my learning. I then attended the First Timer’s events followed by the Welcome Reception. These were both great events with an excellent dinner and networking opportunities and I enjoyed them thoroughly. In the evening I checked out the Tap House and realized that Seattle does not understand the concept of increased air conditioning when you have increasing amounts of people in a building.
Today began the real sessions kicked off by amazing keynote presentations. I attended a few great sessions and spent a considerable amount of time speaking with vendors about my upcoming project to compare SQL tools. This was a great chance to talk with the vendors and explain to them what I was looking for and how their tools could help me. The networking opportunities today were immense and amazing. Tonight is #SQLKaraoke, stay tuned tomorrow for the updates!
Summit: Second 24 Hours
The second 24 hours in Seattle were even better than the first, if that is possible. I knew #SQLFamily was amazing, but never realized the level of amazing. After Redgate’s SQL in the City event, I attended the Andy Warren (b|t) and Steve Jones’ (b|t) networking event at Gordon Biersch. All I can say is wow, it exceeded my expectations considerably and then some. I expected a bunch of awkward table conversations as introverts struggled to network. There were so many conversations and people circling the rooms and introducing themselves stopping at each table. I met so many people and several of my twitter friends. The #SQLFamily was so welcoming at this event, thank you Andy and Steve.
From there, several people decided to move onto Bush Garden for the first round of #SQLKaraoke. It also far exceeded my expectations, but the place was much smaller than I imagined, but I had a blast. Jason and Sarah Strate were great hosts and now I cannot wait for the next time #SQLKaraoke night on Wednesday so I can sing.
Until next time, enjoy!
T-6 Days Until the PASS Summit, Are You Excited?
With the DATEDIFF script returning 6 today, it is hard not to be excited as a week from this very moment I will rubbing elbows with everyone at the Redgate SQL in the City Seattle event, just a day before attending the pre-con with Grant Fritchey (b|t) at the PASS Summit 2012. The SQL in the City event looks like fun especially since we currently use Redgate DBA bundle and tool belt.
Monday evening is also the networking dinner held by Steve Jones (b|t) and Andy Warren (b|t). See everyone at both of these events!
Haven’t registered for Summit yet? Why not? Come on you know you want to! See you there! Enjoy!
T-7 Days Until the PASS Summit, One Week
With the DATEDIFF script returning 7 today, I cannot believe that we are only a week away from the PASS Summit 2012. The next week is going to be grueling for me because it will be hard not to daydream and think ahead as well as watching the clock trying to will it forward. There are also a few last-minute preparations like packing that need to occur.
This is also the time that I experience travel anxiety, not over flying, I love to fly. But I usually go through this OCD exercise of packing, check listing, running around the house feeling like I am forgetting something and driving everyone in the house crazy. That’s the anxiety I am referring too, as I was a scout and like to be prepared. I usually do not forget anything for a trip because of this insanity exercise but it is stressful on my family. Wish them luck and see you in a week!
Haven’t registered for Summit yet? Why not? Come on you know you want to! See you there! Enjoy!
T-9 Days Until the PASS Summit, #SQLKaraoke
With the DATEDIFF script returning 9 today (single digits we are almost there), I have been thinking heavily about the SQLKaraoke events for the PASS Summit 2012. In case you have missed it, there are several opportunities for Karaoke, so much so that there is now a dedicate page, SQLKaraoke.com, and twitter account. Below is a list of Karaoke events that I currently know about:
- The Bush Gardens SQLKaraoke event sponsored by Idera occurs Wednesday night (and every other night, I have heard.
- The Hard Rock SQLKaraoke event sponsored by Pragmatic Works, HP, and Microsoft occurs also on Wednesday night.
- The EMP Rockaraoke event sponsored by PASS and Microsoft occurs on Thursday night.
For the last week or two, I have been running through songs on my iPhone trying to determine which song(s) I should sing. I have very eclectic musical tastes, but I do want to sound good when I sing as well as make a statement about who I am. My compilation will not be posted until after Summit to protect the innocent, namely me.
Haven’t registered for Summit yet? Why not? Come on you know you want to! See you there! Enjoy!
SQL Swampland 