Today is the last official day of the PASS Summit. The sessions will wrap up at the end of the day, and we’ll all go our separate ways and resume our semi-normal lives. Having delivered my presentation yesterday, my official PASS duties are over, and I’m planning to spend the day taking in a few sessions and networking. 08:15am: No…
The last two days have been an absolute blur. As I first posted this week, I had planned to blog daily about my goings-on, but I’ve been running nonstop – all good things, fortunately – but it interrupted my plans to blog every day. Day 3: Tuesday 08:00am: Headed back to the MVP Summit. Rain again. 06:00pm: Back in Seattle,…
As I write this, I’m airborne and on my way to Seattle for the summit week (the Microsoft MVP Summit, followed by the PASS Summit). I was struck with the notion – and not for the first time – that I’m not really looking forward to these events for the technical content as much as I’m looking forward to networking…
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” No, not the end-of-year festival of repetitive music, overeating, and trampling on other people to find that perfect gift. No, it’s time again for the PASS Summit, the annual gathering of SQL Server and data professionals from around the world. The event, which is run by the organization formerly known as the…
There’s a brand new business intelligence conference launching next month in Denver, Colorado. The Mile High Tech Con is a three-day event taking place July 24-26, 2014, and is aimed at business intelligence practitioners, data analysts, and information managers/CIOs. From the event website: Featuring three days of sessions and events focusing on Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. Mile High Tech…
I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking at the SQL PASS Summit this fall. The summit will be held during the first week of November in Seattle, Washington. This will be my seventh year attending the PASS Summit, and my fourth year as a speaker. This year I will be delivering a new presentation entitled “Building Bullet-Resistant SSIS…
For me, 2013 was one of the most interesting and busy years of my life. It was a good year for me, especially on the career front, and it’s certainly been the busiest year in several years. Among the highlights of 2013: Going independent The most significant event for me this year was when I fulfilled a long-time dream of…
It’s that time of the year again – time to make your voice heard as a PASS member. The PASS board elections are upon us, and if you’ were a PASS member as of June of this year, you should receive your ballot via email tomorrow. Remember that this year’s voting window is very narrow – just five days –…
This past weekend I made the relatively short (about 3 hours) trip to the Oklahoma City area to attend and speak at the third annual SQL Saturday event there. I’ve been invited to speak at each of their three events, and I’ve been impressed with each one of them so far. The folks in the OKC and surrounding groups have…
I love music. In fact, I like to think that I’m a student of music – although anyone who has heard me sing karaoke would agree that I’m far from having mastered it. I’ve got a taste in music that is as diverse as anyone I know. I enjoy tunes from multiple genres spanning decades of time, and I often…