PTI SQL Server 2012 Firestarter Web Series January 29, 2012

My company is going to be hosting a webinar series on all the lovely new stuff in SQL Server 2012.  I will be doing a couple of them and as well as some of the other guys on my team.  Below is the official marketing blurb.  Will be great way to find out about all the new goodies in 2012.  Come join us!  Pass along to anyone/everyone.  Here is the link to register:  http://pti.net/Firestarter/

Announcing PTI’s 2012 SQL Server Webcast Series Don’t miss out, there is still time to register for the first webinar on February 2nd!

With the upcoming release of SQL Server 2012 later this year, PTI has created a series of one hour presentations designed to give you a sneak peek at all the exciting changes, updates and toolkits that Microsoft will be offering in this new version. Join our staff of presenters as they take you through; Master Data Services in SQL Server 2012, Enhancements to Reporting Services in SQL Server 2012, SSIS 2012 – New and improved, Extended Events – the death knell of SQL Trace, and much, much more.

This series begins February 2, 2012 and continues each Thursday through March 29, 2012. See below for presentation details, then click on the banner above or go to PTI.net/Firestarter and register for any or all of the webinars today.  Don’t miss out on this chance to get ahead of the technology curve.
2/02 – Master Data Services in SQL Server 2012 – presented by Arie Jones
2/09 – Utilizing Knowledge with Data Quality Services in SQL Server 2012 – presented by Arie Jones

2/16 – Throwing T-SQL 2012 enhancements against the wall – presented by Kyle Neier
2/23 – Enhancements to Reporting Services in SQL Server 2012 – presented by Hope Foley
3/01 – AlwaysOn – Way to get your 9’s? – presented by Warren Sifre
3/08 – SSIS 2012 – New and improved – presented by Kyle Neier
3/15 – PowerPivot & BISM in SQL Server 2012 OH MY! – presented by Hope Foley
3/22 – SSAS 2012 – What BISM means to you!!! – presented by Warren Sifre
3/29 – Extended Events – the death knell of SQL Trace – presented by Kyle Neier

Since 1997, Perpetual Technologies, Inc. (PTI) headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana has provided clients with unrivaled database management consulting services. Our base in the Midwest and focus on remote services, allows PTI to compete on a national level by offering highly competitive rates saving clients an average of 28%. Our subject matter experts have extensive experience with all major database products, with a focus on Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. More generally, PTI provides software integration services, data warehouse design, custom application development, database design, capacity planning, hosting and network services, performance tuning and disaster recovery planning. Contact us today at www.PTI.net.

Friday SQL Nugget #1 January 14, 2012

Got tagged today by Ted Krueger (blog|twitter) in his Friday SQL Nugget.  I started this post before midnight so it counts right?  The concept for today was when to pitch it all and start over.  I had to ponder this awhile because I couldn’t think of anything I have thrown away lately related to my job.  My hubby may disagree but I will pitch stuff like crazy at home.  At work though, that’s a step back/gasp/stare in horror type moment to think of pitching things.  I hang onto links, emails, books, and whatever else makes sense in my technical hoarder type way.  And scripts…you must be out of your mind if you think I’ll get rid of a script!  There was finally something I thought of that I don’t mind letting go of without a regret at all…presentations.  I haven’t been doing presentations for a terribly long time (around a 1.5 years) but in the fall started getting antsy to get something new going.  I ended up taking the holidays off, well to just survive the holidays.  It’s a new year and kicking it into gear fast and furious on some new ones that I’m really excited to start doing.  I will admit I may have issues getting rid of some things, presentations is not one of them.  Although I may keep 2 or 3 copies of all files related to them, ok I’ll stop while I’m ahead before someone offers to get me psychiatric help.

What my hard drives feel like.

Top Ten Things Learned at my First PASS Summit Experience November 5, 2011

Work has been crazy since I got back from my vacation after the PASS Summit.  Vacation always seems you work extra hard on front and back end.  Finally taking a little bit of time for myself to finally get a blog post out of my experience.  Even at the risk of over using the term there really is no other way to say it…PASS Summit was da bomb!  It was an uphill road trying to get myself to this event so when I was there it was like a victory on top of the normal goodness.  I got myself addicted to the SQL Server community at SQLSaturdays.  If that was the piece to create the addiction, this was the full on overdose.  Everywhere I looked were wonderful SQL folk.  I was on a whole different level of happy while I was out there.  The only bummer was when I was asked if I was presenting but there’s always next year.  Here are some of the tidbits I learned at my very first PASS Summit.

1. I have many more folks I am adding to my intellectual crushes list.  The level of training was amazing!  I got to see presentations from folks I had never seen before, especially some that I’ve followed forever in blogs and etc (i.e. Paul Randal and Steve Jones) .  I did attend a Bob Ward session which lived up to it’s reputation.  Kind of scary there are people that smart out there…I’m skeptical he’s human.  There wasn’t a bad presentation that I saw though.  I did also get to partake in a pre-con session with Adam Mechanic…fantastic!  Too many really so many good things out there that your saving grace is the DVD.  If you don’t you HAVE to get the DVD.  Makes the ones you miss not such a tragedy.

2. Must make sure to use Zoomit profusely at all future presentations.

3.  SQLKaraoke is always something that is more than that it really should be.  Always a wallflower at these…no one would want to hear me sing…I promise.  Super fun though.  Glad my bad influence for the conference, Eddie Wuerch, invited me to go.

4. The term “networking” has new meaning for me.  I had no idea that drinking more than I should and staying out way too late means “networking”.  I did a lot of networking back in college and it was a lot easier then than it is now on this older Mom version of myself.  At least next year I know that sleep is out the window, be prepared for it and accept it.

5.  They were really serious about the kilt thing.

6.  Need to rethink about animations in my slides.  It can help and be non-cheesy if done right.

7.  It was nice to see the W.I.T luncheon in person this year.  Loved all the ladies up there!  I don’t remember what it was Karen Lopez said, but I remember thinking standing up and saying “Amen” felt like an acceptable thing to do.  I go to all the WIT events that I have opportunity.  Always get this fire in my belly feeling at those, so sent the email to offer up my services and get more involved in that.

8.  There was also SQLGive going on at the Summit.  Very nice to see when someone thinks outside of themselves.  Thanks to all the folks to coordinated that.

9.  The professional development sessions are much better than I ever gave them credit.  I normally am a technical fiend at any of these events and always trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can.  These types of sessions always had gotten the axe when they were set up against something fun technically.  I ended up going to see Steve Jones do one and it was really good.  It may have been good timing too.  I ended up getting into management on accident and now that the team is bigger I’m struggling with the technical/management question it seems many have been faced.  So after his session I opened myself into going to two more.  Very good information I gathered and definitely got my wheels turning.  I love picking the brains of others to hear their experiences and I got a lot of info that relates to this internal struggle.

10.  All the cool kids ended up with longer ribbons.  There became such a thing as “ribbon envy” by the end of the summit.

I knew I would dig this PASS Summit thing I kept hearing about so much.  I talked my company (Perpetual Technologies) into sponsoring this year as well.  It’s a good thing…I think and hope it won’t be such a hard sell next year.  And who knows…maybe next year will be my year to present.  This first timer is hooked so I have to hedge my bets and make it happen to go next year and all to follow.

IndyPass Presentation (May 2011) – What Can’t PowerShell Do? May 18, 2011

I had a great time presenting at IndyPass tonight.  I finally got to do a presentation on one of my favorite topics…PowerShell.  The presentation overall went well I think.  I had a lot of good engaging questions and some good feedback on it right away…good signs in my book anyway.  It was the first time I had done this particular presentation so a few minor things I will work on but I will put this one in the win column.  I had some folks who were anxious too for me to get info up on my blog so here I am doing just that.  If any of you guys who were there have any suggestions to make it, as I said tonight “moe betta” please let me know.  It appears I can only upload certain files so I put all the scripts into a combined word document.  Here are scripts and the slide deck.  I hope these are helpful and get everyone going down the road of using PowerShell.  It’s a great tool to have in your admin arsenal.

SQL Saturday Olympia Recap April 19, 2011

• That weekend was a bit of a whirlwind adventure but good stuff all the same!  I left Friday morning to head over to Olympia Washington for the SQL Saturday to do a presentation. Was excited to get over that way for a SQL event (hopefully another one in October as well but that’s a work in progress).  There were a lot of folks I hadn’t met yet so was pumped.  We got out there in time to catch the speaker dinner which was really nice.  Got to meet some really nice folks like Rick Morelan twitter | blog.
• Then comes the event.  The hard part is always having to choose which sessions to attend.  I caught Greg Larsen’s nice one with an Alice in Wonderland back story.  Then came one of my favorite topics…PowerShell.  You can’t tell from my lack of blogness about it but highly addicted to Powershell.  I guess my only tech blogs so far are ones devoted to it so guess that’s at least saying something.  So I was excited to catch Nicholas Cain’s twitter | blog session on it and was bummed missed it the other week in Chicago.  Mr. Joe Cool Smooth was not fazed by demo VM issues with licenses.  Very good stuff and some nice nuggets I am going to try out soon.  Up next was my presentation right after lunch.  It was nice to have the time at lunch to get setup.  I’m always sweating bullets until the slides come up on the overhead   It came up so had that going for me but was a bit bummed.  There was one question I am kicking myself I wasn’t able to answer.  My new theory to help me exorcise those demons is to blog on them later.  Thank you to Scott Stauffer twitter | blog for helping me out during one of those moments I started to get flustered.  Its always nice to have those friendly presenter faces in the audience to help.  After my session the shoulders relax and can get on with grabbing sessions of others for the rest of the day.  My next one I attended was Buck Woody twitter | blog.  This was the first time I had gotten to see one of his in person so was very excited for that one.  Very good stuff on Azure but was really impressed by his style and presentation.  Some folks just have this presenting stuff down.  Then wrapped up the day with Ron Talmage (link) session on his experiences with data warehousing.  Love to hear folks actual working experiences so was a nice one.
• Then comes my favorite part of these events…the aftermath.  I LOVE the networking that goes on after the events.  This one was held at The Office Bar and Grill.  So got to hangout with SQL folks, enjoyed a burger, and got to try a nice local brew called Mac & Jack (good stuff).  Got to put faces to twitter handles like Argenis Fernandez twitter | blog.  One of my favorite conversations of the night though was when I got to meet and talk with Mike Decuir twitter | blog.  He hasn’t done a presentation yet but is working toward it.  I’m still a very big newbie to the game but was very excited to try to pay forward some of the encouragement I had picked up a long my way and pass it on to him.  Go Mike!
• The journey on the red eye back was like an epic struggle with layovers and odd ball issues but would do it again in a heartbeat.  SQL Saturday Olympia was a great event….thank you to all who organized it!  Is it possible to get addicted to SQL Saturdays?  Not sure but I may be on my way!
• Here are my slides too for folks looking for them.

SQLSaturday Chicago Recap April 1, 2011

• SQLSaturday Chicago was another fantastic experience!  It was my second one and was just amazing.  It definitely helped me to recharge my SQL mojo and remember that I really love doing this stuff.  Was a rough month at work and really needed that recharge.

• We drove down on Friday and got there in time for the speaker dinner.  Enjoyed a couple 312′s and pizza.  It was nice to see folks I hadn’t seen since the last event and also to finally put some faces to names.  Conversation went to one of my favorite topics too…how people ended up as DBAs and in the industry.  Seems so often it’s an odd twist of events that land people in the DBA role.  I was then kidnapped by some fellow co-workers for a little birthday celebration.  Thank you Kandy, Teri, and Caroline!

• Then the big day!  I caught Allen White’s session in the morning on PowerShell and PBM.  His sessions are always great and love catching them any chance I get.  That and as most folks know I’ve drank the kool-aid big time with PowerShell.  Followed that up with Aaron Bertrand’s session on Denali.  I seen some things on Denali but not much so wanted to catch that one.  The thing that stinks with all SQLSaturdays is the struggle to figure out which sessions to go to.  The line up for Chicago was so incredible…every session I wrestled with myself figuring out which one to actually go to.  After that was the Women in Technology luncheon which I was so pumped to be on the panel.  It was full of great discussion.  It was a bit hectic and rushed with lunch but great still the same.  I always love those WIT events.  Jes did a great job leading the conversation and keeping us all on time.  After that I caught Jeremiah Peschka’s session on SQL Refactoring.  It was great….just love his delivery and slides!  So artistic…makes my slides feel insecure and inadequate

• My presentation went surprisingly well.  I had so many doubts coming into this one.  I had been swamped at work so didn’t prepare as much as I normally like to do.  Then I checked out the lineup at the same time.  When I saw Brent Ozar’s session going on at the same time my heart sank.  One because I would have liked to catch his session too but more because I thought I would be presenting to the walls.  I was so happy to see the room filled up!  I think the session went well.  I had folks who seemed really engaged and asking great questions.  I felt more at ease too.  Getting a bit more used to this public speaking thing I guess.  I know some of my first sessions you could have pushed me over with a feather and fried an egg on my face.  Oh and when it’s over the way that heaviness lifts and you can relax…also good stuff.  Luckily I didn’t have the same jerkface that was in Christina Leo’s session in mine either.  I always have “that guy” in mind when I’m preparing for these.  I know all the presenters were ready to grab torches and pitchforks and hunt him down…I mean really…really?  Read about her experience here.

• Then came my favorite part..the aftermath!  This was my first experience with SQL karaoke and it was outstanding.  I am so not a karaoke kind of gal so didn’t actually get up there and sing but it was fun to watch for sure.  I would have to say my favorites were “Summer Nights” with Jes Borland and Jason Strate and “Pokerface” with Nicholas Cain and Jose Chinchilla.  Then when they kicked us out of that room we moved to the lobby for more chit chat and jello shots.  Oh the stories!  I just ate up every minute of the talk with everyone!  I stayed up till 4:00am taking it all in..and that’s unheard of for this poor mom.  I can’t remember the last time I stayed up that late.  Grant Fritchey started talking about how he got where he is…what was I going to do leave? Ummm no.

• Thank you all so much for the encouragement, advice, and just in general good vibes.  Them SQL people are good people I tell ya!   And thank you too to all the people who put on a really fantastic SQL Saturday…great job!

24 HOP…Pure Awesomeness! March 21, 2011

Well I had to get away from everything being “da bomb” so awesomeness it is!  This past week was my presentation for 24 Hours of PASS.  The presentation gods were nice to me which was great.  Had a nervous bit in the beginning when Brett’s internet connection was acting up but that worked itself out at the last minute.  Karma keeping me on my toes I guess.  And thanks to the instant feedback I got on email and Twitter it seemed like folks dug it.  I had a goofy grin I think for the rest of the day.  I have watched so many sessions for 24HOP that it was really kind of odd in a great way to be on the other end of it.  To all the folks at PASS…thank you so much for the opportunity!  There was never a presenter who appreciated the chance more!

Here are the slides from the presentation.

It’s official…SQLSaturday Chicago! March 5, 2011

Just heard word that my PowerPivot session got picked up for SQLSaturday in Chicago in a few weeks!  Looking forward to meeting everyone involved for that one.  March is going to be pretty awesome….24 Hours of PASS and now this!  If you’re able you should come join the fun.  It’s on March 26.  Here’s the link.  And too…it’s the day after my birthday so that means I’ll get to celebrate in Chi-town…bonus!  #sqlsat67

Really starting to sink in… February 20, 2011

I am doing some preparation today on my 24HOP presentation today.  It’s really starting to sink in how cool it is to have this opportunity.  Very stoked to be able to do a presentation for PASS!  I have seen so many great presentations from folks, it’s a bit hard to believe I’ll be doing one for others.  It’s also extremely cool to be a part of the one that is dedicated to all women.  I have always been a bit of a tomboy and loved beating guys at things that were seen as “their games”…i.e. fishing, playing pool, etc.  I got into IT partially because I kept hearing how it was a male dominated field.  The challenge of getting in and showing I can be just as good as any of the guys gave me a little extra incentive.  Just very honored to be presenting with other women who are out there rocking it as well.  I love seeing anyone exceed and do well in this awesome SQL community but makes me smile a bit wider when it’s a fellow chica!  Make sure you sign up for 24 Hour of PASS.  (Hash tags:  #24HOP #sqlpass #passwit)

 

PTI Back to School PowerPivot Presentation September 29, 2010

This past weekend was the annual PTI Back to School free learning event.  It turned out pretty good.  The weather outside didn’t help the attendance but had a great crowd and a lot of good content.  My presentation for PowerPivot went pretty well I think.  I got some positive feedback from some there so I’ll take it as a win.  I really got a lot out of putting this one together.  I didn’t know much about PowerPivot before taking this one on as a challenge.  Really lights the fire under my rear to really dig into the new technologies out there.  And PowerPivot is a very cool tool so I’m glad I did it.  I am planning on doing some projects with it here soon so I’ll have to make sure to blog about it.  And as promised here is my slide deck.