It’s hard for me to call our first SQLCruise anything but a success. We sold out, every cruiser actually attended every session, and nobody fell off the boat. However, we did learn a few things, and we’re applying those lessons to our upcoming 2011 schedule.
We’re doing two 2011 SQLCruises for two different audiences. We’re doing a 5-day cruise out of Miami targeted at production database administrators with 2-4 years of experience, and a 7-day Alaskan cruise out of Seattle targeted at production database administrators with 4-6 years of experience. Here’s how I think of the audience: if you’re aiming to get an MCITP certification, attend the 5-day cruise. If you’re the kind of person who wishes they could get the MCM, attend the 7-day one. In both cruises, we’re going to cover advanced topics, though – this isn’t your typical 45-minute lightweight training session.
Both cruises have two full days at sea. We wanted two interrupted days of activities – not necessarily 10 hours straight of training per day, though. There’s only so much time you can spend sitting in a classroom taking notes, and we want to mix things up. We’ll be breaking up the learnin’ with the lighter, more interactive sessions, and we’ll also be getting some training in on the partial-sea days.
We’re going to let attendees do some of the talking. Several of our original cruisers had fantastic experience with subject areas that are way, way outside of the typical DBA’s work. For example, Crys Manson (Blog – @CrysManson) works with SQL Servers behind load balancers, and just ten minutes of whiteboarding about how that works would totally intrigue the rest of us. I’ll be working with attendees to lead discussions about some of the more unusual things about their jobs and their businesses.
We’re going to give you a better picture of where you’re at. Overwhelmingly, all of our cruisers kept asking questions like:
- “I’ve got X years of experience, but am I a senior DBA?”
- “Am I the only person who spends X hours a day doing ___?”
- “How do other people solve this problem?”
- “What’s supposed to be the next step in my career?”
SQLBBQ 2010 at the Swanepoels
We’re going to cover those in detail on both cruises. I’ll be handing out a checklist of common tasks, and attendees will rate their comfort level with each of ‘em. We’ll gather the results and then discuss where the “average” DBA is based on what I see in the field.
We’re going to stick with what worked. Before the Miami cruise, Gareth and Jennifer Swanepoel (@GarethSwan) were gracious enough to host a #SQLBBQ at their house before we embarked on the cruise. It was a fantastic way to get to know each other, and they’re doing it for us again! Gareth and Jen will even be joining us on the Miami cruise, too, so we get to spend more time with my favorite South African. (Sorry, Nelson Mandela.)
We’re going to get the sponsors even more involved. Coming from a software vendor background, I know how much talent our sponsors have in-house. Sure, you see guys like Kevin Kline, Jeremiah Peschka, Steve Jones, Brad McGehee, and Aaron Bertrand because they’re the public faces of Quest Software, SQL Sentry, and Red Gate, but it’s bigger than that. They have developers in-house who write software tightly integrated with SQL Server, and they have support teams who see some crazy implementations. Vendor staff aren’t just salespeople, and they have a lot to bring to the discussions and questions. During the first cruise, the cruisers asked how various problems could be solved, and I want a technical person on board from each vendor to help answer those questions. I’m excited to announce that Quest, SQL Sentry, and Red Gate have signed on as sponsors for both 2011 cruises!
So now you wanna know when the cruises are, right? Well, you’re about to find out – tomorrow (Thursday) at 8AM Eastern, we’ll be announcing the cruise dates & locations on SQLCruise.com and on @SQLCruise’s Twitter feed. We’re still limiting each cruise to just 15 attendees, and we’ve opened up registration to our past cruisers first. They’ve already taken a handful of slots, so we expect the cruises to sell out fast. See you online tomorrow morning!
