I was so excited when SQLBits announced their 2024 dates & location, and I told y’all that I was blocking out my calendar and I’d be there.
Unfortunately, not gonna happen.
This year, SQLBits dramatically cut payments for speakers. We used to get paid per attendee at our workshops, but that’s done. Now you get paid per tier of attendees, and the top tier of £5000 is about the same as my airfare expenses, let alone hotel time in the UK before or after the conference, or any cool restaurants.
I love the event, but if I’m working, I have to get paid fairly. “For free, we’ll let you spend 13 hours in an airplane, work for us, and then fly straight back home” isn’t a fair payment, especially given the work that goes into writing, rehearsing, delivering, and promoting a workshop.
It’s not for me, but I’m sure they’ll find speakers. There are plenty of Europeans who have short, inexpensive train rides or flights to get to Bits. There are also plenty of people who work for Microsoft, or for vendors who get paid to fly to events like this and promote their products. The £5000 top tier payment will be a pot of gold for them.
I’m not upset, and Bits is still GREAT. It’s just… not an option for me anymore. I understand that Bits has to make tough decisions to stay financially sustainable because heck, so do I!
If you’re in Europe or Bits is an easy/cheap destination for you, you should consider submitting sessions for this year’s event because your chances of getting accepted as a speaker are better than ever. It’s an excellent event, and I’ll be watching with jealousy from afar.
66 Comments. Leave new
What type of ticket do you buy for 5000 euros?
Business class from Vegas to London. I’m 6’3″, 200 pounds, and the days of me sitting in an economy seat for 13 hours are long gone.
I’m 6’5 and 240 pounds… and still in economy 🙁
Hope things get better for ya!
Honestly Brent, that’s completely fair. It’s not really much different than an attendee having to scrub an event because it’s going to be outside of their budget to attend.
Thanks – and yeah, some conferences have also raised attendee prices to stay financially sound, and attendees have had to make these same kinds of decisions. Especially with airfare & hotels being more expensive these days as well.
Actually, a lot of MSFT people *don’t* get paid to go, and pay their own way. 🙂 I just got back from two events where I couch-surfed to do a pre-con and multiple sessions.
(And most vendors I know don’t take payment for the workshops – that’s given back to the event)
But I do get what you’re saying. 🙂 Good to hear from you, my friend!
Thanks, good to hear from you too! Yeah, I’ve heard it both ways from MS folks – some who get their hotels/airfare paid for, meals get magically taken care of, etc. 😀
+1 to what Buck said. I’ve never been paid for any Pre-Con I’ve delivered. In the past, I have worked out arrangements where instead of being paid, they cover flight and hotel and that’s worked out. Oddly, that happens more when I’ve gone to Europe than locally within the US. I’ve never covered my own flight and hotel though. If Microsoft, nor the event will cover it, I just won’t attend. Unless I can drive to it easily, locally.
Adam – and do you take vacation time for those kinds of events, or are they considered work days? (Just curious.)
That’s really messed up Buck. You’re doing Microsoft work when you’re out there; you shouldn’t have to cover your own expenses. (Unless, I suppose, you get to keep your pre-con payout. But I’ve heard that’s not the case?)
Curious how much the speaker payments were in previous years?
In 2022, for example, if you had ~100 attendees, you’d have made about £1,000 more – but the kicker is that for every additional attendee, you kept making more money. For those of us who put a lot of work into building and marketing our sessions, we could get much higher payouts. For example, in Sept 2020, I made about 2.5x more than the current cap.
So we wont assist !
I’m not sure what you mean – can you rephrase? (Not clear on who’s asking for assistance.)
If you don’t go, I wont go! 🙂
Have you tried an economy class Air ticket? You could get a return ticket for under £2000 + expenses and accommodation £1000 = £3000, so you’re earning £2000 (Remaining Balance). Companies pay fortune for Marketing activities. Given it’s one of the biggest sql events, it’s worth showing up.
Yes, I’ve spent 10+ hours in economy class before, and I’m not doing that again.
Like I mentioned above, I’m 6’3″, 200 pounds. I can’t sleep in economy class, which means I need to arrive at the conference at least a few days early in order to be mentally & physically ready to teach an all-day workshop class.
I totally understand that I’m bigger than average (in more ways than one, ha ha ho ho), but if you’re not, you can absolutely submit for SQLBits! I’d highly recommend it.
But I wouldn’t recommend 6’3″ people trying to fold themselves into economy class for 10-13 hours.
This is an extremely legit attitude. At 6’2″ and fat, flying anywhere over 30 minutes in economy is a great way to end up with leg cramps and a foul mood. 13 hours of that? Yeah, I’d skip that too ?
One of the best pieces of advice Ive gotten from a previous mentor was “always value your time.”
Amen.
But sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.
One of the negative comments in my SQLBits feedback this year was the lack of big names and what they do, they make it even less likely to have them next year… alright, I guess I’ll pass. I’ll try to arrange for the 2034 Summit, hopefully you’ll be there too (if F1 allows ;))
*2024 ofc ?
Then you wisely would NOT like being a musician where you show up with $20k in equipment to play for 2 hrs and hopefully get paid enough to cover your expenses 😉
Gary – do you think that’s how it works for musicians at the peak of their careers? That they’d get invited to another continent to play effectively for free, for publicity?
Because as someone who shelled out over $1,000 for two U2 tickets, I can pretty well assure you that U2 isn’t playing for exposure anymore, nor am I.
Sounds like you need “Brent Ozar’s workshop on SQL and (Amazon/Azure/Google) brought to you by (Amazon/Azure/Google)”
You could do one each for Google, azure and Amazon.
James – why would they pay me to do it when their employees do it for free?
I don’t think i’ve ever actually learned somehting directly from microsoft. I’m pretty sure learn.microsoft.com is an alien manual they just translated but didn’t actually read.
James – to be fair, I think it’s gotten much, much better over the years, but yeah, if you try to stumble straight in there and start learning, it’s tough.
> James – why would they pay me to do it when their employees do it for free?
Actually, I’ve seen that happen, though it’s very rare. Sponsoring a presenter often pulls from the same budget as sponsoring a conference. If such a sponsorship can provide more bang-for-buck than a sponsored conference, it’s not a bad way to spend some of that budget.
On the user side, I’ve found that third parties are way better at presenting pragmatic usage guidelines.
Insiders are often really bad at optimizing information for direct application, since they often lack experience using their own tools in normal business contexts (or at least, that’s the case for the employees they tap to give presentations).
That said, most of the sorts of people who can provide value via such a sponsorship can’t accept such a sponsorship without a massive conflict of interest, so they can only reasonably accept payment from either their employer (i.e., their salary) or from the conference itself.
I think it’s a huge mistake for a conference like SQLBits to change their payment model for pre-cons in this way.
A revenue sharing model like they used previously encourages popular speakers to bring new and extra-exciting material, and also to market their conference broadly.
Essentially they’re changing this to a tiered flat rate model with a cap. That removes a lot of that incentive, and they aren’t even paying for room and board for sure for their pre-con speakers.
Their conference will be more boring for it after a few years, I think. But I won’t know first hand, because I don’t plan to submit, either, after this change.
Kendra – yeah, I keep going back and forth about whether it’s a smart move or not. It does give them more money, but… they’re not cutting prices for attendees, either. The money is just going to one place.
I do want them to be successful, though, and maybe this is what it takes for them to build up a financial war chest in case another pandemic strikes? I’m not sure.
They limit the payment, but the entrance fee remains the same???
Dunnos!
Let them do it! Without us crazy charismatic idiots, was the last interesting BITS
Well, overall, the entrance fee might actually go up. During the announcement live stream, Simon mentioned that they’re only going to do a limited quantity of early bird seats from here on out rather than selling an unlimited number through a date range.
I think, it’s a great opportunity for less popular/newer speakers who can fly in economy class and have more opportunities to increase their visibility.
It’s absolutely true – you just have to be careful about that as a conference organizer. It’s tough to sell a premium, expensive conference as “this is the place to find less popular/newer speakers.”
Oh wow this is really disappointing to hear; I think Sqlbits might regret their decision, especially if other key presenters will also struggle to justify attending or to stand with you. This was something I was looking forward to as got the thumbs-up from work since the last one I attended in person in London back in 2012 (I think!).
You’re one of the best speakers in the industry and it’s disappointing to learn you’re no longer presenting your sessions there – but completely understandable. I hope they rethink it, but probably it would be too late anyway.
Aww, thanks for the kind words. I don’t think it’s irreversible – they’ve been tweaking the speaker compensation and entry fees over the years. The only downside is that if they stop featuring premium content, then they might not realize if the conference’s reputation declines until it’s too late.
I think in the long term this is going to diminish session quality and diversity. It will all turn into reading the documentation for you (How To Azure Your Azure In Azure), marketing fluff (You Better Get On Board With This Feature That Will Be Deprecated Next Year), of vendor self-promotion (50 Ways To Measure I/O).
It’s hard to see the upside for attendees, or even speakers who draw larger crowds, but easy to see the upside for the conference.
HAHAHA, your session titles killed me. Yeah, I think you’re right there. I didn’t wanna say that in the post, but it does feel like those are the kind of sessions they’ll end up with, plus some good stuff from UK presenters who can afford to go. Maybe it becomes a UK-focused, UK-centric conference, and that would be totally fine too, if that’s what they’re aiming for.
Totally understand. I’m 6’5″ and 215lbs and I will never do economy class ever again for long haul. Might be career or travel limiting but I’m okay with that and plan accordingly.
Yeah, I swore years ago that I’d never do long haul economy again, but then recently coming back from Iceland, I did it because I felt guilty about spending the money on a personal trip. Ho ho ho, no way, not doing that again. Only took one 3-hour flight delay, stuck on the tarmac in NJ, before I swore I’d never do economy again.
There is always choice, and then consequence… It was interesting to see the SQLBI folk on the announcement, and with Fabric dialling in, Power BI has been the Cinderella story…maybe the conference will be more focused more towards that direction??? Cloud, cloud, we want hybrid-cloud! I’ve always figured conferences should also take into account the exchange rate disparities between 1st world and 3rd world countries to equalize that price of a Big Mac, but hey, the free market is what keeps the food on our tables!
“a unit of acoustic absorption equivalent to the absorption by one square foot of a perfect absorber”
It was indeed interesting to see the SQLBI folks on there – it made me wonder if that was some sort of paid endorsement or advertising deal? Really confusing.
Please don’t let it worry you too much. There will be loads of excellent speakers anyway, some may even be modest enough to travel long-haul economy – just think of that! For your loyal congregation no doubt your post sounds just fine; to those of us who think you’re good but not actually deific, it just sounds like a self-indulgent, over-entitled, tantrum.
But yet you cared enough to leave a comment, showing your own generous nature and good will to all. Which in its own way drives up the SEO/internet value of this post. Just think of that!
@Naples Man – thanks, and it doesn’t worry me at all. I’m pretty mellow about that kind of thing. I don’t even mind when people call me a self-indulgent and over-entitled guy who throws tantrums – on my own blog, no less.
It’s all good! Looking forward to seeing you break my sales records from Bits. Cheers!
I totally agree with your decision. I’ve always shared freely of my knowledge and experience… but I charge for my time. After all, we’re professionals and this is what we do to make a living.
Thanks, I appreciate it, and yeah, I agree exactly.
My mum used to be a primary school teacher and for her to deliver a good education meant long hours preparing to teach the kids, then marking their work all outside working hours.
For Brent to deliver the educational content so easily means he must put in the hours preparing and practising.
If you are being paid for work, it should paid for the value you are giving, and not be out of pocket.
David – yep, exactly.
If I can take that analogy out a bit further…suppose Mum works with another teacher who teaches 20 kids, but mum teaches 40 kids, should Mum get paid twice as much as her colleague?
It’s a shame that Brent won’t be at Bits, I think folks like Brent have such an impact on the community. But whether you draw 300 people or 100, doesn’t mean you put any more effort in than the next person right?
So I get it as a commercial decision, but wouldn’t distributing the pay more evenly make it more fair? I expect the devil is in the detail…
Justin – the students in this analogy pay to attend classes. If one teacher works really hard to build amazing material, and market it to a big audience, and they get twice the signups…
Whereas another teacher has a reputation for building bad material, and doesn’t bother marketing it, and hardly gets any attendees…
Don’t you want to reward the first teacher for bringing in attendees and making the conference more successful?
How does SQLBits reimbursement compare with PASS Data Community Summit reimbursement?
The PASS Data Community Summit is still doing per-attendee reimbursements, so it’s higher.
Many speakers are interested in presenting at SQLBits, either through a precon or a session. Some may even be willing to do it for free, as long as their accommodation is covered. This is in line with the expectations of the “SQLFamily” community. As a speaker, you are making a valuable contribution to the community, and any financial benefits should be seen as a bonus. You should feel fortunate to have the opportunity to do so.
You are really making other speakers think and wonder. Probably, that’s why you will not get good feedback from the organizers and some of the core SQLFamily members after this post.
Fedon – just to be clear, you *do* understand that attendees are paying money to see pre-conference speakers, right?
And that they’re paying a LOT more than the speakers get?
Where do you suppose that money goes?
Should I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to give them that money?
And if those organizers are the ones who are telling me that I should be happy to lose money while I present for them and make them money, why would I care about their feedback? If someone doesn’t value my time, I don’t value their feedback.
How about the money from the Youtube views and subscriptions? It looks like SQLBits has 12k subscribers. I can see you have videos on their channel too. I believe they make money from Youtube per views and subscribers.
Redgate promised to pay all speakers last year, but speakers had to fight to receive money from them. I believe this year they are expecting all speakers to be fortunate (fly to Seattle, get a hotel, and speak for free) this year again.
I understand your points, It’s great to see someone with a different voice and view. As I said before, you make other speakers think by sharing this.
The money from YouTube is fairly inconsequential for this low number of subscribers and videos.
Redgate does still pay pre-conference workshop speakers per attendee, so you can make much, much more than SQLBits is offering. (Again, assuming you’re willing to put in the work to build an awesome workshop and market it yourself. I see a lot of folks who don’t do that work, and then wonder why they only get a couple dozen attendees – building a top-selling workshop is serious work.)
Thanks for the kind words! Yeah, my goal in writing this was really just to explain to my readers why I’m not going this year, and it didn’t even occur to me that other speakers might stop and think. If anything, I wanted to encourage European speakers to go for it because it’s much more cost-effective for them, and because they’ll have less competition from Americans this year.
“As a speaker, you are making a valuable contribution to the community, and any financial benefits should be seen as a bonus.”
I have never understood this. We’re talking about a commercial software product created by one of the most valuable companies in the world, used by all of the biggest companies in the world, supported by very well-paid professionals who are almost always going to these conferences on behalf of their employers. Contributing to these events is not even remotely a charitable thing.
SQLBits has a very healthy bank balance, and they can afford to give you a fair deal. Here’s their latest UK tax return, indicating their turnover and profit for the last year. This ‘community’ venture is a ‘for profit’ UK Limited Company. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06364368/filing-history
TL;DR – their shareholders funds (assets – liabilities) for FY 2022 was $165,055.54 – not bad post-COVID, right?
Having sat on the PASS Board for four years where I had to account for every tiny bit of spend in front of a 24-hour online howling mob of ‘sqlfamily’, or an inbox that was permanently full of sh*tty emails, people were pointing fingers at me all the time, but not looking at SQLBits who were making good money. If I was them, I’d get the shareholders funds and put (at least some) of it back into the community or in longer-term community investments, such as setting up a meaningful chunk of cash to diversity and inclusion groups, for example. It’s clear from that financial statement, issued as part of legal UK Companies House Law and tax regulations, that they could do a lot more.
I probably will not meet you again in person, but I do have good memories of your unseen support and I would like to thank you for that. You have done MORE than enough for a tech community that is actually about profit-making in disguise. Your skills and time are valuable and it will be time that you could spend on doing something else, for you or your loved ones. The way the world is right now – people have to prioritize.
Best wishes as always,
Jen
Jen – thanks for the kind words! I have great memories of hanging out and chatting with you, and you do great work. Fingers crossed, I hope our paths cross again at some point.
That’s neat about UK company financial data being public, I had no idea! In fairness, it looks like they have 165K on hand, but 729K of debt coming due in the next year. That’d make me pretty nervous as a company director – all it takes is war breaking out, or an airline freeze, or a dangerous COVID variant, and the company’s prospects for the next year would be in trouble. I wouldn’t blame ’em at all for wanting to have enough cash on hand to cover the next year’s worth of debts, even if their debtors can’t pay up for some reason.
Still, though, the point remains that it’s a for-profit company, and I gotta prioritize where I spend my time & money. I can just only lose so much money while doing work for a for-profit company.
Best wishes to you too, and I really do hope we get to catch up in person again!
You will be missed, as you were last year. Sorry they don’t make the carrot on the stick big enough for you.
Totally understand why you won’t be there, you always put 1000% into it and doing that while breaking even must be tough. Surely one of the big players can make your journey worthwhile like Quest, Solarwinds, etc.
or did you burn those bridges too?
They’ve never paid enough to come close to breaking even, no – it’s nice icing on the cake money, but not even enough for things like the airfare from the US.
[…] so I’m jumping on the Steve Jones / Brent Ozar bandwagon of explaining why I’m not attending SQLBits this […]