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Conferences and Classes

Registration is Open for GroupBy.org’s April Free Conference

Last Updated March 18, 2017

GroupBy Conference

GroupBy.org is our community training initiative where your votes pick the session lineup. Here’s the lineup you chose for GroupBy April: Friday, April 21: 8AM Eastern – How to Use Parameters Like a Pro and Boost Performance by Guy Glantser 10AM – Introducing the SQL Server 2016 Query Store by Enrico van de Laar Noon – Worst Practices…

Vote Now to Pick the #GroupBy April Lineup

Last Updated February 28, 2017

GroupBy Conference

GroupBy.org is a new free online conference by the community, for the community. You get to pick the session lineup. Yes, you. We just run whatever you wanna see. Here’s how to do vote: Open one browser with the list of abstracts for details Open another browser with the GroupBy voting page If you haven’t…

GroupBy Registration is Open for 3 More Days

Last Updated December 22, 2016

GroupBy Conference, SQL Server

GroupBy is a new community-driven conference where your voting picks the lineup. Here’s the sessions you chose: Friday January 13th: 8AM Eastern: SQL Server 2016: It Just Runs Faster with Bob Ward 9:30: SQL Server and PowerShell: Let’s Get Serious with Drew Furgiuele 11:00: Keep It Simple, Make It Fast: The SQL Server Strategy at…

Vote Now to Pick the GroupBy Conference Lineup

Last Updated February 14, 2017

GroupBy Conference

Voting closes soon at GroupBy, the new free online conference where YOU pick the lineup. Here’s the sessions up for votes – there’s a lot of them, so maybe focus on rating the sessions you find the most interesting – quantity of votes counts for a lot here: Analytics and Business Intelligence: High-Performance SQL Server…

Announcing Group By: A New Kind of Free Community Conference

Last Updated November 26, 2016

GroupBy Conference

Let’s try something new. Let’s build a free event by the community, for the community, where: Speakers submit abstracts publicly online. Anybody can submit an abstract on any topic – community members, software vendors, even Microsoft’s Bob Ward has submitted a session on 2016: It Just Runs Faster. Attendees suggest tweaks to the abstracts. You…

Reminder: Rate Your Summit Sessions (and Watch Mine Now!)

Last Updated April 9, 2017

PASS Summit attendees, we need your feedback. The greatest gift you can give back to your volunteer speakers is your comments to help them get better. Ratings are good – but what we really like is constructive comments. Don’t be polite – if you hated a session (mine included!), say why. Presenters really want to get better,…

My How to Think Like the Engine Class is Now Free – and Open Source

Last Updated April 9, 2017

#SQLPass, SQL Server

You’re a developer or a DBA, and you’re comfortable writing queries to get the data you need. You’re much less comfortable trying to design the right indexes for your database server. You’ve never had a formal database internals class, and you don’t really have the patience to read a book on it – but you…

Quentin Clark

Thoughts About the #SQLSummit Day 1 Keynote

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Quentin Clark I’ll be honest, dear reader: I usually hate the holy hell out of the Summit day 1 keynote. As an example, check out the last keynote I liveblogged – go to the bottom and then read up. (Sorry, I won’t do that style again.) It was awful, one of the worst two hours…

[Video] 500-Level Guide to Career Internals

Last Updated October 1, 2020

#SQLPass, SQL Server

This week , I was honored to give a session about hacking your career. Here’s the abstract: This is not yet another career session that tells you to be friendly and network. Forget that – this is about using your IT skills to reinvent the way you get paid. I’ll explain how I went from DBA to…

We Are Ready For Risk-Taking Presenters

Last Updated February 12, 2017

#SQLPass, SQL Server, Writing and Presenting

June 2, 2011. I woke up around 5:00 AM, got dressed, left my cruise ship cabin and went downstairs to find a place to write about the dream I’d just had: A database murdered. Suspects isolated together on a ship. Technical sleuthing. I knew immediately this was a presentation I needed to give. It would be a…

My Favorite Moments from the 2015 PASS Summit WIT Lunch

Last Updated February 12, 2017

The speakers are great, but the audience is great, too! One of the great things about the SQLPASS Summit is the annual Women in Technology lunch. Not only does the lunch feature an interesting presentation, but you get to talk to men and women at your table about diversity, how to build better teams, and how…

I’m Killing It at PASS Summit 2015!

Last Updated February 12, 2017

I’m delighted and honored to be presenting two sessions at the 2015 PASS Summit in Seattle: “Living and Dying by Dynamic SQL” and “SQL Server Mystery: Dead Reports Don’t Talk”. Since I’ve never done either of these sessions at the Summit before, here’s a little more information about the sessions to help you decide whether to attend:…

PASS Summit #FreeCon2015: What We’re Talking About

Last Updated February 13, 2017

#SQLPass, Blogging, SQL Server

FreeCon SQLSaturday Chicago 2012 On the Monday before the PASS Summit in Seattle this year, we’re putting on another one of our FreeCons. The FreeCon is different from a typical conference pre-con – it’s free, and it’s about the SQL Server community, presenting, marketing, branding, networking, and yes, some technical stuff too. In the past,…

#SQLPASS #Summit14 Keynote LiveBlog: Dr. Rimma Nehme

Last Updated November 6, 2014

#SQLPass, SQL Server

8:25AM Pacific: Goooood morning Seattle! It’s time for day 2 of the PASS Summit, and this morning we’ve got a technical keynote lined up. I’m a much bigger fan of these than the day 1 marketing keynotes. Dr. Rimma Nehme from the Microsoft Gray Systems Lab is talking Cloud Databases 101. Here’s the abstract: Cloud…

Announcing the 2015 #SQLPASS FreeCon (and taking applications)

Last Updated February 12, 2017

#SQLPass, SQL Server

Four years ago, we put on the FreeCon: a free invitation-only pre-conference event before the PASS Summit here in Seattle. The FreeCon was like a pre-conference session focused on your career and the SQL Server community. The goal was to spark fires, encourage people to reach for new levels of community contribution, and build connections to help…

#SQLPASS Summit 2014 Keynote LiveBlog

Last Updated February 12, 2017

#SQLPass, SQL Server

10:03AM – Ranga back onstage to finish things up. Thanking Pier 1 for letting them share the exploratory work. And we’re out! 10:00AM – Power BI adding a new authoring and editing mode. James removes the pie chart and replaces it on the fly. Now that is knowing your audience – nice job. 9:58AM –…

SQL Server Query Store

Last Updated December 19, 2017

#SQLPass, Execution Plans, Query Store (QDS), SQL Server

Execution Plan Hell I spend most of my day tuning SQL Server to make it go faster. I’m usually called in after the fact, when the app has become intolerably slow. One of the first things I ask is, “What’s changed?” Nobody ever knows with any sense of accuracy. I understand – until now, SQL Server hasn’t…

Change Your #SQLPASS Password Right Now.

Last Updated February 12, 2017

#SQLPass, SQL Server

What you need to do: log into SQLpass.org and change your password. If you use the same password anywhere else, change it on all of those sites immediately as well. Why you need to do it: anytime you ever logged into SQLpass.org or SQLsaturday.com, or updated your password, or created an account, your password (along…

Developers: You Don’t Need a DBA. I’ll Prove It.

Last Updated February 12, 2017

#SQLPass, SQL Server

That’s right, you heard me, and I’ll prove it on a really big stage. I’m honored to announce that I’ll be the first speaker at this year’s 24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview Edition. On Tuesday, September 9th, join me for my newest session: “Developers: Who Needs a DBA?” Here’s the abstract: You store data in…

#SQLPASS Speakers: Here’s How to Improve Your Session

Last Updated February 12, 2017

#SQLPass, Writing and Presenting

This year there’s a couple of special challenges you need to keep in mind for projecting your beautiful knowledge out to the audience. Fixing the Contrast Levels PASS distributes a custom PowerPoint template – looks great this year – but the contrast level is extremely light. The template uses light blue and light gray text…