Today is SQL in the City 2017. Once again we're streaming the event online, live from Cambridge in the UK. I've flown over, along with Grant Fritchey and Kathi Kellenberger to entertain you for the day. We'll be broadcasting at 11am in the UK for five hours before we take a short break and return for a 1pm EST start of the second broadcast. You can still register and we hope you'll tune in for a few a session or two, or all of them if you can convince the boss to give you a training day. You won't know unless you ask.

I'm excited to show off a few things today, as I'm sure Kathi and Grant are as well. Our developers have been hard at work throughout the year, improving our software and adding new features, while fixing a few bugs. It feels like the pace of change is steadying out, with most products releasing changes every two weeks, but we're adding a lot more exciting and interesting changes. It seems that the products are maturing well, in ways that I didn't expect.

I've been especially excited by the changes in SQL Clone this year. We've really  grown this product up, with the team being reponsive to customer requests. It's exciting to be the one to present some of the changes to you, as well as try to introduce others to the product. This is one of those products that I wish would have been available 15 years ago as I would have saved lots of storage costs as well as gained a tremendous amount of flexibility.

SQL Prompt and SQL Monitor have also had great years, and I've been impressed with their growth. Unfortunately I didn't get the short straw and had to leave those products to my colleagues. I guess I can't have all the fun. Maybe I'll try to photobomb my way into one of those sessions.

Presenting at events is exciting, and I'm looking forward to the day. It's long, but it will still be a fun time. These streaming events are also a neat experience, as we've got a bit of a TV studio feel, with multiple cameras, displays, tape on the floor, and more. For someone that is used to sitting at a  desk and working at my pace, I get a little excited by the efforts put into the broadcast from our IT staff. We have various schedules and checklists, and I've spent the last couple days rehearsing the talks.

I still like live events, and hope we'll do a few in the future, but for now, sit back, relax, and enjoy SQL in the City from the comfort of your office.