Hello and welcome to my live blog/recap of SQL Saturday #97 in Austin! Wes Brown and the crew from CACTUSS are, so far, putting on a bang-up show, especially considering it’s their first conference ever!
So lets see here…Sean and I drove down for the lovely speaker dinner last night – beer and BBQ, so everyone was happy. We did our we show from the hotel that night, and settled in to get a full 5.5 hours or so of sleep.
So, here’s the quick pro-and-con as I’ve seen it so far. Con:
Little external signage. You really like to see a big sign or two as you approach the event by car.
An odd moment in the morning, just before my 8:30am session started, when volunteers tried insisting that we attend the remainder of the opening remarks downstairs. I seriously doubt that this tone was set by the organizers…
Pro: Pretty much everything else.
Venue…very nice space on the UT campus, good layout for vendors, good size rooms, etc.
Food – nothing gourmet, but respectable. Noms and coffee min the morning, sodas throughout, simple box lunches.
Shirts – They ordered separate shirt styles for men and women! I love it when sqlsats are thoughtful enough to do this.
Speaker lineup – I realize there’s only so much choice an org has in the matter, but Austin had a good mix of speakers.
Room setup – assigned helpers per room, who also pass out and collect small evaluation forms.
In essence, so far this has been a nice, simple, thoughtful free conference
