- Started the day early, heading to the Convention Center to be at Starbucks at 6:45 for the networking event I was hosting with Craig Purnell (and with coffee paid for by the Dallas SQL Group!). Craig brought some ‘coffee tickets’ so we had some control over the budget and we waited to see how many would attend. Didn’t wait long, steady stream of people started showing up and we had somewhere between 50 and 60 attend, everyone mixing and remixing nicely.
- At 8:30 I walked to room A4 to see Bob Ward talk about new features in SQL 2012. Very fast paced, lots of good info, lots of things that are interesting!
- From 10 to lunch was networking time
- Lunch was not as good as yesterday. Same boxed lunch format, but the bread seemed so so. Still no iced tea!
- At 1pm I watched most of the Fundamentals of Storage by Wes Brown. Nicely done, Wes brings passion and experience, fun to attend.
- At 2:30 I stayed in the room a few minutes to see old friend Joe Celko and make sure all was good. Due to a family illness he literally arrived 30 minutes before his presentation and had to depart immediately after. Above and beyond the call of duty!
- At 4pm I went to see Carlos Bossy present on column stores. He opened with some history of indexing and column stores in other products and then moved into a good explanation of strengths and limitations as it was implemented in SQL Server.
- 5:30 was the raffle, ala SQLSaturday, this done in the main sponsor/lunch area, with Sri as the MC. He did a really nice job of thanking the volunteers and the PASS HQ for their staff,and then brought each sponsor up for a couple minutes to say a few words and then give away their raffle prize. iPads are popular prizes to give (and to receive).
- After that I joined another group of 10 for dinner at Bob’s at the Omni for a really nice steak and more fun conversation than networking. That was the end of the Rally for me,back to the hotel to pack up and relax, leaving tomorrow morning to fly home.
