This upcoming Saturday I will be presenting two sessions at SQLSaturday in Houston (more info).  I hope to see you there.  Here are the abstracts:

Best Practices to Deliver BI Solutions

If your company is planning to build a data warehouse or BI solution, you need to be aware that BI projects have high failure rates. Gartner says between 70% to 80% of corporate business intelligence projects fail. And with “big data” adding more complexity you can expect even more failures. However, the major causes of these failures are well known and can be avoided by implementing a set of best practices.

I have worked on dozens of end-to-end BI projects and have seen my share of successes and failures. I will talk about the reasons BI projects fail and share best practices and lessons learned so your BI project will fall into the “successful” category.

Enhancing your career: Building your personal brand

In three years I went from a complete unknown to a popular blogger, speaker at PASS Summit, and a SQL Server MVP.  Along the way I saw my yearly income triple.  Is it because I know some secret?  Is it because I am a genius?  No!  It is just about laying out your career path, setting goals, and doing the work.  It’s about building your personal brand and stepping out of your comfort zone.  It’s about overcoming your fear of taking risks.  If you can do those things, you will be rewarded.  I will discuss how you too can go from unknown to well-known.  I will talk about building your community presence by blogging, presenting, writing articles and books, twitter, LinkedIn, certifications, interviewing, networking, and consulting and contracting.  Your first step to enhancing your career will be to attend this session!