*sound of glass crashing* *cue theme music*

(in a wrestling announcer’s shocked voice) “It can’t be! He’s not supposed to be here! It’s the Scary DBA! What’s he doing here!”

That’s right, folks, SQL Server MVP Grant Fritchey (blog | twitter) will be coming to speak in Columbia, SC on May 22, 2014. You can register to attend (free) here:

Midlands PASS – May 22nd Meeting with Grant Fritchey

Here is what Grant will be talking about:

Building a Database Deployment Pipeline

The pace of business accelerates fairly continuously and application development moves right with it. But we’re still trying to deploy databases the same way we did 10 years ago. This session addresses the need for changes in organizational structure, process and technology necessary to arrive at a nimble, fast, automatable and continuous database deployment process. We’ll use actual customer case studies to illustrate both the common methods and the unique context that led to a continuous delivery process that is best described as a pipeline. You will learn how to customize common practices and tool sets to build a database deployment pipeline unique to your environment in order to speed your own database delivery while still protecting your organization’s most valuable asset, it’s data.

If you are closer to Raleigh or Charlotte, Grant will also be appearing in those venues. You can find details about those visits at the Charlotte SQL Server user group site.