It’s just ten days until PASS Summit 2019 begins in Seattle. The schedule is up and there are loads of good sessions. Here’s what I’m putting on my calendar to make sure that I don’t miss it — along with some things that I wish I could attend that I’ll be sure to catch the videos of afterwards.
Monday, Nov 4: “Redgate SQL in the City Summit Seattle” Pre-Con Day – Room 3AB
This is going to be a fantastic day — loads of DevOps learning and sharing. I’ll be talking about implementing and improving Database DevOps with some of my very favorite DevOps and SQL Server specialists: Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, Ike Ellis, Hamish Watson, and Arneh Eskandari. The great thing about having a list of speakers like this is that you get to hear about varied real-world experiences and different takes on topics, plus there is loads of time to bounce ideas off people. There’s still time to sign up and join us!
Tuesday, Nov 5: “How to Architect Successful Database Changes: Source Control and Release Patterns for Performance and Availability” Pre-Con Day – Room 604
On Tuesday, Steve Jones and I will be talking about development patterns that enable you to frequently release database changes while maintaining high production uptime and minimizing the impact of your deployments on your target environment. This isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it’s increasingly important to understand the methods behind sneaking in database deployments to live systems without causing problems for users — we’ll share what we’ve learned over the course of our careers, as well as some insights into what we see as the future of database development.
Tuesday evening: There is a Women in Tech Happy Hour from 4-6 PM at the Tap House Grill. I’ll be late, but it’s a great event I’d like to make, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. Following this, there is a Welcome Reception in the Keynote room back at the Conference Center. I will almost certainly head back to do a little preparation for my presentation the next day and an early night of sleep, however — after speaking a lot during the day I’ll be tired and my voice and brain will need a rest. (Note: sometimes people feel bad for taking nights off networking at conferences — fear of missing out can kick in pretty easy. But if you need time to chill and recharge, do it!)
Wednesday, Nov 6: Day 1 of the main conference
08:15 AM – 09:45 AM: Keynote with Rohan Kumar. I’ll watch this remotely on PASS TV, as I am presenting a session directly afterward. If you can make it in person, everyone will be walking to the big Keynote Room, follow the crowd.
10:15 AM – 11:30 AM: I’m presenting “Why the Database is at the Heart of DevOps Success” in room 615 (it was 608, but we had a room change). I love, love, love this session and am so excited to share it.
11:30 AM – 01:30 PM: I’m going to swing by one of the DevOps tables at the Birds of a Feather lunch (Dining Hall, 4EF) for a quick chat, then head to the Redgate booth in the Exhibit Hall (4B).
1:30 PM – 2:45 PM: I cannot possibly miss Pam LaHoud on “Improving Availability in SQL Server and Azure SQL Database with Accelerated Database Recovery and Resumable Operations.” She is magic and these new features are magic, too. Room 6B.
2:50 PM – 3:30 PM: Back to the Exhibit Hall (4B) — I love hearing questions and chatting DevOps at the Redgate booth.
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM: The Exhibit Hall closes at 3:30, so I’ll probably be late for this. I’ll try to find a spare seat in Linux Fundamentals for SQL Server DBAs by Hamish Watson in Room 608.
04:45 PM – 6:00 PM: It’s SPEAKER IDOL time! Round 1. This is a really fun series of lightning talks with a fun competition mixed in. I get to be a judge! I can’t wait, I learn a ton from Speaker Idol every year. Be there in room 2AB.
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Have some food and drinks on the Exhibitors — and maybe talk to us as well if you like, we’re nice enough – Exhibit Hall, 4B
If my voice isn’t already starting to fail, I’ll head to Game Night at 8PM (Ballroom 6A).
Thursday, Nov 7: Day 2 of the main conference
08:15 AM – 09:45 AM: Keynote with Tarah Wheeler (Keynote Room). Imma try to attend this one in person. I need to make notes for a post-event webinar that I’m doing with Grant, Kathi, and Steve: “What we learned at PASS Summit.”
10:15 AM – 11:30 AM: “Enabling End to End Scenarios with Data Virtualization in SQL Server 2019” with James Rowland-Jones, TCC Yakima 1. It’s a hike over to the TCC building (you can do it all inside the convention center using a skybridge for convenience), but this is something I must learn more about for cross-platform scenarios. And isn’t this a crazy world: James works at Microsoft and he’s presenting on how to use ORACLE AND SQL SERVER TOGETHER! Oh brave new world!
11:30 AM – 01:15 PM: Women in Tech Lunch with LaShana Lewis (Keynote Room). I can’t remember if I signed up for this when I registered, but I’ll find out when I check into the conference. If I didn’t, I’ll attend the Birds of a Feather lunch (Dining Hall, 4EF) and catch LaShana’s talk via recording afterward. Hopefully will fit in some time at the Redgate Booth in the Exhibit Hall.
1:30 PM – 02:45 PM: SQL Server in Containers: Your Next Dev/Test/Integration/Upgrade Server. Grant Fritchey has some amazing things to show and I’m going to tweet all about it. Room 618.
2:50 PM – 3:30 PM: Back to the Exhibit Hall (4B) to meet up with friends at the Redgate booth. Exhibit hall closes at 3:30 again.
3:15 PM – 04:30 PM: I’d love to see Tobias Ternstrom talk about Amazon Aurora: Design Considerations for High Throughput Cloud-Native Relational Databases. Room 3AB.
4:45 PM – 06:00 PM: SPEAKER IDOL – ROUND 2 in Room 2AB. The action heats up in this second round with an all-new set of contestants. A great community session.
I have an early session Friday, so I’ll be heading to dinner with Friends of Redgate and going to bed early. I wish I could go to Game Night at 8PM (Ballroom 6A) as well, though.
Friday, Nov 8: Final day of the conference
8:00 AM – 09:15 AM: I’ve gotta see Batch Execution Mode on Rowstore Indexes by Niko Neugebauer in room 6B. I will have to watch the recording of Niko’s excellent talk because SPEAKER IDOL – ROUND 3 is in Room 2AB. Start your day off with a fun sampler of learning in this final heat of the first round.
9:30 AM – 10:45 AM: I’m presenting “Best Practices for Branching Database Code in Git” in room 6A. WOO HOO!
10:30 AM – 2:00 PM: Exhibit Hall (4B) – I can’t show up at 10:30 unless literally no-body is in the audience of my talk, but I’ll get there as soon as I can for the last day at the booth.
2:00 PM – 03:15 PM: SPEAKER IDOL – FINALE, Room 2AB. A winner will be crowned! Errr… actually I don’t think there’s a crown, but there IS a very cool prize.
3:30 PM – 04:45 PM: I wish I could see Continuous Intelligence… What’s This All About? by Gabi Münster in TCC Skagit 4. Unfortunately I have to jet to the airport to get home to my puppy, who I’ll be missing like crazy all week. I know, excuses excuses.