The title itself would lead you to believe this conference was only for the those looking to master the art of Silverlight or those busting to find out what’s new in the latest version of C# ! But no – over the last couple of years the SQL Server DevCon aspect of this superb event has grown in popularity.

The debate will always be around – how closely should DBAs work with their developers ? Can a hybrid DBA/DEV role really exist ? Should all DBAs have some appreciation for the development aspect and vice versa?? Whatever the answers to these questions, whether you are a C#, AJAX, .Net etc developer or whether you’re a production DBA – this conference is a must-attend event.

World class speakers with many years of experience, working for some of the biggest companies in the world are present. They offer an abundance of knowledge and through some brilliantly crafted sessions, this knowledge is shared among our specialist community.

In this blog, I share my experiences of a very useful 3 days, packed with varying topics and some extremely useful knowledge-bytes to take back to the office.

I often wonder why such events are never hosted in my beloved land of residence – Wales, (note to organisers of DevWeek and other such events – there are hundreds of Welsh developers and dbas who would jump at the chance of attending an event in their homeland ! hint hint). All that said, the venue for the event again this year – The Barbican Centre, London, is an ideal choice. Smack in the centre of the capital, freely accessible via all transport methods and a venue more than adequately equipped to play home to the hundreds of developers and dbas who attended.

I was amazed to find out that this event had been running for 14 years ! This was only my 2nd appearance (but then 14 years ago, you would probably find me propping up the student union bar, not knowing what ‘regular expressions’ were and the abbreviation DML would instantly mean Down More Lager !)

This was a very well organised event, registration was smooth and the welcoming coffee tasted ok (which for most similar events is a rarity in itself!).

Of course I do not proclaim to be a developer of any kind, so you’ll have to ask the developers on their thoughts of the conference and its worth, but as a SQL Server DBA – I was pleasantly surprised.

Over the next few blog posts I will describe each day’s experiences at this great event, from a DBAs perspective……………..