Spent last Tues/Wed in Birmingham, speaking at the user group Tuesday night and then presenting a seminar on Wed. Attendance at the user group was good, about 18, and had really nice participation as I did my standard presentation on transactional replication. They've only been back in business since about the first of the year and are showing good growth under the leadership of John Baldwin and with Barry Ralston & Robert Cain lending their support - especially with regards to finding speakers!

We spent some time Tues & Wed night talking about growing user groups and how SQLSaturday might work with that. Helped a lot that Barry has been to two (#1 and #4) and that Robert was in Orlando for #4 as well, so they have a better picture of how we try to do things and how we differ (slightly, but true) from Code Camps. They've got a lot of stuff to read through and discuss but I'm hopeful they'll be able to schedule one for sometime early next year (rushing is not a good idea).

They treated me well on my visit, including a visit to Dreamland BBQ, a local favorite, and mostly mentioned here because my friends Joe Healy and Wes Dumey love out of the way BBQ places.