Today, October 16, 2013: PASS DAY2

PASS Summit Day 1……complete……..Great learning, check!  Awesome sessions and nuclear networking!  You can read my first entry on Summit Highlights, Questions & Answers. I also posted some helpful hints, resources, and links for PASS Summit First-Timers.

The fun continues Day 2 at PASS Summit.  Today’s keynote this morning, by Microsoft Corporate VP of the Data Platform Group, Quentin Clark is underway.

Microsoft’s Data Platform – The Road Ahead
Data has always had the power to transform business. SQL Server and the PASS community have been at the heart of that transformation. Microsoft recently announced a new wave of groundbreaking solutions to address your needs for mission-critical performance and availability, faster insights on any data, and greater efficiency and flexibility. In this Day 1 keynote, we’re excited to take you inside the technologies behind these database and business intelligence solutions – both on-premise and in the cloud.

As you attendees still trying to get your schedule all shored up, we continue our summary round up of our MVP panel, and ask them what is it they seek to learn at the Summit, and if they are presenting, tell us all about what it is they are going to present on.

You must bookmark and visit the 2013 PASS Summit home page, so you can keep up with all the exciting happenings, sessions, and vendors that are exhibiting. 

Check out the community sessions lineup, featuring 80+ Regular Sessions spanning 75-minutes, 20+ Spotlight Sessions from speakers back by popular demand, 6 deep-dive Half-Day Sessions, and 14 Pre-Conference Sessions.  Here are the key reasons why YOU should attend:

·         All SQL Server. All the time

·         Over 190 technical sessions

·         2 days of Pre-Conference Sessions

·         Networking with MVPs, experts, and peers

·         Face-to-face support with Microsoft CSS and SQLCAT

·         Chalk Talks with the experts

SQL MVP Grant Fritchey, is presenting four times, including a Spotlight Sessions lasting 90

minutes.  Click on the previous highlighted link for all the spotlight presentations at PASS.

Grant will present 3 on Cloud related topics, and 1 on Professional Development.  His four Sessions are as follows:

Query Performance Tuning for Azure SQL Database (CLD-309-S)
Just because you're using an Azure SQL Database doesn't mean you can avoid tuning queries....

Being the DBA of the Future: A World of On-Premise and Cloud (Cloud
Application Development & Deployment) Pre-Conference Session (full
day):

A  PreCon, Thriving as a DBA in the World of Cloud and On-Premise Data (DBA-299-P)
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment.  You can check out all the Pre-Conference Sessions, by clicking the previous highlighted link.

So what does Grant think attendees should think about in order to conceptualize and learn about Data in the Cloud?

Grant: “I'd just love people to start trying out Azure for data management. I'm convinced if they get their feet wet, in no time they'll be diving in.”

In his Professional Development track, How to Avoid Living at Work: Lessons from Working at Home, he talks about telecommuting and the DBA.

Kathi Kellenberger, can you tell us about your presentation and what the attendee should already know & expect to learn?
 
I will be speaking on windowing functions like ROW_NUMBER and LAG. While presenting on the new T-SQL features of 2012 over the past year, I found that a lot of folks are not familiar with some of the great features introduced since 2005. This session will show them how to use the windowing functions that can make their T-SQL development easier and, in many cases, improve performance. More information about her session is here: Writing Better Queries with Window Functions (Application & Database Development)

Rick Heiges’ focus has shifted over the years, and is the first time since 2002 w/o a speaking spot. He has served the community well, and offers his thoughts on the direction of the SQL Server Community:  “The Summit helps get a read on what the future holds and how we are getting there.  I did not have any of my sessions accepted this year.  It shows how the community” has fed the growing pool of speakers”

Erland Sommarskog is not presenting himself this year, but he sure will be attending some key sessions. “I hope to learn more about disaster recovery, because I'm doing a pre-con on that.” – Probably at the upcoming PASS SQLRally Nordic Conference in Stockholm, Sweden in November. So, I’m sure he’ll be looking to attend SQL MVP and SQLSkills CEO/co-founder Paul Randal’s Practical Disaster Recovery Techniques (DBA-499-P), under the Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment track.  Hey, disasters happen – plain and simple.

“And I'm not missing Bob Ward's, session!”, referring to Bob’s Inside SQL Server 2012 Memory: The Sequel [DBA-500-HD] which is half-day session and sequel to the popular “Debugging the Memory of SQL Server 2008” session from a few years ago goes deep into the architecture, implementation, and “how it works” of SQL Server 2012 database engine memory management.  (Bob is a staple in the SQL Server community and principal architect escalation engineer with Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS))

Jack Corbett, who will certainly be busy here, will be looking to immerse himself ever more deeply in the internals of SQL Server technology: “I hope to become more grounded in SQL Server internals from the DBA perspective and deep-dives into query techniques from the SQL developer perspective.  I also am planning to attend more BI sessions to better understand best practices and architecture so I can bring that type of expertise to work.”

Matias Lind will also be on-site to take in more SQL learning, “Actually I don't have any sessions, I can enjoy the conference as a knowledge seeker. I probably hook up with Microsoft Learning Experiences to evangelise training and certification and not lose any opportunity to speak one on one or one to many.” 

Matias further shares his three goals when attending sessions.
a) Learn and absorb other presentation skills
b) Enforce and broaden current technology skills
c) Learn some about technologies around and outside of my main area of expertise

Indeed they are great tips here.  I brought you some additional questions and answers from our panel experts, and you can see the broad appeal the PASS Summit Conference has to its audience.  For some SQL MVPs who will be presenting and others who specifically will be here to learn and even hone their own knowledge and presentation skills.  PASS is the place where SQL Server professionals and novices alike come to learn!

Again thanks for taking time out to participate!  I will be bringing more highlights, questions and answers throughout the week, so stay bookmarked to PearlKnows blog.  Cheers!  Let the good times roll!