This past weekend I had the opportunity to hangout with some of the brightest upcoming SQL Server Professionals and a couple of old-timers.  We were gathered in Orlando, FL by Andy Warren to work on the SQL Saturday Wiki.  Essentially, the plans were to improve on the information that he had collected about organizing and running successful SQL Saturday events.  We were locked in a room all day Saturday and our brains were drained of any information we had obtained from running our own events. 

Overall I thought this was an excellent idea, not only because I had the opportunity to travel to Orlando, but anytime you place smart people together good things are bound to happen.  We arrived at Andy's office around 8:30 am and we started working around 8:32 am, no kidding.  We discussed almost every aspect of coordinating a SQL Saturday.  At times we veered off the path, but these were very short excursions because Andy and Jessica Moss would get us quickly back on track.  Including Jessica and myself, the team also consisted of Scott Gleason, Jack Corbett, Greg Larsen, Jorge Segarra, and Sri Sridharan.  We spent most of the day discussing and documenting our events and sharing any ideas, thoughts, best practices, and challenges that were faced during the event planning process.  All of this information is available at http://wiki.sqlsaturday.com/. 

So, if you are planning on coordinating a SQL Saturday event in the near future check out the wiki.  We will be updating it on a regular basis.  If you find any problems with the content or have any thoughts to add  please feel free to email me at pleblanc@pragmaticworks.com.  Remember, this is a work in progress so be patient as we improve and expand upon the site. 

Patrick LeBlanc, SQL Server MVP, MCTS

Founder www.TSQLScripts.com and www.SQLLunch.com.

Visit www.BIDN.com, Bring Business Intelligence to your company.