SQLSaturday #5 in Olympia is progressing nicely. 85 registered, venue locked in, and work under way for fund raising via sponsors. Speakers still needed! If you know someone in that area that might be interested, please forward the message. We're waiting on final confirmation, but it looks like SQL query writer extroadinaire Joe Celko will be doing a presentation at the event. Brad McGehee and Buck Woody have also signed up to present. Both Brian and I are engaged with clients the Friday prior to the event, debating the logistics of trying to catch a 7 pm flight Fri night to be there for Sat, and then fly back Sun to teach on Mon. Challenging for an anti-traveler like myself. Steve Jones lives much closer and hates to travel about as much as I do, but a good email campaign 'encouraging' him to attend might work!

Brian is also leading a SQL Launch event on September 12, 2008 in Jacksonville. This will be one huge room, plus two side rooms for 12-15 presentations on SQL 2008. We're hoping for a good turnout, but ti's the first week day event we've hosted (I say we, Brian is doing the work!). We are hosting on SQLSaturday.com though, because it's slowly turning into a very nice tech event management platform, if someone biased towards our implementation of SQLSaturday. Speakers for this event will be by invitation only due to the short amount of time to the event.

We're pleased to announce that SQLSaturday #8 will be held October 25, 2008 here in Orlando. We're going to run six, possibly seven SQL tracks, plus an additional two tracks devoted solely to Sharepoint. We're partnering with the local Sharepoint group on this, we'll handle the logistics, they'll work on finding the Sharepoint speakers and driving attendance to those tracks. There's probably a little crossover between SQL and Sharepoint, but I would guess that most will be interested in one or the other. Partnering made easy because SQL user group guy Mike Antonovich  is also the leader of the Sharepoint group (and author of a Sharepoint book, a plug for a friend). Call for speakers is open and we're asking everyone to submit at least two proposals, one of which should be on SQL 2008, We want to build a very good mix of content.

On an administrative note, we're learning some good lessons via the Olympia event. We currently do a bi-weekly call with Greg Larsen and Russ Nesbit to check on progress, coach to the next step, and to see where we can assist. We're folding that back into our planning guide which will eventually be more of an e-book focused on community events. That's not to say we've learned all the lessons, clearly we haven't! For example, we consider building a sponsorship plan a key component because it needs to clearly communicate both dollar options and what the sponsor can expect. In effect, it's a contract. Right now that consists of grab one of the old docs, replace references to SQLSat # x with SQLSat # Y, change a few other things, and save. Not a huge effort, but we could make it easier, either via a wizard type UI, or just be capturing some information during the sign up interview and tailoring the doc to match. Right place for effort? May not be priority one, but I think for these type franchises to succeed we have to reduce the time investment and nail down a very good formula. Nothing wrong with diverging from or improving it, but that's for the entrepreneurs, most just want to run a good event while still doing their day job and getting some sleep.

We've discussed the idea of a SQLSaturday bootcamp, 1-2 days teaching people how we manage events down to the smallest details. Share lessons learned, talk about building relationships with speakers and other community gruops, etc. Logistically it's very doable, financially it's a tough nut. Easily $1k/person to bring someone to our office in Orlando for two days but we could leverage our time plus get a good group together, or its $1k for us to visit one city/area to run the same bootcamp (workshop perhaps a better name for it). The only other option is to try to co-locate at a larger event like TechEd or the PASS Summit, but for most the schedules are tight already and it would mean an extra 1-2 days away from home/office. That leaves online collaboration, my least favorite for this type of training. Not trying to make it sound unsolvable, just slightly challenging! If you'd be interested in attending such an event drop me a note or leave a comment, feedback always appreciated.