September 22, 2010 at 10:43 am
Are all virtual chapter meetings 1/2 sales pitch by the sponsor, then the presentation?
I was just in the DBA one, and the presenter was delayed so the presentation will not happen for another 2 hours. Instead of sending an email notice, updating the website, we get the sales pitch and then the "oh by the way".
maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal, but i reserved a conference room, set up the laptop and the projector, and had the other DBA's in the company come along.
I figured it would be good to get involved with this kind of thing, but today left a bad taste in my mouth. The sales pitch from CA left me reminiscent of the last time I bought a car.
So i guess I'm asking are these worth while events? Because I just wasted the time of my company, my team members, and myself.
Twitter: @SQLBalls
Blog: http://www.SQLBalls.com
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tales-from-the-Field
September 22, 2010 at 10:55 am
Which one was this? Typically the one's I've seen don't have any sales in them. If they do, that's a poor pitch. There are some marketing webinars, and we have one tomorrow from Red Gate, but I hope that it's clear we're trying to give product information in that one.
September 22, 2010 at 11:00 am
The ones I have been involved in (DBA, Virtualization, Performance) have not had any sales pitch that I can recall.
Shawn Melton
Twitter: @wsmelton
Blog: wsmelton.github.com
Github: wsmelton
September 22, 2010 at 12:11 pm
It was DBA VC - Top 10 SQL Server Mistakes and Mis-steps. I'm sure the portion when Tim Ford actually presented would have been great.
I've set up the same kind of meeting around the Storage and Virtualization one tomorrow that Denny Cherry is speaking at.
I caught his presentation at the recent PASS 24/7 and it was really good, so I'm hoping everyone gives it a second chance tomorrow.
Twitter: @SQLBalls
Blog: http://www.SQLBalls.com
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tales-from-the-Field
September 22, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Bradley B (9/22/2010)
It was DBA VC - Top 10 SQL Server Mistakes and Mis-steps.
Notice that one actually has a "Sponsored By" right under "Event Description". I would contribute the sales pitch to that, cause the one for Denny Cherry has scheduled does not show a sponsor.
Shawn Melton
Twitter: @wsmelton
Blog: wsmelton.github.com
Github: wsmelton
September 22, 2010 at 2:22 pm
That's interesting. Didn't notice the sponsored by. I'll have to try and sit in on a few more and make sure these are good community events.
September 23, 2010 at 7:41 am
Hey Shawn,
Your absolutely right. I didn't notice it till I scrolled down into the description a little further.
We use several 3rd party vendor app's here at Publix, because I wasn't expecting it I think that is why I was caught off guard.
The sales pitch was only around 10 minutes, but it was sloppy. It was about High Availability Replication, can't remember the product name but that was basically how it was referred to. And it seemed like it could have been interesting, but the script didn't match the slides, it was ambiguous that it was a sales pitch, and it tried to pump up it's product by putting down current technologies some in ways that didn't make sense.
It faulted mirroring because it uses SQL Native Client, which I understand you can optionally install, but I would wager most people using 2005 or 2008 have it installed.
I'm excited that Denny's presentation will be without commercial interruption though. We've got SQL Saturday coming up next month in Orlando, and I'm trying to get more of the DBAs I work with to come along, I got most of them to attend multiple Pass 24/7 presentations, this was the 1st "lunch in" that I had set up, I just wish it had gone a little better.
I'm sure the next one will!
Twitter: @SQLBalls
Blog: http://www.SQLBalls.com
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tales-from-the-Field
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