November 21, 2007 at 12:49 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Saturday
November 21, 2007 at 4:13 am
Andy,
You and I have had conversations during the planning of SQL Saturday and big Kudos for pulling off such a well received event!
This is definately something that would be great to see around the country and can envigorate the user group community. I also would like to see more team efforts between user groups (local and regional).
In Indianapolis on October 13th, the IndyNDA (.Net User Group) and IndyPASS (SQL Server User Group) joined forces and hosted IndyTechFest. This event had 25 sessions organized in 5 tracks. We offered .Net and SQL topics. It was very successful and we plan to do it again in 2008. More can be read about IndyTechFest at http://www.IndyTechFest.org.
There is a real hunger for these events!
November 21, 2007 at 4:55 am
Andy,
Thanks so much for posting this. Ever since I heard about the event I've been wondering how you went about pulling it off. It's something I'd like to see our local group strive for. With this information as a starting point, it sure seems more doable than before.
Thanks again,
Grant
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
November 21, 2007 at 6:48 am
John,
I like the logistics savings that comes from combining groups/events. Here in Orlando the last couple years we've had a SQL track, and in Tampa this year Brian & I put together our own SQL track plus a few other sessions. The downside is that most of the people who attended were .Net types (not that they are so bad you know) and very few DBA's. Now that could be lack of advertising to that market, but I suspect it was also a case of diminishing returns for them. I think best case is a separate event, but I think the combined event is a great way to get started. The other point that I continue to stress is not all events have to be mega events. I think you could easily have a SQLSaturday with 6 speakers doing 1 hour sessions and it could be a great event, and much simpler to coordinate.
November 21, 2007 at 6:53 am
Grant,
Im glad it helps! One of the things I saw missing on the Code Camp side was the knowledge share, each group was reinventing pretty much the same wheel. I'm almost caught up and hope to finish typing up my notes, will post them for download at http://www.sqlsaturday.com.
Dreaming a little bigger, I don't know if it will work, but I'm hoping to invest a little more time in the web site itself and try to get all groups to use it (for SQLSat events that is). I know many of us like to build our own, but a central framework/hosting would remove one obstacle to getting an event running. For example, from experience I know that I need to be able to easily email; registrants, attendees, possible speakers, confirmed speakers, possible volunteers, confirmed volunteers, sponsors, and more. My thought was that I'll invest the time because I know that at least I'll benefit when I work on SQLSaturday Orlando 2008! We should be able to leverage the same shirt vendor, conference bag vendor, etc, too. If someone wants to roll their own, I think thats ok as well. Thoughts?
November 21, 2007 at 7:42 am
That's a great idea and what a service to the community. I'm not a big fan of reinventing the wheel. Having all of that readily available is about as close to "code-camp-in-a-box" as we're likely to get.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
November 21, 2007 at 11:07 am
Andy,
I have seen several blogs and announcements about SQLSaturday! and wondered if you would be willing to let other groups use the name and logo. So, it sounds like you actually want other groups to use it. Very, cool!
We are thinking about doing a one-day SQL Server/BI event in St. Louis next fall. I also wanted to put on a new-speaker workshop and see that you are doing that as well.
Thanks for sharing your experience,
Kathi
Aunt Kathi Data Platform MVP
Author of Expert T-SQL Window Functions
Simple-Talk Editor
November 21, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Congratulations on pulling it off. Now, is anyone planning something like this in the Las Vegas area?
---
Timothy A Wiseman
SQL Blog: http://timothyawiseman.wordpress.com/
November 26, 2007 at 7:03 am
Yes, we'd be willing - even hopeful - that other groups will leverage the SQLSaturday logo and infrastructure. We're going to learn some good lessons with the Tampa event, and I hope from there we can figure out what will probably work for other groups and where we need to make infrastructure changes (not that we have a lot of it!).
April 28, 2017 at 8:27 pm
Andy Warren - Monday, November 26, 2007 7:03 AMYes, we'd be willing - even hopeful - that other groups will leverage the SQLSaturday logo and infrastructure. We're going to learn some good lessons with the Tampa event, and I hope from there we can figure out what will probably work for other groups and where we need to make infrastructure changes (not that we have a lot of it!).
I wasn't able to send you an invitation on LinkedIn. Please let me know if you would like to connect there.
Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply