PASS SQL Saturdays are free 1-day training events for IT professionals interested in Microsoft SQL Server, providing a variety of high-quality technical sessions, all happen through the efforts of local volunteers.  The leadership team of the local chapter of PASS here in Nashville (Facebook | LinkedIn) have ...

Even though I've recently changed jobs, I'll still be speaking at a lot of SQL events across the country and internationally.  There are still a few trips that I've yet to finalize, in particular with the fine folks in Houston, run by my friend Nancy Hidy (blog | twitter), and my friends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, run by ...

The SQL Server community is really engaged. They are an active bunch on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, they help each other on forums, they attend conferences. But that isn’t enough interaction – the community started a grass-roots effort to hold local conferences on a Saturday. Free conferences. Odds are there’s one near ...

Louisville has a special place in my heart because it was my brother's home for more than 15 years. I spent a lot of time on I-65 traveling from my home town of Huntsville, AL to visit my bro in Louisville and New Albany, after he bought a place on the north side of the mighty Ohio River. It's always felt like a home away from home, ...

One last reminder -  If you're interested in learning more about troubleshooting and optimizing SQL Server performance, please consider coming to the full-day seminar I'll be giving this Friday.  Full details are here: http://sqlperftuning.eventbrite.com/.  We'll be working some exercises, so bring your laptop with an instance ...

Have you ever found yourself wanting to make a major shift - in skills, in roles, in relationships? One of my good friends, Jimmy May (Blog | Twitter), accomplished a set of major career and lifestyle revisions including relocating to Redmond, taking on a huge new level of job responsibility as part of the Microsoft SQL Customer Advisory Team, and ...

This might be most most overcommitted four-week period of time ever in my life. I’m tired just thinking about it! Not only am I traveling internationally and speaking over the next few weeks, I’m also helping on two book projects, learning some new applications from Quest Software, and helping on a small Transact-SQL refactoring project. Swag ...

What is TEC? The Expert's Conference (TEC) is a multi-day event featuring five co-located Microsoft educational conferences at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina April 29-May 2. It's pretty - see! The event includes advanced 400-level training on Microsoft Directory & Identity (including Active Directory), Exchange Server, ...

Two quick notes from our friends over at INETA: Component Code ChallengeEver had these two distinct thoughts - ''I have a good idea for an application, however what can I get for it?'' and ''I would love to go to a big conference DevConnections or Tech·Ed, but how would I pay for it?''. Haven't we all had thoughts like that at some time or ...

SQLTeach (Part of the DevTeach Conferences in Canada) has enjoyed success for many years.  I enjoyed the opportunity to speak at and attend SQLTeach at various times over the years.  Since SQLTeach is part of DevTeach, the ''feel'' of the event is very different from PASS or SQLRally or even a SQL Saturday where SQL is the primary ...