2012 is already upon us and I have been busy working on my travel schedule for this year. It is still incomplete, but I have many events scheduled, and I am leaving room for some additional events as they are announced.

So how about you, have your scheduled the training events you want to attend this year? In a recent poll of readers of my blog, it looks like the most popular SQL Server training events are SQL Saturdays (18 events already scheduled for this year), SQL PASS Summit (Seattle, November 6-9, 2012), SQL Rally (Dallas, May 10-11, 2012), SQL Bits (UK, March 29-31, 2012), and SQL in the City (Dates and locations not yet announced).

While many of you may not have a training budget, fortunately, many of the events are free, and assuming they are within easy driving distance, attending them should be a no-brainer decision for you to make.

So if you have not done so yet, begin planning out your training this year. With the launch of SQL Server 2012, it should be a very busy year.

On Tuesday, August 23, at 11AM (Eastern Daylight Time), I will be presenting a free, live webinar that shows you how I am using SQL Monitor to help monitor and identify problems on the two clustered instances. In essence, it is a live demonstration of how SQL Monitor can be used to help monitor any SQL Server instance. This is a good opportunity to see SQL Monitor in action in a real world environment.

To sign up for the free webinar, visit this webpage.

I will be presenting a session on “Inside the SQL Server Transaction Log”. Other SQL Server speakers include Joe Webb, Robert Cain, David Buckingham, and Jeremiah Peschka.

How many people can you identify in the above photo from the closing party at SQLBits? Can you find Ola Hallengren, Mladen Prajdić, Jonathan Allen (FatherJack), Ross Mistry, James Rowland-Jones, Andre Kamman, among others?

SQLBits 8 (Beside the Seaside) was held this past weekend (April 7-9, 2011) at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. With over 800 registrations, it was the largest SQLBits to date, and the largest SQL Server event in Europe.

Thursday was designated Training Day, and featured day-long sessions from Allan Hirt, Allan Mitchell, Jenifer Stirrup, Klaus Aschenbrenner, Marco Russo, Martin Bell, Simon Sabin, and Thomas Kejser, Sascha Lorenz,

Friday was a paid conference day, offering 26 sessions from speakers Alberto Ferrari, Ami Levin, Bob Duffy, Richard Tkachuk, Aaron Bertrand, Chris Webb, Phil Winstanley, Kevin Kline, Ewan Fairweather, Justin Langford, Brad McGehee, Duncan Sutcliffe, Matt Whitfield, Jamie Thompson, Gavin Payne, the SQL CAT team, and many more.

Saturday was the free community day, offering 34 additional sessions, from Peter Doyle, Jess Meats, Jeremy Kashel, Anthony Brown, Mark Broadbent, Ross Mistry, Neil Hambly, Mladen Prajdić, Peter Larsson, Marco Russo, Atul Thakor, James Boother, Gary Short, John Stevens-Taylor, Lubor Kollar, Chris Testa-O’Neill, Vincent Rainardi, Christian Bolton, John Tunnicliffe, Alastair Aitchison, Andra Kamman, Milos Radivojevic, Jamie Thomson, Dave Ballentyne, David Morrison, Jon Reade, Martijn Evers, Alex Whittles, and more.

At the end of the three-day event was a prize drawing from each of the sponsoring vendors. Red Gate Software gave away two prizes. A copy of the SQL DBA Bundle went to Konstantin Shapkin, and a copy of he SQL Developer’s Bundle went to Chennakeshav Adya.

Prices being given out at the Red Gate Software booth.

This was my first time in Brighton, and the first time I have seen the ocean (sorry, “sea”, as they refer to the ocean in the UK), from the shores of England. Unlike the beaches in Hawaii, the Brighton Beach went on forever, but instead of sand, it was covered in pebbles. On Saturday, even though the air was a bit nippy, thousands of people littered the beaches, sunbathing and even playing in the frigid water. I took a walk along the beach, and it reminded me of a conglomeration of Covent Garden (London), the Atlantic City Boardwalk (New Jersey), Venice Beach (California), Waikiki Beach (Hawaii), and the Las Vegas Strip (Nevada). Although I was by the sea and was hoping to smell the fresh sea air, the only thing could smell was fish and chips, which seemed to be sold at almost every shop along the beach.

The Grant Hotel in Brighton, England, where SQLBits was held.

SQLBits is a volunteer-organized event run by many volunteers, including Simon Sabin, Allan Mitchell, Marten Bell, James Rowland-Jones, Darren Green, Christian Bolton, Chris Testa-O’Neill, Chris Webb and Tim Kent.

SQLBits is held twice a year, and while the next event’s location has yet to be announced, you can keep up on the latest news at www.sqlbits.com.

A view of the sea from my hotel room.

Red Gate Software has announced two free, full-day SQL Server events, called “SQL in the City”. Both events will provide 6 hours of SQL Server training, with a focus on how Red Gate tools can be used help make SQL Server DBAs and Developers more productive.

The London event is July 15th, 2011, and will be held at “The Venue” at One Wimpole Street in London. Speakers will include Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, Brad McGehee, and Mladen Prajdić, all SQL Server MVPs.

The Los Angeles event is October 28, 2011, and will be held at the Skirball Cultural Centre in the Santa Monica Mountains outside of Los Angeles. Speakers will include Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, Brad McGehee, and Denny Cherry, all SQL Server MVPs.

All SQL Server DBAs and Developers are welcome to attend this free event, but registration is limited, so be sure to sign up soon if you are planning to attend.

To find out more about these events, and how to register, visit www.sqlinthecity.com.

The SQLServerCentral.com track includes four speakers presenting a total of nine different session. If you recognize any of the following speakers, that is because you have probably seen their contributions at SQLServerCentral.com or Simple-Talk.com. The speaking schedule can be viewed here.

Glenn (blog | twitter) works as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies in Denver, CO. He is a SQL Server MVP, and he has a large collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS, which proves that he likes to take tests. His expertise includes DMVs, high availability, hardware selection, full text search, and SQL Azure. Glenn is also an adjunct faculty member at University College – University of Denver, where has been teaching since 2000, and also where he recently completed the Master Teacher Program. He is the author of two chapters in the book SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, and blogs regularly.

Brad (blog | twitter) is the Director of DBA Education for Red Gate Software, and is an accomplished Microsoft SQL Server MVP with over 15 years SQL Server experience. He is a frequent speaker at SQL PASS, European PASS, SQL Server Connections, SQLTeach, devLINK, SQLBits, SQL Saturdays, TechFests, Code Camps, and SQL Server user groups. Brad is the author or co-author of more than 15 technical books and over 250 published articles. His most recent books include How to Become an Exceptional DBA (2nd Edition), Mastering SQL Server Profiler, and Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server Maintenance Plans. His website is at http://www.bradmcgehee.com.

Allen (blog | twitter) is a consultant and mentor for Upsearch Technology Services in Northeast Ohio. He’s spent over 35 years in IT and has been using SQL Server since 1992, and is certified as both a SQL Server MCITP and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). Allen has been awarded Microsoft’s MVP Award for the last three years. He’s active in the Ohio North SQL Server User’s Group and contributes in the MSDN Forums, answering questions about SMO and PowerShell, and blogs regularly.

Buck (blog | twitter) is a SQL Server Senior Technical Specialist for Microsoft, working with enterprise-level clients to develop data platform architecture solutions within their organizations. He has over twenty years professional and practical experience in computer networks and database design. He is a popular speaker at TechEd, PASS and many other conferences; the author of over 400 articles and five books on SQL Server; and he teaches a Database Design course at the University of Washington.

If you are attending SQL Server Connections this year, be sure to stop by and meet our speakers.

Looking for some free SQL Server training? How about 24 hours of free training offered by some of the top SQL Server experts in the world? If so, sign up for the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS live webcasts to be held September 15-16, 2010. It’s your opportunity to continue and broaden your SQL Server education, with your only investment being your time.

Unlike previous 24 Hours of PASS events, this event will be presented 12 hours a day for two consecutive days, making it much easier for many participants to attend the sessions of their choice. Of course, if you are not able to make all of the sessions, session recordings will become available shortly after the event.

To find out about the topics to be presented, and to register for the event, check out the PASS website today.

I’ll be speaking on “Automate Your Database Maintenance Using Ola Hallengren’s Free Script,” which provides a live demo of Ola’s script which I wrote about in an article published in Simple-Talk.

If you were unable to attend, or can’t get enough SQL Server training, there will be a SQL Saturday in Nashville on August 21, 2010.