SWMOSSUG is a chapter of The Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS). www.sqlpass.org

The group will have its first meeting on Tuesday, October 9, 2012, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the Springfield Library Center.

The group will also have a meeting on Tuesday, November 13, 2012, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at the Springfield Library Center. Please mark your calendars for both events.

The first meeting will be a time for everyone to introduce themselves, an opportunity for attendees to ask SQL Server and career-related questions, and there will be a discussion on the best way to manage the group. If you would like to volunteer to be a leader, this will be your opportunity. There will also be a short technical presentation.

If you know of anyone who works with SQL Server and in lives in the Springfield, MO area, please invite them to attend.

Meeting Info

Topic: How the SQL Server Transaction Log Works

This is the first meeting, so we will also be discussing how to best organize the chapter. Also, this will be your opportunity to volunteer to help run the chapter.

Speaker: Brad M McGehee. Brad is a SQL Server MVP and has been a SQL Server DBA for about 18 years.

Date: Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Time: 6:00 PM – 8 PM

Location: Springfield Library Center, Room B, 4653 South Campbell Avenue Springfield, MO 65810

Website URL:  http://swmossug.sqlpass.org/Home.aspx

On Thursday, May 20, 2010, I had the opportunity to speak at the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, which is held on the third Thursday of every month at the Microsoft offices in Irving, TX (near Dallas).

The user group is headed up by Sri Sridharan, with help from Tim Mitchell and Sean McCown (see Sean in the accompanying photo).

Unlike most SQL Server User Group meetings, with only a single presenter, Sean McCown (Sean and his wife Jennifer are known as the MidnightDBAs, and offer free online SQL Server training videos), started out the meeting with part four of his multi-part series called “Ground Zero—SSIS”. This educational series is designed to help bring DBAs up to speed on SSIS. I really find this type of on-going training at a user group meeting to be very innovative, and I think it would be a great idea for other SQL Server user groups to emulate. Such an educational series allows attendees to gain a more in-depth knowledge of a topic, unlike the single presentations that are generally offered.

Once Sean gave his presentation, I followed up with my presentation on “How to Analyze Performance Monitor Data Using PAL.”

This was a busy week for the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, as on the following Saturday they hosted SQL Saturday #35, which ended up with 410 attendees, a great turnout for their first SQL Saturday event. While I was unable to attend this event (I was attending IndyTechFest instead), I hope to be able to attend next year.

AlantaMDF SQL Server Users Group. Photo courtesy of www.sqlvariant.com.

I have just finished up a three event speaking tour that, which unfortunately, should have been a four event tour, but my flight to Germany (via London) was cancelled, and I was unable to attend European PASS as I had hoped.

I started out on Monday, speaking at the AtlantaMDF SQL Server Users Group, which is lead by SQL Server MVP Geoff Hiten. I spoke on “How to Become an Exceptional DBA,” which is a presentation based on my book of the same name (download the free eBook version here). Apparently, the meeting has its highest attendance ever, with 93 attendees, about one third of which were first time attendees.

Next, I flew to Chicago to speak to the downtown Chicago SQL Server Users Group, where I spoke Thursday night on “How to Optimize tempdb Performance.” The group is lead by Bill Lescher, who was a most gracious host. We met at the Chicago Microsoft Technology Center, and I got a brief tour of the facility from Ross LoForte, a SQL Server technology architect with Microsoft (and SQL Server book author).

Chicago SQL Server Users Group. Photo by Bill Lescher.

Then on Saturday, I made two presentations at the Chicago SQLSaturday event. I presented on “How and When to Use Indexed View” and “Introduction to Graphical Execution Plans. The event, which was coordinated by Wendy Pastrick, Ted Krueger, and Aaron Lowe, had about 20 speakers, over 30 sessions, and over 300 attendees.

Photo courtesy of www.michaelkappel.com.

Chicago SQL Saturday wraps up with Q&A and prize drawings.

After the Chicago SQL Saturday, I was supposed to fly to Neuss, Germany for European PASS, but my flight was cancelled due to the Iceland volcano ash, so I ended up going back home to Hawaii. My next trip is in May, where I will speak at IndyTechFest in Indianapolis, IN and the North Texas SQL Server Users Group.

The Cam river flows through Cambridge, England. At the center of the river you can see a punt (a type of boat) used to navigate the Cam.

I must have attended at least 25 different SQL Server and .NET user groups over the past couple of years, and most of them have a familiar format: food and drinks combined with some socializing, a formal presentation, and a prize drawing. I have seen a few other minor variations, but it is hard to tell one user group meeting from another. That is, until I recently spoke at the SQL Server Social Group in Cambridge, England this past month.

Right away, the name of the group stands out from the names of most user groups, and implies more of a social event than an educational event, although that was not the case. This group focuses more on SQL Server content that most user groups I have attended.

The event starts out with a brief introduction of the evenings events (which start at 6:00PM), and then jumps into what is called a “SQL Nugget”. This is a brief (about 20-30 minute) presentation on a very specific topic. At this meeting, SQL Server MVP Simon Sabin (who also hosted the event) demonstrated why he disliked the use of SQL Server functions, and offered better alternatives. The presentation was brief and to the point.

Next up was a vendor presentation. The sponsor of this particular event was Red Gate Software, and so two of Red Gate’s developers did a short (about 15 minute) demo of Red Gate’s SQL Server Source Control software (which is currently in beta).

At about 7:00PM, there was a 30 minute break where pizza and drinks were served, and attendees had the opportunity to socialize and get to know each other better. Unlike most user group meetings I attended, having the social time in the middle of the meeting helped to keep the meeting from getting dull.

At 7:30PM, I gave a 45 minute presentation on the SQL Server 2008 Data Collector. At most of the user group meetings I speak at, I usually have about 1-2 hours to speak, so keeping my presentation down to 45 minutes was a challenge. On the other hand, by keeping my presentation short, it helped to keep the pace of the meeting going along quickly.

The last part of the meeting surprised me the most. During the 30 social break, interested participants were asked to write down on a post-it a topic that they would like to discuss at the end of the meeting. My first though that this would end up being a boring discussion, especially at it was to consume the last 45 minutes of the meeting. But was I ever wrong. Simon, as the leader of the evening’s event, selected some of the many available topics, and then the person who suggested the topic had to get in front of the room as part of panel (that included several volunteers, including myself), and lead the discussion of their selected topic. At this point, I figured that nobody would want to discuss the topics, but I was wrong, as everybody, from the volunteer panelists and attendees, had a lively discussion. In fact, Simon eventually had to end the discussion at 9:10PM (10 minutes over the planned 9:00PM end time), even though the discussion was still going strong.

Almost everyone who attended the session participated, making it one of the most lively user group meetings I have every attended. I think a lot of he success of the meeting was because it was arranged in short chunks (so that no part become boring), and because Simon did a great job of keeping the meeting moving.

The SQL Server Social Group has regular meetings in Cambridge and London, changing its location periodically so that it can reach out to more DBAs over a geographically diverse area. If you are interested in attending the next SQL Server Social Group, check out their website.

The meeting will be held fro 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and I will be spending about 45 minutes discussing “How to Use the SQL Server 2008 Performance Data Collector to Analyze Query Performance”.

The agenda includes:

• 6:00 – Intro
• 6:15 – SQL Nuggets
• 6:45 – Sponsor Presentation (Red Gate)
• 7:00 – Break
• 7:30 – Presentation
• 8:15 – “Let’s talk about…”
• 9:00 – End

This free event (which includes pizzas and drinks) will be held at the Red Gate Software offices, located in Newnham House, Cambridge Business Park, Cambridge, England.

You can sign up for the event here: http://www.sqlsocial.com/Events/10-02-24/Cambridge_SQL_User_Group_-_24_March_2010.aspx

After making seven presentations in Australia, I headed to New Zealand where I made four presentations in four cities, on four successive days. Because my schedule was so packed, I only got a couple of days in Auckland (New Zealand’s most populace city) to visit the sites.

The photo is of the Auckland Sky Tower, the tallest free-standing building in the Southern Hemisphere, even taller than the Eiffel Tower. It was about a 10 minute walk from my hotel, and I had a chance to go up and see all of Auckland in one fell swoop. I also went sailing (Auckland is known as the “City of Sails”), and to go on a dolphin and whale watch, where we saw hundreds of dolphins, but only one whale. If you really want to see whales, visit the Big Island of Hawaii (where I live) between January and March, and you can see hundreds of Humpback whales, even from the shore (no boat required).

My first presentation was in Auckland at the Auckland SQL Server Users Group, which is headed up by Dave Dustin. The group meets at the local Microsoft office and generally meets the third Wednesday of each month.

Next, I flew to the bottom of the North Island, to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, where I spoke at the Wellington SQL Server Users Group. The group is headed up by Adrian Engelbrecht, and it meets the third Thursday of each month at Intergen in downtown Wellington. My hotel was only a few blocks from the New Zealand Parliament, but I didn’t get to see much else. On the other hand, the taxi ride to and from the airport gave me a good view (albeit short) of this very beautiful city, where some houses sit on hilltops so steep that the only way to get some of the houses is by a lift.

My next stop was on the South Island in Christchurch, where snow-capped mountains can be seen in the distance. I spoke at the Christchurch .NET Users Group, which is coordinated by Christopher Fairbairn. The group meets the second Wednesday of each month, generally at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator, although this time it met at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, where a number of the students from the institute attended.

My last stop was at Dunedin, near the bottom of the North Island. The event was hosted by the Dunedin .NET Users Group at the University of Otago. The group usually meets monthly, usually on a Tuesday evening. The group is lead by Nathan Pitcher. Dunedin’s largest industry is the University, which is considered to be one of the best in New Zealand.

On Tuesday, October 13, I spoke at the Sydney SQL Server Users Group, presenting on “How to Get the Most Out of the SQL Server 2005/2008 Profiler,” the last of my seven presentations made on my Australia speaking tour.

The group meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Mechanics School of Arts in downtown Sydney. Most meetings draw 65 or more people.

The group’s founder and leader, Grant Paisley (see photo), is a SQL Server MVP and the Chief Solutions Architect of Angry Koala, a Sydney-based consulting company specializing in Microsoft Business Intelligence technology.

Grant likes to go kiteboarding, and when he travels to the United States, usually stops in Honolulu for a few days to relax and kiteboard. I still haven’t convinced him to visit me on the Big Island, but I am working on it.

I has fortunate enough to drive from the SQL Down Under Code Camp in Wagga Wagga to Melbourne, the Sunday before the user group meeting, with Greg Low and his lovely wife Mai. In fact, I was their house guest that same night.

Since I have been in Australia, this was the first opportunity I had to do any traveling by car, and it was a great opportunity to see the countryside. Although I didn’t see any live kangaroos on this trip (I did see some during my train ride to Newcastle), there were about 10 dead kangaroos along the sides of the road. Apparently, kangaroos act a lot like deer in the United States, which have a habit of running onto the highway in front of moving cars. I also saw a live Australian Brown Snake on the highway, with its head up and ready to strike at approaching cars. These snakes are considered one of the most deadly in Australia. Other than that, the countryside reminded me of the countryside in many parts of the United States. If we weren’t driving on the “wrong” side of the road, I couldn’t have known I was in Australia for most of the car trip.