RECAP: Baton Rouge SQLSaturday #64 and TechDay

     

This year I decide to help with volunteering and not speak. Since being selected for SQL PASS Summit

 I decided not to speak and give others, especially local people an opportunity to start their speaking careers. The first time I spoke was at a local user group then SQLSaturday #28. I did my best to pick a topic (RML Utilities) that I thought would impress people. What I realized over time, that the majority of attendees at SQLSaturdays were new to the technology and it would be better to appeal to the newbies.

Execution Plan Basics and 3rd Normal Form: That’s Crazy Talk!!! are the types of talks I concentrate more on lately. The more advanced attendees (including myself) get to criticize the session about the lack of advanced/intermediate topic, but I have to come to accept these comments to only improve the next talk.

I did get to introduce the event at the keynote SQL side which was a basic description of the event and how to read the schedule, visit sponsors and participate in raffles. Serving Jambalaya and tallying speaker evaluations were some of the volunteering I did. Keeping up with speakers and cancelations/replacements were not fun as 1/2 of the speaker coordinator, but it had to be done.

      

There was a wonderfully giving group of volunteers that meet periodically to plan this event. Laurie, Sara, Eric & Beth from Antares and William, Mike & Justin from Sparkhound and Mr. Mike Verret (LSU).

  Proficient (Mike, Ryan & Val) sponsored as a Platinum level with Microsoft (THANKS!!! Zain and Patrick LeBlanc) and HP. There were many Gold and Silver sponsors

We had 35+ attendees pick volunteer when the registered which gave us enough people to monitor each speaker room to help collect close to 1000 speaker evaluations and help with a book giveaway at each session.

I cannot say enough of the speakers who came from all around the country, Steve Jones and Carlos from Colorado, Peter Myers from SolidQ, Sean & Jen from Dallas, Stuart from Atlanta, Rob Vetter (C# MVP), Jose from Tampa, AvePoint and K2 as Sharepoint/Sponsors and filling in for speaker cancellations. Even the late arriving William Pearson from JawJa.

More volunteers (There were probably 20-30 extras helping us).

     

Here is the link to more pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/110051938285440518693/SQLSaturday64?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOSS5LS5l_TkXg&feat=directlink#

Until next year, God Bless!!!

Future Reserved Dates

Here is a quick view of dates and locations that have been reserved for future SQLSaturday events. Click here to reserve a date!

Aug 04, 2012
Taylor Hall, Louisiana State University Campus
Baton Rouge
LA