Live Blogging: Women In Technology Luncheon
I was invited to live-blog for the Women In Technology (WIT) luncheon at the Summit on Tuesday. As was the case with all of my “live blogging,” I mostly updated Twitter with near-real-time updates, which I then attempt to transcribe into a blog post for later reference. So here follows that transcription. 
11:49 AM PST
The room is filling up nicely! There’s a nice distribution of men and women in the room. This is great! I’m actually pleasantly surprised at the number of women at the Summit. If it weren’t for this luncheon, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed just how many SQL ladies there actually are.
12:00 PM PST
The WIT luncheon is underway! We start off with watching an energetic video displaying various types of women and men who each state “I am a technical woman” or “I support technical women.”
Rushabh Mehta, Executive VP of Finance for PASS, opens the WIT luncheon with the statement “PASS Supports Technical Women.” He then hands the floor over to Wendy Pastrick (@wendy_dance) for moderation of today’s panel.
Today’s panel is:
- Kathi Kellenberger (@auntkathi)
- Jessica Moss (@jessicammoss)
- Cathi Rodgveller (@IgniteGirls)
- Lynn Langit (@llangit)
12:10 PM PST
Kathi starts off with a great message: “I want to encourage women to enter technology, but I want to encourage boys too.” She started off as a pharmacist because “I was probably born 5 years too early” but later switched to technology. She makes less money but enjoys it more. Her daughter had to learn HTML for school and actually helped her get her first work in IT by showing her how to program. “I want both boys and girls to have the opportunity to discover lots of different things and to find what they love. And hopefully that’ll be technology.”
12:17 PM PST
The floor is then handed over to Jessica Moss, BI guru extraordinaire. She gives a great example of how influential a father can be in a young girl’s life: her father was the one who got her interested in technology and who encouraged her career. She says she never felt like she could *not* be technical because she was raised to believe she could do anything. She ends with a challenge for everyone at the Summit: talk to just one young woman and encourage her interest in technology.
12:23 PM PST
Cathi Rodgveller shares her background in education and how she started IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now In Technology Evolution). The goal of IGNITE is to excite young women, minority races, and low-income youth, about technology and about technical careers. Rodgveller gives us a powerful message: “You can have an impact in your community. One [positive technology] event can change a young girl’s life.”
12:28 PM PST
Last, but certainly not least, Lynn Langit takes the floor. She starts off with a challenge to all audience members: tweet or text one person to say “I’m a technical women” or “I support technical women.” The room gets active while people are busy typing or texting, and Twitter is abuzz with various tweets and retweets. Lynn then takes the floor back and talks about her background and about her charity work. She mentions that every time someone buys one of her books, a donation is made to the MONA foundation. Langit also shares some of her experiences as a technical women: “I’m a developer evangelist. I’m often the only woman in the room, and I’M the one giving the presentation.”
12:35 PM PST
It’s now time for Q&A with the audience. I’ve also invited members of the Twitter community to send in their questions or comments, and we’ll do our best to get them answered. Following is a brief summary of the questions and answers provided:
Q: First up is a father of 2 teenage girls. He wants to know why WIT programs have continued to fall since 1985.
A: WIT is a low priority for schools. Schools have so many other priorities, and not enough time or funding, to address everything they need to. We need intervention from outside sources to stimulate change and ensure it’s being addressed. Rodgveller is working with her state Senator to try to enact change on the national level.
Moss mentions that studies show the top 2 issues for WIT are recruitment and retention. She also points out that middle school years are very formative and important for young women to foster their interest in technology. Rodgveller interjects that even high school is not “too late” to inspire young women.
Q: Another father asks, how can he remove stereotypes for children?
A: Parents are the best resources, period. Parents need to support their children at home and to let them know that stereotypes are negative and not okay. This includes not just gender issues, but also issues of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
Q: Today’s youth are concerned about the technical job market in US because of the prevalence of off-shores outsourcing. Is it still a good idea for young people to join today’s technical workforce, and how can we encourage them?
A: There are still plenty of opportunities in IT. In fact, one of the hottest trends today in technology is BI. The best way to ensure that your job is not outsourced is to stay relevant and keep up with the newest technology; those are not the jobs that are outsourced overseas.
Q: In the South, there are still lots of stereotypes. For instance, women frequently are not hired by companies for technical positions. Comments like “We can’t hire a woman for that job because it’s too valuable; what if she gets pregnant?” are still made. What can be done about this?
A: One of the executives from CA, the sponsor of the WIT luncheon, takes the stage to answer. He says in no uncertain terms that, at his company, those individuals making the disparaging remarks would be terminated. He says that the type of attitude described has to come from the top down, and the company is limiting itself by not hiring women. He ends with a message for employees to not tolerate discrimination and to go to HR whenever they see it happening.
Q: What can parents do to help WIT?
A: Parents are the greatest resource kids have. Parents set the attitude for their kids; if your attitude is positive, it will encourage your daughter to try new things and will open her up to opportunity whenever it presents itself. Also, parents need to raise the issue with schools, i.e. through PTA meetings, to make them realize that it’s important to you and it’s important for your children.
Moss: “But at the end of the day, it is the parent’s responsibility to expose your children to as much technology and as many experiences as possible.”
Kellenberger: “It is up to the parents to break stereotypes, for jobs, gender, race, etc. It’s the parent’s attitude that makes the difference.”
So that’s all I have for the Women In Technology luncheon. There was a lot of great content and some very positive messages from our panel. For more information on this topic, please check out the following resources:
- Steve Jone’s musings on the WIT luncheon
- What can men do? (to help WIT)
- IGNITE
Live Blogging: Keynote at PASS, Day 3
Today is the 3rd and final day of keynotes at the PASS Summit. Following is highlights of the keynotes. During the keynote, refresh often for updates!
8:36 AM PST
Keynote kicks off with Don’t Stop Believing by Journey. Awesome.
8:38 AM PST
PASS VP of Marketing Bill Graziano just takes the stage. He promises the shortest keynote of the conference, and appears to deliver on it. First up are Board announcements.
Outgoing Board Members are:
- Greg Low
- Pat Wright (@sqlAsylum)
- Kevin Kline (@kekline)
If you these folks at Summit, make sure to thank them for their hard work!
PASS President Wayne Snyder comes out to honor and thank Kevin Kline for his 10 YEARS of service. Yes, that’s right, 10 YEARS. Wayne doesn’t get far into his speech before he gets choked up. Great quote from Wayne: “Kevin (@kekline) is a man of honor and integrity. He’s… well, he’s full of it.” Kevin then gets a well-deserved standing ovation from the entire audience.
New Directors-at-Large are also announced:
- Brian Moran
- Jeremiah Peschka (@peschkaj)
- Tom LaRock (@SQLRockstar)
Next year’s PASS Summit is also announced. It will be in Seattle from November 8th – 11th, 2010. The decision was made to have the conference in Seattle because it’s a launch year, so access to Microsoft employees will be invaluable. The registration rate is $995 if you register soon. Details and registration can be found on the PASS site at www.sqlpass.org/summit/na2010.
8:52 AM PST
Dell keynote just started with Patrick Ortiz, Solution Architect with Dell’s Infrastructure Consulting Services for SQL Server & BI. The keynote is pretty uneventful.
9:17 AM PST
Woot! Dr. David DeWitt, Technical Fellow, Data & Storage Platform Division at Microsoft, takes the stage. His presentation is entitled, “From 1 to 1000 MIPS.” He promises a very technical talk, against Microsoft Marketing’s wishes. He’s not going to be announcing any products, but instead plans to discuss the changes in database technology and what’s in store for us in the next 10 years.
Highlights (or at least, the ones that my simple mind was able to grasp):
- Basic RDMS design is essentially unchanged, but the hardware has changed dramatically.
- Interesting statistics in disk trends last 30 years: 10,000x capacity, 65x transfer rate, 10x avg seek time… not balanced at all
- “CPU’s and disks are totally out-of-whack in terms of performance.”
- The benefits of 1,000x improvement in CPU is almost negated by lack of improvement in disk
- Transfer bandwidth/byte trends: 1980 = 0.015, in 2009 = 0.0001… 150x slower today! “It’s like trying to provide drinking water for the town through a garden hose.”
- “Can incur up to one L2 data cache miss per row processed if row size is greater than size of cache line.”
- DBMS transfers the ENTIRE ROW from disk to memory even though the query required just 3 attributes.
- “Takeaway: DBMS must avoid doing random disk I/O as much as possible.”
In short, DeWitt shows us the power of indexing and vertical partitioning in very technical terms. He also gives us a taste for column-oriented design, which we’ll catch a glimpse of in SQL Server 2008 R2. Awesomeness.
The keynote wraps up with a promise to include DeWitt’s presentation on the Summit DVD. If you missed the conference, then trust me, DeWitt’s presentation is worth the cost alone; all of the sessions are just a nice bonus on top of that.
Live Blogging: Keynote at PASS, Day 2
So today is day 2 of the PASS Summit conference. The conference has been excellent so far, with tons of great content and tons of great folks. Yesterday’s keynote revealed some interesting tidbits, including SQL Server 2008 R2 setting the world record for TPC-E (transactions per second) and QphH (queries per hour). Be sure to refresh this page frequently for updates, or follow along on Twitter.
8:00 AM PST
Michelle shows up extra early today, having learned her lesson from yesterday. Coffee in hand. Ah, much better than yesterday.
8:41 AM PST
Rushabh Mehta just took the stage to the tune of All Star.
8:46 AM PST
Interesting statistics:
- 15% reduction in revenue
- 40% growth in the SQL PASS community
- 67% reduction in IT expenses
Rushabh encourages support in the PASS community. He challenges everyone to volunteer at least an hour a month with your local user group. If you would like to become more involved in the local East Iowa SQL Server user group, please let me know!
8:51 AM PST
Wayne Snyder just took the stage to present the PASSion Awards. Folks recognized include:
- Tim Ford (@sqlagentman) – for his work on the Program Committee and Quiz Bowl. Tim was no where to be seen! Probably eating left-over bagels.
- Grant Fritchey (@GFritchey) – for his contributions to getting SQL Server Standard relaunched. Grant also had the opportunity to show off his fabulous kilt!
- Jacob Sebastian (@jacobsebastian) – for his contributions to the Asia community. He has started 6 chapters in India. Wow!
- Amy Lewis – for her contributions to the BI Virtual Chapters and growing the sub-chapters.
9:00 AM PST
2009 International PASSion Award recipient is Charlie Hanania. Accomplishments include Swiss Chapter Leader and managing the entire 2009 PASS European Conference.
2009 North American PASSion Award recipient is Allen Kinsel (@sqlinsaneo)! Allen’s accomplishments include 5 years with PASS, and Program Manager for the 2009 Program Committee. He helped tremendously with Summit 2009, so if you see him around Summit, be sure to thank him!
Read more about the PASSion Award winners here.
9:07 AM PST
Tom Casey just took the stage. His first challenge is for all Summit attendees to act as agents of change in their respective organizations. Interesting statistic: only 20% of business users have the data they need to do their job effectively. Tom’s call to arms is to improve that statistic.
9:13 AM PST
Tom Casey: “PASS Summit is the place to be for B-I.” Statistics from Summit 2009: 2 dedicated BI tracks with 50+ BI-related sessions. Last year, 20% of attendees expressed interest in BI; this year, that number is 31%.
9:16 AM PST
Ron VanZanten, Directing Officer of Business Intelligence for Premier Bank Card, just joined Tom on stage. He works with over 25 TB of data and has used BI to leverage the data that they collect. His 3,200 employees use this information to perform their job. VanZanten wanted a flexible BI stack that would grow with the company. He’s successfully tested Madison to improve performance & scale out his environment. This is very encouraging news for any large data warehouse environment.
9:23 AM PST
Tom recognizes that data is available in a wide variety of mediums and that the numbers of sources will only continue to increase. He also introduces a new term: “spreadmart” – spreadsheets that are used as data marts.
9:30 AM PST
Amir Netz just takes the stage to give everyone a demo of the self-service BI offerings in SQL Server 2008 R2. Features include PowerPivot and SharePoint services. Amir shows us an Excel spreadsheet PowerPivot table with 100m rows. It’s amazingly fast. While I shudder to think of end users actually asking for 100m rows in Excel (and trust me, I’m sure it’ll happen), this is going to be a great breakthrough for our BI admins and our power IW users. It’s a time saver and gives greater visibility into data. While I realize the self-service BI offerings are still young, I’m excited for the future of BI. I can’t wait to implement what I’ve seen in our reporting environments.
11:55 AM PST
Tom Casey returns to center stage. Tom announces a contest to win an X-Box 360. To enter, follow @powerpivot & retweet: “Want to learn more, go to http://bit.ly/4n5vpd & sign up for the November CTP #powerpivot.” Tom concludes the keynote with his call to arms to increase the number of business users who have access to the BI data that they need to do their job effectively (currently 20%).
So there you have it, today’s keynote. Check back tomorrow for details on Thursday’s keynote; it looks to be the best yet.
Live Blogging: Keynote at PASS, Day 1
I’m honored to be invited to live-blog during the Summit keynotes. Most of my updates will be via Twitter, but I’ll periodically consolidate and update into blog posts throughout the keynote. Please check back frequently during the Summit for updates.
8:00 AM PST
Michelle gets situated at the blog table, running late and doesn’t even have time for coffee. Ack!
8:05 AM PST
Computer finishes booting up, Twitter loaded. Interesting statistics: 31% of folks expressed interest in Business Intelligence, up significantly from previous years. More than 400 Microsoft product developers and managers, and 98 SQL Server MVP’s, are in attendance.
8:06 AM PST
Wayne Snyder talks about Virtual Chapters. Did you know there are 5 sub-chapters in the Business Intelligence virtual chapter?
8:07 AM PST
Wayne reviews 24HoursOfPASS. Interesting statistics: 50,123 registrations, and 3,524 folks in 70+ countries.
8:09 AM PST
Wayne announces the return of SQL Server Standard. The first article was posted this past week. Content is free but only available online. Seasoned SQL Server authors can earn $500 per article. Interested parties should contact Grant Fritchey (@GFritchey).
8:18 AM PST
Closing words by Wayne: “Remember, no one should be a stranger at Summit.” Make sure to say “hi” to at least one person you have never met before. The more people feel welcome, the more successful the event!
8:24 AM PST
I receive my first-ever press announcement and immediately start leaking sharing the news. First up: SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP scheduled for November release! Also, looks like Madison is being rebranded as “SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse.” I think I prefer the simplicity of “Madison.
8:26 AM PST
Microsoft announces a new TPC-E record of 2,012 tpsE. This is a platform-independent world record for *any* OLTP system. Oracle, eat your heart out.
8:30 AM PST
More details on the TPC-E benchmark world record: Unisys ES7000 model 7600R Enterprise Server on 96-core Xeon platform (first server with >64 cores). The same Unisys server also reached 102,778 QphH (queries per hour), a data warehousing performance improvement of 70%.
8:39 AM PST
Bob tells us that the IO strain on virtualized machines is there but negated by Hyper-V. We’re given a demo of live migration: it appears that migration is seamless and that transactions are unaffected by the process. Very cool.
8:42 AM PST
Bob talks about the future of SQL Server as more companies move toward the cloud.
8:50 AM PST
Bob concludes his speech by discussing the future of the data professional, and how the DBA role will not become obsolete but merely transformed.
8:52 AM PST
Ted Kummert, Senior VP of SQL Server, takes the stage.
8:56 AM PST
Ted’s Top 5 Reasons to be at PASS Summit:
#1 You are part of the world’s largest gathering of SQL Server professionals
#2 You can take your questions directly to the “source”
#3 We’ve got Wayne and Rushabh
#4 You can work hard and PLAY hard
#5 You will build skills & knowledge on the #1 database in the world
9:16 AM PST
Dan Jones, Principle Group Program Manager for SQL Server Manageability, takes the stage.
9:20 AM PST
Dan gives us a demo of SQL Server 2008 R2, including Utility Control Points.
9:30 AM PST
I need to leave to check in for my 10:30 am presentation. Bummed I’m going to miss the last of the keynote. 
#PASSAwesomeness
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Performance & Tuning, Presentations, Syndication
Allen Kinsel on Twitter (@sqlinsaneo) recently started a new Twitter tag, #PASSAwesomeness, about all of the cool things about PASS Summit. I really like the tag, so I’m going to blatantly steal borrow it for this post.
First, and long overdue, I want to give a brief recap of the East Iowa SQL Saturday. On October 17th, our local PASS chapter, 380PASS, sponsored our first ever SQL Saturday at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. By all accounts, the event was a great success! We had 90 attendees, 11 speakers, and 21 sessions. We received numerous compliments on the quality of the speakers, the niceness of the facilities, and the abundance of food. Not too shabby for our first time hosting the event, if I do say so myself.
I’d like to thank all of our wonderful speakers, especially those who traveled from out of town and out of state, for making this event such a success. I’d also like to thank our amazing volunteers for helping put this all together. Lastly, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank our generous sponsors, without whom this event would not be possible. Because this event went so smoothly and was so well received in the community, we’ve already started planning our next big SQL event! In the meantime, don’t forget to check out our monthly 380PASS meetings to tide you over.
I’d also like to take a moment to discuss the PASS Summit. Unless you’re a DBA who’s been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the PASS Summit. If you *have* been living under a rock — and hey, I’m not poking fun, I used to live under a rock, too! — then what you need to know is that the Summit is the largest SQL Server conference in the world. It’s a gathering of Microsoft developers and SQL Server gurus; the rest of us show up to try to absorb as much from them as possible. Since I’ve recently moved to the Business Intelligence team, I’m extremely excited to delve into the amazing amount of BI content offered.
I’m also deeply honored to be presenting at the Summit this year on some of the performance tuning techniques I’ve used with great success in my production environments. The session is titled, Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look At Performance Tuning for VLDB’s. If you’re interested in performance tuning or VLDB (very large database) topics, consider stopping by to catch my session. From what I can tell, I’ll be presenting on Tuesday from 10:15am – 11:30am in room(s?) 602-604.
If you read my blog, or if we’ve ever interacted in any way on the internet — Twitter, LinkedIn, e-mails, blog comments, etc. — please stop by and say “hi”! Aside from all of the awesome SQL Server content, I’m really looking forward to meeting as many new folks as possible.
And on that note…
Getting to meet all of the amazing SQL Server professionals out there who have inspired and encouraged me in so many ways #PASSAwesomeness
Why I’m Blogging Less
Filed under: Business Intelligence, Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
I’ve received a few questions asking why I’ve been blogging less frequently, and even one inquiry after my health. Rest assured, I’m completely fine. But there are 2 perfectly good reasons why I’ve been blogging less these days.
East Iowa SQL Saturday:
I’m the event organizer for East Iowa SQL Saturday, which is eating up a lot of my free time. If you haven’t yet heard about our SQL Saturday event, let me give you a brief overview. It’s a FREE, one-day training event geared toward SQL Server professionals and anyone who wants to learn more about SQL Server. We have 22 sessions planned covering a variety of topics, from Business Intelligence to Disaster Recovery to SQL Server 2008 topics. And if you’re a .NET developer, we also have some .NET-related presentations, including PowerShell and MVC.
We’re very fortunate to have snagged an excellent set of speakers. Jessica Moss, Louis Davidson, Timothy Ford, Jason Strate, and Alex Kuznetsov are just a few of the great speakers we have lined up.
There’s only a handful of spots left, so if you’re interested in attending, you should register soon. To find out more details about the speakers and sessions, or to register, be sure to check out our website at http://sqlsaturday.380pass.org.
The Other Reason:
Yes, that’s right, I’m with child. Expecting. Eating for two. Bun in the oven. In the family way. You get the idea.
So when I’m not at work, planning SQL Saturday, or playing Civilization Revolution, I’m sleeping. For those who remotely care, I’m due around Super Bowl time in February 2010.
2010: The Year I Make Contact
Rest assured, this blog isn’t going away. And hopefully once I get through SQL Saturday and then PASS Summit, I’ll have more free time again.
East Iowa SQL Saturday – Call For Speakers, Open Registration
A few announcements regarding the East Iowa SQL Saturday:
- The date has changed to October 17th due to scheduling conflicts. Please update your calendars.
- We’re still looking for speakers! We currently have 10 submissions, but we’d like to have double that. If you’re even thinking about submitting a session, please do! Who knows, Iowa City may be closer than you think.
- Registration is open! If you’re planning to attend the East Iowa SQL Saturday, please make sure to register by clicking on the “Register” link and completing the short questionnaire. Seating is limited, so make sure to register soon.
- Chicago – 3.5 hours
- Omaha – 3.5 hours
- Milwaukee – 4 hours
- Kansas City – 4.5 hours
- Minneapolis – 5 hours
- St. Louis – 5 hours
- Indianapolis – 6 hours
- Columbus, OH – 9 hours (hint, hint, Jeremiah!)
Also, if you’re in the area and would be interested in volunteering, please send me an e-mail at michelle at sqlfool dot com.
Bored this summer?
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Performance & Tuning, Syndication
Bored this summer? Do you like to help others? Do you have too much free time? Do you find yourself thinking, “Man, I really should spend more time indoors.” If you answered “yes” to all any of these questions, then have I got a proposition for you!
Sorry, guys, not that kind of proposition
What could be more fun than getting second-degree burns at the waterpark, you ask? Volunteering on the PASS Performance SIG! That’s right, we’re looking for a few good women and men to join our ranks as content contributors. Specifically, we’re looking for people to write articles and/or host LiveMeeting events on performance-related topics. Not a performance expert? This can be a great way for you to learn more.
In case I scared you off in my opening paragraph, let me assure you that it really does not take that much time to be a volunteer. Just 3-4 hours a month can be a huge help. We’re also looking for contributors of all experience levels, so if you’re only comfortable writing intro-level articles, that’s definitely okay.
Oh, and while I’m begging for volunteers, we’re still looking for speakers for the SQL Saturday in East Iowa.
If you’re interested in either, then please send me an e-mail at michelle at sqlfool dot com for more information.
PASS Summit 2009
Filed under: PASS, Performance & Tuning, Presentations, Syndication
My abstract for PASS Summit 2009 was accepted! Woot! You may not be able to see it from where you’re sitting, but I’m doing the happy dance.
In case you missed my original post on my abstract submission, here’s what I’ll be presenting on:
Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look at Performance Tuning for VLDB’s
Few DBA’s have the opportunity to experience a real-life load test in their production environment. Michelle Ufford works for GoDaddy.com, a company that has experienced phenomenal success with its Super Bowl ads. These ads are designed to drive traffic to the company’s websites, which puts the database servers under high load. In her presentation, Michelle will explore the performance tuning techniques that have resulted in an 80% reduction in server response times and allowed her VLDB’s to reach rates of 27k transactions per second. Topics will include vertical and horizontal partitioning, bulk operations, table design, and indexing.
Do you read my blog? Do I read yours? Do we exchange weird messages on Twitter? Do you have free cookies? If you’re going to to the PASS Summit and answered “yes” to any of these questions, then I want to meet you! Make sure to say “hi” to me in Seattle.
East Iowa SQL Saturday – Call for Speakers!
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
The Call for Speakers is now open for the East Iowa SQL Saturday! This is our first time hosting a SQL Saturday, and there’s a lot of excitement and interest from our local SQL Server folks. There’s some interest from local speakers, but we’ll probably also need to pull in speakers from outside of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to support the number of tracks and attendees we plan to have.
The event will be held on October 10th, 2009 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Special thanks to Russ Allen for his help with securing a location for us!
For those who are not in the immediate area but would be willing to travel, here’s some general travel times from major cities in the area:
So if you’re in the general area, please, PLEASE consider speaking at our SQL Saturday. Pretty please with sugar on top.
You can find out a little more information and submit sessions at our SQL Saturday website.
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