We have a great mix of speakers this year, including nationally-recognized speakers such as Jason Strate and Ted Krueger. Topics include Denali, PowerPivot, High Availability, Disaster Recovery, PowerShell, SSIS, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, database tuning, and more. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to network with SQL-savvy locals while receiving FREE training.

If you haven't registered yet, please do so we can make sure we order enough food. Oh, and make sure to stick around for the after-party, too. The after-party is one of my favorite parts of the whole event. This year's party will be held at The Mill, which is within walking distance of the conference center.

I hope to see you there!

In other news, I've once more switched roles within GoDaddy. For the half dozen folks who've been following my blog from the beginning, you may remember that I originally started out on the traffic team working with tuning and VLDB's, then took an opportunity to switch to the BI team to learn more about OLAP. Recently, a new team has been formed under the BI branch that's tasked with developing a massive hybrid data warehouse (by hybrid, I mean half OLTP and half OLAP). "How massive is it?" Well, it's SO massive, we're expecting to be store petabytes of data when everything is said and done. I'm happy to say I'll be on this new team. So yes, that means we have an opening for an OLAP developer. We're also hiring SQL Server DBA's. We have offices in Cedar Rapids, Denver, and the Phoenix area. Send me an e-mail at michelle at sqlfool dot com if you're interested in learning more about this great job opportunity and company.

Lastly, I want to announce that SQL Saturday 50 is now open for registration! SQL Saturday 50 will be held in Iowa City, IA on Saturday, September 18th. We're almost at 50% of our attendance capacity, so if you're interested in attending, please register soon.

That's it for now. I promise that my next blog post will be uber technical.

Last year we had about 100 folks attend from surrounding areas. This year, we're shooting for 125 attendees, which would max out our facility's capacity. Not sure how far away Iowa City is? It may be closer than you think. Allow me to rehash my travel times from last year's plea for speakers:

• 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

The event will be held on September 18th at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. You can find more information, including an abstract submission form, on our event website at http://sqlsaturday.com/50/eventhome.aspx.

Oh, and if you do make it to our SQL Saturday event, please make sure to stop me and say "hi!"

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.

• 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.

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.

]]> http://sqlfool.com/2009/08/east-iowa-sql-saturday-call-for-speakers-open-registration/feed/ 0 http://sqlfool.com/2009/07/bored-this-summer/ http://sqlfool.com/2009/07/bored-this-summer/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:18:56 +0000 Michelle Ufford http://sqlfool.com/?p=1089 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.

]]> http://sqlfool.com/2009/07/bored-this-summer/feed/ 0 http://sqlfool.com/2009/06/east-iowa-sql-saturday-call-for-speakers/ http://sqlfool.com/2009/06/east-iowa-sql-saturday-call-for-speakers/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:28:22 +0000 Michelle Ufford http://sqlfool.com/?p=1035 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:

• 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!)

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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