Free Training Before the PASS Summit

How many of you out there get approval to go to the PASS Summit (YES!) but then get denied the $395/session to register for the pre-cons you wanted to see? (DARN!)

If you will be in the Seattle area Monday and/or Tuesday, there are a couple of very attractive free alternatives before the Tuesday night Welcome Reception at the Summit. (Did I say free?)


On Monday, Red Gate Software is hosting one of their SQL in the City events, featuring Steve Jones (blog/@way0utwest), Grant Fritchey (blog/@GFritchey), and a host of other industry professionals providing a free day of multiple sessions of SQL Server goodness.  Register here!

Picture from http://sqlinthecity.red-gate.com/seattle-2012

On Tuesday, my employer House of Brick Technologies is hosting a free Virtualizing SQL Server on VMWare Boot Camp:



At this event, my HoB colleague David Klee (blog/@kleegeek) will give an expanded in-depth version of our popular SQL Saturday session on how to plan for and accomplish the virtualization of your Tier-1 SQL Servers as well as the most effective ways to take care of your virtualized SQL Servers.  We have given this session multiple times in the past year at SQL Saturdays and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  Register here!


The paid pre-cons at the Summit are always amazing, but if you need other options, register for SQL in the City and our Virtualizing SQL Server on VMWare Boot Camp - it's hard to argue with free!  {-:

I voted in the PASS Election - you should too!

If you are a member of PASS you have probably already received an email that looks like this:

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From: <hq@sqlpass.org>
Date: Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 4:22 AM
Subject: PASS Votes: Your 2012 Elections Ballot
To: andyhusker@gmail.com


Dear PASS Member,
The future of PASS is in your hands. As a Member in good standing, you are entitled to vote in the 2012 PASS Board of Directors Elections.
This year, there are three seats up for election for the 2013/2014 Board of Directors. Candidates for the open seats are:

James Rowland-Jones
Sri Sridharan
Allen Kinsel
Wendy Pastrick
Kendal Van Dyke

Note: The candidates are listed above in the order of their Nomination Committee ranking. To learn more about the candidates, please see the 2012 Elections Candidates page.
Voting opens today, September 28, and runs through October 12, at noon PT.
To vote, please click on this individualized secure link to your ballot.
Your vote is secure and anonymous. All information collected is governed by PASS's Privacy Policy. If you encounter any difficulties, please contact PASS Governance.
PASS is your organization – thank you for taking the time to help shape its future by participating in the elections process.
Regards,
The 2012 PASS Nomination Committee:
Rushabh Mehta (Chair), Thomas LaRock, Angela Henry, Stefanie Higgins, Jason Strate


--

Who did I vote for?  I don't know four out of the five candidates other than online and by reputation, so I read the candidate profiles on the PASS website and listened to Denny Cherry's (@mrdenny) "People Talking Tech" podcast with the five candidates.

After that research I still did what most people do - I chose to vote for the three persons that I have interacted with online and at SQL Saturdays, the three persons with whom I was most familiar.

I'm not here to stump for any particular candidate but for the process itself - get out and vote!  It's a very easy online process to click on your personalized link in your email and then to select one to three candidates - do it!

No more NebraSQL

After having too many people ask me what NebraSQL meant (its a play on words - Nebraska+SQL - get it?)  I have decided to give up on that attempt at being clever and just go to "Nebraska SQL from @DBA_ANDY" 

I have also updated the URL to nebraskasql.blogspot.com - the four of you who had me bookmarked need to update your URL ;)

Thanks!

Come See Us at SQL Saturday #165 in Lincoln!

I will be speaking with several of my House of Brick Technologies colleagues at SQL Saturday #165 in Lincoln in a couple weeks (October 6th):

I am giving my solo presentation on the Ola Hallengren Maintenance Solution and also co-presenting "Virtualizing Business Critical SQL Servers" with our SQL Server Solutions Architect David Klee (blog/@kleegeek). The Virtualizing talk is a how-to session as well as a tips-and-tricks session on this very popular topic - everybody virtualizes their DEV and TEST, but what about when you need to virtualize your Tier-1 OLTP app?  Come find out!

 Klee is also presenting his talk on "Database Health and Performance" which covers lots of metrics and settings that we use when we check SQL Server environments and what we recommend to our clients. You know you need to see it!

Another colleague Dave Pettengill is giving a pair of solo talks - "A Database Perspective" is a generalist view of databases and DBA's drawn from his seasoned career in IT, and "Heart to Heart with Business Users" cracks the code of how to talk to your non-technical end users without making their eyes glaze over with geek-speak.  Check them out!

Other than us there are multiple amazing speakers - SQL Server MVP's Kevin Kline (blog/@kekline), Chris Shaw (blog/@sqlshaw), Bill Pearson (@Bill_Pearson), and Phil Brammer (blog/@PhilBrammer) are going to be here, as well as noted regional speakers Bill Fellows (blog/@billinkc) and John Morehouse (blog/@sqlrus), and our local Microsoft SQL Server Technologist Sudhir Gajre (@SudhirGajre) and many more - come on out for a great day!

Oh by the way, did I say REGISTER NOW! See you there!