Category Archives: Uncategorized

NTSSUG is looking for Speakers for 2019!

The North Texas SQL Server User Group is currently looking for speakers for 2019. If you are a speaker and searching for events that are where you are headed for business, or if you’re looking to just fill your calendar with different user groups across the country, NTSSUG should be at the top of your list!

When do you meet?

We meet the third Thursday of each month. The following are the available dates:

1/17/2019 – Bob Ward!
2/21/2019 – Rick Heiges!
3/21/2019 – Dave Stein!
4/18/2019
5/16/2019
6/20/2019
7/18/2019
8/15/2019
9/19/2019
10/17/2019
11/21/2019

Who can speak?

Anyone!

Where do you meet?

We meet at the Microsoft office in lovely Irving, Texas.

What should I speak on?

Well, that’s a good question. Last year we took a survey to find out what members wanted to see at our meetings. The results were quite interesting.

With NTSSUG, interests vary.

Why should I speak for NTSSUG? Give me one good reason!

I will do you better than that…I will give you a few reasons.

First of all, we have one of the largest groups in the south central region with over 1800 members. Our meetings have an average attendance of 78 people, and occasionally we will see spikes in attendance – just this month we had a record breaking meeting with 141 people! Our group meeting is also quite active and you will typically get lots of questions from our membership.

In January we had Mexican food! We typically do something different in January in lieu of a December meeting or holiday party. For all other meetings we typically have pizza…but we are talking about maybe changing things up and maybe doing something different once a quarter.

We have our SQL Saturday coming up on June 1st. If you can’t make that then consider us for a user group speaking engagement. Or do both!

Dallas has two major airports – Love Field and DFW. Both are in reasonable proximity from our meeting location and typically you can get low-cost fares from the numerous air carries that serve our area.

We have Whataburger. Everywhere. And it’s awesome!

We also have In-n-Out Burger. You think you have to travel to California or Las Vegas for this? No way! There is even one close to our meeting location!

You are coming to the mecca of all that is BBQ (don’t listen to those other people…they don’t speak the truth…TEXAS is where it’s at!). Pecan Lodge. Make the time. Go. Eat. And experience some truly epic BBQ.

The North Texas area is a destination for many performers and traveling shows. Wanna know if one of your favorites is coming to the area and when? Check out GuideLive for concerts and evens across the DFW Metroplex.

If you want to come during the summertime, maybe make it a family trip and drive. There are so many different things to see and do in Texas – from the Magnolia Market and Silos in Waco to the state capitol in Austin and and the Alamo in San Antonio. You could even go to a dude ranch! To do some cooling off, you can head to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, or go tubing on the Comal or Guadalupe Rivers. These are just a few of the things you can do in Texas

In August the North Texas Fair and Rodeo is going on. Not to be confused with the State Fair of Texas, this staple of Denton, Texas is not to be missed – while smaller, it is still plenty of fun, with rides, vendors, midway games, live concerts and an actual rodeo!

If you have an interest in beer and German cuisine, Addison Oktoberfest is in September. Come speak at our meeting and then stick around an extra day or two and head over to Addison for this annual shin-dig.

Around September-October there is the State Fair of Texas. Our October meeting would coincide with the fair the best, but if you have never been before, definitely worth checking out if you are going to be in town anytime at all while this is going on.

If you are interested in speaking at NTSSUG, or have questions, shoot me an email at programs@ntssug.com.

I’m Speaking at PASS Summit!

On May 31st, I was shocked to find out one of my submitted sessions was selected for PASS Summit 2018. My response?

I didn’t see this coming. At all. I was stunned – walking around at the office, saying “Oh my gosh…I got picked” while co-workers looked at me like I had lost my mind. Literally.

I thought I would be going to PASS Summit this year, but not as a speaker. I thought I would be an attendee, learning a lot and having an amazing time. I thought it was far more likely that we see 10 feet of snow this winter in Texas than I would be selected for this year’s PASS Summit.

I am sincerely humbled and grateful to be selected. The competition was stiff. I should know – just like last year, I pulled all the data while it was still available. Once the selections were announced I was able to isolate the sessions from those submitted, and also isolate the ones that were not selected. I was able to determine one particular number – how many sessions were selected out of total submissions.

90. 90 sessions were selected out of approximately 600 submitted. I might be off by a few, but I also checked this against ones that are there but I didn’t have in the data pull from immediately following the closing of submissions. For the most part, the ones that are there that didn’t match with a submission are pre-cons or sessions from what I am assuming were invited speakers.

I’m not saying any of this is bad. What I am saying is that the competition among PASS Summit submissions is growing and becoming more fierce. I see this as a positive for the community – we are developing more and more excellent speakers with awesome content to share.

I queried my data set further, looking for the names of the people selected and those not selected. I found the latter to contain many speakers I know personally, who would make amazing PASS Summit speakers, and may have already done so in the past.

I pulled the list of the speakers that had sessions that were part of the “Best Of” from PASS Summit 2017. Out of 36 speakers from that list, 13 of those are currently part of 2018 PASS Summit lineup. While it could be said that all of these people should be on this year’s roster because they were part of the “Best Of” from last year, I think the only thing that can really be taken away from this number is the fact that no one is guaranteed a speaking spot at PASS Summit, no matter who you are.

Are there invited speakers? Yes, but like the regular submissions selection, that list likely has some subjectivity to it as well. Maybe an invited speaker gets red carded in the previous year following their session (heaven forbid, but you never know) – do you think they would be invited back? I would hope not, regardless of the content they would provide.

As speakers in the SQL community, we are largely a very goal oriented, driven bunch of people. We might even be a tad competitive. It’s not lost on me how fortunate I am to have been selected this year. Looking back to previous years when my submissions didn’t make the cut, I know now that while this was something that I wanted, I wasn’t ready. I might have been grumpy about it, but that didn’t make me any more ready for this monumental task. For all the seasoned PASS Summit speaker veterans that were not selected, you of all people know how competitive this is. You also know that your time will come again.

Selected or not, I hope to see everyone at PASS Summit this year. If you haven’t registered yet, and need a discount code, I got one of those for ya!
LSDIS97QR

The price for PASS Summit goes up after June 29th so if you are planning on attending, get registered now!

Note: I am on the board of directors for the North Texas SQL Server User Group and this is our code. Registering with this code benefits our group. There are other discount codes out there but I just gave you this one. Like, right now. See? There it is. So go register and use it!

Quick and Dirty UPDATE STATS Job with T-SQL and PowerShell