I’m back in Austin from SQL Saturday 408 in Houston, TX and back at work. The event was a great success and I liked everything from top to bottom. You can get the slides from all the sessions, including mine at the SQL Saturday 408 event page.

Facility

The event took place at the San Jacinto College – South Campus in Houston, TX. The rooms were great from a presenter and attendee perspective. For attendees, there were plenty of chairs, wifi for all, and a great lunch.

For presenters, there were good projectors, plenty of power outlets, and plenty of snacks in presenter area.

Lunch

As a Texan, you know what makes me happy: BBQ! With beef brisket and sausage everyone has a great lunch. They took care of the vegetarians, too, so everyone goes into vendor sessions with a happy tummy.

My Sessions

Attendance at my first session on sp_whoisactive was lite, since I was up against sessions even I wanted to attended. But a smaller crowd makes for a good discussion. We didn’t wander too far off script, but we did discuss additional scenarios where sp_whoisactive can help a DBA in need.

My second session was packed! We, as DBAs, may not realize it, but there is a huge need for BI and SSRS fills that niche nicely. I will probably put together an intermediate SSRS session and try to go back to back at a future SQL Saturday. I am also going to actually demo connecting and reporting off of Oracle, MySQL, and possibly a flat file. There were questions about using a non SQL Server source, which I answered. But it seems like the audience actually wanted to see SSRS connect and query Oracle. Great feedback.

Wrap Up

Overall, SQL Saturday went great. I am from Houston, so I always jump at the the chance to visit friends and family. And, have a little SQL fun on the side.

Rudy

Rudy Rodarte is a SQL Server Database professional based in Austin, TX. Over his career, Rudy has worked with SSRS, SSIS, performance tuning troubleshooting. When away from Keyboard, Rudy goes to Spurs and Baylor Bear sporting events.

More Posts - Website - Twitter