I’m back in Austin from SQL Saturday 309 in Oklahoma City, OK 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 309 event page.

Facility

The event took place at the Moore Norman Technology Center in Moore, OK. 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

You know what makes me happy: BBQ! With beef and chicken BBQ everyone has a great lunch. They took care of the vegetarians, too, so everyone goes into the 1:00PM session happy.

Sessions

I only went to a few sessions since I wanted to review my presentation one more time. I went to:
SQL Throw Down by Hakeem Ali and team
The SQL throw down was great, and my team came in second place.

Making Sense of Power BI by Brett Tomson
Power BI is something I’ve wanted to get into for a long time and this was a great starter session.

All Flash Data Center by Violin Memory
The lunch session by Violin Memory was really interesting. If I could get an all flash Data center, I would probably forget about IO waits.

My Session

I am glad that my session was the last of the day. After lunch, I was able to review my presentation and made sure my demos worked without a snag. My session was actually full, which is an awesome sign. As always, the attendees asked great questions and gave me more ideas for additional slides and information. I left over 10 minutes for questions and we took it to the limit, which was great! Overall, I feel my presentation went well, though I know several areas where I can tighten things up.

Wrap Up

Overall, SQL Saturday went great. I’d be happy to make the drive back up from Austin to Oklahoma City in a year. I plan to have at least one or two new sessions by then!