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SQLSaturday

T-SQL Tuesday 121: Gifts

December 10, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party for the SQL Server community. It is the brainchild of Adam Machanic (b|t) and this month’s edition is hosted by Mala (b|t) who has asked us to write about “Gifts received this year” – which is appropriate for the last month of the decade!

So…many…gifts!

Aside from faith, family and friends which are the truest gifts in my life, I had a fantastic year, SQL Server-wise.

In somewhat order:

  • Dallas DBAs is doing very well and will hit a record for sales in 2019!
  • We hired Jeff and he’s been great…
  • SQLDork continues to contribute and learn every afternoon…
  • Got to go to Summit again this year!
  • SQL 2019!
  • New clients helping me pay Jeff and the Dork…
  • Ellipses, bullet points and exclamation points went on sale…!
  • On-site sponsor at SQL Saturday Cincinnati, Dallas and Austin!
  • Existing clients that trust us with their data and projects…
  • 2 freelance DBAs that I can offload small projects to!
  • New prospects for 2020!!!

I could go into lots of detail on each…but nah…go read some more T-SQL Tuesday posts!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

Filed Under: SQLSaturday, Summit, TSQL2sday

SQL Saturday Austin 2019

July 5, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

 

Come to SQL Saturday in Austin, TX on July 13 for a full day of FREE SQL Server/Data Platform training!

I will be delivering one of my favorite sessions: “Your SQL Servers are Mi$ConFiguReDed” currently scheduled for 1:15PM.

Nope…I’m not at all worried that you might go to Joe Celko’s session instead 🙂

I will also be at the Dallas DBAs GOLD sponsor booth/table all day to talk to you about your SQL Server DBA needs.  Or family.  Maybe sportsball…you decide.  We’re kind of chill around here…

There will be a SQL Server Saturday Super Summer Special Savings offer…make sure to ask! Spoiler: its a discount on our Pocket DBA™ service.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

Filed Under: Career, SQLSaturday, Training

SQL Saturday Dallas 2019 aftermath…

June 4, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

The 2019 event was held June 1 on the amazing UT-Dallas campus in the Naveen Jindal School of Management building, which was a nice upgrade from last years event on the same campus but in a different building.

This is not going to be an exhaustive post of all the great sessions, conversations, etc.  Mostly because I was there as a sponsor again this year so I didn’t get to any sessions.  But, I DID get to talk to a massive number of people that stopped by the table.

First off…a shout out to the North Texas SQL Server User Group board and all of the volunteers that dedicated many, many hours of time and sweat (and homes!) to make this thing happen.  The Dallas event is one of the biggest in the world.  The very unofficial count of attendees I *think* I heard was just over 700, from 1100+ registrations.

A second shout out to our sponsors that made this event possible.  Their dollars made it easy to do all we wanted to for the speakers, volunteers and attendees.  From high quality speaker gifts to cool attendee bags, to a great fajita lunch.  And cookies.  And lots of coffee all day long!

There were 4 fantastic pre-conferences to choose from.  As a full-time DBA I decided to learn something new and went to Adam Saxton‘s Power BI class.

Adam, aka ‘Guy In A Cube’

The other 3 pre-cons were from Brent Ozar (sold out twice), Andy Leonard (b|t) and Chris Hyde (t)…all fantastic teachers and overall nice humans.

After the pre-cons, NTSSUG board member Fernando hosted the traditional Speaker Dinner at his home in North Dallas.  Fernando is a brave, brave man.  The only pic I got was of the Tres Leches cake, already partly demolished:

I love the speaker dinners, as it gives me a chance to hang out with people in a low-key environment.  A stark contrast to trying to catch up at something like PASS Summit, which takes SQL geek craziness to a whole ‘nother level.

Saturday

As a Gold sponsor of this event, I got good placement of my booth, and was close enough to the NTSSUG booth to be able to help out there as well.  Brent was kind enough to come by for some pics between sessions:

Brand new DBA (Day 1 on staff) Jeff Miller (t) and Brent

Brent and the entire Dallas DBAs staff

Another benefit for Gold sponsors is the Lunch Session.  I was able to give my “Your SQL Servers are Mi$ConFiguReDed” session to 35-40 people.  I didn’t do a formal count, and this pic is not wide enough to catch those on the far left and right of this room:

This was a great session, as there was some fantastic audience participation…from multiple people!

Something that is a great way to encourage attendees to stay all day is the end of day sponsor raffle.  Sponsor agree to bring something worth $100 or more…must be present to win.  We had 13 sponsors plus PASS and Microsoft, as well as 8 signed copies of Bob Ward’s book, Pro SQL Server on Linux to give away.  There were TONS of people that stuck around for the raffle:

The Grand prize (provided by Microsoft) was a Surface Go!  All the buckets in the pic are the raffle tickets for the sponsors.  Half of them are not showing.

Once again…this was an amazing event.  Last year was great, this was better.  I can’t wait to see how we up our game for next year!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

Filed Under: SQLSaturday, Training

SQL Saturday Dallas 2019

May 7, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Dallas DBAs is a Gold Sponsor of SQL Saturday Dallas

June 1, 2019

Richardson, Texas

 

Dallas DBAs is pleased to announce that we are upgrading our sponsorship of our “home” SQL Saturday event from Silver in 2018 to Gold level in 2019!

Why the change?

We believe in the mission, membership and management of the North Texas SQL Server User Group and want to give it as much support as possible.

Also, a Gold Sponsorship allows Lead SQL Server DBA Kevin Hill to present his session during the lunch hour:

“Your SQL Servers are Mi$ConFiguReDed”

Come to this session to learn the 5 or 6 most common mistakes that are made when SQL Server is installed.  While you eat fajitas!

Even if you miss the lunch session to attend a different one, stop by our booth to grab some swag and talk to Kevin, Derek, Kaitlyn, or Jeff.  We don’t do hard sell, but we will have a “SQL Saturday Show Special” to offer you.

Just for fun…here’s a picture from last year:

We will be raffling off something either really cool, or valuable, or both. Make sure you drop your SpeedPass raffle ticket in the jar and stick around all day.  You must be present to win any raffle items from any sponsor.

If you are thinking of coming, make sure to register HERE. If you have already registered and are not able to come, make sure to cancel your registration and open up that spot for someone else. Thanks!

As an added bonus we have convinced Jeff from Ignis Images to come back this year to do event photography and “quick” headshots in front of the SQL Saturday backdrop!  If you want a more professional shot, you need this service!

See you there!

The Dallas DBAs team

 

Filed Under: Configuration, SQLSaturday

SQL Saturday Cincinnati 2019

January 8, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Dallas DBAs is proud to announce that we are a ?Diamond Sponsor? of SQL Saturday Cincinnati on March 30, 2019, being held at the University of Cincinnati.  We will be presenting a lunch session: “Your SQL Servers Are Misconfigured!”

In addition, Dallas DBAs team members Kevin and Derek will present a pre-conference on Friday, March 29: “DBA Fundamentals: Give yourself a solid SQL Server foundation.”  This all day session is targeted to Developers, Students, System Admins, Managers, Oracle DBAs, etc.  Anyone that can benefit from knowing more about the Administration side of SQL Server. $75.

Please come Saturday for a free day full of training options. Register here.

Filed Under: Accidental DBA, Beginner, SQLSaturday, Training

2018 Highlights and 2019 Goals

January 1, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!

They say focus on the positive and make your goals public, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do here!

Dallas DBAs had a great 2018, by every measurable category.  No formal goals were laid out, other than “don’t close the doors” and “help people”.

The stats:

  • 7 new clients added – mix of short-term and long-term
  • 1 customer carried from 2017 into the year and 3 extensions signed for 2019
  • 21K views/115K minutes watched on our YouTube channel
  • 26,415 page views on DallasDBAs.com
  • 1 new employee added (part-time Junior DBA)
  • 2 new contractors working on skills not in house (Power BI and SQL Dev)
    • 3 other sub-contractor agreements signed
  • 1 SQL Saturday sponsored (Dallas, May) with a booth (many others at the “personal” level)
  • 2 Pre-conference sessions and 2 regular session presentations given at SQL Saturdays (Cincy and Dallas)
  • 3 scripts updated or added to the Microsoft Technet Gallery
  • 2 Databases rescued from corruption issues (Thanks Red-Gate!)
  • 6 free HealthChecks
  • At least $12 in net profit

The goals for 2019:

  • 6 new long-term part time DBA support clients
  • Add one Senior SQL Server DBA to staff
    • Add one apprentice to this DBA
  • Add one new Oracle DBA to the team
  • Sponsor 2 SQL Saturdays with a booth (Dallas and Cincy)
  • Deliver “DBA Fundamentals” training for free once per quarter (Cincy, Dallas(?), Q3/Q4 TBA)
  • 30K views/180K minutes on YouTube channel
    • 6 new videos – Accidental DBA target audience
  • 40K Hits on DallasDBAs.com
  • At least $13 net profit
  • 12 Free HealthChecks, bare minimum once a month

The things we put in place this year have worked well, so I may be fudging the number too conservatively for 2019.  Check back next year…we may actually hit $14 net profit!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

Filed Under: Career, Dallas DBAs, Goals, SQLSaturday, Training

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