The Houston SharePoint User group reached out to other area user groups this year and asked if we would like to participate in a joint user group event around Christmas time. We, of course, thought this was a fantastic idea. What is better than having community get together? Having multiple communities get together for a great event. Thus the joint Casino Night was born.

When: Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Where:Norris Conference Center, Red Oak Ballroom

Registration: Link

Special Notes

The registration email contained some special restrictions. Please see below:

Special restrictions may apply, some offers not valid in all states, see in-store for details, this offer not valid in Iceland or the Turkish Islands, no purchase necessary when purchasing, if you experience certain conditions longer than 5 to 6 six hours please see your doctor.

Special Thanks

While I was not involved with sponsorship for this event Red Gate reached out to the community looking for special events at the end of the year. I responded with information for the event and they loved the idea. They loved it to the point that they helped sponsor the event. Just another reason I love being a part of the SQL Community.

Last weekend I presented Adventures in Project Management at SQL Saturday #97, Austin.  This was the first time I gave this presentation and it went really well.  The talk was well attended and seemed to be well received.  I think the fact that no one threw any fruit at me means they liked it.  You can get the slides from my presentation below.

SQLSaturday#97AustinPresentation

Wes and the SQL Saturday #97 team did a fantastic job putting the event together.  From this humble speaker’s perspective the event ran smoothly without a hitch.  This is no easy task for a team putting on their first event.  I know this from our my first hand experience putting on SQL Saturday #57, Houston.  I shared our lessons learned with the Austin team and they took all of them to heart.

The event was made even sweeter by the fact that Wes Brown (Blog | Twitter) was named a Microsoft MVP the morning of the event.  It is hard to believe this had not happened before now.  This is long overdue for everything Wes has done for the SQL Server community.

Jonathan Presenting at SQL Saturday #97 Austin

I have been selected to speak at SQL Saturday #97 in Austin, TX on October 1st. I will be presenting a bonus topic, Adventures in Project Management.

I am very much looking forward to presenting is Austin. Reviewing the lineup, it will be an event not to be missed. Some of my favorite people will be there: AJ Mendo (Blog | Twitter), Ryan Adams (Blog | Twitter), Joe Celko just to name a few. Wes Brown (Blog | Twitter) and his leadership team are shaping up a great event. Don’t miss out, get registered today.

Adventures in Project Management Synopsis

Join Jonathan Gardner in a discussion about the project management and how understanding the process can increase the chances of delivering a top quality work product. Learn the questions to ask that will help prevent scope creep and manage stakeholders from a PMI certified Project Manager.

As Cochair of the planning committee I am very pleased to announce that we are officially having a SQLSaturday in Houston. The event will be on January 29th, 2011 at the Bammel Church of Christ.

Co Chairs

Jonathan Gardner (Blog|Twitter)

Malik Al-Amin (Blog|Twitter)

Nancy Hidy Wilson (Twitter)

Information

We have created a Twitter account @SQLSatHou to distribute information. Please use the hastag #SQLSat57 when discussing the event and it will show up on the official SQLSaturday site.

The official SQLSaturday #57, Houston website is here.

Volunteers

We are always looking for people to help out. On the registration page there is a section to volunteer. I would highly encourage everyone to do this. While my motives are a bit selfish, it is really a great way to network with other volunteers and give back. If that is not enough, check out David’s Post on Five Reasons You Should Volunteer with Your Local SQL User Group and Host a SQL Saturday

Hope to see you there!

This weekend I was in Dallas, TX with Nancy Wilson (@nancyhidywilson) and Malik Al-Amin (@Malik_Alamin) form the Houston Area SQL Server Users Group volunteering at SQLSaturday 35. It gave us a unique perspective and taught us some very valuable lessons for when we put on SQLSaturday in Houston.

I wanted to give a big thanks to the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, all of the presenters, and volunteers to helped make this event a success. The general consensus that I heard was that everyone took something away from the event that they were going to be able to use.

Denny Cherry (Blog|@mrdenny) had a great write up about SQL Saturday #33. I am going to follow a similar format for this post.

The Good

Size

I was surprised by the number of people that were registered to attend. 500 people were registered and there was a wait list for the event. The event was limited to 500 people because that would exceed the fire code for the building. In the end, everyone who showed up was able to get into the event. I don’t know the official attendance number but the last number I heard was near 400. There were 42 sessions across 7 rooms with some extra sponsor sessions held during the lunch break.

Food

I ate breakfast at the hotel as I didn’t know that there was going to be breakfast at the event. I didn’t see it mentioned but to be honest that may have been an err on my part. I didn’t read all of the latest event communication so there is a large possibility that I missed the announcement. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about the food, especially with the line for Paciugo Gelato wrapping around the entire building.

Location

SQLSaturday 35 was held at the Region 10 Education Services Center in Richardson, TX. It turned out to be a great place to hold SQLSaturday as it was designed for just such a training event. As a matter of fact, the I like it so much I am going to contact the Region 4 Education Services Center in Houston to see if we can hold a SQL Saturday there soon.

The hotel was very close to the event, approximately 2 blocks. This would be just a short walk, but with temperatures over 90 degrees I don’t think anyone did. I did not hear of anyone that attended the event from out of town say that they were staying somewhere else. What I did hear is that some people, including me, tried to check into the wrong hotel as there are two Courtyard by Marriott locations in Richardson. Instead of looking at my confirmation I relied on Google Maps to tell me where to go. Google Maps #fail.

The Could be Better

The Raffle

The prizes that were give away were fantastic. It was no secret that I wanted the iPad that was being raffled off, I wanted it bad. Execution of raffles can be problematic. The prizes displayed/discussed, the number drawn, and the recipient then had to come down to the same person that called the number out to claim their prize all while the audience clapped after every drawing. This causes prize distribution to be lengthy, hence the creation of the t-shirt canon.

I am not suggesting I have ultimate raffle solution but some great ideas were thrown around at the after party that may have merit for further evaluation.

The After Party

The location for the after party was at the same location as the speaker’s dinner the night before. The room was partitioned off from the rest of the building so it was essentially a private room just for us. There was really no advertising of the after party until the raffle at the end of the day when everyone was trying to file out of the room.

The after party can be the most valuable of the entire event. The after party is where attendees can network and talk with the speakers and volunteers, many times in a one on one conversation. Advertisement of the after party should have been throughout the course of the event.

Overall

I would say that this event was a huge success. The issues mentioned above are really secondary to the main goal of providing a day of SQL training. The team from the North Texas SQL Server Users Group really did a fantastic job putting on the event and I am looking forward to attending again when they have the next one.

I am working with Malik Al-Amin (@Malik_Alamin) to put on a SQL Saturday in Houston. You can follow either of us on Twitter for more details or you can follow the Twitter account that I have set up for the event SQLSatHou.

Find a SQL Saturday event near you and get involved with your local user groups.

This is a reminder that we will have Kevin Kline (Blog | Twitter) with us discussing Top 10 Mistakes on SQL Server. I would encourage everyone in the area to come out if they can. Detailed meeting information below:

When: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 – 11:30am-1:00pm Where: Microsoft Houston Office 2000 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. S. #350 Houston, Texas 77042-3615 Pizza and drinks provided by Idera.

LiveMeeting Link Conference Call for audio – 1-888-320-3585 (passcode 76027128)

Topic: Top 10 Mistakes on SQL Server Speaker: Kevin Kline, Technical Strategy Manager, Quest; Immediate Past President of PASS (blog | twitter)

If you are planning to attend in person, please RSVP to (Nancy.Wilson @ sqlpass.org) by Monday, April 12.

The NAVUG Houston planning meeting is this month. Below is the pertinent information.

Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 9am to 11am Agenda: 9a to 9:30a Welcome and Introductions 9:30a to 10:00a Indentify a Chapter Leader 10:00a to 10:45a Content and Sponsor Discussion 10:45a to 11:00a Pick a First Meeting Date and Discuss Next Steps

Location Details: Microsoft Offices of Houston Phone: (832) 252-4300 One Briar Lake Plaza; 2000 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. S. #350 Room: Cus Large HoustonTexas United States 77042

For more information check out the original meeting information here.

A few months ago I reviewed my training plan for 2009 and realized I needed to update my certifications and take the SQL Server 2008 – Implementation and Maintenance Exam 70-432. While I felt I had enough experience and knowledge to take the exam I wanted to ensure I would be comfortable with all of the areas covered by the exam. I turned to my training plan on Microsoft’s Learning site and purchased the recommended book by Mike Hotek (Twitter)

Price

The recommended price on the cover is $69.99. At the time of publishing this article the book could be found for around $45.00 at many bookstores including amazon.com. The book comes with a 180 day trial copy of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, ebook, practice test, and example scripts and databases.

The Good

The book was set up in a very logical progression of technical building blocks. It started out with the very basics of proper setup and configuration. The author then progressed through some database basics and how they related specifically to SQL Server 2008. More advanced topics such as Policy Based Management, Automation, Monitoring and Performance Tuning were then covered. Finally ending with a very in depth look at High Availability solutions offered by SQL Server 2008.

The Bad

Some topics, partitioning in particular, covered basic information but could have been emphasized better as they had a very large presence on the test. That being said, Mike does cover partitioning in an entire chapter of the book but it seemed that this material was more prominent on the test that 1 chapter worth of material.

Overall

I would rate the book at 4.5 out of 5 stars. What made this book really shine was the inclusion of the practice test. After completion of a practice test, users are presented with a reading list based on the areas of the test where the user needs to straighten their skills. This reading list includes material not only in the book but aggregates information from across the web.

I strongly recommend that people interested in taking Exam 70-432 purchase this book.