About SQL South West

One thing that has been mentioned to me is that people may be put off getting in touch as they feel this may be a group of ‘high-brow’ or ‘intellectual’ DBA’s talking about awfully complex processes and techniques that are more akin to rocket science than day-to-day DBA activities. Let me assure you this is NOT the case. We will endeavour to cover any part of working with SQL Server that is of interest to group members, we wont shy away from the technical aspects and will undoubtedly get into deep-dive conversations at times but we will equally focus on best practices on how to do the more routine jobs around SQL Server too.

It’s also noted that some people will find it difficult to get to the meetings due to any variety of circumstances. In order to address this, I would like to offer a resumé of each of the meetings that can be emailed to anyone who requests it and will be made available as a download from this site. When we have a guest speaker visiting us I would also make sure that any presentation slides that they can release will be made available for all group members. This can also be forwarded to anyone showing interest in getting meeting content emailed or downloaded.

Sponsors

We are very lucky to have some great support from companies in the technology industry. Please take a look at their details and try out their offers as a way of making their sponsorship of this and other User Groups in the UK worthwhile.

PASS

SQL South West is an official PASS Chapter and we get a lot of support and resources from PASS, anyone can become a member for free and access a lot of SQL Server related content, click the image to get started.

Red Gate Software

Red Gate have sponsored the group refreshments for several meetings and many of the attendees use their tools every day.

Wrox / Wiley

Wrox are publishers of great technical training books that guide professionals in working with new systems and help them keep their skills up to date. If you are a user group member then click the link on the left.

Pluralsight

Pluralsight offer training videos on all sorts of topics under a variety of subscription options.

Member Bio’s and links

Jonathan Allen

I am a SQL DBA/Developer working in Cornwall, I am a moderator at ask.sqlservercentral.com, tweet from twitter.com/fatherjack and I blog at Simple Talk. I have been working with SQL Server since 1999, on versions 7 through 2008 R2 as they have been adopted by my employer. I am one of two PASS UK Regional Mentors as well as the SQL South West chapter founder and leader. I also try to attend and speak at http://www.sqlbits.com whenever possible, along with visiting other SQL User Groups in the UK when I can.

Annette Allen

I am a SQL Developer working in Exeter. I have worked with SQL Server since version 7 and enjoy working in the SQL Community helping run local and national events as well as speaking on BI and development topics. I have written a series of articles on SSIS for Simple Talk and tweet from twitter.com/mrs_fatherjack

Dave Green

Has been a SQL Developer/DBA for many years, blogs at http://d-a-green.blogspot.com/ and has been a speaker at SQL South West, SQL Saturday Exeter and SQL in the City.