Tag Archives: Community

Community Interviews: What’s it like to visit your first SQL Saturday?

SQL Saturday Exeter Community InterviewsCommunity Interviews are a series of interviews with real world attendees to SQL Saturday Exeter events.

This time, we speak to Rory Cheeld, a first time visitor to SQL Saturday Exeter 2013, about his experiences.

 

Hi Rory, Thanks for agreeing to speak to us. We understand that SQL Saturday Exeter 2013 was your first attendance at a SQL Saturday event. How did you hear about the SQL Saturday and what made you interested enough to attend?

I caught the article on SQLServerCentral advertising the event. The fact there was an event in Exeter got me excited enough to attend. From there, it was a case of choosing the session that would be most valuable to me.

Was it anything like you expected?

This was my first SQL event, so I did not really know what to expect. I enjoyed the fact the sessions where in smaller groups. I guess I expected a big lecture style environment, so I would say it exceeded my expectations.

What would you list as the benefits of attending the SQL Saturday?

The smaller sessions allowed for a more interactive experience with the speakers. We were able to ask many questions and there was time to explore side topics.

How would you advise someone new to SQL Saturdays to go about getting involved?

Get to one of the sessions and experience it yourself. No matter what your experience level, you are bound to take something away, or gain a valuable connection through networking.

Thanks Rory, we look forward to seeing you at another SQL Saturday event soon.

Find out more about the upcoming SQL Saturday Exeter

Community Interview: What’s it like to speak at a SQL Saturday?

SQL Saturday Exeter Community Interviews
Community Interviews are a series of interviews with real world attendees to SQL Saturday Exeter events.

This time, we speak to William Durkin, a first time visitor to SQL Saturday Exeter 2013, about his experiences.

William, You have been to several SQL Community conferences over the years but in 2013 you took your first step into attending as a speaker. Please can you tell us a little about yourself and then we’d love to ask you a few questions?

I am originally from the UK but moved to Germany in 2002 and have been involved with SQL Server since 2004/2005. I have worked on multi TB data warehouses and high volume OLTP systems and am currently the Principal DBA and DBA Team manager for a multi-national company based in Germany. I have mostly been involved in managing the databases for our in-house software, offering design and tuning advice to the software development teams. The most recent projects have involved consolidation of SQL Server instances and high availability solutions for a wide range of databases inside the company.

What was the reason for taking the decision to submit a session to a SQL Saturday?

After having attended so many conferences over the last few years, I got more interested with the idea of speaking. However, I was terrified of the prospect of standing up in front of a group of people and speaking. This, and the fact I believed I had nothing interesting to talk about, held me back from ever actually submitting a session to a conference. I actually bit the bullet and submitted to speak after the PASS Summit in 2012; Mladen Prajdic, Andre Kamman and Marco Blasio spent most of the 2012 Summit trying to convince me that speaking would be a good thing to do. So when SQL Saturday Exeter was announced I thought “why not”, thinking that I would never get picked……. then I was!

How did it go and have you done any more speaking since?

I was nervous in the weeks coming up to the event, but had no problems on the day. Once the session was going there was no time to be nervous. The words flowed, the people stayed in their seats and even chuckled at my attempted jokes. Then all of a sudden, the hour was over and people were clapping. The speaking bug has well and truly bitten and I have now spoken at several other events around Europe and hope to be speaking at the SQL Saturday in Exeter in 2014.

Can you give any examples of the down sides of speaking and how you handle them please?

There are few downsides in my opinion. The main one for me so far has been trying to find topics to talk about. The main suggestion you would hear is to talk about something you do every day at work. This always sounds boring to me; who wants to hear about my mundane day-to-day DBA stuff? That is until you realise that a lot of the attendees of SQL Saturdays are probably accidental DBAs who have little experience with running a database system. What sounds boring and mundane to me may well be a revelation for someone starting out on the path to becoming a DBA. That is why some of the best sessions are the “DBA 101” style sessions – giving a sound, clear explanation of a fundamental part of SQL Server is exactly what is needed at a SQL Saturday.

With that in mind, what makes it all worthwhile then?

Speaking at technical conferences has pushed me to learn my craft in much more detail than before. If you want to present on something and be able to answer questions, you need to know your stuff. That alone has been a driving factor in how I tackle new topics with SQL Server. The preparation for a session is also completely transferable to my normal work, be that the technical knowledge or the soft-skills required when presenting. I also get a massive kick out of explaining a topic that I understand well, to someone who has little/no knowledge about. Seeing someone walk away having learned something from me is excellent. I find myself saying what everyone told me before I started speaking “I wish I had started speaking earlier”.

Thank you William for your time.