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Yesterday I spent the day immersed in all things SQL. I realize that probably doesn’t turn a lot of people on, but there were nearly 100 folks yesterday who were into it up to their necks as much or more than I was, so maybe since most of you use MySQL database backed blogging platforms you can at least appreciate that there are some people who just dig it.

The premise behind SLQ Saturday was to get a bunch of people together in one room or building and teach each other stuff about SQL. Now, whenever you get a bunch of database people involved in an event, organization is just a natural thing. I mean, our whole lives are all about organizations, relationships and flow.

Our primary organizer was the Energizer Bunny himself, Paul Waters. This guy just exudes energy and enthusiasm and is a delightful person to be around. He got the idea together, found some sponsors and some speakers and voila we had an event! He made sure there was stuff for all levels of SQL professionals from beginer to advanced and I’m very thankful to him for making sure that there was stuff for all levels as my own experience is somewhat spotty in places, so having the ability to choose a level that didn’t assume I knew anything was nice.

I was totally blown away by Rafael Salas’ presentation on Dimensional Modeling — I’ve been flirting around with building a datamart for my company (where it’s a one-man show, so sometimes doing stuff like this gets put on back burners because the powers-that-be don’t understand how cool it is) and Rafael was so clear on what one needs and how to organize it. He had some excellent examples to show us of real-life stuff. I feel like I have some real tools that will enable me to get this put to gether and implemented in a short enough time that my bosses will be amazed at what I produce. Can you say “pay raise” ?

John Welch did a couple of presentations around SSIS. Now SSIS is a tool I use every single day as it’s the way to manipulate data bewteen databases, within a database and outside data sources. John’s presentations touched on important, little known and the kind of things that if you don’t get it right your world is totally screwed kinds of things like configurations. I’m usually a default kind of person. I figure the powers-that-be created those defaults just for people like me, so don’t always look for other ways of doing things that might work better for a particular situation. John showed us the different types of configurations and gave some great examples of when a certain type would be preferred over another.His second presentation was on Data Profiling to Improve ETL which introduced me to a new tool available with SQL 2008. And we didn’t totally stick to ETL uses for Data Profiling which was neat because I can definitely see where this would be a tool I can use to improve the quality of my data.

I missed Stuart Ainsworth’s presentation on SQL Server Performance Tuning as it was given at the same time as one of John’s, but I did get to participate in an open space he moderated which was basically a “throw out a topic and we’ll discuss it” kind of thing. That was one of the best discussions I’ve ever been involved in as we covered topics ranging from query join types and when you would use which to what value is a Microsoft Certification. Stuart is a super knowledgeable guy who is generous with that knowledge and is funny and articulate and matches Paul for enthusiasm. I’ll make sure the next SQL event I attend to make a point of getting in more of his presentations.

As always, there were give-aways at the end and there were some awesome things included from a Halo game to one license for SQL 2008 Enterprise edition. Sponsors for the event were ECPI College of Technology who provided the facilities, Microsoft who provided several of the give-aways, TEK Systems who bought lunch for all the attendees, JumpstartTV, E2E End to End Training and GSATC Greenville Spartanburg Anderson Technology Council. I didn’t win anything which isn’t unusual. I’m lucky in love, you see.

SQL Saturdays are not limited to my neck of the woods, so if you think you or your group might be interested in hosting one or going to one, do go to the SQL Saturday website and get the information on other SQL Saturdays and how to organize one in your area.

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