Why I am attending PASS Business Analytics Conference in Chicago

PASS BA conference  is less than 3 weeks away and if you are still pondering whether to attend, let me share with you few good reasons – my reasons of course– to attend.

1. Catching up. The last couple of years  Analytics and BI landscape has experimented dramatic changes as new technologies make their way in and the heavy buzzword marketing machinery from vendors makes harder to separate the wheat from the shaft. You can use this conference to see if Big Data is really for you, or get your head around Advanced data analytics and perhaps to find out if Data Science is real or just marketing fiction.
2. Agenda & Speakers. The lineup of speakers is great and topics are well balanced across 5 different tracks that promises to deliver first-hand real world experiences: Big data, Advanced Analytics, Data Visualization, Information delivery and collaboration & strategy and Architecture.
3. Networking. Yes, the usual but important part we tend to miss when we go to conferences. Being around 1000s of professionals with similar challenges and interests is a unique opportunity to get connected and learn how others are doing it.

I will be one of PASS networking ambassadors on Thursday evening event and be hanging out at either Experience Lounge or the Microsoft Kiosk, so if you decide to attend,  please make sure to stop by and say hi.

This is a 2 days conference plus a pre-conference day and registrations are still open and you can get  $200 off the registration fee by using  code BAC945MVP.

Honored To Be Speaking At PASS Summit 2012

PASS Summit is the largest and perhaps the most influential SQL Server event in the world with more than 170 technical sessions and drawing 3 to 4 thousand people every year. Why I am telling you all this? Because, I was greatly surprised when I learned 2 of my submissions were selected, one of them as alternate,  for this year PASS Summit in Seattle.This is my first time presenting at such great event and I fell both excited and honored about making the list of speakers.
A big thanks goes to ,my employer Intellinet for sponsoring my trip there and to my team and coworkers for helping me refining the abstracts. Thanks Melissa, Leo and Laura!

TRACK	Session	Tags
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration	Waiter, There's a Fly In My Data	Accepted
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration	SSIS 2012: What is in that project?	Alternate*

*Alternate means that it has been accepted as an alternate session in the event that an accepted session is declined or canceled. 

Browse the full schedule in PASS website. I hope you can attend.
I will see you in Seattle!

Presenting at Triangle SQL Server User Group April 16th

I am honored to be presenting at Raleigh’s TriPass group tomorrow Tuesday at 5:30PM. In this session, I will be presenting the new server features in SSIS 2012 and how to create, deployed and managed solutions using the new deployment model. You can check out the slides for this session in my earlier post.

I hope you can attend.

Presentation: SSIS 2012 - New Server and Project Deployment Model

I will be delivering this presentation in a number of events in the upcoming weeks and want to shares slides to give you a better idea what the session is about. Enjoy it!

SSIS 2012: New Server and Project Deployment Model

View more presentations from rfsalas.

SQL Saturday #111 Atlanta: Taking Your SSIS Skills To The Next Level

With the SQL Saturday in Atlanta approaching quickly, I want to point out one more reason, and my personal favorite, to attend it: SSIS. This particular SQL Saturday comes loaded with great lineup of speakers and session in SSIS. First, there is a full day of SSIS offered as pre-conference ($99-$109) where Andy Leonard and Matt Masson take you from how to spell SSIS to building robust ETL solutions. The next day, you will have 5 more sessions on different topics and version of SSIS (including one by me):
Hope Foley
Super-size Your SSIS Breakfast Sandwich: Performance
Rafael Salas
SSIS 2012: Project Deployment Model and Catalog
Andy Leonard
Designing an SSIS Framework
Matt Masson
SSIS in SQL Server 2012: Deployment and Management
Patrick LeBlanc
High Availability for SSIS in SQL Server 2012
Remember that attending Saturday sessions is free, so make sure you register and come. I hope you see you there.

Are you attending SQL Saturday #70 in Columbia, SC ?

This is a quick reminder: SQL Saturday #70 is this coming Saturday March 19th in Columbia, SC. The schedule promises to be a day full of exciting sessions and good speakers.

BI seems to get increasing tractions at this type of events, and this year there are 3 tracks dedicated to BI topics. I have been given the honor of delivering a session: 

DW-ETL: 10 Mistakes to Avoid

With data being the focal point of a data warehouse, its data integration component becomes a critical point of failure of the whole system, and to make matters worse, we, as developers, face increasingly complex scenarios and requirements such as larger number of systems and volumes of data, data quality problems and complex business logic.   In this session Rafael will share a compilation of pitfalls and mistakes he has seen –and made!– across many implementations, and offers recommendations to avoid them. We will look at problems related to metadata, data quality, monitoring, system reliability and some SSIS specific issues among other common problems.

Ah! and if you haven’t registered yet, I encourage you to do it right away (registration link). Last thing, I heard is that space is running out. The cost for attending is about right: Free!

SQL Saturday 49 Orlando: 1,040 Miles Later

That’s right, this was a 1,040 miles driving journey to and from Orlando, and if you want to know if it was worth it, just keep reading.

 I had originally planed to carpool with John Welch (blog), but he faced some last minute plan changes that left me with 2 options: either canceling the trip or tackling the long drive by myself. Fortunately, the power of ‘la familia’ kicked in, and Isabel - my wife -  and my 3 kids: Carlos, Isabella and Diego decided to come along, so I didn’t have to do the long drive alone. I love you guys - You all rock!

We headed out on Thursday night and spent the night in Savannah, GA, which is roughly  mid point between Charlotte and Orlando. The next morning, we resumed the driving, and decided to make a few hours stop in St. Augustine to do some emergency shopping –  we had forgotten/lost Diego’s shoes :) . Finally, we arrived to our hotel just in  time for the speakers dinner. At the restaurant, I had the opportunity to say hello to Eric Wisdahl (blog), Andy Warren (blog), Louis Davison (blog), Aaron Nelson (blog), Ed Wilson and his wife Teresa, Tom LaRock (blog), Jose Chinchilla (blog) and Patrick Leblanc (blog). I also had the pleasure to meet Jack Corbett (blog) and Mike Walsh (blog) and  Pam Shaw.
The next morning, I was at the event site by 8:30, and just in time to attend Eric’s presentation on SSIS Data flows, which was great and well attended. Then, I stayed in the same room for Jose’s introductory session about SSIS which was packed with ~50 attendees. The third session was my talk “ETL architecture and SSIS”. Although the room wasn’t to its capacity, I had a great and very engaged audience. It looks like tying up the evaluations forms to the prize drawing was a good way to get feedback from them. I ended up with 23 evaluations averaging a +4 out of 5. After my session, I had the opportunity to meet the SQL Chapter lead of Pensacola, Jamie Beck, Ivan Gonzales, and Jorge Segarra (blog) and Noel McKinney (blog) among other great people.

3 Things I really liked:

• The Speaker’s gift. A really nice hand-made coffee mug. Time to say bye to my old ‘geek’ coffee mug.
• Picnic style lunch. Weather was great to be outside.
• The opportunity to hang out with people that enjoy this type of events as much as I do.

All in one, the event was well organized from end to end. If I had to pick something to be improved, I would say to make sure all rooms are well suited fro this type of presentations. I am not sure if the SSIS track was the only one with that problem, but in this room the screen was not at the centered of the room centered and sat very low, making impossible for attendees to read the content in the bottom part of the slides. An item to add to every organizer to-do list: Validate every room is well equipped and suited for this kind of presentations – that would be fair to all speakers and attendees.
BTW, thanks to Jack Corbett for the ride to the hotel and  to Confio for sponsoring such a great dinner. Also thanks to Ed and Teresa for the PowerShell t-shirt for my eldest son – he wore it right away (see picture). Finally a big thanks to the organizers and all volunteers for making all this possible and giving me the opportunity to be there.

The drive back home was little rough for the little ones as we decided to do it in on shot, and it does not look like we will be jumping into any other long drive for such few days remaining on the year. …Wait, it looks like  DC SQL Saturdays was just announced. 

You can download the slide deck I used in my session from here:

Presenting at 24 Hours of PASS LATAM - En Español

I am thrilled of being selected as one of the 24 presenters for the first edition of the Spanish version of 24 hours of PASS. My session “Database development using Visual Studio 2010” is this coming Wednesday at 5:00PM EST. I am very excited about this event as this is a double first time for me. This is my first webcast, and also my first time presenting in my native language. You can read more about the event and register at the PASS LATAM website:http://www.sqlpass-latam.org/24horas.aspx
Now, to read the remaining of the post in English, please press 2
Apreciados amigos, los organizadores de las 24 horas de PASS LATAM me han concedido el honor de dirigir una de las 24 charlas técnicas en esta primera edición del evento. Este evento consiste en de  24 charlas impartidas en 2 días (19 y 20 de Octubre). Mi Charla esta titulada” Desarrollo de base de datos con Visual Studio 2010” y es una introducción al uso de esta poderosa herramienta. Si quieres aprender mas acerca de este tema u otros interesantes tópicos relacionados con SQL Server, te invito a que te registres en la página de PASS LATAM :http://www.sqlpass-latam.org/24horas.aspx

Speaking at SQL Saturday #48 next Saturday – Columbia, SC

I have been given the honor to present at SQL Saturday #48 in Columbia, SC. next Saturday, and would like to extend an invitation  for you to join me. I will be delivering 2 sessions: Planning your ETL Architecture with SSIS and Managing Database Schemas with Visual Studio 2010 projects (data dude).

As I said few weeks ago, this type of events are becoming extremely popular and have high demand, and if you asked why one should consider attending, I would give you few reasons:

• High quality content: There is a good mix of sessions ranging from beginner to advanced for DBAs, BI developers and DB developers alike. See the event schedule and judge it by yourself (schedule page).
• Professional development and networking: You can attend sessions like Andy’s Building a Professional Development Plan or meet as many of the attendees and speakers as you can. Remember, your career is not just about technology!
• Landing your next job. Although, this is not officially  part of this event, I see very often that attendees and speakers use this type of events to spread the word about openings at their companies. I will actually be sharing some of the openings my current company, Quaero a CSG solution,  has and will encourage you to approach me if you are interested on learning more about them.
• Learn more about Project Phoneix and how it could help you getting free software and training while giving back to the community.
• You will be supporting your local SQL Sever Community.
• It's free!

Make sure you register for this event (registration still open) before is sold out.

SQL Saturday#46 – Slide deck

I had really good time during my presentation at SQL Saturday#46 today.My session had 18 attendees and I got great questions coming from them. Thank you to all of you attended my session, and if you are interested, you can find the slide deck:

SQL Saturday #46 Raleigh, NC is just 3 days away!

And I am delighted to be part of the speakers roaster of this great event.
Why is it so great? I am glad you ask. SQL Saturdays are becoming very popular event among SQL Server professionals as they are whole days worth SQL Server and professional development training delivered by exceptional speakers – and occasionally me :) – and also represent a great opportunity to connect with people sharing similar interests and expand your professional network. And the best of all is that  it won’t cost you anything to attend. That’s right, it is free of charge for attendees. You can check the line-up of sessions and speakers (link) and register (link) in the event site.

I will be presenting: “Dimensional Modeling: Why should you care?”, which is a intro level session about Kimball’s Data Warehouse Lifecycle and Dimensional Modeling. If you happen to attend this event, I will be glad to have you in my session.

Presenting at SQL Saturday#51 Nashville, TN

I will be heading out tomorrow morning to Music City as I will be presenting at the SQL Saturday #51. This time I will speaking about SSIS and ETL Architecture.
I am always looking forward to attend this  type of community events as they are full of opportunities to learn and meet people that share similar interests.

If you don’t know what the SQL Saturdays are about, then you are missing a lot. If you want to participate in an upcoming one, then check their web site for more details: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/

I hope to see you there!

Presenting to SQL Server Innovators Guild – Greenville, SC

I am honored to present Visual Studio 2010 Database Projects: Top 7 features to make database development a breeze! to the SQL Server Innovators Guild  tomorrow Tuesday, August 3rd 2010 at 6:00 PM.
In this session, I do my best attempt to convince database developers- that’s us – that database schema artifacts should be given the same level of importance and treatment of any other code artifact, and show how you could use Visual Studio projects to accomplish it. Here is the session’s abstract:
Visual Studio 2010 Database Projects: Top 7 features to make database development a breeze!
Most of us agree that the database is the most important component in a typical application, yet formal processes for versioning, testing and deployment of database objects as are often rudimentary or inexistent.
In this session Rafael explains how you can use Visual Studio database projects  (aka data dude) to have better control over your database schema and reduce the risk and complexity related to the database development cycle. He will talk about the pros and cons he has experienced when using the tool in his  projects and will highlight improvements made since the last version. This is a demo packed session where you will learn about  schema versioning, testing, refactoring,  deployment and more. 
Most the content of this session remains relevant to the previous version of the tool- VSDB 2008 GDR2 - and, no, you don't need prior knowledge of Visual Studio to get the most out of this presentation!
This will be my second time speaking to this group - SQL Saturday #9 was my first one – and I am looking forward to having fun again. I hope to see you there!

PASS Summit 2010: My Sessions Have Been Considered!

That means my sessions were not accepted. :-(

Yesterday, I received an email with “PASS Summit 2010 - Program Session Confirmation” as the subject, and I almost jumped out of excitement when I first read my sessions were “Considered”. However, my happiness lasted just few seconds as I realized that ‘Considered’ really meant:

Carolina Code Camp 2010 in review

The Carolina Code Camp 2010 is in the rear view mirror now. This year again the organizer team did a outstanding job gathering more than 40 technical sessions and labs that drew a crowd of more than 250 attendees. This year again, the organizer decided to open a SQL Server track where I helped with the coordination of the speakers and delivered a session myself. This is my second time speaking at the local code camp and had very good time in both occasions.

The venue was once again the Levine campus of the Central Piedmont Community College. CPCC has great facilities, very clean and with plenty of space for sponsors and opening ceremony. The only drawback I can find is perhaps the size of the rooms, as they cannot hold more than 35 attendees. This is not ideal for spotlight kind of sessions where a larger number of people are expected.

I got there just 45 minutes before my session that was schedule in the last slot of the day, as I was still recovering from a late return flight (1:00 am) from Sacramento where and had to finish up some of the demos. I wasn’t expecting too many attendees as my session was the last slot of the day (3:30 pm) and I got what I thought was a no very sexy topic: VS 2010 Database tools: Schema management. To my surprise, I got an almost full room (30 people approx.)! The session went very well and I got a lot of attention and excellent feedback that I will certainly use next time.

The last part of the day was full of cool giveaways that included a Xbox and a Filp camera and was a good opportunity for me meet people and to catch up with some of the organizers.

Btw, The guy in the picture with the sign in his back was actually looking to recruit developers for his new business. A quite interesting way to get the word out, and if you are looking for a job the code camp may be a good place to go!

The sign in his back says: "STARTUP NEEDS DEVELOPERS"

My Presentation At The Inaugural Meeting of the Sacramento SQL Server User Group

Last week, I got the opportunity to speak at the inaugural meeting of the Sacramento SQL Server User group. How does that happen? Well, I happened to be in Sacramento working in a project that week and had contacted Jay Konigsberg, the lead of the User Group to let him know I was going to be in the area and wanted to attend the user’s inaugural meeting. Kalen Delaney (blog), a fellow MVP and well known SQL expert and author was scheduled to present that day. Few days before the User Group meeting Jay emailed me asking to fill in for Kalen as she had to cancel at the last minute due to an emergency, and of course,  I decided to give it a shot. With an attendance of 18 people, and after few minutes of delay due to some logistic issues, we ended up having great time. I delivered my presentation about SSIS and ETL architecture I presented at the SQL Saturday #33 in Charlotte and received good feedback and great questions from the audience.


But wait, it got better! As a bonus for me, my friend and co-worker Van Scott decided to attend the meeting with me and gave me a free of charge evaluation of my presentation. Van is an experienced speaker and advanced Toastmaster, and his advice certainly came helpful as I am trying to improve my presentation skills.

I would like to thank Jay and the group for giving me the opportunity to speak to them. Big thanks also to Van for his valuable and honest feedback. Thanks a lot guys!

My presentation @ SQL Saturday #33

Some of the attendees of my presentation last week at the SQL Satruday#33 asked for a copy of the slide deck, and told them to stay tuned in my blog.

I have uploaded the slide deck into the SQLSaturday #33 site. You can download the deck from the link below:

SSIS, You, and ETL Architecture

 
 
 
It was great to see you all last week at the SQL Saturday #33!