Episode 153
| November 07, 2018
| 21 minutes
SQL Trail 2018 Retrospective
Year Two of our beautiful idea–gather together with a group of podcast listeners in a conference type format and find ways for us to connect and help each other grow. I am influenced by what I see in other events; however, I want to add my own flavor to what is currently offered. I want SQL Trail to be different–learning should be attendee-driven rather than event planned. The focus should be on the networking–the hallway track. Everyone should make a new friend. In this episode of the podcast, we have our SQL Trail retrospective and give some thoughts on what next year might entail.
We try to give our honest feedback about what we did well, what could have been improved, and what the attendees reported. I can’t say enough about the help I got from our speakers–Jonathan Stewart, Kevin Feasel, Angela Henry, Monica Rathbun, Megan Longoria and Melissa Coates. They were awesome and the event was much simpler because of them and their commitment. They are truly my compañeros on the SQL Trail.
Episode Quotes
“One of those ideas is everyone being very approachable so that as an attendee, you’d feel very comfortable going up and, ‘hey, you know, I know in your session you were talking about X, I’d like to talk about X plus Y’.”
“The goal of a SQL Trail event is not to have as much content expunged as possible. It’s a bit more about the relationship and the individual experience.”
Listen to Learn
00:40 Intro
01:15 Compañero Shout-Outs
01:45 SQL Server in the News
03:33 Show notes URLs
03:53 What went well at SQL Trail 2018?
07:56 How the weather affected us
12:06 What the schedule was like and how that went
16:55 Request from compañeros for thoughts on pre-cons or labs that you’ve experienced
17:18 Thoughts on what we should be focused on next year
19:41 Closing Thoughts
Credits
Music for SQL Server in the News by Mansardian
Meet the Hosts
Carlos Chacon
With more than 10 years of working with SQL Server, Carlos helps businesses ensure their SQL Server environments meet their users’ expectations. He can provide insights on performance, migrations, and disaster recovery. He is also active in the SQL Server community and regularly speaks at user group meetings and conferences. He helps support the free database monitoring tool found at databasehealth.com and provides training through SQL Trail events.
Eugene Meidinger
Eugene works as an independent BI consultant and Pluralsight author, specializing in Power BI and the Azure Data Platform. He has been working with data for over 8 years and speaks regularly at user groups and conferences. He also helps run the GroupBy online conference.
Kevin Feasel
Kevin is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and proprietor of Catallaxy Services, LLC, where he specializes in T-SQL development, machine learning, and pulling rabbits out of hats on demand. He is the lead contributor to Curated SQL, president of the Triangle Area SQL Server Users Group, and author of the books PolyBase Revealed (Apress, 2020) and Finding Ghosts in Your Data: Anomaly Detection Techniques with Examples in Python (Apress, 2022). A resident of Durham, North Carolina, he can be found cycling the trails along the triangle whenever the weather's nice enough.
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