24 Hours of PASS: Growing Our Community Recordings #pass24hop

All of the recordings for 24 Hours of PASS: Growing Our Community sessions are now available! I was honored to be selected for this event and you can get to the slides and recording for my "Introduction to the Power BI Designer" session using this link. Thanks to the team at PASS for going a great job editing out the technical difficulties that happened in this session, I had to look at it a couple of times to find the break, so they did a great job fixing that.

There were many good questions that I answered most of them at the end of the session, but there was one that I didn't know the answer to at the time, which was what version of the SAP Business Objects Universe does Power BI Designer/Power BI work with. I found this support article that lists SAP Business Objects BI 4.1 SP2 or higher as the version that the current Power Query for Excel supports, which I would assume is the same for the Power BI Designer and PowerBI.com. I also found this blog post along with this video on YouTube that demos this connectivity with the existing Power Query for Excel.

That was the only unanswered question that I know about from the session, if any of you have other questions after watching the session, please feel free to send me an email or just post it in the comments below.

Thanks again and I hope to see you at the PASS Summit 2015 in Seattle on 10/27 - 10/30. Don't forget to use the discount code LC15WTG2 when you register to save $150 off the current price!

Oh and one more thing for tonight's Women's World Cup final, GO USA! :)

What a week! #pass24hop #summit15 #newbeginnings

Glad that I had a full 2 week vacation before this week! Amazing what can happen in one week.

Week started off with accepting an offer for a new job at Chipotle! Looking forward to using all of my SQL BI knowledge to help them out. It has been a great run at RevGen Partners and I appreciate all of the help and support I have received over the last year there. I'll miss all of the friends that I know there, but the good thing is I'm staying in Denver, so I'm sure I'll run into them many times in the future.

Many have asked why I decided to move away from consulting and the only thing that I can say is that I realized that I really want to see how the decisions and changes that I make will go over a much longer period of time. Maybe I'm getting old, but I just started to feel like I wanted to see things over the long term, not just for the next few weeks/months. I really enjoyed that in my time at Visa where I got to see a decision that I had a lot of influence in turn into something much bigger than I ever would have hoped, but it took time and patience to see that happen. I see a lot of great potential for that at Chipotle and I am looking forward to the challenge of Retail/Food Service which I have not worked in since High School (yay Pizza Hut New Haven)! Thankfully for all of you I'll be in the HQ buildings, not in the kitchen. ;)

Next thing this week was my 24 Hours of PASS: Growing our Community presentation "Introduction to the Power BI Designer" on Wednesday afternoon. I was very well prepared and ready for it, once we opened it up I was happy to see over 200 attendees in the opening minutes. Then the strangest thing that I have seen with GoTo Meeting happened when the whole session came to an end for everyone about 15 minutes in. After my initial panic of trying to figure out what to do I just clicked on the email link and sure enough it was back up and working fine. Lost some attendees, but still had over 150 when it was back up and running again and I only lost a few minutes. Session went well and there were lots of good questions at the end, wish I could answer all of the when/what type questions, but that is all part of doing a presentation on a beta product that we don't know everything about yet. Stay tuned to this space for a link to the video once it is posted next week and I'll answer any questions that we didn't get to at the end of the session.

Then on Thursday night I got the email that I didn't think I was going to get until later on Friday. After 4 attempts I'll be speaking at PASS Summit 2015 in a regular session slot! I was jumping for joy last night when I got the email and had to read it 4 times just to make sure. I know that there is a lot of controversy in the SQL Community about the selection process for PASS Summit, but I have been a Program Committee Volunteer for 3 years in a row now and I know that it has gotten better over those years and has helped me understand what it takes to put something like this on (along with organizing 4 SQLSaturdays). So, in October I'll be presenting my "Date Dimension: Past & Future in One Script" session, which is definitely one of my favorite sessions that I have done many times over the last couple of years. The cool thing is that this presentation came from a Lightning Talk that I did at PASS Summit 2013 (my first time speaking at a PASS Summit). Just goes to show you what patience and experience can do. I'll also be doing another Lightning Talk at PASS Summit 2015 on "Power BI Designer: Nothing to Dashboard in 10 Minutes!". Looking forward to putting this one together since it should be a lot of fun and for those doubters out there I will even be able to show how to do at least 2 dashboards in 10 minutes! :)  If you have not yet registered for PASS Summit 2015, please click on this link and use the discount code LC15WTG2 to get $150 off!

And not to get too political or anything, but the week was topped off with the SCOTUS gay marriage decision, which my response is: "It's about time!". Way to go SCOTUS, very proud to be an American today!

Looking forward to the US Women's World Cup game tonight against China and relaxing a bit over this weekend, cause after reading this I'm already really tired. :)

What a week!

24 Hours of PASS: Growing Our Community #PASS24HOP

I am proud to announce that I have been selected to present a webinar as part of the 24 Hours of PASS series on June 24-25! The theme of this 24 Hours of PASS is Growing Our Community, which is all about speakers who have not yet presented a regular session or pre-con at the PASS Summit in previous years. While I have presented at the last 2 PASS Summits in both cases they were 10 minute Lightning Talks, not a regular session (fingers crossed that I get one this year). If you have not yet registered for PASS Summit 2015 in Seattle on 10/27 - 10/30, then use this link to register and the discount code LC15WTG2 to get $150 off!

I will be presenting my "Introduction to the Power BI Designer" session at noon MT/18:00 GMT, which I have given at other venues a couple of times before and is now my new favorite session. I love how the new Power BI is coming along and it is also a challenge to demo with the product being updated at least once every month.

If you can attend any of these 24 sessions starting at 6am MT/noon GMT, please register as there is a fantastic line-up of sessions/speakers for these 24 hours and I'm honored to be in this group!

SQLSaturday #392 Atlanta #sqlsatatl

I'm very happy that I was selected for the 2nd year in a row to speak at the SQLSaturday event in Atlanta on 5/16! This is one of, if not the biggest SQLSaturday's in the world with over 500 attendees! If you are going to be in the Atlanta area on 5/16, please register and plan on attending my session, "Near Real-Time Data Warehouse Updates with CDC & SSIS" at 2:30pm in BI Room 3 (keep you eyes on the schedule page or use Guidebook in case the schedule changes).

Also, if you are going to be around on the Friday before, consider registering for one of the all day pre-cons. These pre-cons are just like the ones that you would get at the large conferences like PASS Summit, but at 1/3rd the price!

Looking forward to meeting and seeing everyone in Atlanta in less than 2 weeks!

SQLSaturday Phoenix #sqlsat370 #sqlsatphoenix

I'll be traveling to Phoenix, AZ in less than 2 weeks to speak at SQLSaturday #370 on February 28th! Looking forward to going back to Phoenix again after making the trip down there a couple of years ago with the family for Phoenix Comicon (yes, I am one of those geeks that goes to Comic/Sci-Fi Conventions). Looks like I'll be able to meet up with a bunch of my Pragmatic Works friends as there is big group of them speaking along with a a few from the Colorado area as well and many others that I haven't seen since PASS Summit last year! I am currently scheduled to present "Change Data Capture (CDC) with SSIS" at 1:30pm in the Kachina room. If you are in the Phoenix area on February 28, please make sure you register for this great free event and stop by to see me! :)

Also, for anyone that is thinking about going to the PASS Business Analytics Conference on April 20-22 in Santa Clara, CA, you can use the discount code USSE27 at registration to save $150 off the current registration fee!

Pick Me! :) #NomCom #PASSVotes

I am running for one of the seats on the PASS Nomination Committee (NomCom) to help select the candidates for this year's PASS Board of Directors election later this year and to help streamline the election process. As a member of the NomCom I want to make sure that I represent each person that is part of the SQL Server/PASS community, so please take a few minutes to go to my profile page and then vote for me when you receive the email on Tuesday, June 3rd from PASS!

Over the years I have increased my involvement with PASS as a volunteer in many ways, which are highlighted below:

• Speaker at Denver SQL Server User Group meetings at various times since 2009
• Member of Denver SQL Server User Group Board since 2011
• President of Denver SQL Server User Group since January 2012
• Lead Organizer for the last 2 successful SQLSaturday's in Denver with over 200 attendees at each, and our next one the 4th for the Denver area on 9/20 (SQLSaturday #331)
• PASS Summit Program Committee member for PASS Summit 2013 and PASS Summit 2014
• Volunteer in various capacities during the last 2 PASS Summits
• Speaker for SQLSaturdays across the country over the last 3 years, averaging at least 5 events each year
• Speaker for PASS BI/Data Warehousing Virtual Chapter
• Speaker at various PASS Local Chapters across the country for the last 4 years

As I have increased my involvement with PASS as a volunteer I have enriched myself and others in ways that I would never have imagined. I was recognized by my peers last year with the PASS Outstanding Volunteer award for November 2013, which was an amazing acknowledgement from them. I saw the opportunity to run for the PASS NomCom as my next step in volunteering for the PASS community.

If you would like to see me represent each of you on the PASS Nomination Committee, please vote for me from June 3 - June 6 using the email you receive from PASS! I look forward to helping each of you have a voice in this very important process for the PASS community. If you have any specific questions for me or that you want to make sure I ask to the candidates, please reach out to me through email, Twitter or LinkedIn.

June Presentations

I have a few presentations that I'll be doing in June that I wanted to highlight here in case anyone is in the area or attending these meetings.

First up on June 12th, I'll be doing a new session that I created "Building a Better Workstation". This session is a collection of a bunch of my lessons learned trying to figure out the best strategy for working with OSs and SQL Server installs on workstations and laptops over the years. I will be doing this presentation remotely for the BIG PASS group run by Mickey Stuewe (blog | Twitter).

On June 18th, I'll be doing another new session titled "Business Intelligence (BI) for the .NET Developer" for the Denver .NET Meetup Group. This session will help .NET developers and anyone that is just starting out in IT know what Business Intelligence is and some ways that you may not of even thought of for getting into BI. Should be a fun session that I really hadn't thought of putting together until Andreas Taber (blog) requested I present at his group. I will be doing this presentation in person.

On June 19th, I'll be doing another presentation as part of Pragmatic Works' Free Training on the T's. This time I'll be doing the "Building a Better Workstation" session that I will do the week before for BIG PASS. Always happy to do a presentation as part of this free training series, will be strange now doing it as an employee of another company though.

Further out in my calendar, I have been selected to speak at SQLSaturday #312 in Sacramento, CA on July 12th. I don't know what session I'll be presenting yet, but as soon as I find out, I'll let you all know! This will be my first time in Sacramento, so looking forward to spending a couple of days out in that part of CA with the #SQLFamily.

Upcoming SQLSaturdays

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few weeks, it has been very busy, but I will get the last post in the encryption series up very soon.

Wanted to spread the word about a few SQLSaturdays that are coming up, which I will be at!

SQLSaturday #295 - Las Vegas, NV (4/5/14)

This is the first SQLSaturday in Las Vegas and while I did not get one my sessions selected to present, I will still be in Vegas that weekend thru Wednesday (4/9/14). Was a great excuse to take some time to visit Vegas, which I haven't been back to in around 10 years. Looking forward to seeing how the Vegas crew puts on a first time event and meet up with all of the #SQLFamily in a very fun city! If you are going to be at SQLSaturday #295, I'll see you there!


SQLSaturday #297 - Colorado Springs, CO (4/12/14)

Glad to see the Colorado Springs SQLSaturday back on the schedule again after taking a break for a year. Also very happy to be presenting at the event again this year. I'll be presenting my CDC with SSIS 2012 session "Capture Change and Apply It With Change Data Capture & SSIS" later in the afternoon (schedule is always possible to change, so make sure to check beforehand for exact time and room). The organizers are going to do a food drive at this event as well, to help out the local food banks which have been very stressed after all of the wild fires last year. The group down in the Springs always puts on a great event, so please register to attend this event if you are going to be in the Colorado Springs area on 4/12!


SQLSaturday #285 - Atlanta, GA (5/3/14)

The Atlanta SQLSaturdays are typically the biggest in the country (maybe even the world), so I'm very honored to be speaking at this event for the first time! Looking forward to spending some time in Atlanta, instead of just transferring from one flight to another at the airport. I'll be presenting my review of the new features in SSIS 2012 session "SSIS 2012: More Than Just a Pretty UI" in the afternoon. As mentioned above, make sure to check the schedule on this page to verify when and what room I'll be presenting in. If you are going to be in Atlanta on 5/3, register for this great event with over 50 sessions!

Best thing about all 3 of these events, they are all FREE! These events are held throughout the world and put together by community volunteers that want to share with everyone the SQL Server technology that we all love. Also be sure to talk to the sponsors at each event as it would be impossible to put on these events without their support. For those in the Denver area, we are working on the announcement for our 4th SQLSaturday in the coming weeks!

PASS BI Virtual Chapter Presentation February 2014

On Thursday, February 13th I had the pleasure to present my "Master the Date Dimension Like a Time Lord" presentation for the PASS Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter. Was a great group of attendees that had lots of questions, which hopefully I was able to answer to their satisfaction. Also had a few attendees that mentioned they were also big Doctor Who fans as well, which always makes the presentation fun to do when there are those that get the references to the show.

I have presented this session multiple times before, but I keep changing it as I go based on comments I receive. So, since the content changes, below is the link to download the latest version of the slides and the script to build the Data Dimension table as I demo in the presentation.

Master.zip

If you come up with something that you think is really cool added to this script, please send it to me and I can pass on your updates to others as I present this again in the future.

Thanks again to all of those that attended. If you missed the session there should be a recording of the session available soon, and as soon as I get word that it is posted I will update this post with that link.

3/1/2014 - Recording of the session has been posted on the PASS DW/BI VC YouTube page.

SQLSaturday #271 Albuquerque

Saturday I had the privilege to present a session at SQLSaturday #271 in Albuquerque, NM. This was the 2nd year in a row that I have presented at the SQLSaturday in Albuquerque and I love going back each time because Keith Tate, Meredith Ryan and the whole ABQSQL crew do a great job putting on this event. This year the event was in a different location that was pretty amazing looking and the spaces they made available were great too. My session was at the very beginning of the day at 8am, so I had to make sure I didn't party too much the night before at the Speaker/Volunteer party. Speaking of which, that party was held at a local micro brewery and we even had a room that with a glass wall so that we could see all of the beer vats. Beer was great and I even shared this with my wife and son who traveling with me to this event to make it into a mini-vacation from Thursday - Sunday.

Was awesome to spend a few days in ABQ this time as I drove in for last year's event on Friday and left right as the event finished on Saturday. This time with the family we were able to go up to the Sandia Peak Tramway, visit Old Town Albuquerque and Petroglyph National Monument. All great places to visit and always nice to learn about another area of the country!

Back to the SQLSaturday event itself, things started a bit slow (it is a Saturday morning so this is expected), but quickly there were over 100 attendees going to sessions throughout the day. Since my session was first thing I expected that I would have a lower attendance, and while I only had 10 attendees in the room they all commented to me afterwards that they enjoyed it and learned something new, so that makes it all worthwhile! Here is a link to download the file that all of the content from my "Master the Date Dimension Like a Time Lord" session. For those that were not at SQLSaturday #271 and may have seen this presentation in the past, I have updated it to make the script to generate the date dimension for both SQL 2008 and SQL 2012. I also took sometime to clean up some of the code to be more SQL centric instead of Oracle that it was originally written for. I will continue to tweak this script and the presentation over time, so keep your eyes here for future updates to the scripts!

Thanks again to the Albuquerque SQL group and I look forward to coming back again in the future!

Denver SQL Server User Group Holiday Party

Instead of our normal monthly meeting next Thursday (12/19), the Denver SQL Server User Group will host a Holiday Networking Party sponsored by TekSystems at Great Northern Tavern (8101 East Belleview Avenue, Denver CO 80237). We will have limited space, so if you want to come you will need to RSVP at http://denversqlugholiday2013.eventbrite.com. The party will start at 5:30pm and go until we get kicked out of the room or run of things to talk about! There will be appetizers and a limited number of drink tickets as well as some prizes to give away. It will be a great time to get together and just talk about whatever we want to, no formal presentations, just food, drink and good company! :)

As a courtesy to others that may want to come, please only RSVP if you know you can attend and if you have RSVP'd and find that you can no longer attend, please cancel your RSVP via the EventBrite page.

Also, while I'm talking about DSSUG, just wanted to send out a quick thank you to everyone that used our PASS Summit 2013 registration discount code. The group will receive $250 from PASS because of the number of people that used the code for their registration to PASS Summit 2013! We will be sure to put that money to good use for the group in 2014. Keep your eyes out in 2014 for more of this type of registration discount code for other conferences.

Outstanding PASS Volunteer

Earlier this week I was notified that I had been selected as the Outstanding PASS Volunteer for November 2013! This award was a big surprise to me, since all of the other Board members for the Denver SQL Server User Group had secretly nominated me. I am very thankful for the recognition and hope that I can continue to contribute to the community in the future!

Looking back on the last couple of months I have been doing a lot in the community and hadn't really even realized it until this award got me thinking about it. From organizing our 2nd very successful SQLSaturday to speaking at PASS Summit 2013 for the first time along with being part of the Program Committee, volunteering to sit at our table for the Chapter Lunch, heading up a table at the Birds of a Feather lunch and also volunteering at the Community Zone. And on top of that all of the regular duties that go along with being a Chapter Leader for the Denver SQL Server User Group and speaking at as many events as I can. Makes me tired just thinking about all of it! But it is all worth it as I always get so much more back from the community for everything that I put in.

Thanks again to all of you that have helped me out and I will continue to contribute in as many ways as I can in the future!

If you are looking for ways that you can help out in the community, please fill out your myVolunteering profile on sqlpass.org. Just create a free account or login to your existing account and click on the myVolunteering button on your myPASS page (should be shown automatically when you login, or just click on the Home link in the top navigation). We are always looking for community members that are willing to help out and this will get your contact info to the correct people in PASS. Everyone should fill this out, even if you are already volunteering (yes, speaking at events does count as volunteering) today!

SQLSaturday #190 Wrap-up

SQLSaturday #190 in Denver was this past weekend and based on the feedback was another great success for us. The Denver SQL Server User Group Board organized this event with lots of help from volunteers, speakers and the support of our sponsors. Without all of these pieces there would be no way to put on such a big event. We had around 230 attendees on Saturday that attended over 30 separate sessions. We also offered 3 pre-cons on Friday 9/27 from Carlos Bossy, Tim Mitchell and Dmitri Korotkevitch. The pre-cons were also very successful and we will definitely consider doing it again next time.

Also want to put a very special thank you to all of the speakers that presented at our event! It is always great to see all of the speakers that come out for these events and I'm happy to be part of the #SQLFamily because of everything that I get each of them!

If you attended SQLSaturday #190, please look at the Schedule page on the SQLSaturday site to download all of the presentation materials that are made available by the speakers.

Not making any announcements for 2014 at this point, as we all recover, but keep your eyes and ears open for more details!

Thanks again to all that volunteered, presented and sponsored this event!

SQLSaturday #191 & PASS Summit 2013

For those that are in the Kansas City area, I'll be there this weekend to speak and enjoy the area (hopefully getting to ride some coasters at Worlds of Fun too). So, if you are in the area, make sure you stop by to see my session in the Amazon room at 11:15am on SQL CDC and SSIS 2012, titled "Capture Change and Apply it With Change Data Capture and SSIS". Currently registration for the event is full, but you can get in on the wait list. Hope to see you all there! This is my 2nd year in a row at the KC SQLSaturday event, so I'm really looking forward to catching up everyone that I know in the area, and meet a bunch of new ones too.

Today, PASS released the full schedule for PASS Summit 2013 in Charlotte, NC where I will also be presenting! I have attended the PASS Summit every year since 2007 when it was in my backyard at Denver. This year I'm really excited that I get to join the long list of great speakers, while I'm only doing a Lightning Talk session (10 minutes or shorter presentations) this year, I'm hoping that will lead to being chosen for regular sessions in the future. My presentation titled, "Master the Date Dimension Like a Time Lord" will be on Wednesday, October 16th at 3:00pm in 212A-B in the Lightning Talk 101 or LT-101 session. I have made a point of attending the Lightning Talk sessions over the last few years, because it is a great way to see new speakers and lots of great quick presentations in just a single session (yes, I know there are 2 separate Lightning Talk sessions, LT-102 is on Thursday, same time, same room with fellow Coloradan, Jeff Renz presenting).

Denver SQL Server User Group - May 16, 2013

Last night I presented "Capture Change and Apply it with Change Data Capture and SSIS" at the Denver SQL Server User Group meeting as a representative of our sponsor for May, Pragmatic Works. Session went well, got some really good questions and comments to make the session even better which I will be working on before I present it again at the Midlands SQL Server User Group next month!

For those that want to use all of my sample code from the presentation, feel free to download it from the embedded link below and try it out on your own computer. The requirements for these samples to work are SQL Server 2012 Evaluation, Developer or Enterprise Editions, AdventureWorks2012 and AdventureWorks2012DW. Also as I mentioned in the session you must have full admin rights to the SQL Server instance that you are going to try and setup CDC on, so a local instance on your own workstation/VM is recommended.

Thanks again to all of those that attended the Denver SQL Server User Group meeting last night!

SQLSaturday News

SQLSaturday #190 in Denver on September 28th is going to host pre-cons on Friday, September 27th! This was something that the Denver SQL Server User Group wanted to do after the great success we had last year with SQLSaturday #169.

While we do charge for these pre-cons, we think that at $99 per person for a full day of training it is an amazing value. Since this is our first year offering pre-cons at our SQLSaturday event we didn't want to go overboard with offering too many options, so we selected 3 pre-cons that we think offer a great range of topics for different SQL Server Professionals (thanks to everyone that submitted pre-cons, we wish we could have hosted all of them). Below are topics and speakers that we have selected along with the links to the full abstract and registration page on EventBrite:

Real World SSIS: A Survival Guide by Tim Mitchell
SQL Server Internals from the Practical Angle by Dmitri Korotkevitch
Predictive Analytics in the Enterprise by Carlos Bossy

All 3 of these pre-cons will be all day on Friday, September 27th and the registration fee does include a continental breakfast, lunch, snacks and refreshments throughout the day. The location for the pre-cons is the same as last year's SQLSaturday in the Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church - Community Life Center (10150 E. Belleview Avenue, Englewood, CO 80111) and there will be wi-fi available to all attendees.

If you have any questions about the pre-cons, please email the event committee.

While I'm on the subject of SQLSaturday just wanted to remind everyone that I am presenting my "ABCs of CDC with SSIS 2012" session at SQLSaturday #200 in Philadelphia on June 1st, so please register if you are going to be in that area at that time (the registration is currently waitlisted, but please register as there might be cancellations and the organizers will keep you updated via email). I will actually be flying out to Philadelphia on the Wednesday before to spend some time with my family that lives in the area, so looking forward to some vacation time on the East coast before the SQLSaturday. Hope to see you all there!

MSCA & MCSE

I wanted to put this post up earlier, but waited for official confirmation from Microsoft. Last Wednesday I took the 70-462 (Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases) certification exam and passed it!

Those that know the new SQL Server 2012 certification setup are saying, "So what, you still have 1 more to pass before MCSA and 2 more after that for MCSE". Yes, that is correct, but thankfully I was able to take all 5 of the exams in the SQL Server 2012 MCSE Business Intelligence series when they were in beta form last Spring. After waiting a few months to get the results on those beta exams (when you take them in beta you don't get the immediate results like you do for normal exams, they have to manually graded and evaluated) I found out that I had passed 3 out of the 5: 70-463 (Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012), 70-466 (Implementing Data Models and Reports with Microsoft SQL Server 2012), 70-467(Designing Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2012). Ironically enough these are the last 3 exams in the series, not the first ones. I already passed 70-461 (Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012) in March after a few attempts as well.

With that I got my confirmation on Saturday morning from Microsoft that I had achieved the requirements for the SQL Server 2012 MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) certification. While I was relieved to get that message, I immediately logged into the MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) website to see if everything was there for MCSE (Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert) Business Intelligence as well. For some reason it was only showing the MCSA, not the MCSE. I was a bit surprised, but figured I would wait a couple of days to see what happened. Sure enough on Sunday morning I did get the message that I had the MCSE as well. Guess the MCP systems run a pass each night and can only pick up one of these certifications at a time.


For those of you out there that are also trying to get the new SQL Server 2012 certifications, keep pushing yourself to get them. For me getting these certifications is more of a personal goal, even though there are some benefits from Pragmatic Works as well. Hopefully you will also get the support your need. I have linked to each of the pages on the Microsoft site for the exams that I took. Microsoft has also published a great series of pages and videos on the Born to Learn 90 Days to MCSA series. If you are in the Denver area there is a Certification Study Group that meets every Thursday (except the 3rd Thursday of each month) at the Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church - Community Life Center (contact marketing at denversql dot org for more information).

If you have never taken a Microsoft certification exam before, I would encourage you to sign up to take one to get an idea of what they really are like, even if you really aren't ready. If you can sign up for one before May 31 there is a Second Shot deal going on, where you can get a voucher code that allows you to retake an exam that you didn't pass the first time again for free. Just make sure you request the voucher first and when you setup your exam appointment put that code into the voucher box on the registration form, then you will need to use that same voucher code again when you register to retake that same exam again. The Second Shot vouchers only work if you put it in the first time you take that specific exam.


This was my big goal for early 2013, so I'm glad to have that one off my back. I'm enjoying not worrying about studying for any other certifications right now, but I'm sure I'll find more to challenge myself with! I'm pushing myself to do more speaking engagements this year and so far it looks like it is paying off with 2 SQLSaturdays over the next 2 months (#215 in Jacksonville, FL & #200 in Philadelphia, PA). I'm planning on speaking at the Charlotte BI Group in August and I will be submitting for at least 3 other SQLSaturday's for September thru October. Plus, I did submit for PASS Summit as well, which hopefully I will get chosen for as well.

Good luck!

24HOP - Business Analytics Edition

Tomorrow morning at 06:00 MT the new 24 Hours of PASS (24HOP) event begins with 12 hour long sessions on a variety of Business Analytics topics. This 24HOP is a preview of the types of sessions that will be offered at the PASS Business Analytics Conference 2013 on April 10-12 in Chicago (use referral code BAC158LC when registering to take $150 off the current registration fee).

If you don't get up that early, don't worry the first 12 hours of sessions will be repeated again 12 hours later, so for example the first session at 06:00 MT will be on again at 18:00 MT (6PM MT).

And best of all this training is all FREE! Register using this link today for some great training starting tomorrow morning!

PASS Summit 2012 - Part 2

Sorry for the long delay in posting my summary of PASS Summit 2012 activities, but I needed to enjoy the Thanksgiving break off from work and travel.

I left off on my previous post on Monday afternoon before the Networking Event that took place around dinner time. The Network Event has been done for many years now by Steve Jones (b|t) and Andy Warren (b|t) before PASS Summit starts and is always a good event to meet lots of people. For me I had overdone it earlier in the day so I wasn't feeling very well, so sorry if you tried to meet with me and I didn't make it around to talk to you. Thankfully the issues I was having passed later in the evening, but I wasn't sure what was going on for awhile that evening.

Tuesday was the first day that I had Chapter Leader meetings to attend throughout the day. First was the meeting with all SQL Saturday organizers where we had many discussions on where we are with SQL Saturdays and where we want to take them in the future. Lots of very helpful information that we will be using for our next SQL Saturday on 9/21/2013! After lunch was the Chapter Leaders meeting where we split up into multiple different groups to talk about specific issues around starting/running/extending our User Groups. Again lots of great info that I will be looking forward to implementing in our group.

Tuesday evening was the Welcome Reception put on by PASS. As usual I was a little bit late getting to this event again this year, so I missed the First Timers entering the party (maybe next year I need to be a mentor to force myself to be there when this happens). The party was big as it has been over the past couple of years, was still able to get to the food and drink without too much waiting though. After meeting quite a few people I headed over with a few of the Pragmatic Works guys to the Volunteer Party at The Garage. Even though I had paid for the Exceptional DBA Awards put on by SQLServerCentral.com & Red Gate, I wanted to attend the Volunteer Party since this was the first year I have been invited to it (hate it when there are multiple parties going on at same time). Had a great time bowling and watching the election coverage.

Wednesday was finally the first official day of the Summit. It started off with Keynotes given by the current PASS President, Bill Graziano (b|t) and various Microsoft representatives. The biggest announcement that I picked up on are the changes to allow Multi-Dimensional cubes to be queried by DAX along with MDX, this puts Multi-Dimensional cubes on par with the newer Tabular models. Can't wait to see how this is fully implemented in vNext of SQL 2012 (this will not be included with SQL 2012 SP1 which was also announced). Also announced were changes to the ColumnStore Indexes to make the updateable and able to be clustered, should add some pretty cool new capabilities. The last thing that I remember from that Keynote was the Hekaton announcements, which is an in-memory OLTP solution that is supposed to add many X improvements in speed for most database solutions (assuming you have tons of memory on your servers). There were other announcements at the Thursday Keynote, but I didn't attend much of that one and heard from others that some of the demos were a bit long, lots of stuff around Big Data/Hadoop.

As with previous years I didn't attend a bunch of sessions during Summit, I end up spending a bunch of time networking and volunteering at the PASS Community Zone and spending some time at the Pragmatic Works booth. It was cool to see the Summit from the perspective of an exhibitor this year, that was the first time I got to see it that way. I did attend a session given by Mark Stacey (b|t) on using NASA data with PowerPivot, which was really cool because he built the whole session around how to get and use the free NASA and ESA data that is out there in demos. Being a Space Nut this was right up my alley and gave me some possible great ideas for future presentations (thanks Mark!). I also saw a great presentation on setting up Kerberos with SharePoint, which as anyone that has done knows this is a real pain point and Chuck Heinzelman (t) laid it out in 7 steps, should help if I do end up running into this in the future. I was able to get to one of the Lightning Talk sessions (yet again in way too small of a room again this year) and saw Bill Fellows (b|t), Jes Borland (b|t), Niko Neugebauer (b|t) and Oliver Engels (t) present on some great topics. As with most conferences with any BI sessions there was a BI Power Hour at Summit again this year and as with the previous ones this did not disappoint in presenting more solutions with Microsoft BI that you probably never would have thought it could do. Great job by Matt Masson (b|t), Chuck Heinzelman (t), Peter Myers, Matthew Roche (b|t), Sean Boon (b|t) and of course Patrick LeBlanc (b|t). I have been to at least 6 different BI Power Hours over the years at various conferences and they are still by far the funniest session to go to. The last session that I remember going to was on the details of the changes to allow for DAX on the Multi-Dimensional cubes, sounds like they did a good job adding these changes in the right way, including no translation to MDX, just adding DAX as a full featured query language against the MD cube.

As with every year there were tons of events in the evenings after the sessions stop, including the Exhibitor's Reception on Wednesday night that I had to try and work as "security" at the Pragmatic Works booth for the 200+ free books that Brian Knight (b|t), Adam Jorgensen (b|t), Mike Davis (b|t) and various other current/past Pragmatic Works employees were signing for free! Was a very popular thing at the reception and we were able to offer many more books to the attendees thanks to Wiley/Wrox being in the booth next to us and having boxes of these books there that they could allow us to give out. After we got rid of all the books at the reception, a few of us headed over to get setup at the Hard Rock Cafe for the Pragmatic Works, Microsoft and HP SQLKaraoke Event with a live band! Was an awesome party and the first time that I have seen karaoke done with a live band, which was really cool. Not sure how we are going to top that party next year in Charlotte, but I'm sure we will come up with something! :)  Thursday evening was the night that we set for the annual Colorado Dinner at PASS Summit. As in past years we had it at Elliot's Oyster House and as always they were very accommodating for a group of 20+ people that were all paying separately and ordering whatever they wanted. After the dinner we caught a cab over to the EMP (Experience Music Project) to catch the end of the Attendee party. I love this museum, in fact I have been there so many times over the years that it is one that I actually went ahead and became a yearly paying member of. I got to go down to the Science Fiction Museum that is in the lower 2 levels and enjoy all of the great exhibits from my favorite TV and movie memorabilia  There was even more SQLKaraoke with a live band there, guess that is the new trend for the Summit this year. I didn't make it to SQLKaraoke at Bush Gardens until Friday evening this year, just too much going on during the week.

And that is it for another Summit, it was a crazy week that went by far too fast. I had a great time meeting everyone for the first time and again and I'm already looking forward to 2013 in Charlotte!

PASS Summit 2012 - Part 1 (Pre-Summit Activities)

While I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for my connecting flight to Columbia, SC, thought that it was a great time to get some of my thoughts on last week's PASS Summit 2012 posted. This post will cover the activities I did before Summit.

I arrived in Seattle on the Friday morning to spend some time with some of the other Pragmatic Works folks in the Mount Rainer area. Being in Denver, I'm not in direct contact with most of the other Pragmatic Works people on a regular basis, so this was a great way to get to know more of them. Friday night we all ate at the cabin, thanks to Brian Knight our chef for the evening. The cabin was pretty cool, if not a bit old. Had a fireplace, pool table and Foosball table and tons of beds for all of us.

We all attempted to hike up Mt. Rainer first thing Saturday morning. Weather was not great as we left the cabin, raining, foggy and pretty windy. We got to the parking lot to get all of our gear setup and this was the first time I have ever hiked anything more than just some paved trails in Colorado, but I figured I live a mile high so I shouldn't have too many issues. Oh, was I completely wrong! Didn't take me very long to realize that even living at altitude doesn't help if you don't also work out regularly at altitude (those that have seen me recently know just how out of shape I am). Thankfully we were prepared for the full group of 9 people to split up into at least 3 smaller groups as the hike went on. I quickly feel back into the back group, which was great because we were all pushing each other on to continue even when at different times all of us wanted to just quit and go back. We got all of the way up to around 7000 feet and to the point where the snowfield starts and we would have to put on our snowshoes. That was when Mt. Rainer really let us know that it was in control and the wind was blowing at 30mph+ with sleet and snow blowing in our face. We stood there for awhile and realized that we could see the first of the groups coming back our way. Turned out that not too much farther ahead they hit snow that was waist deep and even harder going, so we all made the decision to head back to the cars. No one got to the goal of the basecamp (Camp Muir) this year. According to others that have done this hike at other times the snow was higher then they have ever seen it. It was very grueling for me, but I'm glad that I tried it and made it as far as I did. I don't think that I will ever need to try and hike a mountain again, but you never know.

After the Mt. Rainer adventure all of us headed back to Seattle on Sunday morning. Before leaving I made breakfast for everyone. Thankfully I didn't make anyone sick (or at least they didn't tell me) with my French Toast, Bacon and Hash Brown feast. On the way into Seattle we all stopped at the mall in Bellevue since some in the group wanted to stop at the Microsoft Store and see about getting a Surface. I had seen Brian Knight's Surface at the cabin previously, so I didn't see the need to get one (I'm already an Apple fanboy, I'm more interested in the Windows 8 Pro tablets). This was also my first time in a Microsoft Store, definitely looks like a copy of the Apple Stores, guess you need to copy something that works! :)  While I didn't get a Surface I did wander to the back of the store and found an awesome Ogio Bandit backpack that is White and Black with Gold highlights. As soon as I saw that bag I had to have it since those are my Alma mater's Purdue University colors (only thing missing is Purdue patch, which I'm going to fix). After a couple of people bought Surface's we headed off to P.F. Chang's for lunch. Was great to sit down and talk about the weekend and prepare ourselves for the week to come.

We headed out of Bellevue into Seattle and dropped everyone off a their hotels for the next week. I was staying at the Sheraton again this year. Definitely my favorite hotel for PASS Summit in Seattle since you only have to walk half a block to get into the convention center (wish it was cheaper though). The only thing that I found after checking-in that sucked is that our normal staging area for post-conference activities each night the Sheraton bar was closed for renovations. Now we would all have to use Twitter to find out what was going on or make sure to contact attendees at the conference/hotel as we saw each other.

On Monday I didn't have any PASS Summit related activities, so I got up early to make a visit to Top Pot Doughnuts. If you have never been to Top Pot, you should definitely try to go next time you are in Seattle, very good doughnuts! After that I walked down to the pier area to walk around and saw the new Seattle Giant Wheel that was under construction that last 2 trips I made to Seattle. Before lunch I meant up with a few other Pragmatic Works people to take the Seattle Underground tour. I have done this tour twice previously, but it is always great to go on this tour to get the different stories on Seattle's very colorful past. If you have not done the Seattle Underground tour, you should best tour I have done in any city I have visited. Grabbed some lunch after the tour and then headed back to the hotel to recharge before the Networking Event that evening.

That covers all of the pre-Summit activities, so I'll post the details on the rest of the week in a future post.