SQLBits 6 to Be Held in London, April 16, 2010

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image The upcoming SQLBits 6, to be held Friday, April 16, 2010, will be held at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, London, England. This full day, free event will be themed around SQL Server performance and scalability.

Currently, the call for speakers is open, and if you would like to submit session abstracts for consideration, you can find out more here.

Official registration for the event will begin in March, but if you planning on attending, you need to mark your calendar now, and also sign up at the SQLBits website in order to be notified as soon as registration opens.

Where Do You Look on the Internet for SQL Server Jobs?

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I recently had a SQL Server DBA write to me that they were going to be laid off, and they asked me if I had any special insight into what are the best websites to look for SQL Server-related jobs. I haven’t looked for a SQL Server job in a long time, so I didn’t have any good suggestions based on personal experience.

So let’s help out this person. Based on your personal experience, what job websites do you recommend when searching for a new SQL Server-related job?

Adventures in Webinar Presentations

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Over the past several years, I have given 2-3 live web presentations a year, and I have always found them to be an adventure. In other words, there always seems to be one problem or another.

Sometimes the meeting software used is not very cooperative, connection speeds vary (or drop), recordings don’t record as expected, and many more. In a webinar I gave today, my laptop froze just seconds before I was to give my presentation, which caused a sudden rise in my blood pressure. In the end, everything worked out, and my session on “How to Become an Exceptional DBA” had just over 700 people during peak attendance.
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2010 MVP Summit Held This Week

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If you can’t tell what is happening in the above photo, you won’t be alone. Today, at the opening keynote at the 2010 MVP Summit, the audience of nearly 1,400 Microsoft MVPs, from over 70 countries, got to see one of Seattle’s most famous traditions, the Pike Place Fish Market fish toss on stage. Microsoft brought in four “fishmongers” who first ran through the audience, tossing salmon back and forth, and when they reached the stage, a Microsoft MVP volunteer (far left), came onto the stage to toss fish with the professionals. The MVP must have had experience, as he didn’t drop the fish, and he tossed it back with the confidence of a professional fishmonger. Continue reading →