Being back in the office on a Monday after attending a SQL Saturday Exeter is always fun because that is when I get to use some of the information that I have gained. There are always nuggets of information to be had from sessions that I have attended, and also from talking with other speakers, attendees, and sponsors.
This year in Exeter, I was lucky enough to have been selected to speak on SharePoint databases. If anyone the
This year, as well as catching up with friends I managed to attend sessions on:
- Agile BI by Steff Locke (@SteffLocke – http://itsalocke.com/index.php/sql-saturday-exeter-steph-ozs-slides/)
- Making PowerShell useful for your team by Rob Sewell (@fadeToBlackUk - http://sqldbawithabeard.com/)
- Machine learning without a PhD in statistics by Andrew Fryer (@DeepFat)
- Visualising performance tuning data by Andre Kamman (@AndreKamman - http://andrekamman.com/)
- Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn in a multi-site world by John Martyn (@SQLServerMonkey)
For me, I had two big takeaways:
- Be prepared! Andrew Fryer fought against the demo gods to deliver a really interesting demonstration of Azure Machine Learning. Of course, relying on Azure and therefore a decent internet connection put him at the mercy of the demo gods, and the ghost of the room mysteriously retracting the presentation screen and a dodgy HDMI cable also did not help.
- Some database developers are turning to a combination of PowerShell and JavaScript frameworks to analyse data!
As for my session, it was great to see so many people interested in the dark arts of SharePoint databases. My slides can be found here
Thanks again to all who organised SQL Saturday Exeter, I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.