The purpose of this event is to give you, the SQL Server user, an opportunity to ask Microsoft those things which you’ve always wanted to know but never could find on the internet.

The questions are currently being gathered (that explains the “Now” in my post’s title).  This gives you some time to think about what you’d like to ask beforehand.  On the day of the event, these questions will then be answered by a panel of four SQL Server specialists.

So, ever wanted to ask Microsoft a question related to SQL Server?  Now’s the time to do it!  Send them to asktheexperts@sqlug.be.

Who’s The Panel?

The panel consists of three Microsoft employees and one SQL Server MVP.  Here are the full details:

> Wesley Backelant <

In his role as a Technology Advisor at Microsoft, Wesley is responsible for helping customers understand the capabilities of SQL Server and the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack. Before joining Microsoft, Wesley was a Database Architect working on some of the largest implementations of SQL Server in Belgium. Wesley started his professional career in the SQL Server 6.5 timeframe and remained true to his passion ever since. Wesley is active on Twitter where he handles topics related to his favorite technology.

> Frederik Vandeputte <

Frederik Vandeputte is a Senior Consultant and partner at Kohera, the Microsoft SQL Server/Business Intelligence Competence Center of the Cronos Group. Frederik has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5. In his free time Frederik collects Microsoft certifications. His collection includes MCTS, MCSA, MCSE, MCDBA, MCITP, MCT, ranging from Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000 up to SQL Server 2008. Frederik is one of the co-founders and the President of the Belgian SQL Server User Group (SQLUG.BE). In January 2008 Frederik, became the first Belgian MVP on SQL Server. Follow Frederik on his website and twitter.

> Dirk Gubbels <

Dirk Gubbels is a senior consultant at Microsoft, and has been working with SQL Server since version 4.2. As one of the few Microsoft Certified Database Architects he has been involved in the most demanding SQL server based applications in Belgium and all over the EMEA region. His main focus areas are Design, Performance and Availability for both OLTP and Business Intelligence environments.

> Gunther Beersaerts <

Gunther Beersaerts joined Microsoft in 1998 (on the launch day of SQL Server 7.0) as a Technical Marketer for MSDN/TechNet road shows and has held a number of technical roles during his career, including Systems Engineer, ATS, TSP roles covering a broad set of Microsoft Application Platform solutions. Over the past few years, Gunther has been active in technical roles for Databases and Business Intelligence platforms in EPG Belgium & Luxemburg. He then became a Strategist in the CATM (Customer Advocacy and Technology Management) organization which is a key-connection between the Microsoft Development teams and Customers /Partners. In this role, Gunther focuses on the Microsoft Data Platform, including SQL Server and Business Intelligence solutions. Prior to Microsoft, he was a developer and messaging engineer at a large financial institution in Brussels.

When?

Wednesday, September 29th 2010, starting at 1900.

Where?

The Microsoft offices in Zaventem.

Don’t forget to register here!

May the inspiration be with you while coming up with some questions

See you there!

Valentino.

When?

Wednesday, September 15th and Thursday, September 16th.  Each day the sessions start at 1200 GMT, so for us Belgians we need to add two hours for our local time.

Is it an interesting idea to split the event in two?  During the day I have to work, so I usually enroll for some sessions during the evening, starting earliest at 1800 and ending around midnight.  Looking at the schedule for the Fall event, it means that I’ll be able to attend sessions during two evenings instead of one.  Except, Wednesday evening I go swimming with our oldest daughter.  Ah well, better luck next time.

So, what are you waiting for?  Register here, it’s free and it’s interesting!  (Well, it’s probably not interesting for everyone on this planet, but it should be interesting to you – otherwise you wouldn’t be reading my blog either )

If you require more info: check out the agenda!

Have fun!

Valentino.

A total of 14 different Belgian User Groups focused on Microsoft technology will be delivering sessions all day long, a total of 24.  The SQLUG will deliver two sessions.

So what are you waiting for?  Sign up for a full day of free training!

And if you’re a LinkedIn user, don’t forget to add the event to your list: Community Day 2010 on LinkedIn.  Ow, and post a comment here if you’re going.  I’d like to find out if any Belgians are actually reading this (most of my visitors are from the US).

As for the food department: there won’t be any French (French??) fries this year.  I wonder what they’ve got for us this time.  Me personally I wouldn’t mind if the “fritkot” was replaced with a Burger King “fetchpoint”.  Okay, it’s probably not as healthy as some other choices, but who cares at that stage?  All we want is food and the requirements are: good taste, and plenty of it!  After all, we’re still in a movie theatre, which is not really the place to go to when you’re on a health trip.  We’ll eat a piece of fruit when we get back home.  But I wouldn’t say no to a good glass of freshly squeezed OJ in the morning, followed by a croissant and a strong coffee

Practical event details
Location: Utopolis Mechelen (Map)
Address: Spuibeekstraat 5 2800 Mechelen
Event date: Thursday June 24th
Start & end time: 8.30 – 18.30

Social
Community Day on Twitter: #comday2010

Need more info?  Click here.

Happy learning, and see you there!

Valentino.

When?

Thursday, April 20th, 2010

Where?

Microsoft België
Corporate Village
Leonardo Da Vincilaan 3
1935 Zaventem

More info

Managing SQL Server requires insight in the state and performance of the underlying infrastructure, OS and individual SQL components.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 cannot only give you that insight, but it can be reused in a broader application/service monitoring view.
This session focuses on the out-of-the-box capabilities of System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 but also shows you how a distributed application can easily reuse these capabilities to provide an extra step in monitoring.

About Ricardo Noulez

Ricardo Noulez is a Senior Consultant at Microsoft Consulting Services in the Benelux. Been with Microsoft since January 2002 as a subject matter expert in Microsoft Operations Manager (now System Center Operations Manager) and Systems Management Server (System Center Configuration Manager). Ricardo has a great focus around the System Center product family and he is currently expanding his horizons towards the System Center Service Manager product. He is always interested in finding ways to improve the way that customers manage their IT environment and has certifications and great affinity with ITIL good practices and the MOF framework to help them achieve this. In the first third of his 18 year career, Ricardo was a developer but gradually converted himself to Systems Management and IT operations. This gives him a broad understanding in the different needs and view-points of all technical players that make IT ideas come true.

Click here for more info or here to register!

See you there,

Valentino

I think the most difficult part of attending this event is combining it with your job/family.  Last year I was lucky: I happened to have a day off and at home we didn’t have anything big planned, so I was able to pick up a few sessions.  This year I’m not having any holidays in that period so I’ll need to filter quite well.  Or be lucky with the timing.  Which doesn’t seem to be the case: it’s a Wednesday and Wednesday means I go swimming with our oldest daughter in the evening.

So, hopefully the videos are available for download afterwards, then I’ll have something to watch on the train commuting to work.

The event will take place on May 19th, 2010, starting at 12:00 GMT (UTC).

Obviously, the focus will be on the newly released R2.  So what are you waiting for?  Go register before it’s sold out, it’s free!

What sessions am I interested in?

Session 05 (BI) – Start time 16:00 GMT
Implementing MDM Using SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services
Presenter: Rushabh Mehta

Session 06 (DBA) – Start time 17:00 GMT
What’s Really Happening on Your Server? 15 Powerful SQL Server Dynamic Management Objects
Presenter:  Adam Machanic

Session 10 (DBA) – Start time 21:00 GMT
Using Data Compression with SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2
Presenter: Maciej Pilecki

Session 11 (BI) – Start time 22:00 GMT
Easier than Ever Report Authoring in SSRS 2008 R2
Presenter: Jessica M. Moss

Session 12 (Dev) – Start time 23:00 GMT
High Performance Functions
Presenter: Simon Sabin

Session 15 (BI) – Start time 02:00 GMT
Producing Dashboards with PerformancePoint Services
Presenter: Peter Myers

Session 16 (BI) – Start time 03:00 GMT
Reporting Services Enhancements in SQL Server 2008
Presenter: Greg Low

Session 24 (DBA) – Start time: 11:00 GMT
BLITZ! 60 Minute Server Takeovers
Presenter: Brent Ozar

72 Hours Of PASS

Or better, that’s what the European PASS Conference stands for.  I went there last week and had a great time!  I met some friends over there, was able to put a face to some names which I already knew through the almighty internet, and had a chat with people I never met before.  Really good experience.

And that’s not all of course, I saw some really interesting sessions as well!  Let’s see, what sessions made me take out my notebook? (No, not to surf, the old paper version!)

There was of course the pre-conference by Donald Farmer.  He’s worth seeing just for his Scottish accent alone.  And on top of that, he’s one of the better speakers that I’ve ever seen.  And he’s “the BI guy from Microsoft”   Initially I was planning to see the sessions by Adam Saxton but after seeing some memory dump analysis I decided that I would probably never do that myself anyway…  I think once you’re on that level, it’s time that you apply for a job at Microsoft.

So, what other sessions did I take notes at?  Chris Webb and his session about DAX.  Until now I haven’t had the time to play with PowerPivot, but I think time has come to get it installed.  He gave some quite interesting tips, such as the one on the Time table that shouldn’t end in the middle of the year.

Later on I saw Markus Raatz about the hidden BI treasures on CodePlex.  Yes Markus, if it were up to me you’ll be doing the sequel next year!

I also made some notes during another Chris Webb session, about warming SSAS cache.  A tip that I noted down: do not use subqueries in your MDX (such as the ones generated by the query designer in Reporting Services) because the global cache will not be used.

I saw several more speakers but won’t go into detail on those sessions.  Except for this last one: the session on PowerPivot (and everything that’s related to it) by Kasper de Jonge.  It was one of the last sessions on Friday, and we finally saw some interesting (read: not repeated for the n-th time) demos using PowerPivot.  Well done Kasper!  You were one of the lesser-experienced speakers (mind: I’m referring to speaking experience here, not technical!) and you were far better than some other speaker with years of experience (I won’t mention his name here but those who saw the presentation must know who I’m talking about).

That’s it for now people, have fun!

Valentino.

The Belgian SQL Server User Group offers a significant 35% discount for its members (even more than the early-bird discount) for any PASS European Conference 2010 registration.

Use discount code BEC15Y and enjoy your savings on the registration.

For more information check out the SQLUG website.  PASS European Conference 2010 is Europe’s premier conference for SQL Server technical education and business networking.  Meet top SQL Server experts from Europe and around the world.  Learn about best practices, effective troubleshooting, how to prevent issues, save money, and build a better SQL Server environment for your company or clients.

A while ago I already blogged about the sessions that I’m planning to see (which reminds that I should have another look at the agenda and update my list there )

Have fun!

Valentino.