Community Event

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Free Full-Day Training Event: Community Day 2010!

May 11, 2010 in Events | No comments

Now that the calendar has been filled and the registration opened, it’s time for another free event announcement: Community Day 2010!

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.

Tags: Community Event, SQLUG

Free SQLUG Event: SCOM 2007 R2 And Managing SQL Server

May 6, 2010 in Events | No comments

No excuses for not attending if you’re a SQL Server DBA, system administrator or just interested in the subject. It’s a free training event, it’s presented by Ricardo Noulez and it’s taking place in the Microsoft offices in Zaventem.

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

Tags: Community Event, data, SQLUG

Another 24 Hours Of PASS

April 28, 2010 in Events | No comments

Just like last year, PASS will organize another 24 hours of PASS virtual conference. If you’re not familiar with this, it’s 24 hours of free SQL Server-related training. Each session takes one hour, making 24 sessions in total.

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.

Tags: Community Event, PASS

Save up to 35% for the PASS European Conference

March 6, 2010 in Events | No comments

As I have recently become a core-member of the Belgian SQLUG, you’re probably going to see a bit more spread-the-word posts about interesting events or other advantages, such as this one.

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.

Tags: Community Event, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQLUG

PASS European Conference 2010

February 11, 2010 in SQL Server | 2 comments

With great pleasure I’d like to share with you that my employer has approved my request to attend the SQL PASS European Conference! (Thank you Ordina )

This event will take place at 21-23 April 2010 in Neuss, Germany.

I’m really looking forward to this, I’m sure it will be three days with a lot of learning, a lot of networking and a lot of fun!

If you’re going too and you’re from Belgium: have a look at the Belgian SQL Server User Group site for a discount code!

Ow, and post a comment here so that we can have a chat over there!

Sessions I’m Planning To See

(list updated on April 14)

Day One (April 21)

The event hasn’t started yet and I’m already having difficulty in choosing my sessions. This day is the official start of the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Tour and there’s a full day of sessions on R2 planned. But they are level 200, while Adam Saxton is talking about SSRS in a level 500 full-day session (I always thought that the range went from 100 to 400, guess I was wrong.) So this is my agenda for the first day:

0930 – 1730: (500) Tackling Top Reporting Services Issues by Adam Saxton (Microsoft CSS)

Day Two (April 22)

Again another day with lots of interesting sessions, too many unless I can find a way to split myself up for a while… Those in bold are the ones I’ll probably be choosing to attend.

0900 – 1030: (Keynote) The Evolution of Business Intelligence by Donald Farmer (Microsoft)

1045 – 1200: (400) Index Age 3—Dawn of the Filtered by Bodo Michael Danitz (sqlserver.de)

1045 – 1200: (300) Cooking with SSRS: Advanced Report Design Recipes by Paul Turley

1045 – 1200: (300) Implementing Common Business Calculations in DAX by Chris Webb (CrossJoin Consulting)

1300 – 1400: (300) Spatial Data in SQL Server 2008 and SQL 2008 R2: A Real World Application by Javier Loria (Solid Quality Mentors)

1300 – 1400: (???) Taking BI to the next level with in SQL Server 2008 R2 , SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 by Oliver Goletz & Martin Vach (Microsoft Germany)

1415 – 1515: (300) The Dirty Dozen: 12 Ways to Write Poorly Performing MDX Queries by Steve Simon (State Street Corporation)

1415 – 1515: (300) SQL & SSIS 2008 R2 Performance Optimizations by Henk van der Valk (Unisys)

1530 – 1630: (300) SQL Server and SharePoint – Best Practices by Steffen Krause (Microsoft Deutschland GmbH)

1645 – 1800: (400) ETL 3 Ways by Allen Mitchell (Konesans)

1645 – 1800: (500) Kerberos and the BI Stack by Adam Saxton (Microsoft CSS)

1645 – 1800: (300) The Top 10 Developer Mistakes That Won’t Scale by Brent Ozar (Quest)

Day Three (April 23)

0830 – 1000: (???) Real Time Cubes by Thomas Kejser (MS SQL CAT Team)

1015 – 1130: (400) Blazing Fast Queries: When Indexes Are Not Enough by Davide Mauri (Solid Quality Mentors)

1145 – 1245: (400) StreamInsight by Allen Mitchell (Konesans)

1345 – 1445: (400) Cache-warming Strategies for Analysis Services 2008 by Chris Webb (Crossjoin Consulting)

1500 – 1600: (300) Building a Dashboard with PowerPivot, Reporting Services and PerformancePoint using PowerPivot in SharePoint by Kasper de Jonge (ADA ICT)

1500 – 1600: (300) Adaptive BI Best Practices by Davide Mauri (Solid Quality Mentors)

1615 – 1715: (???) Importance of Master Data Management by Markus Thomanek (Microsoft Germany)

Have fun!

Valentino.

Tags: Community Event, PASS

Free SQLUG Evening: Service Broker

January 20, 2010 in SQL Server | No comments

What?

Service Broker provides queuing and reliable messaging for SQL Server. Service Broker is used both for applications that use a single SQL Server instance and applications that distribute work across multiple instances.

Within a single SQL Server instance, Service Broker provides a robust asynchronous programming model. Database applications typically use asynchronous programming to shorten interactive response time and increase overall application throughput.

Service Broker also provides reliable messaging between SQL Server instances. Service Broker helps developers compose applications from independent, self-contained components called services. Applications that require the functionality exposed in these services use messages to interact with the services. Service Broker uses TCP/IP to exchange messages between instances. Service Broker includes features to help prevent unauthorized access from the network and to encrypt messages sent over the network.

(The above was quoted from the BOL.)

Who?

Dr. Nico Jacobs, PhD in Data Mining, trainer/consultant at U2U focusing on SQL Server/BI.

When?

February 11, 2010.

Where?

Avenade, Vilvoorde.

More info at the SQLUG site.

See you there!

Tags: Community Event, data, SQLUG

Free Event: SQL Server Day 2009

October 14, 2009 in SQL Server | No comments

For the second year in a row, the Belgian SQL Server User Group organizes the SQL Server Day.

Like last year, the event will take place at Utopolis Mechelen.

If you’re ready for a day filled with learning and networking opportunities and you can make yourself available at December 3, register at www.sqlserverday.be!

There will be some interesting speakers such as:

Chris Webb – SSAS and Gemini
Henk van der Valk – SSIS world record
Dirk Gubbels – Change tracking
my colleagues Luc Lemaire and Mario Van Hissenhoven – Report Builder 3.0

If you’re attending as well and would like to meet up for a chat, don’t hesitate to post a comment here!

See you there!

Tags: Community Event, SQL Server, SQLUG

Free Event: 24 Hours of PASS

August 20, 2009 in SQL Server | No comments

If you don’t have anything planned on next September 2 and you’re interested in some free SQL Server-related learning: it’s the 24 Hours of PASS!

You can even stay in your lazy chair at home because it’s an online event, no worrying about bus/train/plane/hotel/… Just install the software (or browser plug-in, I actually don’t know because I haven’t performed the preparation procedure yet) and off you go.

I have registered for the following 5 sessions myself:

Session 10 (Dev) – Working with Spatial Data in SQL Server 2008 (Greg Low)
Session 11 (DBA) – Effective Indexing (Gail Shaw)
Session 12 (BI) – Reporting Services Inside Out the Things You Should Know (Simon Sabin)
Session 13 (Dev) – Query Performance Tuning 101 (Grant Fritchey)
Session 16 (DBA) – Database Compatibility Settings: What They Really Do .. and Don’t Do (Don Vilen)

Yep, it will be a busy holiday. That same day they’ll be delivering our new combi oven, ideally that would be right after session 13 ends. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I’ll be seeing you September 2? Or well, maybe not as it’s an online event…

Happy learning!

Tags: Community Event, data, PASS, SQL Server

Community Day 2009

May 17, 2009 in .NET, SQL Server | No comments

About a week ago Gill announced that he’d finished and published the new website so here’s my part of spreading the word.

Click the banner above to register for the free event or put your browser on www.communityday.be.

Tags: Community Event

SQL Server Day 2008

November 25, 2008 in SQL Server | No comments

If you are an active SQL Server professional and you can make yourself available on the 4th of December 2008, make sure to register yourself for the first ever SQL Server Day in Belgium, organized by SQLUG.BE and Microsoft and taking place at Utopolis Mechelen.

What are the topics of the presentations?

New T-SQL programmability features in SQL server 2008 (by Dirk Gubbels)

Scaling Up Your Data Warehouse with SQL Server 2008 (by Geert Vanhove)

Managing large and multi server environments with SQL Server 2008 (by Frederik Vandeputte)

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services & Report Builder 2.0 (by Dave Mommen)

Beyond relational – Geospatial Data in SQL Server 2008 (by Werner Geuens)

Predictive Analysis with Data Mining in SQL Server 2008 (by Mark Janssens and Dennis Gillon)

More info, including registration, on www.sqlserverday.be. I’ll be there!

Tags: Community Event, SQL Server, SQLUG