Kevin Kline, director of engineering services at SQL Sentry, Microsoft SQL Server MVP since 2004, founding board member of PASS, and DBTA columnist, is hitting the road this summer to reach cities across the country with large SQL Server user groups.
The reason for the road trip is two-fold, said Kline. First, summer is a somewhat slower time of year for many organizations, making it possible for people to step out of the office and take advantage of an opportunity learn more about the technology that is so important to their business. Second, the SQL Server user base is very engaged and close-knit, and SQL Server conferences are almost like a big family reunion, so the relaxed “summer road trip” approach is consistent with the values of the community.
The concept started with a plan to meet with the SQL Server user group in Chicago, and expanded from there, said Kline, who is based in Nashville. “There are a lot of great, active chapters between Nashville and Illinois.”
Kline will tackle a range of topics in his meetings with the user groups.
One topic is end-to-end trouble shooting for SQL Server. “For a lot of people,” said Kline, “that is the first thing that they encounter. There is so much information inside of SQL Server, instrumentation to show what is happening – where do you start?”
Another session will cover the internals and architecture of SQL Server, including the major components and functionality, said Kline. “For example, how does SQL Server maintain its various caches - how does it ensure that the most necessary pieces of data and the most necessary pieces of code are kept fresh in the various caches that it maintains?” And then, for a third topic, some user groups have also requested that Kline present his popular talk on the top 10 DBA mistakes.
Kline will be speaking in a different city each day on a different topic. He will be giving away custom T-shirts and there will also be prize drawings, with a grand prize drawing at the end of the summer.
SQL Sentry is encouraging customers to tweet and post their own pictures using the #SQLVacation hashtag. The full itinerary for the road trip is below. For more information, visit http://sqlsentry.com/sqlvacation.
Northbound:
• 15-Jun-2015, Louisville KY, Lunch session
• 16-Jun-2015, Indianapolis IN, Dinner session
• 17-Jun-2015, Chicago Suburbs IL, Dinner session
• 18-Jun-2015, Chicago IL, Dinner session
Southbound:
• 22-Jun-2015, Springfield IL, Dinner session
• 23-Jun-2015, St Louis MO, Lunch session
• 24-Jun-2015, Evansville IN, Lunch session
• 26-Jun-2015, Nashville TN, Lunch session