Author Archives: diligentdba

After running two sql saturdays and a third one coming up I have had exposure to a wide range of comments and experiences. Most of them, am glad to say, have been positive and encouraging. There are however, the few – among speakers, attendees and volunteers that are really irksome and indifferent. Buck Woody wrote a post a while ago about speaker responsibilities around conferences/events – following that i was inspired to write a few lines on my own thoughts in this area.

Attendees – Most attendees are appreciative of a free event and leave with positive feedback. Some are,though,completely oblivious to the amount of hard work it is. Some are baffled by why volunteers do so much of hard work for free and wonder if we have a life. Some simply don’t care to spend so much personal time on something work related. A lot of prospective attendees strongly believe their boss has pay for their time to attend, and/or saturdays and holidays are personal time that they will not consider spending at a technical event. Fair enough..but only if you think your boss is going to be the same guy (or company) for quite some time and you are happy entrusting your career in his hands.

Some guidelines for attendees:
1 Learning is for your benefit. It is proven enough that those who do self learning progress far more than those who don’t. People who know better have more choices and therefore are treated with more respect. Take initiative to go to free events and learn.Think before saying your boss does not support it, maybe he doesn’t but this is for you, not for him.
2 Show up if you register, or cancel if you can’t. You may be getting in way of someone who really wants to go and can’t because all seats are taken.
3 Care to fill out feedback forms for speakers – most speakers take your feedback very seriously.
4 Be considerate with criticism – a huge amount of work goes into organising events, and all of this is done by people like you who have families and full time jobs. Let them know what they can do better, but never forget that it is professional world class training for FREE.
5 If you are asked to pay for lunch – understand that it is probably because the event funds can be better used elsewhere. If you feel so strongly about it you are free to eat outside . I would not gripe about that 10$ when I get a great lunch and so much more in return.

Speakers – Most sql saturday speakers spend considerable amounts of their time and effort travelling and speaking, it is very hard to come up with criticism against them..but some general points not just for sql saturdays but for volunteer events in general:
1 Honor your commitments – there is no force to speak at any event, it is purely out of your own volition. Do think of factors such as travel time, expense and stress before committing to any event.
2 Please read emails asking for confirmation if you are selected and respond as early as you can.Many times it takes multiple emails/tweets/phone calls to confirm if you are fine with the date and selection.
3 Please be considerate if you have to cancel – try to let the organisers know as early as possible. And if it is possible to find a replacement offer to do so.
4 Please let audience know if you are filling in for somebody – i heard more than one comment from attendees when they went into a session that somebody was filling in, only to find the speaker poorly prepared and unsure of the subject. There are lots of ways to do a fill-in session and the audience will be lot more sympathetic if it is something you are doing in a hurry. I still remember Grant Fritchey’s session in SQL Rally where he filled in for someone – he made it real clear that he was doing so. The session was lively, fun, interactive and lots of learning came out of it.

Volunteers – Let us admit right away, volunteer work is hard. It takes away considerable time from personal life, and yes, it is thankless and frustrating when you read trivial comments and overt demands from some attendees. But volunteer work is also hugely rewarding because of the connections you make, the shared stories and the occasional emails from attendees who talk about what a blast the event was and how it helped them connect with so and so and find a job and so on.
1 Same as speakers, honor your commitment. Don’t  take on more than you can do if possible, although for some of us it is impossible 🙂 Try to spread work out and take care of yourself personally.
2 Be an initiator, not just a follower. It is easy to do task lists and let someone else do the thinking, but it is very burdensome for the person in charge to keep handing out task lists. Offer to take on parts of the event and do it yourself with feedback from others. Ask for a budget amount maybe, and be creative in what can be done with it. We had a volunteer who did an event booklet with hand drawings of venue and a graphically creative appearance. She also found us our first local sponsor all on her own. Another volunteer did event signs by hand. Two years ago when we were really short budget wise she started this all on her own and has been doing it since.Those are some examples of what i would think of as role model volunteering.
3 Let key organiser know and be considerate before cancelling – committed volunteers are hard to find and even harder to replace. Try to avoid last minute other commitments.
4 Above all, understand that it is a *lot* of work. Majority of my volunteers who did not show up were those who thought it was easy work like throwing garbage out after the party. There are definitely trivial tasks involved and does not hurt to ask for small roles, but to be a committed volunteer it takes a lot more than that. Don’t do it if you dont have a calling for it or cannot do so for some personal reason.

That is just a few thoughts for this time. Maybe this event will bring in more. Thanks for reading and do leave comments for me.

Inspired by:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/10/20/bonus-rant-conference-speakers-and-the-golden-rule.aspx

I have two people from out of the US in my first timers group for PASS Conference 2011 – one from South Africa and another from Australia. There are people from several countries attending the conference, from all over the world. It is a huge effort for someone to travel several miles, take time off from work, fight jet lag, get used to another culture and still make the best of what the conference has to offer. It is even more impressive when people do it on their own expense, which can be considerable for some countries. (A very good friend of mine from India is actually travelling on his own expense.)

In this post I am sharing some of my thoughts and some issues I ran into as a foreigner several years ago- I was not quite like travelling attendees, I always lived in the US so it wasn’t that hard for me in terms of travel, and some cross cultural issues were easier too –  but I still faced several issues when I attended the conference for the first time that had to do with my non US origins.

1 I went hungry, a lot – I am a vegetarian – on my first conference in Texas I didn’t get much to eat other than conference food, which was not enough. I don’t eat most stuff in vending machines either, and was really miserable/hungry. If you are vegan/vegetarian – there are lots of places to eat in and around the conference center (and Seattle is a lot more vegetarian friendly than Texas!!). Some of my choices now are –

1.1 Oatmeal at Starbucks for a low calorie breakfast
1.2 Sandwiches at Subway for the occasional bite or if I don’t like lunch/am too tired for dinner
Both are located in the conference center, and there are several in and around it too.
1.3 Whole foods market is an easy walk from the conference center. It is expensive,but you are very likely to get something from their deli that is healthy and good.(Directions in links below)
  1.4 Most hotels offer a kitchenette (microwave/fridge) in the room for a small additional cost. If you are doing the conference on your own and want to save some $, or like me, simply don’t get a good meal outside, this is the best option – although most people need to get used to the idea. I carry some curries which I make and freeze or buy frozen dinners at whole foods and just make them in the room. A small electric rice cooker is also a good thing to take along for anyone who wants to go this far to eat well.
1.5 If I am not too tired, I like to walk down and eat at the wonderful bakeries and little coffee shops around Pike place market. Most are very vegetarian friendly although not necessarily calorie friendly.
If I get concerns of food and feeling hungry out of the way the conference is much more easy and enjoyable.

2 I got lost, a lot – wasted considerable time walking and losing valuable energy. I lost or misplaced maps and spent too much time trying to figure my way around without them. Now I always keep a map of surroundings/event book on me – although downtown Seattle is a lot more easy with practice. If I feel lost I ask for directions or refer the map.(The map is always a better option). I never assume I will figure it out somehow and keep going.

3 I didn’t carry much cash – Cash is needed for tipping hotel staff,taking cabs if you venture out, and the occasional snack/other needs. Using ATMs not supported by my local bank simply cost me unnecesary extra $. Now I always keep cash, especially small change like $5 or $10 bills.

4 I did not know enough local etiquette – arguably the hardest thing and took very long.The trick here is to be forgiving of mistakes you make and keep trying, on a persistent basis. It took me a while even to master simple things like introduce myself by name, and to offer my hand to shake. Also a considerably long time to understand and interpret american ‘friendliness’.

5 I carried too many things around – walking light is a relief, especially when you have to walk a lot. Carrying unwanted stuff including a laptop sometimes can be well avoided with some planning. There are ‘browsing booths’ set up at the conference center for occasional logins and checking emails – unless it is a work related emergency or my laptop is super light(which it is not) i’d rather leave it at the hotel and just take basic things around.

6 I collected too much stuff – SWAG is nice but too much swag, especially with airlines charging for luggage is not a good thing.SWAG is also a pain to carry around. If it is for a user group and really worth it I try to go to the post office and ship it out to myself. Otherwise I only take only something that is light and really cool – no t shirts, no bulky anything if I can help it.

7 I did not make arrangements when going out – I have not exactly been in a spot with this, but found myself wondering why I did not do better planning before. In american culture people often assume you have made your own arrangements. They do help you if you ask but if you assume someone will ask or offer to walk/drive you back, it does not always happen. This is particularly important if you are a woman – now I ask and make sure someone is giving me a ride back to the hotel (and he/she is not likely to get too drunk to drive!), or walking back with me.) Worst comes I have a cab company’s phone # on me and call myself a cab(most hotels will have names and numbers of local cab companies).It goes without saying cash is needed to pay the cabbie.

8 Learning to take things less personally – this might be an odd thing to say but perhaps the #1 issue most people from out of the country have when they try to network. When people get together to socialise invariably the topics get around to a few things a person from non US origins may not know or care much about – for example, bacon,baseball or strong argumentative views on religion or politics. Some more things I personally don’t have a clue about are western music,alcohol mixes with weird sounding names, and the highly complex pros and cons of PASS election process. If the conversation gets around to any of this and keeps going on, I just wait a bit and then leave.I don’t waste time pondering why I didn’t belong or feel included as I realize it is their stuff and they may feel similar perhaps in some other country or among some other people.

The important thing to keep in mind as non US attendees – is that we are all part of a community, a rare inclusive community that is worth travelling and being part of. A considerable part of the team who made the SQL Server product are from outside the States and that is worth being proud of. With some simple effort we can all be part of the ‘PASS League’, or the ‘SQL League’, if not the bacon league.

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USEFUL LINKS

Listing of Ethnic restaurants around downtown Seattle:
http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/ethnic-restaurants-in-downtown-seattle.cfm

Wholefoods Market,downtown Seattle:
http://tinyurl.com/3bqzxzr

Cab company, Seattle
http://www.yellowtaxi.net/

Embassies and other useful info:
http://www.seattle.gov/html/visitor/internationalvisitors.htm

‘This community thing is not for me’

I got an answer like this from a long time friend of mine. He was a regular attendee at our user group meets, attended the PASS conference a couple of times, and now was running his own consulting company and doing well. He had had some bad experiences – his speaker submission was turned down once, and there had been some altercation with some celebrities. More than all that his reason was that he was ‘not much of an extrovert’ and ‘he’s already checked out Seattle’.

His reasoning around being an introvert was a little like mine, several years ago. I got into computers for that exact reason – they were lot more easier and predictable than people!! But I didn’t get very far being that way.  My friend Andy Warren says he is about being extroverted for professional reasons and a private person otherwise. I think that is the best combination of behaviors I would aim for. If I don’t get out of my comfort zone a little and get to know others, they don’t get to know me. I would lose opportunites that I do not even know existed, and I would not know whom to approach or how if I ever needed help. Now I think majority of us who have the ‘introvert’ reason are just too comfortable with our ‘comfort zones’ or devalue the benefits of getting out of it a little.

The reasons this person had led me to think about the right and wrong reasons to attend a professional conference like PASS community summit.

The right reasons according to me –

1 Learn more – hear what experts have to say, particularly on new/upcoming features,also on explorations into specifics of other features.

2 Make new friends – get to know more people like me, more dba’s, more user group leaders, understand their problems, challenges and successes.

3 Understand the direction the product and technology is evolving – particularly from keynotes and also from content of presentations.

The wrong reasons –

1 Expecting networking to work in magical ways – someone offers you work/a job, a celebrity becomes best friends…these things happen…but normal ways networking works is that it creates an initial familiarity and friendly exchange, that is all. Sometimes that can evolve into deeper friendships, sometimes it just stays as a business card exchange. But the returns are gradual, not instant or magical.  To my introverted friend these initial steps itself are a huge effort and he feels disappointed that ‘it is not working out’.

2 Looking for instant answers to some kind of technical problem – it is possible to get solutions to lot of issues, by asking questions at the right session. The microsoft ‘clinic’ at the Summit even allows you to take your laptop in and they work with you through the problem, for free. I once got help on a somewhat difficult replication issue this way. But again, it is not always possible and some answers are really not instant, they require a paid consultant to look deeper into a problem. It is a good idea not to promise your boss or anyone that you will come away with instant answers to some difficult problem – that may or may not happen. You will, however, get plenty of guidelines and pointers to the possible solution(s).

3 Getting priorities in wrong order – I do all my holiday shopping in Seattle. In fact am so used to it that am not sure where to shop when the summit moves elsewhere. But my first priority is the conference, not shopping. I use that as an opportunity to do shopping ,which is fine – but like my friend said if checking out ‘cool’ places is your priority that makes the gains out of the conference secondary.

4 This might seem funny…but looking for information on a really old version…last year i was asked at the user group by someone if the summit would have content related to SQL 2000. We are 3 versions after SQL 2000 and this year into the 4th. Most speakers would be more than happy to say if what they are talking of is SQL 2000 compatable…but to expect content on a product that old is somewhat unreasonable..technology is about staying up to date and most information would be related to newer content, not old.

Check to see if your reasons are in line 🙂

My first PASS summit was 7 years ago,at Gaylord,Texas. I was an accidental DBA of 3 years, back then. I was not in a happy place, career wise. I had worked very hard to develop good DBA skills and was doing well managing their database servers. They had assigned me another role that was unrelated to my skillsets… The writing on the wall was clear, for me and several others… ‘Leave if you don’t like it’…

I was not sure of finding a job too quickly, and did not want to end up fired..It was in this situation that I accidentally clicked on a link to PASS from the Microsoft technet website. I saw this conference happening near Dallas. I thought it would help me to atleast go and find out the type of careers and future available with SQL Server experience.  Dallas was not expensive in terms of airfare. The entire conference fee was not affordable to me, but I could take a small loan from the bank and manage two days. So I took two days off and went to attend the conference, entirely on my own.

Most of the things I learnt were way above the basic features I used..but it encouraged me to know that there was so much to this product and I could get ahead if I put in effort and time into learning it. On the last day I was wandering the hallways, feeling tired and fed up at the thought of getting back to work. There were two people sitting at a table, a bald guy with a friendly smile and another lady. They had some fliers and information on volunteering for the community, that looked interesting. I picked up courage to walk up to them and said ‘Excuse me, am new, could tell me more on what you do’. They asked me where I was from, and I told them. The bald guy asked me if I knew of a user group for SQL Server in that area. I had done my research on this and knew for a fact that there was none. So I nodded ‘no’. ‘It might be a good idea for you to start one’, he said without hesitation. A big crowd of negative thoughts filled my mind…‘Me, start a user group? Why… I did not know anyone in town aside from the people I worked with, I was an immigrant, not terribly extroverted by nature…so I was not sure where to go with the idea. But atleast he seemed to think I could do it. At a time when my morale was particularly low that was in itself encouraging. He gave me an application to fill out, along with his business card and asked me to call if I had any questions. I shoved the papers into my bag and didn’t think about it until I got home.

When I got home I put together some of the things I knew and some of the things I had learnt…into a resume’. In 10 days I had landed a new job as a DBA at another place. In the gap between the two jobs I looked at the  paperwork  and the business card again. Purely out of instinct I filled in the information and faxed the paper work to PASS Office at Chicago. PASS offered to do the first mailing for me, and our first UG meet was set to happen at the local public library.I picked up courage to call the guy who had given me the business card – he gave me 3 MVP’s contacts. I wrote to them and one of them agreed to speak. So started the first UG meet – with about 10 people in the room. Then meetings started happening regularly, and we moved from the library into a conference room at an office. Membership slowly went up to 100 people or so.

To cut a long story short, I landed my present job with the aide of someone who came to my UG meeting.He was impressed by the questions I asked a certain speaker, and gave me his boss’s email to write to. I was asked to come in to talk to his boss and two days later, offered a job with considerably more money and allowances than what I had.  I was not the speaker, I was not an MVP , or a blogger, any kind of celebrity – just an ordinary person in the audience who asked some smart questions, that is all. And a user group lead who organized some meetings and helped him find some community.

At every conference I end up meeting more smart people…and more people who inspire me to succeed with their humility, tenacity and hard work. Brent Ozar sat at a breakfast table with several others at the conference in Denver..introducing himself just as a ‘sql guy from Chicago’. Kathie Kellenberger did her first session on ‘how to do efficient meetings’ with only 10 people or so in the class room, was one of them…. Andy Warren took several hours of his time to inspire us to start SQL Saturdays..and now we are into SQL Saturday #3…Kevin Kline was the first ever celebrity who cared to speak for a small user group like ours, driving all the way from Nashville. And not enough can be said ’bout the smiling bald guy – Rushabh Mehta – because of whom we have a thriving user community where I live. The list is long..and never fails to inspire. At every conference I meet and come away with more contacts and more experiences to learn and grow from.

As Arnie Rowland rightly said the really important word is ‘Community’. There is a lot one can learn technically, there is also a lot of fun one can have in a city like Seattle. But the real benefit of the conference comes with community..the people you meet..who inspire you, support you and encourage you towards your goals. At every conference I look for people like me, standing by with the line ‘excuse me, I am new’…this time am really happy to be guiding new comers in a more organized way…and also share more on how to get the best, and learning more in the process myself. And am really happy to start my new blog with a post honoring the great community that am proud to be part of.