Where’s Drew, March 2018 Edition

February in Ohio is just not that fun: it’s cold, it’s still dark out most of the day, and there just isn’t much to do. It was with that attitude and sense of “blah” that I neglected to talk too much about where I was going to be last month. For a quick recap, though, I was alive and did some things:

• I was fortunate to head up to SQL Saturday Cleveland again this year. Man, the folks who put that event together really do it well. I presented to a packed house on automating SQL Server and got some awesome feedback.
• Speaking of Cleveland, that’s where Bert Wagner lives, and since he came out and rocked SQL Saturday as well, we made a couple of videos. First we talked about contributing to dbatools and then we made, uh, a different one. Even Andy Mallon got in on the act!
• I also gave a remote user group presentation for the Triangle PASS (TriPASS) user group on, you guessed it, the merits of automating SQL Server things with PowerShell. Remote presentations are hard, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and as always, Kevin’s a great host.

So yes, still warm is the blood that runs through these veins. With February drawing to a close, it’s time to start looking ahead to March and ho-boy, it’s going to be a doozie. A lot of SQL Saturdays are starting to ramp up for the next few months, as well as, well, here:

• I’m starting off March by hopping on a plane to San Jose to attend the Strata Data Conference. Presented by O’Reilly and Cloudera, it’s going to be the first time I’ve attended an event solely related to big data, machine learning, and data science. I have to be honest: most of those things don’t excite me. That said, I’ve been working more and more with big data processing solutions at work and frankly, it’s something that I need to get better at. I’m heading out to the conference with a couple of co-workers and doing the two-day classes ahead of the conference proper, and I’m hoping to bring back some practical stuff to try on the data we’ve been aggregating at work from all kids of smart devices. Since I haven’t done much in this space (outside of just configuring and tinkering with Linux) I’ve been learning python in my spare time too, and I’m hoping to pick up some neat Apache Spark tricks while I’m there, too. I’m actually kind of excited to attend, since this will be the first conference I’ve been to in a while that isn’t focused around SQL Server. I’ll blog about it for sure, if you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like.
• A good friend of mine, Rick, has put together a “Dublin Give Camp” event as well. The premise is pretty unique: he’s looking for a bunch of developers and data professionals to basically run a hackathon all weekend to come up with a new application to help Dublin City Schools manage their professional partnership program. This hits all the high notes for me: I love the City of Dublin, I love Rick, and I love SQL Server, so it seems natural to sign up to help. I’m looking forward to helping out.
• On March 13th, I’ll be presenting remotely to the Wisconsin SQL Server User Group. The topic? PowerShell!
• SQL Saturday Cincinnati is happening! Thanks to some dedicated folks down in the Queen City, PASS is making a debut event down there. I may not be a native Ohioan, but I’m proud of the team and I’m thrilled I got picked to speak. Even if I hadn’t I’d probably still come down and support them. If you want to hear about some of the internals of Transactional Replication, come on over on March 17th!
• Back in January, I presented a two-day online class for Brent Ozar Unlimited on learning PowerShell and how to use it as a DBA. The class was something I worked really hard on preparing, and the entire process up to and including presenting was such a great experience. The reviews were all so kind. So that means we’re doing it again! The class is March 22nd and 23rd, and as of this writing there’s still plenty of seats available. If you or someone you know wants to learn the basics of PowerShell and then how to apply automation to SQL Server, consider signing up today.
• Last but not least, I’ve been promising Amanda that I’d come out to the Michiana PASS group and give a presentation, and it’s time I made good on that. I’ll be driving out to South Bend to present in person on March 26th.

Wow, when you put it all down to print it looks like a lot, doesn’t it? Of course I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love all of it. What about you? Are you heading out to any of these events where we can meet up and say hello? I sure hope so. Here’s to hoping for a great March!