I was a little later than normal getting this post out since I literally got a new job the day after getting back from SQLSaturday 232 (see post).  I didn’t forget you Orlando!  This was an exciting SQLSaturday for me.  It was the first time my husband went with me to a SQLSaturday outside of my local one in Indianapolis.  That one is a whole different ballgame since it’s one I organize and I put the whole family to work for me (evil slave-driver I know).  SQLSaturdays and SQLFamily are important to me so I was determined to get him introduced to these events and folks he hears so much about all the time.

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We flew in on Friday.  I was half tempted to come earlier for some of the fantastic precons going on but decided better not.  We were already planning on staying a couple days afterward for some tourist fun.  We made it in town with plenty of time to get to Karla’s (blog|twitter) house for the speaker dinner.  God bless her, she was the main organizer of this SQLSaturday AND was brave enough to have the party at her house!  I love parties at houses, very intimate and laid back.  No way I am that brave/crazy though.

Look at all that orange!

Next morning up early.  Not early enough to catch the early bird sessions.  They had some sessions that started at 7:30am!  That was the first time I had seen sessions that early.  I made it in time though to get situated before Jonathan Kehayias’s (blog|twitter) session.  I was on a mission to meet him and catch his session since he’s often my reference of SQL knowledge (“well I’m no Jonathan Kehayias but…”).  I accomplished both so was a happy camper.  He had a packed room for extended events session.  He showed some great stuff like how he finds the culprit of ASYNC_NETWORK_IO waits with them.

Jonathan Kehayias session on extended events

After his session was mine on spatial data.  I was anxious to get a practice run of my upcoming PASS Summit session.  It went amazingly well!  I had a really engaged audience and many who stayed late to chat more and discuss things.  I got some good feedback and some ideas to make session better for next time.  I wanted to answer all questions I had after my session so I was late to my lunch duties.  Andy Warren (blog|twitter) and the team in Orlando have a tradition of having the presenters help serve lunch which is a nice idea.

The lead chef, Andy Warren.

The speakers serving up the grub

After lunch I went to Mike Davis’s (blog|twitter) session, “Complex DAX Functions”.  He ended up having a fairly new to PowerPivot audience so much of the beginning he had to go over basics.  He did get to some of the advanced topics such as creating a many to many relationship.  After that I went to meet Doug at the Confio booth.  It was kind of a crazy crossing of my two worlds a couple weeks earlier.  I found out one of my best friends from college had a brother who worked at Confio!  From there it was on to Mike Hillwig’s (blog|twitter) session on VLFs.  I had seen it before but well he’s just great so I went again.  I was glad I did as saw a lot of his progress on the session from before.  Nice job Mike, flow was much improved.

Mike Davis going over PowerPivot

Mike Hillwig going over VLFs

The last session of the day was from Tim (blog|twitter) and Amy Ford (twitter) and their experience with telecommuting.  I had been talking with BlueGranite for quite some time so I knew that telecommuting could be in my future.  I was anxious to hear what I could be in for with working from home.  I was lucky enough to get that job with BlueGranite, so have put some of them into action from the get go like having my own work space.  Next I witnessed the other tradition of Orlando SQLSaturdays which was the tossing of giveaways and swag from a decently high balcony. I forgot to ask Karla if they get extra liability insurance for this piece.  The organizer in me was squeamish at this!

Tim and Amy Ford on telecommuting

Watch out now! Flying swag!

The after party was held at 4th Street Bar and Grill where we had a nice outside section to ourselves.  After some beer and lobster mac n cheese, Karla was crazy/brave again and invited folks to their house for the after after party.  We had such a good time!  The hubby couldn’t stop talking about playing those drums for days!  Thank you to Karla/Rodney (blog|twitter) for the hospitality of your house both nights.  Thanks to Karla and the entire Orlando team for a great event!  So glad you all invited me to come speak!