SQL PASS 2006, Day 3

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Networking, I'm user friendly
Networking, I install with ease
Data processed, truly BASIC
I will upload you, you can download me

      - Networking, Warren Zevon and Stefan Arngrim

Today is the third day of my trip to the SQL PASS 2006 Community Summit, and the first day of the conference proper. It's been a very interesting day.

Paul Flessner's keynote was pretty interesting, not only for the rich set of announcements he shared (Denis is here, and he's done a much better job summarizing than I could), but also for his obviously emotional reaction to his final address to the SQL Server community before his pending retirement. It was quite something to see such a dynamic and accomplished man choke up as he thanked the group. This company is certainly filled with incredibly passionate people. 

After Paul's keynote, I attended Joy Mundy's session, Solving the Integration Services Puzzle: Building your Data Warehouse ETL System (very helpful) before checking out the exhibit hall and joining Adam Machanic for a lunch conversation regarding databases and beer (we're both in favor of both of them, although my doctor has mandated that I not practice what I preach in one of these cases).

So far this afternoon, I've attended Introduction to Microsoft Business Intelligence for SQL Server DBAs (Bill Baker and Tom Casey; a very useful overview of application behavior from a DBA's perspective) and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services: Planning for the Enterprise - Scalability and Performance (T. K. Anand and Cristian Petculescu; chock full of just the sort of practical insights it can take years to uncover; the contents of this session will save me lots of time once I become a practicing BI maven). I'm planning to take in Michael White's Warehousing and Analysis Services Using Legacy Data before I hit the reception and head home.

I need to make it an early night, because tomorrow morning I've got to have Zach at a 6 a.m. basketball practice (!) before I head back here to take part in Quest Software's breakfast panel seminar, The Growing World of SQL Server: Surviving The Data Avalanche . Response to this seminar has been so incredible that it's been moved to a bigger room, so if you're at PASS and you'd like to attend this session, don't go to room 307/308, but instead go to room 4C-2, on the fourth floor of the convention center.

See you tomorrow morning!

     -wp