SQL Server Community
Committed to Australia’s SQL Server Community
LobsterPot proudly supports the Adelaide SQL Server User Group both financially and by encouraging its consultants to deliver high-quality technical presentations to local crowds. As a result, LobsterPot Solutions’ consultants have gone on to deliver sessions at events such as SQL Code Camp, Microsoft TechEd Australia, SQLBits (UK), and the Global PASS Conference in Seattle, as well as user group events in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, remotely to groups internationally, and to other groups, such as .Net and SharePoint groups.
The Adelaide SQL Server User Group
There is immense value in participating in a global network of professionals all committed to creating better database technology. LobsterPot actively supports the Adelaide SQL Server User Group. Rob Farley, LobsterPot’s Principal Consultant, along with his team members, coordinate the meetings and frequently speak on a variety of topics. They have been involved in the group since it began and have coordinated over 70 meetings since then. LobsterPot’s connections to worldwide SQL Server experts means that many international speakers have spoken to the group, including Microsoft’s Buck Woody and Conor Cunningham, Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp, Jessica Moss, Aaron Nelson, Chris Testa-O’Neill, Darren Gosbell, Jonathan Kehayias and Kendra Little. If you would like to get on the mailing list for the group, please Contact Us and we can arrange that.
Some of the recent sessions from LobsterPot consultants include:
“Yes, we are all individuals” – a look at uniqueness in the SQL world (Rob Farley)- March 29, 2011
Put Your Feet Up : Simplified Management using the Enterprise Policy Management Framework (Martin Cairney)- January 25, 2011
What’s new in SQL 11 (Roger Noble)- November 23, 2010
Data Visualization Ideas (Rob Farley and David Gardiner)- August 17, 2010
Understanding SARGability (Rob Farley)- February 21, 2010
Using Reporting Services with Analysis Services (Rob Farley)- December 15, 2009
Reading execution plans (Rob Farley)- September 18, 2009
CloudDB – the end of the Accidental DBA? (Rob Farley)- June 26, 2009
The why, where and how of PowerShell with SQL (Rob Farley)- January 27, 2009
To learn more about the Adelaide SQL Server User Group, please visit adelaide.sqlpass.org
The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS)
LobsterPot Solutions’ support for the PASS organisation goes far beyond the Adelaide user group.
The PASS Summit
Rob Farley and Roger Noble made the journey to Seattle in November of 2010 to be involved in the premier conference, at which world-class sessions are delivered by renowned SQL Server experts. During the conference, Rob Farley delivered two Breakout Sessions and a Lightning Talk. His sessions received much acclaim and raised LobsterPot’s worldwide profile.
24 Hours of PASS Virtual Conference
24 Hours of PASS is free event that delivers 24 virtual sessions on SQL Server. LobsterPot Solutions began its involvement in 2010 when Rob Farley stepped in at short notice to cover a late cancellation in the schedule. He delivered Session 20, Advanced T-SQL Tuning Techniques. Later in 2010, Rob delivered a session in the following 24 Hours of PASS event, “Understanding SARGability to make your queries run faster.” The session attracted over 100 in attendance and paved the way for LobsterPot’s involvement in the ‘Spring’ 2011 24 Hours of PASS – Celebrating Women in Technology. Rob sat on the steering committee responsible for session selection, event format, and logistics. Read the blog posts on the most recent 24 Hours of PASS linked here.
Data Visualisation
LobsterPot Solutions has helped PASS at in international level by displaying more than 200 global chapters on an interactive map, and also showing PASS data using PivotViewer. You can view the map on PASS’ website, and the PivotViewer examples at LobsterPot’s PivotViewer portal.
Other Conferences
SQLBits UK
Even before joining LobsterPot Solutions, Martin Cairney had presented twice at SQLBits in the UK, both in Reading during October 2007, and in Newport in November 2009. Martin spoke about SQL Server security and about the Enterprise Policy Management Framework.
Also in November 2009, Rob Farley travelled to Newport in Wales to deliver an all day, deep-dive preconference session at SQLBits V entitled What’s New For Developers In SQL Server 2008. This was another situation of Rob filling in for a late cancellation. He also delivered two sessions in the main conference there, and received much acclaim for his presentations.
In October 2010, Rob Farley delivered another all day, deep-dive preconference session at SQLBits VII in York, teaching attendees how to fix queries through advanced T-SQL techniques. Rob illustrated real-life queries and took the class through examples of constructs that can have significant effects on tuning. This included complex nested joins, join simplification, procedural functions, SARGability, execution plan reading, complex sorting, ORs, effective Dynamic SQL, GROUP BY v DISTINCT, unique indexes, temporary tables, and more.
Code Camp
Rob Farley has delivered sessions at all four of the SQL Code Camps held in Wagga Wagga, Australia, from 2006 to 2009. In addition, Rob Farley and David Gardiner have both delivered sessions at the Code Camp SA events, held in Adelaide Australia.
Microsoft TechEd Australia
In 2006, Rob Farley stepped up his involvement in Microsoft’s premier Australian conference, and became a Technical Learning Guide, a role which he continued for the next few years. In 2007, Rob was invited to present a breakout session, followed up by sessions in 2008 and 2009. 2010 saw David Gardiner stepping into the Technical Learning Guide, and he also delivered an Interactive Learning Lab, teaching attendees about .Net technologies.
In 2010, LobsterPot provided a PivotViewer application showing the TechEd sessions, featured by Microsoft’s Michael Kordahi at the Keynote address. For more information, read Rob’s description of PivotViewer collections. If you would like to some of see LobsterPot’s other PivotViewer work, click here.