24 Hours of PASS: Preview to 2010 PASS Summit

PASS is having another 24 Hours of PASS (24 HOP) event to give a preview of what can be expected at the 2010 PASS Summit. In case you didn't know the 24 HOP event features 24 live webcasts which provides free SQL Server education from some of the top SQL Server and BI experts from around the world. This is the third time that the event is taking place and it will be held on the 15th and 16th of September. Unlike the previous 24 HOP events which were 24 consecutive one hour presentations, this event will be presented 12 hours a day for two consecutive days. If you are interested in gaining SQL Server knowledge then check out the 24 Hours of PASS website for more information about registration for the event. On the site you will also find out about some BONUS Session from Microsoft. Separate registration is required for these sessions.


The last event was special because I achieved my goal of attending all 24 sessions. This time I plan to attend all 24 sessions and the four bonus sessions. I will also be the moderator for session 20 - “Automate Your Database Maintenance Using Ola Hallengren’s Free Script” which is being presented by Brad M. McGehee. Brad is the Director of DBA Education for Red Gate Software and is an accomplished Microsoft SQL Server MVP with over 15 years SQL Server experience. He is a frequent speaker at SQL PASS, European PASS, SQL Connections, SQLTeach, devLINK, SQLBits, SQL Saturdays, TechFests, Code Camps, SQL Server user groups, and other industry seminars.

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PASS SQL Azure VC Event: SQL Azure 101 - RESCHEDULED‏

Due to some issues that occurred, our first event had to be rescheduled to September 7th 2010(today) at 12:00 PDT. I apologize for the late update but we wanted to ensure that everything was properly arranged before sending the new date; unfortunately some confirmations took longer than we expected.

For more information about the event see my previous blog post.
For the Live Meeting link please visit the PASS SQL Azure Site.

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TTSSUG Event Review: Lifecycle of an SSIS package

The Trinidad and Tobago SQL Server User Group (TTSSUG) held its second meeting at the Leon Agostini Conference Room, in the Chamber of Commerce Building on August 25th. The meeting had a total of 41 attendees which included members and a few newcomers from various organisations.

We began with a small presentation to explain the mission and goals of TTSSUG and also to introduce the steering committee to the attendees. The presentation ended with an introduction of the main presenter, Gregory Chee. Gregory is an Application Consultant in Microsoft Business solutions department with Esprit Consultants Limited and has over 7 years of IT experience. His presentation, Lifecycle of an SSIS package: From development to production, gave a brief introduction to SSIS and helped people to understand the basic concepts of SSIS. Most of his session was focused on demonstrating how to create and deploy two SSIS packages. The first package was a basic ETL package which introduced Control Flow items such as Data Flow Task and Execute SQL Task. The package also showed the use of Data Flow sources, destinations and some basic transformations. The second package was create to combine data from multiple excel files and compare them to a database in order to produce a report. This package highlighted variables, looping, table lookup, output redirection and package logging. The presentation and the packages can be downloaded here.

I would like to thank Microsoft Trinidad and Tobago team for sponsoring this event and for assisting us with everything that contributed to the event. Also special thanks to Gregory Chee for coming to share his knowledge with the group during his vacation time. Last but most importantly, I would like to thank the people who attended the event and who were interested in attending the event. For more information about SSIS please visit SSIS homepage on MSDN.

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Are You Tweeting What I Am Tweeting?

Recently my involvement with various local and international groups has increased and I realise that my new activities/responsibilities along with my everyday activities is causing a delay in informing the public about upcoming events. I have come up with a solution that will allow me to give updates about events as soon as possible. My plan is to create a wrist watch that can scan my mind for events information and then send it to an application that will create a blog post and send mail to the respective mailing list. This solution will take some time to be implemented so in the meantime I will use Twitter to give people heads up on various events.

If you are interested in local and international events and you want to know what's new going on in the 'SQL World' you can follow me on twitter. I may tweet about other tech stuff that I find cool (such as the mind scanning watch) but I won't be tweeting about things like what I had for lunch and what I am planning to have for dinner.

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Community Events: TTSSUG meeting and Trinidad and Tobago Software Architect Council (TTSAC) launch

On the 25th of August 2010, TTSSUG will be holding its second meeting and Microsoft Trinidad and Tobago will be launching a new committee, the Trinidad and Tobago Software Architect Council (TTSAC).

The TTSSUG meeting would be focusing on Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS is a platform for building enterprise-level data integration and data transformations solutions and is an important component of The Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform. This meeting is recommended for Developers, Database Developers and Database Administrators. See the invite below for more details.

The TTSAC launch will give insight on how this new community can facilitate the growth of the local IT ecosystem and ignite the drive for innovation. This meeting is recommended for Software and Enterprise Architects. See the invite below for more details.

I hope to see you at both events!

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PASS SQL Azure VC Event: SQL Azure 101

PASS SQL Azure Chapter is a new virtual chapter (VC) whose goal is to become one of the best resources for anything and everything SQL Azure. As part of the leadership committee I would like to invite you to join us for our first Live Meeting event, SQL Azure 101. The presentation will introduce you to the SQL Azure world and help you to understand the benefits that it can provide. The event will be occurring on Wednesday 18th August at 6:00 PM EST and the presenters will be Scott Klein and David Robinson.

Scott Klein is co-founder of Blue Syntax Consulting, a company that specializes in Azure training and consulting. Scott has been working with SQL Server for nearly 20 years, working with companies large and small all over the United States, working in a wide scope of fields such as medical, finance, and retail. Scott is also a veteran author, having written a number of books including Professional SQL Server XML, Professional LINQ, Pro ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.0, and the soon to be released Pro SQL Azure. Scott is a SQL Server MVP and President of the South Florida SQL Server Users Group and the newly formed Azure PASS Virtual Chapter. He speaks frequently as SQL Saturday events and user groups, and was lucky enough to speak at the 2008 European PASS conference in 2008.

David Robinson is a Senior Program Manager on the SQL Azure team. David is responsible for a multitude of things including driving product features, code samples, and most importantly demonstrating to customers the value that SQL Azure and cloud computing provides. You can often find him speaking on Channel 9 or TechEd.

For the Live Meeting link please visit the site at: http://azure.sqlpass.org/

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PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter Interview

Last month, Nancy Nasso (PASS Community Coordinator) recommended me to Kathi Kellenberger, SQL Server MVP, for an interview. Kathi was interested in interviewing a new PASS chapter founder for the Professional Development Virtual Chapter, a chapter which provides information about Professional Development for people in the technology industry.

She interviewed me via email and recently posted it on their blog (An Interview with New Chapter Founder, Nigel Sammy). The information will be useful to anyone interested in starting a user group/chapter and it will also give some insight as to why the Trinidad and Tobago SQL Server User Group (TTSSUG) was started. Thanks Nancy and Kathi for this wonderful opportunity.

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