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Given that most people walk around with a GPS enabled mobile device in their pocket all day, it is hardly surprising that there is increasing interest in spatial data. I was surprised, however, that three sessions on spatial data were voted in for SqlBits 7 happening this Saturday (2nd October 2010). 9:30 AM-10:30 AM, You can create UK maps ...

On Friday I delivered a presentation at SQLBits which was an awesome event  attended by about 450 people.  There were some really good speakers presenting who know SQL inside out (and even written part of it), so I always feel a bit anxious about presenting about SQL Server, which I don’t use on a daily basis, with and to people who have ...

The video of the presentation that I did at SQLBits Goes West is online.  You can view it from the session details page : ‘SQL, NoSQL, SomeSQL - A look at non-relational databases’. I listened to the presentation this morning to check where I need to improve my delivery (answer: a lot of places) and to check if it is indeed a good ...

It's that time of year again!  SQLBits registration is now open and this time it is going to be bigger and better than ever! For the first time SQLBits will be held during the week and at the week-end as we have grown the event to span three days. It’s also going to be held at the world famous Celtic Manor hotel – home to the 2010 Ryder ...

With a mixture of sadness, delight and complete relief I am proud to say that SQLBits IV has been put to bed.  Like the preparations for a wedding, I almost miss the fact that I don't have "the big day" to worry about any more - almost.  And what a great day it was too.  We had a record attendance reaching out to over 370 ...

This week I am finalising my preparation for the talk that I am giving at SQLBits this weekend. ‘Finalising’ means taking the points that I want to make and other things floating around in my head and produce some meaningful slides so that I don’t go off track too much – so I still have some work to do this week. In preparing for a presentation ...

A couple of days ago I was asked to explain the difference between synchronous and asynchronous I/O.  This was something that I covered last year at SQLBits II in my presentation "I/O! I/O! It's off to work we go...". However, when I was asked again the other day I thought of a rather good analogy. Synchronous Shopping It's ...

In an earlier post I mentioned that the 4th July had been set as the deadline for submission of session abstracts.  This deadline has now been extended till July 11th as there are still a number of people who we are waiting to hear from.  For those of you still mulling over your session submissions you now have exactly a week to get your ...

Not a lot more to say about this other than... HURRY.  You only have till the 4th July to get those abstracts written and your sessions submitted. SQLBits is a really great community event and this one is going to be the biggest ever.  We are aiming for 450 delegates this time and expect those sessions to be as wide and varied as ...

Saturday March 01 2008 was the second SQLBits conference.  This is not an ordinary conference - it's a community conference created by some of the UK's leading SQL Server practitioners. Tony, Simon, Allan, Darren, Martin & Chris put an amazing amount of effort in to organising the event and I think the result was there for all to ...