13Jun 2012 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

PASS Nomination Committee

PASS
For some reason, which isn’t completely clear to me, we’re voting for part of the members of the Nomination Committee who will work their buns off (make no mistake, this is not a glamor posting) to pick and choose from the people applying to be possible candidates for the PASS Board to arrive at a final slate. This voting opens today, although you can’t seem to vote from the web site, but have to wait for an email to show up (not yet in my Inbox). Regardless of the confusion I feel about this, I’m going to vote for the people I think will do a good job. You should too if you’re a member of PASS. I know almost every one of these people personally. Any of them will…
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16May 2012 by Grant Fritchey 18 Comments

Don’t You Know Who I Am?

PASS, Professional Development
I’m happy to say that for most of you out there, the answer to this question is “no.” That’s as it should be. I’m not anyone all that special. I present technical sessions at various events from local user group meetings to SQL Saturday’s to international events like the PASS Summit and 24 Hours of PASS. Why? Not because the attendees know my name, that’s for sure. It’s because of a combination of at least two of these three things: The organizers might know my name or may know of my books or the fact that I’m working for a vendor that sponsors their event I’ve submitted sessions that seem to be of interest to the people who might be attending the event being organized I’ve got a track record…
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19Dec 2011 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

PASS Summit 2012 Evaluation Results

PASS, Professional Development
I say it all the time because it’s worth repeating, feedback is a gift. Good, bad or indifferent (well, not indifferent), feedback is a wonderful gift. Any time you appreciate a speaker, give them feedback. Any time you think a speaker could improve, give them feedback. Any time you hate a speaker, give them feedback. It’s really the best thing you can do. With that in mind, I have a huge stack of gifts in front of me here, the evaluations from the PASS Summit.Thank you very much to each and every one of the 160 different evaluations I received. I presented three times at the summit, once on a pre-con with Gail Shaw called “All About Execution Plans,” one time in a spotlight session called “DMOs as a Shortcut…
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30Nov 2011 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Board Elections

Professional Development
Here is the list of suckers, uh, I mean, candidates, that actually want to subject themselves to the board. Look these people over, weigh them, and vote well. Things are running a little different this year. The elections are being held between the 6th and the 20th of December. The PASS Community is an amazing thing and these people are going to potentially improve it, maintain it, or degrade it. If you’ve attended any of the 24 Hours of PASS, the PASS Summit, SQL Rally, SQL Saturday, your local user group, and you’ve received something positive from any or all of them, then you’ve seen the benefits of the Professional Association for SQL Server. If you want to see PASS improved, or at least maintained, then it’s up to you…
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22Sep 2011 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

SQL Server Execution Plans

PASS, Professional Development, SQL Server
I write quite frequently about SQL Server Execution Plans. I started in that area just because that’s how you figure out what a query is doing and sooner or later, we all have to tune a query. I found I was doing it sooner and more frequently. When the opportunity came up to write a book , I jumped on it. Now I find myself presenting, rather frequently, on execution plans. One of the people I’ve learned from over the last several years is Gail Shaw (blog|twitter). I first saw Gail on stage at the PASS Summit, I think it was 2007. A co-worker of mine was picked, along with Gail, to go on stage for the Quiz Bowl. Gail was answering all the questions. If you go over to…
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16May 2011 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL Rally

PASS
The first ever SQL Rally was held just last week. It was an excellent time. The event was organized and run by PASS. Which means, in  effect, it was a like a mini-Summit. I’m struggling a bit to come up with the words to describe what the event was like. It was so much more than a long SQL Saturday, but describing it, as I just did, as a mini-Summit mischaracterizes it as well. I guess it must be it’s own critter. Let me just tell you what went on, maybe that will help. The event was held at a very nice hotel, the Marriott World in Orlando, Florida. The Rally proper was two days long, but there was a set of pre-conference seminars held the previous day, making the…
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14Apr 2011 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Performance Tuning: Start to Finish

PASS
The very first ever SQL Rally is taking place in a little less than four weeks in Orlando Florida. It’s going to be quite the event. There will be two full days of sessions on any number of topics. But before that all starts, there’s going to be a set of full day pre-conference seminars. These too are on a number of topics, but I’m hoping to draw your attention to just one, mine. I’ve put together a seven hour session on query performance tuning. I’ve tried to make it as complete as I possibly can. I’m going to cover the whole process from collecting data on your machines to identify where problems may be, to understanding the optimizer so you know how things work, to reading execution plans so…
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22Feb 2011 by Grant Fritchey 15 Comments

What Should PASS Be?

PASS
Andy Warren posted a question the other day (well, issued a challenge actually), “What Should PASS Be?” I’ll let you go and read that & wait here… Done? Cool. Moving on. I have thoroughly enjoyed my associations with PASS over the years. I’ve been a first-time attendee, a volunteer and a presenter at the PASS Summit. I’ve volunteered with the PASS organization with the Special Interest Groups, the Editorial Committee, and as Editor of the SQL Standard. I’ve taken part in 24 Hours of PASS as a presenter, host and attendee. I have helped to put on SQL Saturday events, attended them and presented at them (and we have another one coming up on April 2nd in the Boston area, please register here.). I was one of the founding officers…
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17Feb 2011 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL Rally

PASS
I believe I’ve been far too quiet about this event. In May, in Orlando Florida, there will be a two day SQL Server conference called SQL Rally put on by PASS. This is a somewhat unique event since the sessions have all been chosen by the community. That’s right, a series of votes was held online (and if you missed it, you weren’t paying attention) so that all of you were able to decide which sessions you’d most like to see. I’m bringing this up because, now, it’s up to you to register and go. Did I mention the pre-con? No? Well, there will be a one-day pre-conference seminar. There are multiple sessions of excellent material at the pre-con. These were also voted on by the community. One of them…
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02Feb 2011 by Grant Fritchey 25 Comments

PASS Summit Location

PASS
Andy Warren has posted another one of his excellent summaries of what’s going on at the PASS Board. Andy, thanks for what you do. Those of us who care about what goes on at PASS really appreciate your posts. The discussion under consideration this time is the location of the PASS Summit. As you may be aware, it’s been held in Seattle for several years now and will be there for at least two more years going forward. It seems that the board is leaning, extremely heavily, towards making it a permanent fixture in Seattle. I can see why they might do this. First, and biggest, it’s next door to Microsoft. That means the Summit gets tons and tons of Microsoft Employees in attendance, which is a huge draw and…
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