All-Day at Virtual Houston Tech Fest 2020

It's a full day at Houston Tech Fest 2020 for us. Speaking at Houston TechFest is an decade-long annual tradition interrupted only by a hurricane and one year where I missed it to be at a wedding. This year for the first time it's all-online thanks to a host of great volunteers acting as virtual moderators.

Christine and I each presented four times (once jointly) and each were recorded to Youtube:

9AM: Mixed2-1 Certification Exams Inside Out | Slidedeck | Video on Youtube

10:10AM: Mixed2-2 SQL Admin Best Practices with DMVs | Slidedeck | Video on Youtube

11:20AM: Mixed-3 Ethics in Modern Data | Slidedeck | Video on Youtube

2:50PM: Mixed2-5 What's New In SQL Server 2019 | Slidedeck | Video on Youtube

Good to see you at Houston Tech Fest 2019!

It was awesome to see a great crowd at the triumphant return of Houston Tech Fest 2019. This year's event was hosted at the beautiful Microsoft Office in Houston. Thanks to everyone who joined my presentation on SQL Server Permissions and Security Principals 101 after the lengthy lunch break and learned all about SQL Server permissions, starting with the basics and moving into the security implications behinds stored procedures, views, database ownership, application connections, consolidated databases, application roles and much more.

You can download the slidedeck here: https://github.com/williamadba/Public-Presentations/blob/master/Houston%20Tech%20Fest%202019/SQL%20Security%20Principals%20and%20Permissions%20101.pptx

and reference the toolbox here: https://github.com/sparkhoundsql/sql-server-toolbox

Thanks again to the host employees at the Houston Microsoft Office for opening their doors on the 10th floor to a wide variety of area tech professionals. I met database administrators, sysadmins, Agile Scrum masters, recruiters (even someone looking for a LAMP developer), students, jobseekers, IT managers, and more.

Thanks for joining us at the Spring Houston Tech Fest 2018

Congrats to Michael, Eric, John, all the organizers and volunteers, and all the speakers for a successful Spring Houston Tech Fest 2018. It was a pleasure for the wife and I to get back into speaking at this conference, and oh did we, with a combined six hours of quality Assaf material. It was also great to see a presence from local schools and IT companies, including a whole bunch of folks from Improving. As a local tech conference organizer myself, a big personal thank you to Improving for bringing a host of speakers.

Thanks to usergroup.tv, video of my first presentation, "What's New in SQL Server 2017", is available online.

This was the first time I presented my "Think Like A Certification Exam" session, based on my experience as a writer and SME for the SQL Server exams since 2012. Thanks for everyone who attended and asked so many great questions. And best of luck to all of you who are still students as you launch your careers! Maybe just wait a few years before shooting for the MCSE. :)

I also presented my "What's New In SQL Server 2017" session, gave away a copy of SQL Server 2017 Administration Inside Out, and was joined again by my colleague Steve Schaneville for "Twilight TimeZone: Handling Time in Your App Architecture", our delve into the murky depths of handling time zones in your applications.

All the slides from all three presentations are available for download here.

During my "Think Like a Certification Exam" we asked the hard questions. 

Ready for Houston Tech Fest 2018

Houston Tech Fest is this weekend!

In 2016, there was a wedding. In 2017, rescheduled at the last minute because of Harvey, I couldn't reschedule. But prior to 2016, I had spoken at Houston Tech Fest going back to 2010 (at least, memory fails). I'm really happy to be returning to this annual event in its new season and venue, this weekend at the San Jacinto College Central Campus in Pasadena, TX.

Since you're familiar with SQLSaturdays, Houston Tech Fest will feel quite familiar, though with a broader technology scope. Register for this free Saturday training event today: houstontechfest.com

I'll be speaking in three time slots:

Session 1: What's New In SQL Server 2017

Session 3: Think Like a Certification Exam

Session 5: Twilight TimeZone: Handling Time in Your App Architecture (jointly presented with fellow Sparkhound Principal Consultant Steve Schaneville)

My wife Christine will also be speaking three times at the event, and will almost certainly draw more folks to her sessions than any of mine will. Not jealous!

See you there!

Houston Tech Fest 2013 - SQL Admin Best Practices with DMV's

Here is the downloadable file with all my sample scripts and slidedeck from my SQL Admin Best Practices with DMV's presentation from the 2000+ person Houston Tech Fest 2013 at the Reliant Center in Houston!

Thanks for attending! If you attended my talk, shoot me some feedback here: http://speakerrate.com/william.assaf

Download scripts and slidedeck

SQL Server Best Practices for DMV's - Houston Tech Fest 2012

It is a pleasure meeting everyone today at Houston Tech Fest!  The new facility is miles away - literally and figuratively - from the previous Houston Tech Fest facility.

Here's a link below for downloading the presentation files and sample scripts from my presentation on "SQL Server Best Practices for DMV's" at Houston Tech Fest 2012 at the Reliant Center.

Download the .zip file here.

Slides and Sample code: SQL Server Admin Best Practices with DMV's from the Houston TechFest 2011

Here's my official blog page for my presentation on SQL Server Admin Best Practices with DMV's from the Houston TechFest 2011 on October 15.  Thanks for attending my session in the of a great event put on by Michael and the entire Houston TechFest team.  The University of Houston was a great host for the event!

Thanks also to all the sponsors who attendees.  In the speaker room I heard some discussion of HTF's decision to have back-to-back Keynotes in the morning, not starting the actual sessions until 11AM and then breaking for lunch at noon.  I have to agree with what I heard - the vendors paid the money to put this free event on, why not give them the freshest audience?  As a veteran of three SQL Saturdays in Baton Rouge, I have to admit it was an uncommon but inventive scheduling decision.  If it increases vendor satisfaction and retention for next year's event, nobody should mind, especially the attendees.

Download slides and sample code here.

You can give me a rating on SpeakerRate here.

Houston TechFest UG Leadership Summit

At the Houston TechFest 2011 Conference at the University of Houston I will be hosting a User Group Leadership Summit at NOON as part of the "Advanced" track.

I invite anyone current involved with a local .net, IT Pro, SQL Server, Sharepoint, or any other user group, in any region, to attend.

We will have an open forum for discussion with voted topics, I will merely introduce myself and proctor and nothing more.

This will be my second year going to the Houston TechFest, and last year (though I spoke in the last slot - some time in the early evening, in a hot, dim, sleepy room) was a blast.  I was very impressed with the crowd, the speakers, and the vendors and I am looking forward to seeing them all again.  As part of the committee that runs SQL Saturday Baton Rouge each year (#17, #28, #64 and again 2012 as well) I took some pointers from it.  HTF is definitely a wider diversity of technologies and topics, but not something that a SQL Saturday can't hope to be.

I will be making the road trip to Houston with more than a dozen of my coworkers for the event, and I will be joined in speakers shirts by three of my coworkers: Ryan Richard, Mike Huguet and Kerry Huguet.  I will be presenting on "SQL Server Best Practices with DMVs" at 2:30pm in the SQL Server track.

DMV Overview Presentation from Houston TechFest 2010 on October 9

Here's the .Zip file link to slide deck and scripts (including the scripts I didn't get to) for my talk on DMV's from Houston TechFest 2010.

What a great event!  Good job to the event coordinators. 


Could have used more signage to the building, and more signage within the building. 


This is probably my best experience giving this talk, and I've given it at three SQL Saturdays and a SQL Server user group meeting too. Excellent questions, excellent discussion, and I don't mind at all that we went long.  It was my second straight event speaking in the last session slot, starting at 5pm.  First off, starting at 5pm sucks.  At a previous SQL Saturday, I had to turn off the lights because of a weak projector and I lost half my audience to the dark and late time. 

But despite all that lined up against me, I had more than a dozen folks in attendance and they were very engaged in the conversation.  Thanks and congrats to all of you in attendance for making it a great session.