Exam Cram with DataWeekender talk - Think Like a Certification Exam

Fresh off of a two-part, co-authored blog series on certification exams and test-taking prep, I've got a fresh batch of fun sample questions for the January 2023 Data Weekender Exam Cram series. Looking forward to discussing the recently-released Microsoft Azure certification prep resources too at 5:30pm Irish time or 9:30AM PT. 

Register to attend at: https://www.meetup.com/DataWeekender/events/289815767/

Azure cert prep materials are also receiving quite a bit of investment in new resources: career guides, test sandbox, live Azure resource sandboxes, free practice assessments, and more. I'll look forward to discussing those!

You can find the .pptx for my presentation here on GitHub. Questions? Comments? Reach out on LinkedIn.

A video recording of this session is available: 

Speaking at SQLSaturday MN 2022

Thanks all for joining me for two sessions at SQLSaturday Minnesota 2023, and for great feedback and questions. I'm always a big supporter of SQLSaturday events whenever I can and I was honored to speak virtually to this conference again!

Slide decks for my two presentations are available for download on GitHub.

I'm speaking at PASS Data Community Summit 2022

Looking forward to speaking in Seattle at next week's PASS Data Community Summit by Redgate. I'll be speaking both as a representative of my role on the Microsoft Database Docs team and as a data professional. 

On Wednesday Nov 16, you'll find me in the main exhibit hall in the Microsoft Booth Theater (#217) giving a presentation on contributing to Microsoft Docs, at 530pmPT. Hope to see you there. If prizes are available to give away, you know I'll give em up.

On Thursday afternoon, Christine and I are presenting together on a topic that is important to us, Ethics in Modern Data. I bring my years as a data professional and Christine brings her experience and a Masters degree in Organization Psychology, combined with our passion for history, civil rights, and technology. We'll be discussing issues ripped from the news headlines and in history. These will frame a discussion about bias in data collection and analysis, and our responsibilities as data professionals. I hope we spark your interest in these important topics that shape our data industry.

On Friday morning, I'll be presenting a full hour on Database Docs. We'll discuss how they work behind the scenes and how you can contribute to open-source docs via GitHub. This will also be an interactive feedback panel for the entire Docs platform inside Microsoft Learn. Hope to see you there, inspire you to contribute to the Docs that the entire data community uses daily, and answer any questions.

Speaking on Ethics in Modern Data at Improving Edge 2022

Christine and I are looking forward to speaking at the Improving Edge conference, co-presenting our session on Monday, June 6th. Our presentation on “Ethics in Modern Data” features topics relevant to modern developers and data professionals, using historical and current events to discuss ethics in data collection and analysis. 

This is an important topic that lives at the crossroads of our careers, Christine's career in organizational psychology and human resources, my career in data, our work and volunteerism in civic non-profits, and our joint passion for history and civil rights. It's important to understand that when dealing with bias: outcomes matter, intentions don't. 

Our slide deck, references, and citations are available for download.

SQL Server Admin Best Practices with DMVs at GroupBy Americas 2021

On Tuesday I'm looking forward to presenting again at GroupBy Americas on a topic that was voted on by the attending public. This presentation "SQL Server Admin Best Practices with DMVs" is a talk that I've been giving for more than a decade and been tweaking and tuning ever since. 

This talk covers basic roll-your-own maintenance strategies using data inside SQL Server including wait stats, query stats and the Query Store, fragmentation and index maint, index DMVs for new/existing indexes, and a ton more helpful DMVs introduced in SQL 2017 and 2019. 

You can register for this talk here: groupby.org.

You can download my presentation here, and the toolbox of sample scripts referenced throughout can be found in here.

#GroupBy Americas: #DBA Track starts soon!
Here's our lineup of speakers:@gfritchey@hellosqlkitty@solarwinds with @SQLBek and Devon Wilson@PureStorage with @DBArgenis@Aschenbrenner@william_a_dba@Dallas_DBAs with Jeff Moden@dbanuggets

Register: https://t.co/1ss3ldVAwQ pic.twitter.com/3LjrMDzDye

— GroupBy (@GroupByConf) May 25, 2021

This Saturday: #DataWeekender, DataSaturday Southwest

Geeked to be speaking 2x on Saturday May 14, my second time speaking at #DataWeekender and at the very first Data Saturday Southwest 2021.

My Certification Exams Inside Out is one of my favorite presentations to give. Its fun, its positive and career-oriented, it's useful for folks at any point in their career. Between my guided walkthrough based on actual experience and fun sample test questions, I hope help you understand both how a question gets written, and how best to go about answering.

Slides for my presentations are available for download on Github: #DataWeekender and Data Saturday Southwest 2021.

"Ethics in Modern Data" at Minnesota Developers Conference 2021

Looking forward to speaking to a brand new conference for us, the Minnesota Developers Conference 2021 on May 4 at 2pmCT. Christine and I will be presenting a talk that we're both passionate about. We bring both our career focuses to the topic of modern data analytics, construct analysis, historical and current bias, and modern machine learning algorithms. We'll talk about ethics of bias in data both historical and issues ripped from the headlines. 

See you at 2pmCT virtually from Minnesota!

Our slidedeck for the presentation is available here.

"Think Like a Certification Exam" at Certification Saturday 2021

I'll be presenting at Certification Saturday 2021 this weekend! I'll be contributing my talk on How to "Think Like a Certification Exam" at 3pmGMT/8amPT.

Microsoft is offering any one certification exam for USD15 to anyone who has become unemployed or furloughed due to the pandemic this year. Schedule an exam before December 30, 2021. If you're interested in learning more about how to prep cert exams, how they're written, and how the test questions are constructed, I'm presenting on this topic.

Slidedeck available for download here. Video recording available on YouTube here.

"Ethics in Modern Data" at the Inland Northwest Data Professionals Association

Looking forward to speaking to one of our new home turf's data organizations, the Inland Northwest Data Professionals Association. My spouse Christine and I will be presenting a talk we're both passionate about and bring our career focuses to the topic of data, construct analysis, historical and current bias, and modern machine learning algorithms. We'll talk about ethics of bias in data both historic and ripped from the headlines.

Join us at NOON PT on April 8 here: https://www.meetup.com/inland-northwest-data-professionals-association/events/277102053/

Slidedeck available for download here.

Become a Contributor to Microsoft Docs

Starting this month, I'm leading a talk series with my teammates from the SQL Docs team at Microsoft. In this presentation we lay out just how easy it is, an how exactly, to contribute to Microsoft's Docs as Code in Github. We're looking forward to increasing visibility and ease of access to community contributions to the open source Docs that millions of professionals use every day.

If you'd like the SQL Docs team to deliver this talk to your local user group or community conference, reach out to us on Twitter or message me on LinkedIn or comment on this blog post, we'd be happy to get on your schedule. I've list upcoming engagements for this talk my Speaking Engagements page on this blog. 

Abstract: Join the SQL-Docs content team for a discussion on modern Microsoft documentation (regardless of technology). Learn about the content publishing engines behind Docs, and the best ways to add your content and fixes to Docs that are read by the entire customer community. There are hundreds of thousands of GitHub issues and PR’s submitted to Docs every month, how can you be an effective part of that process and get your face on the top of an article?

Presenter: MSFT SQL-Docs team (panelist headcount TBD)

Bio: Members of the Microsoft SQL-Docs team will present this thorough walkthrough on how you can contribute and be recognized as a SQL Docs contributor. 

Virtual User Group Presentations, Feb 23-24

I'll be presenting at two virtual SQL data platform communities this week on a couple well-rehearsed topics, each with fresh updates.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EST

DBA Fundamentals Virtual User Group

Event link: SQL Admin Best Practices with DMVs | Slidedeck | Toolbox

Wednesday, February 24, 2021
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM EST
Database Professionals Virtual Meetup Group
Event link: Security Principals 101 | Slidedeck and Samples

Looking forward to speaking to both these audiences this week, interacting and answering questions! It will be my first time speaking to a public user group community since joining Microsoft in November and I'm eager to get rolling again. 

PASS Virtual Summit 2020: I'm (Virtually) Presenting

I'll be presenting at 7AM Central Time in the first timeslot of the main three-day PASS Virtual Summit 2020 conference. It's long been a goal of mine to present at the best of all international SQL conferences, and this is the first year it happened for me, so I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

It's not too late to register for the all-online event, with the same great quality content as always, at a fraction of the usual cost of going to Seattle.

Like many (but not all) presentations at PASS Virtual Summit, my 75-minute presentation will feature roughly 60 minutes of pre-recorded (and painstakingly edited) content, with the rest of the time available for live Q&A with the speaker. 

My presentation will cover a lot of important foundational material about security, accounts, authentication. 

• For folks new to SQL Server security design and administration, this will be a great foundation for your learning. 
• For those experienced in SQL admin, this will be a thorough evaluation of what you know, or thought you know, and maybe some gaps in what you know. 
• I think there is content in here to interest everyone in the SQL career lifecycle, and I’m not just guessing at that. I got my first DBA job in 2006. I’ve been giving a presentation on Security at User Groups and SQLSaturdays basics for years, it was one of the first topics I started speaking technically on a decade ago. As my own experience has deepened and broadened throughout my career, so has the content I build into this presentation. 

So I’m going to start basic, and build quickly from there, focusing my content around common hurdles and tasks that database administrators face, in the hopes of deepening or broadening your experience, as well. 

I'm setting the stage for a good conversation around security at PASS Virtual Summit 2020, especially around how permissions behave inside each database, how you can design database security, the relationships between logins, users, and databases. My session one of a four part Learning Pathway on security. We worked together over the past four months to make sure we're presenting a thorough conversation on security. 

In subsequent presentations over the next three days:

• John Morehouse is presenting on Understanding Modern Data Encryption Offerings for SQL Server, including a lot more information on all the various sorts of encryption, plus some important security features of SQL Server like Transparent Data Encryption and Always Encrypted.
• Jeff Renz is presenting on Securing Your Data In Azure: Tips and Tricks, which covers Advanced Threat Detection, the Azure Key Vault, cloud secure connection strings, and certified data sets for security in PowerBI.
• Ed Leighton-Dick will cap it off with a presentation on Building a Security Dashboard for SQL Server, talking about when certs expire and what does that actually mean, more on Azure Advanced Threat Detection, SQL Audit and monitoring.

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

New Microsoft Azure Certifications presentation at BRSSUG

Hi internet! 

Thanks to the surprising number of you who joined our first ever virtual meeting of the Baton Rouge .NET and SQL Server User Groups tonight!

I presented on the new generation of Microsoft Azure Certifications coming out, talked about what they did with our old MCSE's and highlighted the new cert paths for developers, DBA's, and data analysts. I also talked about the new remote proctored cert exams available for you while *all this* is going on.

Our first ever virtual UG meeting in Baton Rouge was made possible by the awesome enthusiasm volunteer streaming manager Bedford Nieves-Sanchez!

Slidedeck download here. Best of luck on your upcoming cert pursuits!

The first ever online BRSSUG/BRDNUG meeting 

We peaked at 39 viewers during our first ever stream!