SQLSaturday #332 - Minnesota 2014
Event Date: 10/25/2014 00:00:00
Event Location:
- University of Minnesota - Keller Hall
- 200 Union Street SE
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
This event has completed. All data shown below is from the historical XML public data available.
If there are any data quality issues or corrections needed, please contact the webmaster for this site or submit a pull request for the appropriate file(s).
Sessions
This is a list of sessions from the event, based on the schedule in the XML files.
Title: Performing a SQL Server Health Check
Abstract: How often do you review your SQL Servers for basic security, maintenance, and performance issues? If you say never, I’m not surprised - many of the servers I “inherit” as a managed services provider have many gaping holes. It is not unusual to find databases that are never backed up, constant login failures (is it an attack or a bad connection string?), and servers that need more RAM/CPU/etc. (or sometimes that have too much!)
Come learn how to use freely available tools to check your servers for basic issues like backups and CheckDB as well as for more advanced issues like page life expectancy and indexing. If you are responsible in any way for a Microsoft SQL Server (DBA, Windows Admin, even a Developer) you will see value in this session!
Speaker(s):
- Andy Galbraith
Track and Room: DBA 2 - N/A
Title: Secure Your SQL Server Instance Without Changing Any Code
Abstract: Secure your SQL Server infrastructure and your Windows installations to enhance resiliency and minimize exposure to attacks – all without touching a single line of code! In this session you will learn about Transparent Data Encryption, IPSec, Database Firewalls, Contained Databases and many other technologies that help you lock down your systems and close attack vectors. This talk puts great emphasis on the biggest threat to your database: SQL injection, offering many remediation techniques to prevent such attacks. During the demos, you will learn techniques to deal with vendors who require SA accounts to run their applications. Protect your SQL Servers without having to wait for your Developers or Vendors to make changes!
Speaker(s):
- Argenis Fernandez
Track and Room: DBA 1 - N/A
Title: A New Frontier of Government Open Data: What it Means to You Microsoft BI Tools
Abstract: I am following up to a 2011 SQLSaturday presentation that I gave on this same topic. Open Data is freely available for everyone to use and republish as they wish without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. The United States Government has a dedicated open data portal at Data.gov, and there are now hundreds if not thousands of open data portals from countries, provinces, counties, companies, and cities. Now that there is open data available for you to reach out and grab, what comes next? I’ll review the maturation process of the open data movement, some examples of what’s been done with it by myself and others, and how Microsoft BI tools are prime for mashing it up to make it usable and understandable. Now that open data is widely available, the benefits it has to offer governments, companies, academia, and individual citizens will continue to expand exponentially. We now have the information, so let’s get going with the integration!
Speaker(s):
- Greg Beaumont
Track and Room: BI 1 - N/A
Title: Power to the Prototypes: Using Power BI to Deliver Better SQL Reporting
Abstract: As SQL Server professionals, we have a complicated relationship with Excel-based tools. Rather than broadly paint Excel as friend or foe, why not learn how Power Query Power Pivot can improve the SQL Server solutions you develop? In this session, we’ll cover scenarios where Power Query and Power Pivot can be leveraged to get the most from the proof-of-concept phase of your reporting, ETL, analytics projects. Learn how Power Query can help you test the quality of your data well before the production ETL is deployed. We’ll also cover how Power Pivot can help you visualize the structure and granularity of your data, and why it’s the perfect “gateway drug” for SSAS cube development. If you’ve ever had a BI project fall flat because “We didn’t know what we didn’t know” or want to avoid delivering a hundred reports when the data merits ten, this is the session for you!
Speaker(s):
- Gina Meronek
Track and Room: BI 2 - N/A
Title: DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting
Abstract: Is there a great difference in the brain chemistry of someone fleeing a hungry mountain lion and someone presenting to a group of colleagues in a corporate board room? The answer is: NO. Over the past decade, a lot has been learned about the chemistry of the brain and why humans react the way we do to events in our environment. The concept of EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is a compelling and growing concept that applies this knowledge in a set of learnable, improvable skills for leading human beings. While EQ is often applied to corporate leadership, the parallels to presenting are fantastic. This session will explain the basics of EQ and demonstrate how you can apply it to make your presentations better in the following areas: * Crafting better slide decks * Preparing yourself for presenting * Delivering your content * Dealing with the unexpected Understanding and practicing the concepts of EQ can make your presentations a better experience for everyone in the room–including you.
Speaker(s):
- Mark Vaillancourt
Track and Room: Other - N/A
Title: The Accidental Report Designer: Data Visualization Best Practices in SSRS
Abstract: Whether you are a DBA, a developer, or an analyst, there is a good chance that you will have to create reports for coworkers, company executives, or clients. As with any UI design, careful consideration should be given to your data visualization design to ensure you are effectively communicating the intended message and providing a good user experience. While the principles are applicable across reporting platforms and tools, this session will contain demos and examples implemented in Reporting Services using SQL Server Data Tools. Learn how to make information (not just data) the focus of your report and provide your audience with something better than just shiny!
Speaker(s):
- Meagan Longoria
Track and Room: BI 2 - N/A
Title: Scary Things A Database Owner Can Do
Abstract: So you’ve setup your new SQL Server instance and it’s time to start adding databases to it. You followed security best practices at the instance level, but what about security within each database? Is that something you can control? Well, if like me, you work in a shop that mostly purchases software, then having users with database owner permissions is a reality, and likely not one you can change. But members of the db_owner role can only make changes that would adversely impact their own databases, right? Think again. During this session we’ll review some common database level settings and actions which can have a negative impact across the entire instance. We’ll discuss ways to mitigate these risks and monitor for their occurrence. Come learn how to not let poor choices made by a database owner impact your entire instance.
Speaker(s):
- Paul Timmerman
Track and Room: DBA 1 - N/A
Title: Pseudo-Constants in SQL
Abstract: You know you’ve done it. Maybe it was the lucky number 7. Maybe it was an enigmatic X. Maybe you smooshed some words together in ALLCAPS. That should be easier to spot, right? Because some day you might need to change it—in every stored procedure, function, and view.
Magic numbers, codes, identifiers, constants, enumerations. Whatever you call them, all applications have them. Sure it’s quick and easy to sprinkle the values throughout your code, but that breeds mistakes, rigidity, and obfuscation. There has to be a better way!
Other languages give us real constants and enums—with IntelliSense and compilation-level enforcement. Well guess what– SQL Server does too, sort of. Join us and learn to write clearer, easier to maintain code without sacrificing performance.
Speaker(s):
- Riley Major
Track and Room: DEV 2 - N/A
Title: SSIS Deployment and Configuration
Abstract:
With the release of SQL Server 2012 we were introduced to a new way of deploying SSIS projects and packages and configuring them at run time. These new features include the project deployment model and the Integration Services Catalog.
This session will discuss the details of these features including:
• Configuring package properties using SSIS Parameters
• Project level connection managers
• Deployment to the Integration Services Catalog
• Creating environments and using environment variables
• Executing packages in different environments
Come and see how easy it is to deploy and configure the same SSIS packages to run in multiple environments.
Speaker(s):
- Andy Bolk
Track and Room: BI 1 - N/A
Title: How do I create an automated ETL test suite ??
Abstract: There are many automated test frameworks available for different types of applications, but Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) data movement applications seem to lack an efficient and easy to use automated test framework. We will review how to create automated tests with a data driven approach by showing how the tests self-generate based upon the data in the Information-Model schema in SQL Server and 4 slender custom tables that define the field data mapping between the source and target. The last half of the session will be a demonstration of the tests to illustrate how they execute. To do this we will quickly review the functionality of the tSQLt test framework and the stored procedure code we created that generates the tests. We will review the considerable functionality in tSQLt that makes ETL testing and database testing easy and efficient. We will execute hundreds of tests in the short time during the presentation.
Speaker(s):
- Terry Bunio
Track and Room: BI 1 - N/A
Title: Every Byte Counts: Why Your Data Type Choices Matter
Abstract: Ever encounter a table consisting only of BIGINT, CHAR(255), and NVARCHAR(MAX) columns? Did your gut tell you that this is bad, but you had difficulty explaining why? Did you know that these Datatype Choices can be a real performance killer? Attend this session, learn how database records are stored within SQL Server, and why all data types are not created equal. Armed with that knowledge, we will then explore several performance scenarios that may be impacting your systems right now! When you leave, you should be able to explain why datatype choices matter to your colleagues, assess your own systems, and implement some best practices to mitigate these performance killers.
Speaker(s):
- Andy Yun
Track and Room: DBA 2 - N/A
Title: Query Tuning for Developers
Abstract: As a seasoned DBA, we often forget the basics of query tuning may be an area others haven’t been introduced to. Tuning can be a mystery for developers and DBAs that are starting out with SQL Server. Each operation and its cost can lead to lengthy research escapades, determining if the work is even worth the time to attempt a change in the overall execution plan. This session is going to discuss the basics of tuning; however, we can’t end there. The second half of the session, the discussion portion, will focus on the key operations in the execution plan. The overall goal of the session is to take away knowledge on how to start with a query and use execution plans to refine it and turn it into a finely tuned process.
Speaker(s):
- Ted Krueger
Track and Room: DEV 1 - N/A
Title: Building the Modern Data Platform Whiteboard Session
Abstract: The modern data platform is more than a server in your data center. It goes far beyond that with the ability to reach beyond your data center to the cloud. Through cloud offerings, you have the ability to grow past your current hardware limitations and deliver data solutions that grow and expand with your data needs. In this white board session, we’ll explore cloud offerings for your data platform and how the support the needs of DBA to provide the infrastructure and performance that data platforms demand.
Speaker(s):
- Jason Strate
Track and Room: Other - N/A
Title: Easy Things to Make SQL Easier
Abstract: In this session for beginner/accidental DBAs, we will cover 5 concepts we’ve come across that have helped make SQL easier to manage. These are practical applications that attendees can start designing and implementing in their environments right away. With a unique approach to presenting, Jen and Mark create an interactive session that you can not only learn from but have fun in as well.
Speaker(s):
- Jennifer McConnell Mark Classen
Track and Room: DEV 1 - N/A
Title: SQL Injections and How To Stop Them
Abstract: SQL injections are a technique where malicious users can inject SQL commands into a SQL statement, through web page input. If left unprotected, SQL injections can cause havoc with web applications by compromising security, manipulating data, hoarding system resources, retrieving sensitive data, removing databases and database objects, or taking databases offline! This session will show how SQL injections work, identify if you are being attacked, and cover various prevention techniques and their effectiveness.
Speaker(s):
- Jeff Prom
Track and Room: DEV 2 - N/A
Title: Cloudy with a Chance of SQL
Abstract: You have heard all of the buzzwords and hype surrounding Microsoft Azure and the Cloud but what is it really and more importantly how can you use it effectively to solve the most important problems facing your organization today. We will look at both Windows Azure SQL Databases and using Azure VM’s to host SQL Server. Let Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server Jason Horner show you how to apply your existing DBA skills to leverage SQL Server in the cloud.
Speaker(s):
- Jason Horner
Track and Room: Other - N/A
Title: Structured Ad Hoc Reporting-Case Study of an Oxymoronic Reality
Abstract: The large franchise corporation in this case study was looking to provide franchisees with a mechanism to create their own custom reports from a PC, Android device, or iPad. In order to minimize training and support, the desired environment was to be highly structured while still providing reporting flexibility. Come see how SSRS and SSAS along with custom .NET code were used to fulfill these requirements and create a solution which franchisees called intuitive, revolutionary, and life changing.
Speaker(s):
- Brian Larson
Track and Room: Other - N/A
Title: Transactional Replication 101
Abstract: Replication simplified! Learn the basic parts that make up replication, what tools are included to help you along plus a look into monitoring.
We will cover the players in the game: Pubishers, Subscribers and Distributors, then delve into the data delivery process with Publications, Subscriptions and Articles, finishing up with the Log Reader and how to make sure everything is working and running smoothly.
Speaker(s):
- Wendy Pastrick
Track and Room: DBA 1 - N/A
Title: T-SQL: Simple Changes That Go a Long Way
Abstract: Writing TSQL that performs well requires knowledge beyond proper syntax, sometimes it requires more than just knowing TSQL, and sometimes it takes a bit of rework and ingenuity. There are simple things that you will learn in this session that will improve the performance of your queries. Learn about indexing techniques and reading execution plans to see if the optimizer is using the index. Performance isn’t everything though. There are small things you can do to make your TSQL more maintainable too. We will dive into a few TSQL tricks with Common Table Expressions, Table-Valued Parameters, and COALESCE.
Speaker(s):
- David Valentine
Track and Room: DEV 1 - N/A
Title: Using PowerPivot to Drive Quality into ETL Processes
Abstract: Throughout the past year, we have effectively used PowerPivot, Data Explorer, and Power View to map, evaluate, and measure our ETL processes. In this session, you will learn how PowerPivot can be a key component in verifying data quality. You will also see how Data Explorer can help you shape data for test harnesses and test plans. Finally, you will see how Power View in Excel 2013 can be used to easily share results of ETL projects, especially during the development process.
Speaker(s):
- Steve Hughes
Track and Room: BI 1 - N/A
Title: Rapid Table Restore
Abstract: Restoring a full database just to get one table creates a burden on DBA time, IT infrastructure and SQL resources. Come learn about a solution that can make this process more efficient. Imagine being able to browse backups and storage tier snapshots to find and copy out the table you need without having to use SQL to restore the entire database!
Speaker(s):
- Dave Logue
Track and Room: BI 2 - N/A
Title: Getting Down with Power Query and Power Map
Abstract: In this session you will learn about the self-service ETL capabilities that have been added into Excel. See how easy it is to pull in data from the web and integrate it and enhance your existing data to provide useful insights. We will also take a look at the new data visualization capabilities provided with Power Map and see how easy it is to interact with and explore geographic and temporal data. These are two new self-service capabilities that have been added and are part of Power BI, don’t miss out!
Speaker(s):
- Dan English
Track and Room: BI 1 - N/A
Title: On-Demand Compute and Analytics with Powershell, Hadoop and Azure
Abstract: This session will take the beginner in big data and show them how to use powershell, HDinsight and Microsoft’s Azure platform to enable on demand analytic and compute. These capabilities are critical in the modern data warehouse environment and can only be delivered by technologies working together to create an analytic fabric that the organization can use. From developers the analysts and operations folks, this session will have something for all of you.
Speaker(s):
- Adam Jorgensen
Track and Room: BI 2 - N/A
Title: NoSQL?!? No WAY!
Abstract: NoSQL?!? No WAY!
Don’t worry - the relational database still rules the data kingdom, but the world of data is moving beyond the confines of rows and columns and into a variety of types of systems.
At the end of this session you will be able to dazzle your family and friends with your knowledge and application of the CAP theorem. We’ll take a walk through the various types of NoSQL systems and discuss why you would use them. You’ll be armed with the right information to understand where document, columnar, key value, or hybrid solutions shine - and when you should avoid them.
Speaker(s):
- Lara Rubbelke
Track and Room: Other - N/A
Title: Eureka! Visual deep dive into storage internals
Abstract: Sometimes half the battle in computing is just to see what’s happening. We will take a visual tour of physical database storage structures, using live demos with the freeware application SQL Server File Layout Viewer and our old friends the DBCC commands as guides. See what happens in a data file when you convert a table from a heap to a clustered index! See fragmentation and the havoc wrought by Shrink! Marvel at the behavior of multiple files and filegroups! Index Rebuilds! Eureka!
Speaker(s):
- Merrill Aldrich
Track and Room: DBA 1 - N/A
Title: Mastering queries into XML data.
Abstract: If you’ve never queried an XML column you definitely want to attend. After this hour there won’t exist an XML element whose value you won’t be able to retrieve. If you’ve been querying for years there is still a fair chance you’ll learn something new.
Speaker(s):
- Rick Bielawski
Track and Room: DEV 1 - N/A
Title: Practical Powershell for the Harried DBA
Abstract: We DBAs are a busy lot. As time passes, it seems like we’re being asked to configure and manage more and more servers and databases without an increase in headcount. What can we do to keep up? In this session, you’ll learn about Powershell and how you can use it to automate your routine (and not-so-routine) tasks. After covering the basics, we’ll get into some practical scenarios and compare the Powershell approach with the alternatives.
Speaker(s):
- Ben Thul
Track and Room: DEV 2 - N/A
Title: Designing a Restore Strategy
Abstract: Do you back up your databases? If the answer is yes (and I really hope it is), do you test your restores? If a table gets dropped at 1:53PM, can you restore the database to 1:52PM using log backups? Can you use the WITH STANDBY parm to apply log backups to a read-only copy of a database? For the answers to these questions and a whole lot more about database restores, plus some nifty scripts, join me for this presentation.
Speaker(s):
- Frank Gill
Track and Room: DBA 2 - N/A
Title: Protecting SQL Data for Availability and DR
Abstract: This session provides a comparison of SQL High Availability Disaster Recovery options, presented by a practitioner who has implemented and managed all the SQL High Availability and Disaster Recovery approaches (and various combinations thereof). We will provide an overview of all the various HA DR options, then compare trade-offs for complexity, usability, hardware, licensing, failover speed, initial costs, ongoing support costs, staff skill requirements, etc.
Speaker(s):
- Tim Plas
Track and Room: DBA 2 - N/A
Title: SQL Server Features That Will Blow Your Mind!
Abstract: How many lines of code does it take to generate a running total? How would you find a value in the next row of data - without using a cursor or loop? How can you efficiently store rows of data with a lot of optional fields, and how can you quickly find which of those rows have values? And how can you eliminate locking without resorting to dirty reads? SQL Server has answers for all of these questions, and none requires more than a few lines of code. Give me an hour, and I will blow your mind!
Speaker(s):
- Ed Leighton-Dick
Track and Room: DEV 2 - N/A
Title: Table Partitions for Archiving
Abstract: What is Table Partitioning? How can it be used to move large amounts of data quickly? How can it be used with a data archiving strategy to quickly and easily drop archived data from a table? We will discuss the practical applications of table partitioning using scripts to generate new table partitions, move a partition to another table and discussion on how this can benefit you.
Speaker(s):
- Eric Zierdt
Track and Room: DBA 2 - N/A
Title: Index Methods You’re Not Using
Abstract: There are index methods in SQL Server that can enhance the performance of your queries - but most likely, you aren’t using them! If you have a solid knowledge of index basics and want to add to your collection, this is the session for you! I’ll show you how filtered indexes, compressed indexes, and indexed views work and can improve performance!
Speaker(s):
- Jes Schultz
Track and Room: DEV 1 - N/A
Title: How to Argue with Your Infrastructure Admins – and Win
Abstract: Do you feel like you spend hours going round-and-round with your system, storage, and virtualization administrators over SQL Server best practices? Are their application-agnostic requirements hurting your SQL Server’s performance, or worse, their reliability? David Klee (@kleegeek) will discuss valuable insight into how to start and work through the common conversations with them on the SQL Server infrastructure practices that matter to you the most, and how to succeed in getting what you need while keeping everyone happy.
Speaker(s):
- David Klee
Track and Room: DBA 1 - N/A
Title: A Date With DAX: Time Intelligence in Tabular and PowerPivot
Abstract: This session will focus on the time intelligence functions built in to DAX along with writing custom date logic to deal with a range of common reporting requirements. We will cover the use of the built in functions as well as how to recreate their logic with non-standard calendars.
Some key topics include:
- DAX time intelligence functions
- Date tables
- Filter expressions
Speaker(s):
- Greg Baldini
Track and Room: BI 2 - N/A
Title: Intro to Locking and Blocking
Abstract: Understand the basics of SQL Server locking including lock modes, lock granularity and lock escalation. Also what is blocking, why should you be concerned and what you can do about it.
Speaker(s):
- Kirby Richter
Track and Room: DEV 2 - N/A
Speakers
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
Merrill Aldrich
Twitter: - @onupdatecascade
LinkedIn: Merrill Aldrich
Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/merrill_aldrich/
Merrill is a consultant with the national Digital and Technology Consultancy RBA. In past lives he was a SQL Server DBA for Financial Services and Real Estate Management organizations, a designer of buildings, an expert in three dimensional computer graphics and building information modeling, a speaker, teacher, and visiting lecturer.
Steve Hughes
Twitter: - dataonwheels
LinkedIn: Steve Hughes
Contact: http://www.dataonwheels.com
Steve Hughes is the Director of Consulting at Pragmatic Works. In his current role, Steve manages the consultant team at Pragmatic Works and directs implementation of our cloud practices for customers. He focuses on team development and company growth with this role. In his previous role as a Principal Consultant Lead, he focused designing solutions for customers on Microsoft technologies including SQL Server, Power BI, and Azure. He has been working with technology for over 20 years with much of that time spent on creating business intelligence solutions and helping customers implement leading BI and cloud solutions. He is passionate about using data effectively and helping customers understand that data is valuable and profitable.
Jennifer McConnell Mark Classen
This SQL couple has 18 years of SQL experience between them in areas of Admin, Development, Tuning, and Design. As DBAs, their over-riding daily goal is to come up with working solutions that allow them to be paged as little as possible. When not immersed in SQL at their jobs or their home lab, these two enjoy riding their motorcycles to places that will cook them bacon. They also both enjoy trying crazy, new things like doing their first ever SQLSaturday presentation!
David Valentine
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/IngeniousSQL
LinkedIn: David Valentine
Contact: http://www.ingenioussql.com
Dave Valentine is a Development DBA with over 15 years of experience with SQL Server and development technologies, specializing in Business Intelligence and ingenious solutions. Dave has also been an Adjunct Professor at Metropolitan State University for the past 15 years educating students in Database Management and Application Development. Dave started giving back to the SQL community a few years ago by presenting at Local PASS Chapters, SQLSaturday Events, and blogging at IngeniousSQL.com.
Rick Bielawski
LinkedIn: Rick Bielawski
Rick has 35 years experience as a systems, applications and database architect having designed major systems for such institutions as NASDAQ, Bank of America, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Ecolab and Emperex. He holds multiple certifications including MCITP and MCSE in Business Intelligence and Data Platform. Rick currently designs database systems for custom software applications and likes speaking at local user groups and SQLSaturday events.
Dave Logue
Contact: http://www.thedatarecoveryblog.com/
With more than ten years of data recovery experience in a market defined by the continual evolution of data storage technologies, David leads a team of engineers who specialize in the remote recovery of high-end SAN and NAS storage technologies. He assists customers around the world with the recovery of data from failed or damaged computer systems while ensuring efficiency and quality at every stage of the data recovery process.
Ed Leighton-Dick
Twitter: - eleightondick
LinkedIn: Ed Leighton-Dick
Contact: http://www.edleightondick.com
Ed Leighton-Dick is a Microsoft MVP, SQL Server performance and architecture specialist, and Founder/Principal Consultant of Kingfisher Technologies. He is a frequent volunteer with PASS, including current roles as a Regional Mentor, co-leader of I-380 PASS local group, and co-leader of the HA/DR virtual group. He can often be found teaching sessions at local, regional, and national events, including user groups, SQLSaturday, and PASS Summit.
Argenis Fernandez
Twitter: - DBArgenis
LinkedIn: Argenis Fernandez
Contact: http://blog.purestorage.com/author/argenisfernandez/
Argenis is a Principal Architect at Pure Storage. He works with customers around the world to make sure they don’t have to worry much about their infrastructure for Data. He is a former Data Platform MVP, former VMware vExpert, Microsoft Certified Master, and more recently worked in the Microsoft Azure Data/SQL Server engineering team as a Principal PM in the Tiger team.
Brian Larson
Twitter: - @Brian_Larson
LinkedIn: Brian Larson
Contact: http://sqlmag.com/author/brian-larson
Brian Larson is Chief Creative Officer/Partner at Superior Consulting Services and has presented at SQL Server Connections, PASS Summit, and the Microsoft BI Conference. As a consultant to Microsoft, Brian contributed to the original code base of Reporting Services. Brian is the author of “Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services: 5th Edition” and “Delivering Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2016: 4th Edition”, as well as the forthcoming “Data Analysis with Microsoft Power BI.”
Andy Galbraith
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/DBA_ANDY
LinkedIn: Andy Galbraith
Contact: http://nebraskasql.blogspot.com/
I’m a forty-something Microsoft SQL Server DBA of 18+ years, a devoted husband, and a father of three young boys (all aged eight and under!) I have been a DBA at a public university, at a major bank, at a healthcare system, and I now work as a consultant with customers across the United States. I write and speak primarily about the tips and tricks that I discover along my SQL Server journey.
Jason Strate
Twitter: - @stratesql
LinkedIn: Jason Strate
Contact: http://www.jasonstrate.com/
Jason Strate is a SQL Server Solutions Architect with Pragmatic Works. He is also a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and MCM. He has over 15 years of experience developing, architecting, and managing data platforms. Jason writes, blogs, and presents on SQL Server.
Mark Vaillancourt
Twitter: - @markvsql
LinkedIn: Mark Vaillancourt
Contact: http://markvsql.com
Mark is a Data Solutions Architect for Microsoft, helping organizations design data solutions in Azure. He has been working with Microsoft data technologies since 2007. Before joining Microsoft, he was a Business Intelligence consultant and two-time Microsoft Data Platform MVP. With a background in Theater and Improvised Comedy, Mark makes sure that his presentations are both informative and fun.
Jes Schultz
Twitter: - http://twitter.com/grrl_geek
LinkedIn: Jes Schultz
Contact: https://blogs.lessthandot.com/author/jes-borland
Jes Schultz is a Software Engineer with Microsoft who has experience with a wide range of SQL Server features from version 2005 through 2019, and is on the cutting edge with Azure technologies. Since graduating Fox Valley Technical College with an IT-Programmer/Analyst degree, Jes has worked as an SSRS developer, DBA, and consultant. Before joining Microsoft, Jes was a six-time Data Platform MVP, recognized for her community work. Jes tackles every project and problem with tenacity and her enthusiasm is unmatched in the SQL Server community. In her free time, Jes never stops moving, and counts fitness, coffee, cooking, and travel as essentials in life.
Kirby Richter
Twitter: - @sqlkirby
LinkedIn: Kirby Richter
Kirby Richter is a Minnesota SQL Server Professional with 20 years’ experience. Currently Principal Database Architect at Dell Storage, specializing in Database Administration, large databases and Performance Tuning. Working with all versions of SQL Server since 6.5 Enjoys Development, Database Administration and Business Intelligence. Presents periodically at local events. Hobbies include kayaking, camping and amateur Astronomy.
Andy Bolk
Twitter: - @bolkster
LinkedIn: Andy Bolk
Andy Bolk is a BI Consultant at Tail Wind, in Minneapolis, MN. Andy began his ETL career working with DTS in 2001 and has 9 years of SSIS experience in multiple industries.
Andy enjoys outdoor activities and is an avid fan of Minnesota sports teams.
Jason Horner
Twitter: - jasonhorner
LinkedIn: Jason Horner
Contact: http://blog.jasonhorner.com
Hi, my name is Jason I’m a practice lead at Redapt. I spend most of my day helping clients solve business problems mostly in the Data and Advanced Analytics spaces. Sometimes this involves various and sundry cloud technologies including Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Data Lake Store, Azure Databricks, HDInsight and Azure SQL Database. I’m fluent in several languages including: SQL, C#, Python, and PowerShell.
I’m a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server (MCM) and have been recognized for my technical excellence and evangelism efforts by Microsoft by being awarded the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the last 5+ years.
In my off hours I like to snowboard, karaoke, ride roller coasters, and play arcade games
Jeff Prom
LinkedIn: Jeff Prom
Contact: http://jeffprom.com/
Jeff Prom is a Data and BI Developer with over 15 years experience. From a wide variety of industries, he has worked at corportations both large and small including several global fortune 50 companies. Jeff is an active member in the SQL community and regularly speaks and attends user groups and conferences. He has earned MCTS certifications for Database Development, Administration, and BI. Jeff is currently employed at Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp as a Data Architect in Minnesota.
Eric Zierdt
Twitter: - @EricZierdt
LinkedIn: Eric Zierdt
Contact: http://ericemployed.blogspot.com
Eric is a level 70 Data Slayer, who has worked with SQL Server since 2000. Eric has worked with benefit systems, real estate data, marketing, game data, and medical device data. Eric enjoys performance tuning, T-SQL programming, and SQL Server Administration.
David Klee
Twitter: - kleegeek
LinkedIn: David Klee
Contact: http://davidklee.net
David Klee is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and VMware vExpert with a lifelong passion for technology. David spends his days focusing on the convergence of data and infrastructure as the Founder of Heraflux Technologies. His areas of expertise include cloud, virtualization, performance, and business continuity. David speaks at a number of national and regional technology related events, including PASS Summit, VMware VMworld, SQLBits, SQLSaturday events, and many SQL Server User Groups.
Gina Meronek
Twitter: - @equerystrian
LinkedIn: Gina Meronek
Contact: http://ginameronek.com
Gina Meronek is a Business Intelligence, Application Architecture, and IT Management professional with 18 years of experience applying the right people and tools to produce genuinely useful technology. She is dedicated to transforming data into information that solves problems via the right system architecture and interactive data visualizations. Gina has been active in the SQL PASS Community for a number of years and is passionate about sharing knowledge with other data geeks in her community. When not glorying in all that Power BI can do, she loves reading, riding her horse, or attending theater with her husband.
Terry Bunio
Twitter: - @tbunio
Contact: http://www.agilevoyageur.com
Terry started his career working with Adabas as a DBA., Over the next 20 years, Terry has worked with Oracle, Informix, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL Server as both a Data Modeler and DBA. Terry is a huge proponent of normalization and dimensional modeling.
Terry has implemented Operational Data Stores, Data Warehouses, and ETL solutions for Investors Group, LPL Financial, Manitoba Blue Cross, and others.
Terry has recently worked on integrating Agile practices into Database projects.
Greg Baldini
Contact: http://www.nihilentinc.com
Greg Baldini is a Solutions Architect with Nihilent Technologies, Inc. He leads the data practice for the east coast and business analyst practice nationally. His primary experience lies in delivering effective and scalable analytical solutions for customers starting from the ideation phases and following through to rollout, training, and adoption. His goal is to always deliver on the promise of analytics, to make better decisions through data. An expert in data modeling engineering, systems architecture, and the Microsoft Data Platform, he has delivered solutions in many spaces including manufacturing, healthcare, fraud analysis, marketing pipelines, and sales performance.
Riley Major
Twitter: - RileyMajor
LinkedIn: Riley Major
Contact: http://www.Scribnasium.com/
Riley Major is an Enterprise Architect based in the Twin Cities, MN metro area who enjoys collaborating with business leaders to design technical solutions and working with technology professionals to build them. He’s been programming and designing databases since he was a kid and doing so professionally for 20 years. He has a special place in his heart for T-SQL in SQL Server and loves to share that enthusiasm.
Andy Yun
Twitter: - SQLBek
LinkedIn: Andy Yun
Contact: http://sqlbek.wordpress.com
Andy Yun is a SentryOne Principal Solutions Engineer and a former Microsoft MVP. He has been working with SQL Server for nearly 20 years as both a Database Developer and Administrator. Leveraging knowledge of SQL Server Internals and extensive experience in highly transactional environments, he strives to make T-SQL leaner and meaner. Andy is extremely passionate about passing knowledge onto others, regularly speaking at User Groups, SQLSaturdays, and PASS Summit. Andy is a co-founder of the Chicago SQL Association, co-Chapter Leader of the Chicago Suburban User Group, and part of the Chicago SQLSaturday Organizing Committee.
Ben Thul
Twitter: - @spartansql
Contact: http://www.spartansql.com
Born naked and defenseless, he overcame these obstacles to become a mender of broken things, seeker of magic rings, and occasional watcher of slow pings.
Wendy Pastrick
Twitter: - @wendy_dance
Contact: http://wendyverse.blogspot.com
Wendy Pastrick is from Chicago, IL, and for the past 15 years has served as a Database Administrator supporting both development and production environments. Her many years of involvement with PASS include WIT Virtual Chapter and the Chicago Suburban User Group, serving as Regional Mentor, and as a PASS Board member since 2013. Wendy has organized several highly successful SQLSaturday events in Chicago.
Dan English
Twitter: - @denglishbi
LinkedIn: Dan English
Contact: http://denglishbi.wordpress.com
Dan is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, author, technical editor, and community leader. He has been developing with Microsoft technologies for over 20 years, and over 15 years with Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. He has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5 and now using 2017 and in Azure. Dan is the chapter leader for the PASS Business Analytics virtual group and on the executive leadership team for the MN Microsoft BI user group.
Tim Plas
Twitter: - tjplas
LinkedIn: Tim Plas
Tim is a Principal Consultant at Virteva, in Mpls MN. His current focus areas are cloud architecture / engineering / migration, operational-DBA services (esp. HA/DR), server migrations, server virtualization, and storage. His experience over the past 25+ years has been primarily with server / data-center infrastructure, including being CTO / co-founder of a successful hosting company. Tim has held a variety of MS certifications since 1994.
Lara Rubbelke
Twitter: - @sqlgal
Lara Rubbelke brings her passion for architecting, implementing, and improving Azure data solutions to the community as a Principle Software Development Engineer for Microsoft. Many know Lara from her work on the DDP Framework, EPM Framework, and Separation of Duties Framework. Her expertise involves Big Data, analytics, OLTP and DW systems. Lara frequently delivers technical presentations at conferences and events including Build, PASS Summit, SQLBits, and webcasts on Channel 9 and MSDN.
Adam Jorgensen
Twitter: - wadamj
LinkedIn: Adam Jorgensen
Contact: http://www.pragmaticworks.com
As President of Pragmatic Works Consulting Adam drives market strategy, sales, partnerships, implementation and thought leadership. He has over 15 years of experience helping companies use their data to fuel their growth. Adam has been wowing audiences around the world for over a decade. He has delivered hundreds of sessions, published over a dozen books and hundreds of online videos and webinars on data and cloud topics. His passion is growing companies and mentoring leaders and companies to help them achieve their dreams.
Paul Timmerman
Contact: http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/author/mndba/
Paul is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the Lead SQL Server DBA at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Paul has fifteen years of experience in database administration and currently the Chapter Leader of the Minnesota SQL Server User Group, PASSMN. Paul is an active member of the PASS community and routinely speaks at user group meetings and SQLSaturday conferences.
Meagan Longoria
Twitter: - mmarie
LinkedIn: Meagan Longoria
Contact: http://datasavvy.me
Meagan Longoria is a business intelligence consultant with Denny Cherry Associates, and lives in Denver, Colorado. She is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP. Meagan spends a lot of time thinking about how to use data integration, DAX, and data visualization techniques to make data useful for people. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experiences at conferences and user group meetings, as well as through her blog (DataSavvy.me).
Frank Gill
Twitter: - skreebydba
LinkedIn: Frank Gill
Contact: http://skreebydba.com/
Frank Gill is a Senior Data Engineer at Concurrency With 21 years of IT experience, the first 8 as a mainframe programmer, he has developed a love of all things internal. Over the past several years, he has worked extensively with SQL Server solution in Azure, including Managed Instance. When not administering databases or geeking out on internals, Frank volunteers at the Art Institute of Chicago and reads voraciously.
Ted Krueger
Twitter: - @onpnt
LinkedIn: Ted Krueger
Contact: http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/All/?disp=authdiramp;author=68
Ted Krueger is a SQL Server MVP and has been working in development and database administration for the better part of his career. Specialties range from High Availability and Disaster / Recovery design, implementation, testing methods and administration, down to custom assembly development for SQL Server Reporting Services.
Greg Beaumont
Twitter: - https://www.twitter.com/grbeaumont
LinkedIn: Greg Beaumont
As a Technology Solutions Professional at Microsoft I am constantly working to both inspire and create Digital Transformation using Analytics. Architecting solutions, training technologists, and never passing up an opportunity to design something new using Microsoft tools such as Power BI, Azure, SQL Server, Streaming Data and Azure Machine Learning.
Sponsors
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event: