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T-SQL Tuesday 145 – Answers about events and Costa Rica

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For this months T-SQL Tuesday contribution I intend to provide some answers about events and Costa Rica.

Xavier Morera hosts this months T-SQL Tuesday. Xavier has invited us to answer some questions relating to events and Costa Rica. More specifically, the answer to the below questions:

  1. Which is your favorite conference and why?
  2. Which is the best venue that you have visited for a tech conference?
  3. Who is the best presenter that you have ever listened to?
  4. Which location would you like for your next event to take place and why Costa Rica?

You can find out more about the invite by clicking on this link about the T-SQL Tuesday 145 invitation or on the image below.

T-SQL Tuesday 145 - Answers about events and Costa Rica
T-SQL Tuesday logo

Anyway, time to answer Xaviers questions.

1. Which is your favorite conference and why?

At this moment in time my favorite conference is SQLBits. To cut a long story short, I have enjoyed going there as an attendee, volunteer and speaker over the years.

Next years SQLBits will be even better for me. Mostly due to the fact I will be co-presenting my first ever Training Day called ‘Professional Azure DevOps for the real-world‘. I am hoping to have a session selected with at least one potential new speaker as well.

I will cover the Training Day in more detail my next post. Because this is meant to be for T-SQL Tuesday and not a shameless plug (honest).

In the meantime, here is the link for the SQLBits 2022 pricing. Just in case anybody wants to book our Training Day before I publish that post.

2. Which is the best venue that you have visited for a tech conference?

Something tells me a few conference organizers will be paying close attention to all the answers to this question today. My answer is going to raise a few eyebrows, because it was a venue for a Hadoop event.

It was at a top hotel in London. Where the food was really good, and the quality of the swag was superb.

As far as the best venue I have attended for a Microsoft Data Platform conference is concerned one place in particular springs to mind. Which is the Brighton Grand Hotel in the UK where SQLBits 8 took place.

It was the first time that I had attended a Microsoft Data Platform conference of that size. I met a lot of great people there. It even gave me the opportunity to meet Steve Wozniak. Looking back, I think it was the right time for me to attend a conference that size. It helped me for various reasons.

3. Who is the best presenter that you have ever listened to?

I have had the pleasure of listening to some really good presenters cover all kinds of topics over the years. However, one in particular springs to mind which I want to share. Because it is coming up to the holiday period and there is a feelgood factor involved.

As some of you know I use to be involved with a SQL Saturday in the UK. On one particular occasion somebody come up to me to let me know that a speaker was nervous about their session.

It was their first time speaking in the UK and they had heard things about UK audiences. To reassure them I said I would sit in their session. So, I arranged for others to cover for me so that I could sit in their session.

However, within a few minutes I realized I did not need to be there for the whole session. Because they had started off the session brilliantly. In fact, the session was going so well I found it hard to believe that it was the same person that I had spoken to beforehand.

I decided not to name the speaker in this post. I am sure they will say who they are if they read this and want to make themselves known. However, I can confirm that they are a well-deserved MVP.

4. Which location would you like for your next event to take place and why Costa Rica?

I had a think about this and after going to TripAdvisor and looking up things to do in Costa Rica the answer is clear. It would make my wife very happy because she comes with me to a lot of conferences.

My second choice is Australia. Due to the fact we were due to go there last year. In fact, I brought extra holiday at the start of 2020 especially for the trip. I was hoping to attend a SQL event there as well. Instead, I moderated for an event based there instead. Which I mentioned in a past T-SQL Tuesday post.

Final words about answers about events and Costa Rica

I hope me sharing answers about events and Costa Rica has made interesting reading for this months T-SQL Tuesday contribution.

In reality, Costa Rica looks like a great place to go for a conference.

Of course, if you have any comments or queries about this post feel free to reach out to me.

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