I drove up on Friday night for the speaker dinner, getting there after a busy day trying to catch up on things. Had about 14 at dinner, and it was a nice low key event. It was two long tables for dinner, not conducive to moving around, so one of those events where you mostly talk to those near you. I was at a table with Brandie Tarvin, Scott Gleason, Brian MacDonald, and Bayer White, and it was quiet enough for good conversation. As dinner we started to break up we moved around some and spent some time talking about networking, and that led to me providing a few notes to the event "greeter" Scott for him to share with attendees. After dinner I met up again with Wes Dumey and we spent a couple hours talking about all things business related. Nice relaxing evening.

Saturday I was up early and had breakfast near the hotel, then headed to the event, and that was the first minor gotcha. I thought it was in exactly the same location as last year, but it turned out it was in a different building very close by. A quick call figured that out, and Brian had someone put a sign on the other building just in case. The facility couldn't be better, plenty of room, and the same nice grass area out front for lunch seating. Donuts and coffee for breakfast, two check in desks and I don't think I ever saw a line of more than 3 or 4 people.

Brian took a different approach this time, partly out of necessity (time) and partly to experiment, and overall that approach could be called minimalist. Only a handful of sponsors (one on site), pizza instead of sandwiches for lunch, hand written name badges, and no event bags. Attendees were asked to bring a printed copy of the event guide with them. I couldn't see that it affected the event or the attendees at all. I think if there had been more sponsors present the lack of event bags would have hurt, but the rest was fine. A more subtle challenge with minimalist is using fewer volunteers, both because there is less work and because having more volunteers actually feels like creating work - I'm a big believer in engaging as many people as I can in the effort. For all that, it's important to see that for someone wanting to try a SQLSaturday for the first time there are some places where effort can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the core value of the of the event.

Attendance was 185, down about 50 from last year, and while I'd love to see more than last year, I also don't think we should define winning as always having to exceed last year. Attendees came to an event that met their expectation and had a lot of fun, and providing a days worth of training to 185 people is definitely a win. I had someone stop to talk to me just to say thanks for our efforts in building community, and that was nice. Always nice to have someone say thank you, but nicer when they see the positive impact it has on something beyond just them.

I think I saw as many as 10 attendees from our user group in Orlando, and one of them had brought a couple new people with them. Bonnie from the Melbourne group carpooled over and brought a couple other people that perhaps wouldn't have attended otherwise. One thing that makes the event more fun for me is that with this being the seventh SQLSat in Florida in the past couple years I get to see a lot of familiar faces and repeat visitors.

At lunch I did an informal talk about PASS with about 15 people, and had some good conversation about PASS, conferences, and how to succeed at conferences (more on that in a separate post soon). Maybe one of the most interesting questions was what about Microsoft and PASS...in other words, how much influence do they exert? My answer was that I think we have a very good relationship with MS, and that our MS liaison has provided a lot of value to the organization that I've seen since joining the Board of Directors in January, but we retain our independence while working together.

I attended a few of the sessions to see how things were going, in particular going to the one on Reporting Services by Brian MacDonald as it was his first presentation and had asked for feedback. I caught up with him later to share some notes I had, but overall he did very well and I think those that attended his session would agree.

Congratulations to my friend and biz partner Brian Knight for doing another great event, and to Brandie, Scott, Jenn, and the other volunteers that made it all happen. Lots of good karma earned.

If you've made it this far, let me share a couple amusing stories from the trip. As we're leaving dinner I'm asking Brian & Bayer (both local guys) about a bar or coffee place close by that Wes and I can head to. The answer is 'there are a lot of places' as they point to the cloud or something. We finally end up following Scott to a place that was 'really close' but seemed more like 10 minutes. But we did make it there, and we're deep in conversation when a woman shows up at our table and interrupts, asking if she can join us for a minute. Both of us taken aback, but she sits and then just starts talking and asking questions. My first thought was the she was a manager and was just trying too hard, but after about 30 seconds started to seem just more like...strange. Asked her to leave and she did, though appeared puzzled by the request. Wes just looked at me and said well done, he wouldn't have let her sit down to start with! Who knows.

The second story less strange, but I bet you've had one of these. The night before I did a quick search for someplace for breakfast, and found a place where close by that did pancakes. I was up early and arrived about 15 minute before they opened (naturally), but just sat and waited, enjoying being up early with no tasks for the upcoming SQLSat. Finally open, I order an omelette and ask for sour dough pancakes instead of buttermilk. Server asks if I want cheese on the omelette. Don't most omelettes have cheese? Pick cheddar and go back to the paper. Food is good, omelette is more of a scramble but ok, finish eating, and then....tab is $17. Omelette was $9 and change, plus $2 for changing pancakes, $2 for the cheese, $2 for coffee, and tax. It was ok, just not $17 ok! Teach me to pay more attention next time.