events

Kevin Griffin - Thursday, February 9th, 2012

2012-01-25T01:19:00Z

Kevin Griffin - Windows Azure!

When: Thursday, February 9th, 2012, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Kevin Griffin

Bio:

Kevin Griffin is a Technical Evangelist for ComponentOne. He’s a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider, and the leader of the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group. Additionally, he serves as an INETA mentor for the state of Virginia. He can often be found speaking at or attending other local user group meetings or code camps. He enjoys working with new technology, and consistently works on being a better developer and building the best software he can.

Abstract:

Windows Azure was first introduced the world in October 2008. Over the years it has changed the way we look at building applications and software infrastructures. In this presentation, we're going to take a look at Azure from the ground up. What is it? What are the moving parts? How do we develop software and systems to take advantage of it? We'll answer all these questions and more!

Location: Markel Plaza

4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

Geoff Johnson - Thursday, January 12th, 2012

2011-12-24T01:50:00Z

Geoff Johnson - Common Table Expressions!

When: Thursday, January 12th, 2012, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Geoff Johnson

Bio:

Geoff Johnson is the Education Team Lead for Shelby Systems, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Partner providing software solutions for non-profit organizations around the world, particularly churches and parachurch organizations. Over the past five years he has conducted numerous training workshops to teach Shelby customers how to use T-SQL statements as the foundation of custom reports. Recently he wrote and conducted a brand new training workshop on using Reporting Services 2008 R2 with the Shelby software database. In addition to training, Geoff develops custom report solutions ranging in complexity from simple membership directories to GAAP-compliant financial statements, building all of them with T-SQL and many of them with Reporting Services.

An active member of the Richmond SQL Server Users Group and PASS, Geoff recently had the privilege of presenting at SQL Saturday #96 in Washington, DC and now is looking forward to the chance to give back directly to his local user group.

Abstract:

Common Table Expressions (CTEs) serve two main functions: first they remove the clutter of subqueries out of the FROM clause while simultaneously making them easy to reference multiple times by alias if need be, and second they make it possible to do recursive queries. Learn the basics of using CTEs to streamline T-SQL code and to query self-referential tables.

Location: Markel Plaza

4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

VACO

Thursday, December 8th, 2011 - Richmond SQL Round Table!

2011-12-24T01:31:00Z

RichmondSQL Round Table!

When: Thursday, December 8th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Roundtable featuring RichmondSQL Leadership!
Your leadership, your questions. It should rock!

Abstract

It's the last RichmondSQL meeting of 2011. Bring your SQL Server questions to our round table discussion!

Location: Markel Plaza

4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

RichmondSQL

Wayne Sheffield - Thursday, September 8th, 2011

2011-09-28T00:53:00Z

Wayne Sheffield - Avoid the RBAR!

When: Thursday, September 8th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Wayne Sheffield

Wayne Sheffield is a Sr. SQL Server DBA, currently working with General Electric Healthcare in Richmond, Va. With twenty years in the IT industry, he has spent the last 12 working with SQL Server database systems (starting from version 6.5). He is the author of several articles at www.sqlservercentral.com, where he also is active on the forums assisting the community.

Abstract

SQL Server is primarily designed for set-based operations, so writing code that performs Row-By-Agonizing-Row (RBAR) operations is going against the design, rather than working with it. In this code filled “Developer–to–Developer” session, we will examine several recent additions to SQL Server, and learn how the vast majority of RBAR code can be replaced with efficient, set-based code. Learn how the APPLY operator works with table-valued functions; iterate through incoming data just once with the MERGE statement instead of once per DML operation; see how the Windowing (ranking) functions allow you to “slice and dice” your data, and then perform operations on those groupings; discover how re-writing your multi-statement table-valued functions to be inline functions can help the optimizer and speed up your queries; and learn how to create a grouped delimited list – without loops! Come to this demo-packed session and learn how the vast majority of loop-based operations can be replaced with very efficient set-based operations!

Where: Location: Markel Plaza

4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

Andrew Kelly - July 14th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2011-07-06T01:38:00Z

Andrew Kelly - Understanding Indexes in SQL Server 2008

When: Thursday, July 14th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Andrew Kelly (MVP)

Andrew J. Kelly is the Practice Manager for Performance & Scalability with SolidQ and lives in Plaistow, New Hampshire. He has over 20 years experience with relational databases and application development on both UNIX and Windows platforms but his main focus now is SQL Server. In addition to general SQL Server training and Mentoring, he specializes in Performance, Scalability and Maintainability of large scale SQL Servers. He is a regular speaker each year at many conferences and user groups and has been a SQL Server MVP since 2001.

Abstract

Understanding Indexes in SQL Server 2008
Understanding the fundamentals of how indexes work and how they are best utilized is an essential part of any DBA or SQL developer's repertoire. Many people assume if you create an index on a column or columns of a table that it will automatically be used when you reference that column. While that may be true under some conditions the actual usage depends on several key factors and they may surprise you. We will cover the fundamentals of how the indexes work under the covers and why you need to know this in order to ensure your indexes are actually helping and not hurting your performance.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

Grant Fritchey - June 9th, 2011

2011-07-05T02:02:00Z

Grant Fritchey (the Scary DBA himself) presents Reading Execution Plans, the Deep Dive

When: Thursday, June 9th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Grant Fritchey

Grant Fritchey is a SQL Server MVP with over 20 years experience in IT including time spent in support and development. He has worked with SQL Server since 6.0 back in 1995. He has developed in VB, VB.Net, C# and Java. Grant volunteers with PASS and is president of the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group (SNESSUG). He has authored books for Apress and Simple-Talk and joined Red Gate as a Product Evangelist in January 2011.

Reading Execution Plans

It’s one thing to know to look for scans instead of seeks, but if you really want to know what’s going on in an execution plan, you need to dive deep. This session will cover reading execution plans from the basics, but goes way beyond the basics to cover as much of the information available within an execution plan as you might possibly ever need. We’ll cover the basics, like looking for fat pipes, but we’ll also go into how to understand how to interpret parameter sniffing and spot when a join operation is not performing the way you would want. We’ll use the graphical plan and the XML behind to thoroughly explore execution plans.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

February 10th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2011-02-20T18:23:00Z

Steve Fibich presents Practical Change Data Capture

When: Thursday, February 10th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Steve Fibich

What: Practical Change Data Capture

Looking to revamp your current ETL or data Audit process? Have you heard of Change Data Capture introduce in SQL 2008? Could you use this as part of you solution? Need some help figuring out how to utilize CDC? Then this talk is for you. We will be exploring post implementation results of an actual CDC based ETL process. This is not a bunch of untested theory and untried rhetoric, it’s the lessons learned from a year long project and 6 months of living with a production CDC based ETL system.

About Steve:

Steve Fibich currently works in Richmond VA at PFGC as the Data Warehouse Architect on a Data Warehousing /Master Data Management project utilizing SQL Server 2008/2005 and SSIS 2008/2005 pulling data from iSeries, and SAP for a massive system integration effort. He has been working with SQL Server since 6.5 building Data Warehouses, building integration systems for third party product integration, creating Master Data Management systems , and doing general DBA work for the past 10 years.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

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January 13th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2011-01-07T13:46:00Z

Stefan Bauer presents SSIS in Denali CTP1 When: January 13th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Stefan Bauer Stefan Bauer is a Data Warehouse Administrator at a marketing company in Richmond, VA. He has worked in Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing since the late 1990’s on a variety of platforms. Stefan has created warehouse and business intelligence solutions for banking, retail, and marketing companies. Currently working in SQL Server 2008, Stefan provides insight into hardware architecture, database modeling, as well as developing in Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services. In addition to traditional development, Stefan enjoys teaching topics on architecture, database administration and performance tuning. What: SSIS in Denali CTP1 Have you heard about Denali? Hot off the press from Microsoft is their latest database release. If you missed it at the PASS Summit, come see what is new for SSIS in the Community Technical Preview (ctp1) release of Denali and what all the buzz is about. I will take a hands-on approach to looking at the new features in SSIS, and also take a look at what Dependency Services is about. I am sure you will be as excited about the new release as I am, so we will also cover the basics you need to know to get up-and-running with the ctp release. Where: Location: Markel Plaza 4501 Highwoods Parkway (DIFFERENT LOCATION!) Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map] Register: Click here to register! This Months Sponsor: TBA

December 9th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2010-12-11T19:50:00Z

Andy Leonard presents SSIS Design Patterns (from his PASS Summit 2010 Spotlight Session)

When: December 9th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Andy Leonard

Andy Leonard is an SSIS Trainer and Consultant, Architect with Molina Medicaid Solutions, SQL Server database and Integration Services developer, professional trainer, community mentor, SQL Server MVP, and engineer. He is a co-author of Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services and SQL Server MVP Deep Dives. Andy blogs for SQLBlog.com. His background includes web application architecture and development, VB, and ASP; SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS); data warehouse development using SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008.

What:
SSIS Design Patterns

"Design Patterns" is more than a trendy buzz phrase; design patterns are a way of breaking down complex development projects into manageable tasks. They lend themselves to several development methodologies and apply to SSIS development. Chances are you're using your own design patterns now! At the PASS Summit 2009, Andy Leonard demonstrated ways to use some less-documented features of SSIS. At the PASS Summit 2010 Andy shares more SSIS Design Patterns. This session includes patterns: - to migrate SSIS packages through your enterprise without editing connection managers; - to load data from variable-length row files; - to extend the functionality of the parent-child pattern to create SSIS execution groups. The session is designed for those with little or no exposure to design patterns or application development methodologies; but with good experience in SSIS. The goal is to introduce the science, terminology, and philosophy of design patterns to those wishing to learn more.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

TBA

July 8th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2010-06-24T23:48:00Z

Jessica M. Moss presents MDX: From WITH To WHERE!

When: July 8th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Jessica M. Moss

Jessica M. Moss, an architect with Ironworks Consulting and a Microsoft SQL
Server MVP, is a well-known practitioner, author, and speaker in Microsoft SQL
Server business intelligence. Jessica has created numerous data warehousing
solutions for companies in the retail, internet, health services, finance, and
energy industries and authored technical content for multiple magazines,
websites, and the book "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Problem-
Design-Solution". Jessica enjoys working with the central Virginia community
and speaks regularly at user groups, code camps, and conferences. You can read
about her work on her blog, http://www.jessicammoss.com.

What:
MDX: From WITH To WHERE

SQL Server Analysis Services provides a quick and easy queryable structure for your data warehouse. You can use Analysis Services's querying language, MDX (multi-dimensional BLOCKED EXPRESSION, to retrieve data for reports, ad-hoc analysis, and dashboards! This session will discuss the basic syntax, query-scoped calculated measures, and common functions that can be used in MDX queries.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

June 10th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2010-06-17T11:59:00Z

Bob Lambert presents Normalize Metadata for Data Integration Analysis!

When: June 10th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Bob Lambert

Bob Lambert, a consultant with CapTech Ventures, specializes in data management, business intelligence strategy, and system architecture. His interests encompass how IT and business get together to build and maintain business value, especially with databases and data warehousing. Recent projects have focused on real estate, health care, and financial services. Bob has authored a number of articles, most recently publications at Dr Dobbs and Information Management.

What:
Normalize Metadata for Data Integration Analysis

Many of today’s business applications feature dozens of interfaces feeding a central database. Interface source-to-target mapping is now common practice, but if there are many interfaces how do you make sure the work of separate teams on tight timelines dovetails smoothly and avoids the all too common death march of correction and rework? This presentation shows how normalized metadata can help coordinate team efforts, recording data requirements, the target data model, interface sources, source to target mappings, and relationships among analysis components, and enable an effective division of labor that promotes team efficiency, improves planning, and provides the best possible product for developers and testers.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

March 11th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2010-03-11T23:02:00Z

This Months Sponsor:SQL Saturday

Mark Hudson presents An Introduction to Report Builder 2.0

When: March 11th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
H. Mark Hudson

Mark Hudson has more than 10 years experience in business intelligence and data analysis. He has developed data warehouses and data presentation layers using numerous tools including both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. He currently serves as an architect and developer with CapTech Ventures, Inc. (mhudson@captechventures.com, http://www.captechventures.com/).

An Introduction to Report Builder 2.0
What does the fountain of youth have in common with happy, self-served BI users? Microsoft’s Report Builder 2.0 answers that question and more. Report Builder 2.0 is a report authoring tool with enhanced data layout, visualization and formatting capabilities left out of the earlier (and not widely used) Report Builder 1.0. This session introduces the audience to the dependencies and capabilities of Report Builder 2.0 and offers ways BI users might finally build those reports they always wanted.

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

December 10th, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2009-11-29T01:52:00Z

When: December 10th, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Kevin Boles

Kevin is a SQL Server expert, working exclusively with the product since
version 6.5. He holds pretty much every SQL Server certification including
MVP. His primary focus is the relational engine and his passion is
performance analysis and tuning. He teaches occasionally, is a great mentor
and has been a successful independent consultant for the past dozen years.

SQL Server and SANs - Let's dig into both the fundamentals and some details
of how SANs work and how we can best utilize them to improve SQL Server's IO
performance and reliability. The more you know about SANs the more you are
able to stand up to those bullying and very protective SAN admins! :-)

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

When: November 12th, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2009-11-07T13:18:00Z

When: November 12th, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Kevin Viers

Database Platform Technology Specialist with Microsoft

What: SQL 2008 R2- Come learn about the new and exciting roadmap for the SQL Server platform. SQL Server 2008 R2 is the next generation of the Microsoft SQL Server database platform, planned for release in the first half of calendar year 2010. The R2 release brings significant new capabilities and enhancements that can help your business keep pace with today’s growing and changing data management needs. Increase productivity and reduce data management costs by taking advantage of an even more scalable platform with comprehensive database and application management tools. SQL Server 2008 R2 helps users to build rich analysis and reports and helps organizations improve the quality of their data.

Learn a little more about:

·Powerpivot (formerly project codemane Gemini)·Master Data Services·Application and Multi-Server management·Parallel Data Warehouse (formerly project codename Madison)·New SKUs and Pricing

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

October 8, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

2009-09-18T13:21:00Z

When: October 8, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Tim Ford

What: Dynamic Management Objects - With the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, the curious DBA had a new arsenal of tools available for indentifying performance issues, automating maintenance tasks, and documenting their environments. These tools are called Dynamic Management Objects. Join Tim Ford as he takes you on a tour through some of his favorite Dynamic Management Objects and see why you just may have found you new favorite thing about Microsoft SQL Server.

About Tim Ford

Timothy Ford has been working with Microsoft SQL Server for almost 10 years, originally as a developer in SQL Server 7.0 and Visual Basic 6; now as a DBA for the last 8 years. He specializes in mining information from the system tables for automation of administrative tasks and troubleshooting performance matters. Tim has been a volunteer with the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) since 2002, serving as a founding leader of the DBA Special Interest Groups, on the Program Committee for 5 years, on the Editorial Committee, and as the co-creator and host of the annual SIG Quizbowl presented at each of the opening receptions of the PASS Summit for the past 5 years. He is an author and blogger, writing technical articles for MSSQLTips.com, Simple-Talk, SQL Server Central, and SQLServerpedia, where he also serves as the DBA Section Editor. Tim was one of the SQL Magazine Innovators of the Year for 2008 and is featured on the cover and in the associated story in the January 2008 issue.

When not engaged in the world of T/SQL you'll usually find him with a camera or spatula in his hands as he enjoys photography and cooking.

Links:
http://www.ford-it.com/sqlagentman
http://www.mssqltips.com/author.asp?authorid=13
http://sqlserverpedia.com/wiki/Editors#Timothy_Ford.2C_Database_Administration_Editor

Where: Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Register: Click here to register!

This Months Sponsor:

events

Kevin Griffin - Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Kevin Griffin - Windows Azure!

When: Thursday, February 9th, 2012, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Kevin Griffin

Register: Click here to register!

Geoff Johnson - Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Geoff Johnson - Common Table Expressions!

When: Thursday, January 12th, 2012, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Geoff Johnson

Register: Click here to register!

VACO

Thursday, December 8th, 2011 - Richmond SQL Round Table!

RichmondSQL Round Table!

When: Thursday, December 8th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Roundtable featuring RichmondSQL Leadership! Your leadership, your questions. It should rock!

Register: Click here to register!

RichmondSQL

Wayne Sheffield - Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Wayne Sheffield - Avoid the RBAR!

When: Thursday, September 8th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Wayne Sheffield

Register: Click here to register!

Andrew Kelly - July 14th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Andrew Kelly - Understanding Indexes in SQL Server 2008

When: Thursday, July 14th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Andrew Kelly (MVP)

Register: Click here to register!

Grant Fritchey - June 9th, 2011

Grant Fritchey (the Scary DBA himself) presents Reading Execution Plans, the Deep Dive

When: Thursday, June 9th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Social Time starts at 6:00 PM! Who: Grant Fritchey

Register: Click here to register!

February 10th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Steve Fibich presents Practical Change Data Capture

January 13th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

December 9th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Andy Leonard presents SSIS Design Patterns (from his PASS Summit 2010 Spotlight Session)

July 8th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Jessica M. Moss presents MDX: From WITH To WHERE!

June 10th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Bob Lambert presents Normalize Metadata for Data Integration Analysis!

March 11th, 2010, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Mark Hudson presents An Introduction to Report Builder 2.0

December 10th, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

When: November 12th, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

October 8, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

When: Thursday, February 9th, 2012, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Kevin Griffin

When: Thursday, January 12th, 2012, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Geoff Johnson

When: Thursday, December 8th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Roundtable featuring RichmondSQL Leadership!
Your leadership, your questions. It should rock!

When: Thursday, September 8th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Wayne Sheffield

When: Thursday, July 14th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Andrew Kelly (MVP)

When: Thursday, June 9th, 2011, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00 PM!

Who:
Grant Fritchey