Yesterday I visited the SQL Server day 2009, organized by the Belgian SQL Server User Group SQLUG.BE, in Mechelen. Congratulations on the event guys!
After the keynote by Microsoft Belgium (I wish they had talked a little bit more about SQL Azure), I visited the session by Henk van der Valk on world record ETL... now Henk has control over some top notch iron, but that doesn't mean his tips don't apply to a modest setup. Henk also mentioned he recently joined the blogsphere at www.henkvandervalk.com.
Next I sat (sorry I have to say so) horrible sponsored session by Quest... and this has nothing to do with the FogLight product. On another occasion (an afternoon session by Quest Netherlands) I witnessed the possibilities of Foglight (for .NET, SQL Server and VMware) and I must say it's a good looking product. However we got 30 minutes of boring listing of challenges and day to day problems (as if we weren't aware of them already) and in the end got some screenshots, which were completely out of context. I would have be completely lost in the presentation if I hadn't been to the session earlier by Quest NL.
After that, I meant to sit the session "Reporting Services a DBA's tool? YES!!!", but since the agenda card was a little confusing (or better said, I didn't pay enough attention) I walked into the session by Nico Jacobs on "Handling XML in SQL Server". Funny, as there was nothing new for me in the session but still I really enjoyed it... most important because as a trainer you rarely get an opportunity to see one of your colleagues at work on a familiar subject. Thanks Nico, I really enjoyed it.
The other session I attended was on "Policy Based Management", again by Nico Jacobs. I hoped it would go deeper into the possibilities of implementing it for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000. Unfortunately that was not the case, so I'll have to dive into the Enterprise Policy Management Framework and PowerShell without a quick start. But again, it was a joy listening to Nico.
Final session and closing keynote was by Chris Webb on PowerPivot (a.k.a. Gemini). It wasn't my first glance at Gemini, but it definitely is the kind of quick start I was looking for. Sitting a session like that saves a day of looking for stuff.
All-in-all, a day well spent.