Are SQL Saturdays finally back to the way they should be? This past weekend in Jacksonville Florida things sure felt like they are. There was an energy that comes with an event that matches just right to the space allocated, and that energy grows even more when the number of attendees is in the hundreds (they had over 400 there this weekend!)

On with the Show

Jeff Taylor and company put together yet another great event with a host of great things to learn and do:

I did mention loads of great speakers right? Kellyn gave a talk on DevOps, and I basically enjoyed the day taking in mostly sessions from people I knew (I walked in late to almost every session I attended because I wanted to be at the booth too!)

This was the second time that Simple Talk and Redgate have really tried to co-brand a location, and it went really well. We gave away loads of cool, fun, and useful bits of swag including tumblers, bouncy balls, socks, pens, and notepads. Of course I completely forgot to get a picture of the swag, but I did get this great picture of my Redgate teammates between the many people who swarmed the booth all day (other than when we stopped to get pictures!):

The whole day was gloriously busy from start to nearly finish. Even as we were putting together the display and banners people were coming to the booth.

/ima

Taking the Scenic Route

When I planned this trip, I had two things I planned to do. I did neither of them exactly as I expected.

First to the Beach

When I arrived (by car) to Jacksonville, the weather was great so I stopped at the beach and took a few “just in case” pictures. My main plan was to get a sunrise picture on Saturday or Sunday, but Saturday we ended up needing to show up about an hour after sunrise and that was too close (especially when we all needed Starbucks.) Sunday morning it was cloudy/rainy, so that didn’t happen. But I was happy with the crop of pics I got anyhow, linked here in my Instagram post.

Then on to a Galaxy Far Far Away

Sunday I had planned to visit a new theme park, but since Sunday was May 4… a certain theme park drew me in. Hollywood Studios was blacked out as a primary target, but I was able to get in at night and see what I will forever remember.

I finally got back to PotatoLand!

Kidding. Well, not that I went and had this picture made for just this occasion. But this is not the galaxy I went to.

If you are nerdy enough to read this article, you probably already know about Star Wars Day (MayTheFourthBeWithYou). I hadn’t seen anything in the part that led me to think it was that much different, except a lot of people carrying their lightsabers. I didn’t have mine (yeah, I have one and posted this for last year’s Jacksonville event that was Star Wars themed):

Ray Bans are the official glasses of Jedi everywhere.

As it got dark, I ended up in the Star Wars area of the park (Galaxy’s Edge, AKA Batuu) and I saw the most beautiful lights!

If you want to see an better look, check out the video that I captured here in an Instagram post:

Next Up: Raleigh

I am still formulating my journey to SQL Saturday Raleigh coming up on May 17. Unlike Jacksonville, I am speaking this time. Once I knew we had a booth, I wanted to be able to help some. I will be speaking on Relational and Dimension Design.

On the way home, I have some fun target ideas for picture time, including plans to stop and visit family in High Point and Winston Salem where I grew up. I haven’t been back for a while, so I probably need to grab some pictures of my childhood homes along the way too.

On the way home, maybe something theme park related, maybe mountains, but not strong enough plans yet to put out there yet. Just have to wait and see, just like me,

* I attest that I was not required to say “yummy”, and this was in fact written by Louis on Tuesday when he got back to the office.