Phew, this is the end of a run of events with little time between them. You know what though, despite the work to keep up, every event has been 100% worth it, for different reasons. It is interesting how, no matter the size, attendance, and/or venue, almost every event has its own charm that makes it special.

SQL Saturday Raleigh was having its first event since 2019, and I personally had not been to one of their events before at all. It was never about the event itself, anything that Kevin Feasel is involved with is going to be excellent. If you don’t know about Kevin, clicking on the link will take you to the podcast we did a while back, and will have more links, but his curatedsql.com site is a great place to learn about the world of data.

After my last event in Jacksonville, where we were the highest level sponsors, had a table and the whole works, this time we were a lower level of sponsorship where we did not have a table at all. Kellyn Gorman was here again, but it was a much more relaxed and social event without manning a sponsor table. Of course, we also didn’t get a chance to talk as much directly about Redgate products or the Simple Talk site.

The Speakers

One of the things about smaller events is that a few things often happen. Either you have a bunch of well-known speakers (that someone who has attended copious events will know them all), or you have only new speakers. Having been a session selector myself, it is hard to get that balance right (you hate to turn anyone down, seasoned speaker of first timer!), but they did a great job.

There were some well-known folks like Brent Ozar and Aaron Bertrand (I am not going to list them all, but these are two particularly special people to get at your SQL Saturday…even if I have seen Brent at the last two events ☺). But there were plenty of people I had never met before. You can see them listed on the schedule because I don’t want to list them all!

Here are a few pictures from the sessions I attended (and from the one I spoke at too):

Okay, so my picture isn’t really from when I spoke, but the person in the picture was in the session and was happy to help me reenact the picture. I never remember to get the picture, even when I remind myself before the session starts.

The People

Even beyond the speakers, the people I interacted with were all very friendly. I did give a session, and all the attendees were gracious around the AV snafus we started out with. I had great conversations with people, made some connections, and did a bit of planning with Aaron Bertrand before he headed out.

The leadership team headed by Kevin Feasel, but there were others that I don’t remember their names exactly except for Mala Mahadevan, whom I have known for probably longer than Kevin. (Forever, basically).

The last person I met was Charles Streeter. We didn’t really talk but for a second, and only because he won our sponsor raffle prize of the Hogwarts’s Castle. But he is only my list of favorite winners ever because he wanted the pictures so he could post them on LinkedIn!

The Venue

What I really love about going to smaller events is that their venue is unpredictable. It could be a college, it could be a corner of a convention center, or it could be (as was this case), in a professional building. And a lot of times, the buildings aren’t really designed for a conference. But you know what, if the price is right, who cares?

This time the building space was provided by Duke Health and it was great. There were some AV snafus in the room I was presenting, but they were worked out and we moved along. The dining room was a pretty long hallway away, but the food at the end of that hallway was right up there with any conference food I have had.

Everything ran smoothly, and even more than that, with over 100 attendees the space never felt overwhelmed, and at the end, there were still a lot of people there for the raffle.

The Scenic Route

Now on to the side quests. Raleigh is near to where I lived until I was 15 (Winston Salem), so I had copious memories of the area to start with. In fact, I still have relatives in the area that I hadn’t seen in many many years. I visited my Aunt and Uncle (each related to a different parent) on the way home and was smacked in the face with nostalgia. Whoosh.

Then on to the sight seeing!

I really only had one place in mind if the weather was friendly, and this time it was. I added a stop on the way home when a reflection caught my eye, so it was quite a drive home.

Grandfather Mountain

Near Blowing Rock, NC, there is one of the better touristy sorts of places around. Grandfather Mountain. The mountain is home to a State Park and a privately run park. What is cool about this place (for me) is that it has a location that you can get to the top of a mountain, see for miles and miles, all from a swinging bridge. With my mobility issues, hiking (especially on mountainous trails) is less possible than it once was.

I had also been to scared/cold to ever make it across this bridge (except for maybe when I was like 6, but I have no actual memory.) On our honeymoon we stopped here, and it was wicked cold. Last time it was very windy, but I asked, and it is basically always windy.

So, I did it:

I was really wobbly/scared the first time, but in all I walked over it 3 times, dropped my camera once (not on the actual bridge), and saw some amazing panoramas which are quite hard to photograph with cruddy vision.

The Sunsphere

I have driven past this relic of the 1982 World Fair for so many years. We moved to Cleveland TN that year but didn’t go. I went to college at the University of Tennessee for 2 years. I have driven past it on my way to Dollywood over 100 times (to and from). But I never got within ½ mile of the place, even when I was biking around downtown Knoxville in college.

Not even quotes from the Simpsons enticed me enough to check it out for one reason or another. But I finally went. And it was okay.

From the outside it does stand nicely with the skyline of Knoxville (I was driving so I couldn’t really get that picture!), but the skyline of Knoxville isn’t quite that of Seattle with the Space Needle. To be fair, my disappointment was more due to the yellow color of the windows in the observation deck. It took a lot of editing to get the picture I am putting here to not look like it was taken through orange cellophane.

Next Up

Next conference is in a month (with a Universal/Disney trip in the middle), and that conference is in Chattanooga. The conference is Scenic City Summit and I will be speaking and unless something changes, Simple Talk will be a sponsor. More on that when I get the paperwork done!