Today is my least favorite part of the whole speaking thing. It is the day that I put myself out there and wait to see if I get rejected or accepted. Rejection stinks, but at the same time, being accepted means more work. Neither are perfect, and as I stated in my last post, I also have a goal of not getting myself stuck spending 7 hours a day doing work outside of my day job.

I plan to put in abstracts to most of the conferences I expect to attend this year. And when I say attend, I mean I plan to attend pretty much regardless of whether my submissions are accepted.  I have just as much desire to learn as I have to teach, and accumulating knowledge for my ongoing writing efforts can be just as valuable as speaking. (The only downside being that when you don’t speak, you don’t get to go the speaker dinner, which can be a lot of fun, particularly at a SQL Saturday event).

My goals for this year is to get myself stuck writing a lot of new sessions. I do have a few sessions that are “done” that I would just have to update a bit that I may submit:

Fundamentals of Relational Database Design – Just what it sound like really. Normalization, documentation, etc.

DML Triggers – The basics of writing triggers with examples. I am doing this session in Richmond in 3 weeks at SQL Saturday.

Hierarchies – A deep session that covers the different ways a hierarchy can be implemented in SQL without favoring one method over the other in a manner other than empirically. I plan to base a book on the subject later this year.

Sequences – All about the sequence and its performance characteristics. Not a big hit in the past since 2012 adoption hadn’t quite got there when I did it first, perhaps it has come time.

Finally, I do have a new session that I am going to put in and start writing in my spare time. 

How In-Memory Database Objects Affect Database Design – In this session, I will be demonstrating a normalized database design using disk based tables, and then  adjusting the design to make best use of in memory objects. To demonstrate, I will use test data that will simulate multiple connections of orders being taken.

In the biggest change of my writing /speaking career, I plan to start writing this presentation way before it is accepted. I will be starting on this presentation immediately in my free time, blogging about it as I go.  I also have a lot to learn about in memory database structures, so this should reinforce the learning I am and will be doing (more about all of this when I write my introductory blog about it).  Even if it never gets presented, I will certainly be using the material when I put together my next database design book, whenever that turns out to be. 

Unless someone just really wants me to (and I don’t know the meaning of the word “no”), I doubt I put in a pre-con session this year. It is a lot of work and makes PASS a crazy time of year. Realistically, I may just attend a pre-con if one strikes my fancy. I am in the middle of building a T-SQL from the ground up pre-con (or larger) class that I am doing for my company (with rights to share secured in the process).

Other than Atlanta, which has a deadline of Tuesday (March 3) for submission, I have a bit of time to change my mind and add/subtract an abstract, but I think that I am going to stick with:

SQL Saturday Atlanta – May 3 – Hierarchies, Triggers, Database Design

SQL Saturday Louisville – Jun 21 – Hierarchies, Triggers, Database Design

Devlink – Aug 27 – In Memory DB, Hierarchies

SQL PASS Summit – Nov 4 – In Memory DB, Hierarchies, Triggers, Database Design , Sequences

Now nothing to do but sick back and wait… And prepare the In-Mem session.. And hey, if none are chosen, it will give me something else to blog about!