Well, we are finally here at what is the secular version of the holiday season for Microsoft SQL Server nerd types, the week of the SQLPASS Summit. This year, I am speaking 3 times and will also be doing the Quiz Bowl at the Welcome Reception, so I am going to be busy. If you are here and are interested in database design, please do stop by and check out my sessions.

Monday and Tuesday I will be in side sessions that are NDA for much of the day, and that is probably all that I can say. Tuesday night will be the Quiz Bowl where Tim Ford and I will attempt to one up ourselves and attempt to (along with some unwitting (but hopefully full of wit) experts) entertain you with our yearly Jeopardy-esque wanna be game show.

Wednesday, from 1-1:30, a bunch of the writers of the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives 2 book will be signing copies for you (there is a second signing at 7:15 – 8 AM on Friday, if you can stomach the earliness). If you want to see what is in the book, check http://www.manning.com/delaney/. The book will be on sale starting Tuesday afternoon for you if you want is signed or not. Note that all author proceeds of the book are going to charity (this edition’s proceeds going to http://www.operationsmile.org/), so you get a good book with lots of different subjects, and make a donation to a worthy cause. I am almost certain that you get an ebook edition of the book for free with the paper version that you can read on your portable device as well.

At 4:45 – 6 PM, I will be doing my “Characteristics of a Great Relational Database ” session that was picked up as an alternate . This needs to be a very interactive session, and my hope is to learn a bit from your ideas as well as the slides I have prepared. The session is fairly light and a bit humorous, so if you are feeling particularly serious and sour, well, my Thursday session is far less fun:

Thursday afternoon, from 3-4:15 PM, I will be presenting “Database Design Fundamentals” which presents a more deep dive on the concepts that go into designing a relational database. My goal here is to present the basics of the process of creating a database from conception until you are ready to start typing CREATE TABLE statements.

Friday, I will be in a panel discussion called “Are you a Linchpin? Career management lessons to help you become indispensible.”, representing the corporate developers in the world who like that they have one set of problems to solve that while the basis never varies, can never really be solved because the demand outstrips the realities of the day. Other members of the panel include Jeremiah Peschka, Stacia Misner, Kevin Kline, Brent Ozar, Thomas LaRock, Andy Warren, Andy Leonard

Saturday I go home…