SQLBits is the Biggest SQL Server Conference in Europe. This year it involves 28 Sessions and 28 Speakers, all taking place in one day at one place. This year it is being held at Manchester Metropolitan University on 28th March.

The last SQLBits event (SQLBits Cubed) was held in Hatfield, in the UK, and, like the previous two events, it was a great success. Because SQLBits is held on a Saturday it attracts the most enthusiastic SQL Server people, and since it was also a free event, many people who work for companies with a low training budget had a chance to meet  others who are interested in SQL Server. Last year, there were four separate tracks, (five this year) so DBAs, developers and people with interests in BI could all find a suitable session. The fourth track was on SQL Server 2008, which, having then just arrived with a rich set of features, attracted a lot of attention.

One of the most memorable characteristics of SQL Bits, was the passion of the speakers. All speakers were very knowledgeable, and had plenty of industry experience, so the talks avoided being bland advertisements of Microsoft’s products, but were predominately case studies and solutions to real world problems.

Simon Sabin runs SQLBits, along with a small group of enthusiastic database professionals. Simon runs the UK SQL Usergroup in London and founded the SQL Bits in 2007. He is a regular speaker at SQL Server events as well as writing for his blog .

His special interest is in database search algorithms, distributed architectures, business intelligence and application development. He has worked with SQL Server since 1998

Simon was awarded as an MVP in 2006 

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RM: “Simon, what do you do in your day job?  And belated congratulations on your on your MVP status by the way, how did that come about?” SS: “I’m a Consultant, in that I’ll do very different things depending on who the client is, but all in some way related to SQL Server. It could be training, analysing system performance, providing guidance on database architecture or reviewing a book.

I’ve been an MVP for 2 years and who knows how it came about!  It’s a bit like Michelin stars you don’t know until you get awarded one. It’s all about contribution to the SQL community and when I got awarded MVP status I was doing a lot of blogging and was very active in the forums, that was during the SQL 2005 release. Now I’m doing the Usergroup and SQLBits with less activity in the forums.  I hope it’s enough as the award expires in April. ” RM: “Does that mean the MVP status could be taken away from you then?” SS: “It’s only an award for 1 year for your contributions in the previous year. It can also be taken away earlier if you violate the NDA you have to sign”. RM: “Tell me a little about SQLBlogCasts & what it aims to do?” SS: “Well the aim for SQLBlogcasts was to start a site for UK SQL bloggers. I was blogging on a US site and that was bought out but went downhill so I wanted to kick something off myself.

I approached Tony Rogerson and eventually persuaded him it was a good idea. He now hosts it on the servers he uses to host the UK usergroup.

Traffic has grown over the years but we still want to get more bloggers involved.” RM: “How can more bloggers get involved? In what way are you trying to recruit them? Is it through attending conferences or Usergroups?” SS: “They just need to register on the site and email me and I will set up there blog for them its really easy. We always try and encourage people when speaking at usergroups and conferences. They way I started was just writing down all the notes I made that I didn’t want to forget. This was especially true with new releases and beta products where you find google has no answer and so you have to find out the answer yourself directly. You soon find, and this was a big surprise to me, that people are finding your content from google. It is clear from the stats we have that some problems are common to an awful lot of people. One of my biggest hit items is not even about SQL but about double spacing in Word 2007” RM: “Tell me a little about SQLBits & what it aims to do?” SS: “SQLBits aims to build and foster the SQL community in the UK. We have run three conferences so far and plan to run two a year.” RM: “Do you think the SQL community in the UK needs bringing on? Isn’t there much activity other than what you organise?” SS: “It’s clear from running usergroup meetings and SQLBits that people like things on their door step, so we need to get more meetings going around the country. Its not practical or cheap for us to travel around the country. We need individuals who are passionate about SQL who what to run meetings in their location. Whether its Newquay or Sunderland.” RM: “Who pays for the site?” SS: “We develop the site ourselves which is no small task, especially being database people.As for hosting, well fortunately for me as an MVP, orcsweb provide me with the hosting. ” RM: “How and why did you become involved? It must take up a lot of your time?” SS: “I had been to DeveloperDay and felt that we should do something similar for SQL. I approach some other MVPs and we started the planning for SQLBits 1 in Microsoft HQ in 2007.” RM: “It seems to be a very well used site, how many members do you have? Is it limited to UK users? How much does it cost to join? Is there a typical member?” SS: “It’s entirely free to join. We currently have about 1800 and there’s no typical user really. We have all sorts of people that have joined and come along to conferences.

We had two boys at one conference last year, they were sat at the back of my session and I thought they must have sneaked in for the free food.

Later I found out they had been developing some software and were selling it and were after implementing some reporting in it. The two boys were brothers: one was 14 and the other 16, I think.” RM: “What aspirations have you got for the SQL community this year?” SS: “We are organising the next SQLBits which will be in Manchester in March.”

As with all SQLBits we aim to foster new speakers from the UK SQL community to drive the community forward.

We’ve have 90 sessions submitted from 37 different speakers. That’s 50% more than last time and will make choosing the sessions very difficult.” RM: “That’s pretty impressive. What sessions do you think you’ll include by the end of whittling down the speakers?” SS: “It’s not down to us. The general public vote on the sessions and we then pick the sessions based on those votes. We try to maximise the number of speakers to bring on the community. Anything that is advanced, or about performance generally gets a good voting. We’ve got the option of 7 lecture rooms if we can find the funding to cover the cost of the extra attendees. Bacon butties aren’t cheap.” RM: “And why should people attend your events? ” SS: “One of the things we are trying to foster is a community where people feel they belong rather than just a need to be there to learn the latest and greatest. We have a 5 minutes of fame competition running at SQLBits where people can bring along or record a 5 minute nugget, we will put them on the site and get people to vote for them the winner will given an prize, (something like an X-Box).

Hopefully we will get just as much interest in attending, we are running the event in Manchester. The venue is the Manchester Metropolitan University, on the 28th March 2009, we are planning for 250 but if we get sponsorship I would like to get it to 500. Registration will open on Monday 9th Feb.

We’ve also got very good rates at the Macdonald Hotel Manchester so people can bring their partners who can get pampered in the spa or go shopping while they attend the conference. As one of our key aims is to make SQLBits accessible to everyone around the country and not focus on London. The event is free as per usual, we have a superb venue, and we will with have some great giveaways and some world-renowned speakers as well as local ones.” RM: “What’s the killer reason to attend would you say?” SS: “The killer reason to attend is to get the content you want, we will have at least 20 sessions to choose from so you will get coverage on most aspects of SQL server.

Oh and we are streaming 4 of the tracks live so you don’t even have get out of your pyjamas to leave your house to attend.” RM: The UK SQL Server Group is almost of pensionable age in SQL terms. How has the focus of the group changed over the years? SS: “There is a huge availability of content online which has changed people’s expectations. We still see interest in in-person meetings because I believe people feel that it’s often nicer to hear something in person rather than a recording on your PC.” RM: “Do you go over to Microsoft Redmond at all?” SS: “Until a couple of years ago I hadn’t but I’ve been quite a few times since. As a place its not that different from any of business park, the great thing is meeting up with the product team guys.” RM:  “More generally what are your favourite new features of SQL Server 2008, and why?” SS: “I like Intellisense, even if word spell checking doesn’t. Interestingly I’ve been doing some work for clients with 2000 lately and you soon realise the vast difference between the products, especially in tooling. I really like management studio, I just wish I can write an add-in that was supported.”