SQL Server Club

DDD Southwest 2.0 Review #dddsw

In the last ten days I’ve been called both a geek and a nerd. A good job then that I was in such good company at DDD Southwest 2.0.

Actually, I was in the presence of lots of people with a much higher nerd rating than me. And many of them were kind enough to share their knowledge with the several hundred developers that registered for this annual event.

These super-nerds presented a wide variety of topics to us tech-hungry developers and there was something for everyone. The “Getting Started with .NET” track aimed at anyone new to development was a great idea!

DDD Southwest was held at the University of the West of England or UWE – pronounced you-ee by us locals - just outside Bristol on a Saturday 5th June. A very hot day too.

Guy Smith-Ferrier gave an opening speech to welcome us all and explain the proceedings for the day. I was very proud that SQL Server Club was a sponsor for this fab event and it was great to see our logo up on the sponsors slide.

I’d also volunteered to help out for the day and was given the role of Room Monitor. Quite an easy one really as I was able to sit in on all the sessions I really wanted to see.

SQL Server Club Sponsors DDD Southwest

Norb Technologies is happy to announce that their free community knowledge base, SQL Server Club, is sponsoring the DDD Southwest event.

DDD Southwest is part of the Developer Developer Developer community which organises free events around the UK. The DDD Southwest team is headed by Microsoft MVP Guy Smith-Ferrier, Chris Myhill and Adam Towler. This dedicated team also runs the local DotNetDevNet user group in the Bristol area.

This year’s south west event takes places at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol on Saturday 5 June 2010. It’s a free day for .NET developers to attend presentations, take part in discussions, learn and network with other developers.

"At SQL Server Club we recognise the importance of free technical events and are proud to be sponsoring DDD Southwest," said Rachel Clements, Technical Editor at SQL Server Club. "The speakers put a lot of work into delivering informative presentations, this is a cause worthy of industry support and we’re happy to back it."

Following on from the success of last year’s event in Taunton, places for the June event were booked up with hours of registration opening.

"It’s great to see such high demand for places and I’m sure the day will be an overwhelming success," continued Rachel. "The local team that run DotNetDevNet do a brilliant job and having attended the DDD Southwest day in Taunton, I’m really looking forward to June!"

SQL Server Club is the free community knowledge base providing articles, tips, newsletters and expert advice for SQL Server developers and database administrators. We focus on quality of information rather than quantity, and our authors are all experienced database experts. Membership is free. SQL Server Club is sponsored by Norb Technologies.

Message to Bristol (UK) Based Devs (there's free coffee and biscuits involved...)

Are you a developer working with Microsoft technologies, based in the Bristol (UK) area? Do you know about the Dot Net Dev Net user group?

If you’re not already a member of this free community, then please consider joining. There are lots of benefits in being a member and you’ll get way more out of it than you ever need to put in!

Dot Net Dev Net (DNDN) is run by Guy Smith-Ferrier, Chris Myhill, Adam Towler and a group of other dedicated volunteers. This team has great imagination in bringing an extra element to everything they organize and each event I’ve attended so far has been great fun, informative and such a good night out!

You’ll always be made to feel welcome, part of the group and have a great laugh too! The monthly meeting takes place at the University of the West of England (UWE) on the edge of Bristol and features a guest speaker and grok talks.

Previous presenters have included international speaker and MVP Kathleen Dollard of MSDN fame, talking about Rethinking Object Orientation, Dave Sussman the author and software ledged, speaking about ASP.NET 4.0 and more recently Microsoft Evangelist James O’Neill bringing the latest news on Windows 7.

The DNDN team goes to great lengths to make each meeting interesting and worth the trip. They look after everyone and provide refreshments during the break, including coffee, tea, cold drinks, biscuits and chocolate bars.

What’s more, at the end of each presentation there’s a prize draw to choose from a range of goodies such as Wrox Press technical manuals, cool developer t-shirts, license keys for components and software from the likes of Telerik and Red Gate, gadgets, Microsoft socks and limited edition chocolate bars!



After each meeting, there’s always a crowd who go to the bar, so if you fancy talking tech with some fellow devs over a pint, there’s always a friendly face to chat to.

It was the DNDN team who organized the Developer Developer Developer Southwest event in May with huge success. If you missed it, you missed out on a great day, but hopefully Guy and the gang will arrange another one soon.

You can watch the video here which gives you a flavour of what DNDN is all about. DNDN is funded by their generous sponsors.

If you work for, or run a business that would be able to offer some sponsorship money then I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. What are you waiting for? Join today! Useful links:

• Dot Net Dev Net
• DDD Southwest Showcase Video

Ten Tops Tips for Speeding up SQL Server

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying some sunshine :) Thank you to everyone for your continued support, SQL Server Club is growing by the day and we couldn't do it without you!

Last Saturday I attended the Developer Developer Developer Southwest conference in Taunton (UK). Jon, SSC's very own in-house DBA bravely volunteered to do a grok talk during the lunch break. His presentation was '10 Top Tips for Speeding up SQL Server'.

A grok talk is a rapid ten minute talk on any subject. Jon was a developer for many years before becoming a DBA, so he's brought his experience from both sides together in this presentation.

You can download the PowerPoint slides or PDF version of Jon's fabulous talk here:

http://www.sqlserverclub.com/ddd - you're welcome to send in your feedback!

You can take a look at the photos here (video to follow soon)!