Now that I’ve been at Redgate as the newest Advocate, along with my engineering duties, let’s talk about the annual event so many of us attend each year in the Microsoft data community- PASS Data Community Summit.

My schedule is shaping up to be a busy one and I want to make sure that folks know where I’ll be through the week.

SQL Saturday Oregon/SW Washington

My week starts the weekend before, where I will be doing the keynote at SQL Saturday Oregon/SW Washington.  The keynote will be on “Why Can’t AI Do the Dishes Already?” and will follow a similar flow as my previous two years of keynotes I’ve done, which have been well received.  This is a data and thought leadership session, sharing the state of AI in the world today.

SQL Train

The next day, I’ll be on the SQL Train with a few dozen of my peers to head up to Seattle for the week of PASS Summit.  We have a slew of social events throughout the week, everything from whisky tasking, karaoke, game nights and dinners, along with the technical sessions to feed our brains.  I’ll be be with my favorite roomies again- Heidi Hasting, Marsha Pierce and Tracy Boggiano at the Airbnb that we’ve had the last couple years, resulting in a great view of the new conference center!

As I am part of one of the keynotes for the event this year, I have significant rehearsals that I’ll need to engage in, along with the keynote itself.  There’s also the opportunity to meet up with coworkers that often aren’t in the same location, so we try to take advantage of this with a few meetings peppered into the week, too!

My Schedule

Where can I be found this week, at least officially?

I will be around Monday and Tuesday to meet with folks for coffee, etc. outside of rehearsals and meetings.

Tuesday, Nov 5

Welcome Reception at the Seattle Convention Center

6:00 PM, Microsoft Keynote Room (Ballroom 1)

This is the great kick-off to PASS Community Summit!  Don’t miss out on connecting with old friends and seeing all that is in-store for the week!

Wednesday, Nov 6

Hobbies – LEGOS!!

4:30 PM, Community Zone, Level 3

I’ll be in the Community Zone speaking about my beloved hobby of Legos!  We’ll also have an area for people to build Legos during the conference, take pics and upload them to social media with the tag #LegosPS24.  I’ll be judging the build and awarding a gift card to the best build, rules will be posted at the community zone table.

Exhibitor Reception

6:00 PM, Exhibitor Area

Come hang out with me with all the incredible sponsors, speakers and other attendees for great food, drinks and conversation!  There’ll be demonstrations and swag, can’t beat that!

Thursday, Nov 7

Redgate Keynote: Simplifying Complexity: Making the Database Work in the Real World

8:15 AM, Microsoft Keynote Room, Ballroom 1

This is the main keynote where I’ll be introduced as the newest advocate to join Redgate. I’ll be joined by a number of fantastic individuals as we discuss the challenges of databases in today’s world and how we can succeed as technologists, no matter what is thrown at us!

From Bugs to Brilliance: Applying AI-Generated Data Generation to Create Test Data

9:45 AM, Room 340-342

I’ll be presenting with James Hemson on the challenges of developing a test data solution and the value of incorporating AI/ML solutions as part of that.

11:30-12:45 AM, Room 343-344

I’ll be hosting for over an hour of Database Management Lightening Talks!

Speakers:

• LT-1: Nick Ivanov – Trusted Postgres Architect – Automation for Deployment and Testing
• LT-2: Marcelo Adade – Avoiding the Top 3 Pitfalls with Always On Ags and FCIs Deployments
• LT-3: Yuki Hata – Smooth Sailing to the Azure Cloud: A Guided Flight of PaaS Offerings
• LT-4: Thanh OJ Ngo – Deploy Highly Available SQL Server Containers in AKS in 3 Easy Steps
• LT-5: Rob Volk – Improve Your XML Skills in SQL Server

Leveraging PostgreSQL and PGVector for advancing with Test Data

2:00 PM, Room 447

I’ll be presenting this session with the brilliant Steve Karam, as we discuss leveraging PostgreSQL with the PGVector extension.  We’ll discuss the value of vector databases to AI projects and perform some pretty cool demos as part of this session around data protection.

Redgate After Event

6:00 PM (Invitation Only)

Friday, Nov 8

Community Mingle | Meet your Community Leaders

9:45 AM, Community Zone, Level 3

I will be joining Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey and Ryan Booz and the global leaders of the data community to meet and catch up!  It’s a great time to connect everyone and find out the status of our user groups, events and communities as a whole.

Community Conversation | Learning New Databases

12 Noon, Community Zone, Level 3

This one is Grant Fritchey and I discussing the challenges and opportunities when learning new database platforms.  Grant has been investing a lot of time lately embracing PostgreSQL and I’m always trying out new databases, including my own investment in Postgres flavors, especially AlloyDB Omni.  This should be a fun discussion and we look forward to the interaction of the community on their own challenges.

And Exit, Stage Right

Saturday I have a couple social gatherings and then Sunday I’ll take the train back to Portland, which is a relaxing 3 hour trip.

I left out much of the social events from this post, but I didn’t want everyone else to feel as overwhelmed as I am right now!  No worries, I’m feeling quite confident with all the incredible planning and preparation the Redgate team has put into my inclusion to the conference – I will come out the other side victorious!