Speaking at SQL Saturday Edinburgh

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I thought I would cover speaking at SQL Saturday Edinburgh in this post because I went there to speak over the weekend.

It was my first visit to Edinburgh, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also took my wife along so that she could do some sightseeing whilst we were there.

In reality, our trip to Edinburgh from the Netherlands was interesting. Mostly because we kept bumping into other SQL Saturday Edinburgh speakers along the way.

I have to admit, it was a bit strange to be back in the UK on the Friday night. Because I’m a UK expat and that was the night that the Brexit deadline finally happened.

In fact, I only found out the full implications for me just before I left the house on Friday. I have to admit I was glad to discover I did not have to carry around a letter every time I wanted to return to the Netherlands.

Anyway, enough about politics because I want to talk more about the event.

SQL Saturday Edinburgh

SQL Saturday Edinburgh was a great event. I got to present Azure DevOps Duet for the first time along with my new co-presenter Sander Stad.

In addition, I also presented my Database Adventure that I have been presenting around Europe for the last couple of years as well. In fact, it’s almost two years since I first presented it in Germany and I still use my grey speaker bag.

It was the first time I had presented two sessions at an event. Behind the scenes it took a lot of preparation for me to do.

I thought that it went really well it went considering my second session was Database Adventure. Because it is a very elaborate session.

However, it did give me the chance to show a new video that I had added to it. Which shows how to deploy a Big Data Cluster using Azure Data Studio. It’s based on a post I while a while ago, which you can read in detail here.

In addition, I had also added a new section about SQL Server licensing, which turned out to be a hot topic of conversation that day.

I decided some time ago to always add new material when presenting that session, because it keeps that particular session fresh and relevant.

Charms

I felt a bit guilty on Saturday because it was my nieces tenth birthday on Saturday. Even though I was in the same country as her I was not able to be there. So, I got her some charms since she is into fashion.

Hence, you can imagine how amusing I found it when I discovered my speaker gift was a box of charms. Which you can see below.

Sightseeing

After the event I done some sightseeing in Edinburgh. After a bit of searching around I also introduced my co-presenter to a traditional UK roast dinner. Of course, we also sampled some haggis there as well.

One of things I enjoy doing when I am back in the UK is sampling all the little things I miss. For example, types of food and drink which are hard to find in the Netherlands.

Anyway, now that I am back in the Netherlands all that was left for me to do was to upload my slides for Database Adventure. Which I have now done and you can download here.

Final word

I would like to say a big thanks to all the organisers, volunteers and sponsors involved with SQL Saturday Edinburgh. Without them events like this would not be possible.

I will also mention the fact that me and Sander will be presenting Azure DevOps Duet again at SQL Saturday Iceland. It’s another great event with an impressive lineup, which you can read in detail here.

So, if you happen to be around Iceland feel free to attend our session.