Notes From SQLSaturday #362 in Austin

Posted on by SQLAndy
  • Direct flight from Orlando to Austin is nice
  • Austin airport/rental car setup is nice, easy in and out
  • Have to admit the 80 mph zones speed up the drive from the airport up to Round Rock
  • Event was at the Wingate Hotel & Convention Center. Reasonable at $100 night, nothing fancy.
  • Speaker dinner was at The Salt Lick. Benches and family style service, all you can eat meat. Big crowd for the dinner, we were there close to 3 hours
  • The event was at the Wingate’s Convention Center. Not huge, but there was enough space and the organizers made it work. There’s a lot to be said for having the event in/next to the hotel, and a lot to be said for a concise room layout that minimizes the walking around time
  • I think there are only two challenges at the venue. One was parking. The overflow parking required going through the bank drive through next door! The other was the sponsor room was between two session rooms and for about the first 10-15 mins the noise from the sponsor room bled through noticeably. Neither issue caused significant impact.
  • Only one speaker cancellation that I heard about and Joe Celko filled in there (and when we chatted later in the day I found out the 5th edition of SQL For Smarties was recently released)
  • It also rained and was fairly cool, possibly arranged by the event team so we could/would wear the various nice jackets they got us as speaker gifts!
  • I did my presentation on learning plans and it went well, even with the noise next door. About 30 attendees, scores looked decent, only a couple of threes and ok’s.
  • Lunch was fajitas, all served by the catering company. Pretty good (not as good as Orlando maybe, but pretty good). Brownies were a nice touch, and they had iced tea (surely they would in Texas, right?)
  • I saw Nancy Hidy Wilson do a nice job discussion security, and saw Conor Cunningham talking about the query store. Good stuff!
  • The after party location was ok, would have been better if not forced inside due to weather.
  • Sunday morning I met a local friend for breakfast at Round Rock Donuts. No inside seating and limited outdoor seating, luckily the weather was better.