SQLSaturday Orlando Notes – Designated Hotel

Almost every year we select an “official” hotel for the event. For those coming in who don’t know the area it’s a way to avoid figuring out what is a good hotel in a convenient place and it’s a chance for speakers to hang out with other speakers outside of the event and related parties. […]

SQLSaturday Orlando Notes – 45 Minute Sessions

Earlier this Brent ran a poll about the preferred session length and more than 50% liked the idea of 45 minute sessions. Interesting, the idea of trying to fit more into a single day without making it longer, so I put it on the list. For SQLSaturday Orlando this year (2019) we set the morning […]

SQLSaturday Orlando Notes – Speaker Gifts & Bags

I like to give speakers something to say thank you beyond the standard speaker shirt. It doesn’t have to be big, fancy, or expensive. I’ve always appreciated a hand written thank you card. Here in Orlando we’ve given speakers business card holders, a very nice $25 coffee cup, beach towels, chef hats, and a lot […]

SQLSaturday Orlando Notes – Speaker Shirts

I’ve always considered it important to offer a shirt to a speaker – part thank you, part making it easier for attendees to identify them as key volunteers. Does the kind of shirt matter? For some it does, they only want a polo or other ‘work class’ shirt. Or maybe they won’t wear those! Not […]

SQLSaturday Orlando Notes – Kahoot

The last two years we did Family Feud as part of our end of day gathering. Fun, exciting, and energetic are all words I’d use to describe it. Definitely a good way to end the day. If there’s a downside it’s that the audience is just that, watching but not participating. That’s not a huge […]

SQLSaturday Orlando 2019 Summary

Our 13th SQLSaturday is done. Some quick notes about the overall event, then as time/energy allow I’ll post separately on some things that went well (or didn’t) and some new things we tried. Attendance this year was 310, up slightly from the previous couple years and registration was up slightly as well. For both of […]

SpeedPASS Printing

Based on the great post and script from Wayne Sheffield I decided to try again pre-printing the SpeedPASS for everyone this year. I dislike the line of shame and I dislike having attendees wait in line for more than a couple minutes, printing them at least reduces the pain. I wanted a little more from […]