I had the question come up a couple of times. Why should I attend the SQLBits conference – what are the things I should say to my boss, so she would let me go?
And then I realised I might not attend SQLBits for the same reasons as most. My two main reasons are:
- Networking and socializing
- Scouting
And then there’s the “scouting”. Isn’t it something from football you might ask? And yes it is, but it’s not some side gesheft I have here. I actually scout speakers. I’m continually looking for new “talents” to my training company Orange Man, where we arrange Data Platform and Power BI training in Denmark with external experts. As examples I “scouted” Jeremy Kashel and Simon Whiteley on SQLBits many many years ago and made the connections, so we afterwards could get training organized.
I also scout speakers for the Power BI Next Step and Data Platform Next Step conferences. Doing session selection is very hard if you only have a session title and description. The really value is how you deliver the session and that I can experience live at SQLBits – and then I also get the chance to watch a lot of great content. Because of course I also come to SQLBits for the high quality sessions.
Every year I’m truly amazed big the amount and level of the sessions. I learn something new every time – and also gets confirmed that I’m on track with how I’m implementing and using the technologies.
