Activate Conference 2018: Presentation info

A special hello if you're visiting this blog post during or after my workshops on Thursday afternoon, February 22 at the Louisiana Tech Park as park of the Activate Conference 2018!

Here are all the links, downloads, and more you need for these two workshops on Thursday, Feb 22:

Databases 101 for the Aspiring App Dev
Student Track
2:45 PM - 4:15 PM

Your Applications and modern SQL Server 2017
Professional Track
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM

Links to get setup with SQL Server:

This is the link to download SQL for FREE:

• SQL Server 2017 Downloads, click Developer

The tools to dev in the Microsoft ecosystem are all free:

• SSMS (for the SQL Server) 
• SSDT (for SSRS, SSIS, SSAS, also for Database Projects) (installs a shell of Visual Studio)
• Visual Studio Community Edition or Visual Studio Code

Download the WideWorldImporters sample database:

• WideWorldImporters-Full.bak (restore to any Edition aside from LocalDB)

Presentation Downloads:

Slide decks: Download link  (.pptx files) 

Toolbox: Github (.sql files)

• Look for toolbox.zip for an easy download, or 
• Click on each file then download, or 
• Click on each file, click “raw” on each file to copy/paste

Activate Conference 2018: Three days of Tech Learning

Tomorrow I'll be giving two workshops at the super-slick-branded Activate Conference 2018 in Baton Rouge at the Louisiana Technology Park, a conference filled with people and topics much cooler than me and my two database workshops on Thursday, February 22.

Activate is an event that aims to enrich our local tech community by establishing and furthering the careers of individuals in the web and technology field.

3-Day registration for the whole conference, which includes a day of workshops, a hackathon, and a Saturday conference, is free. VIP Admission is also available which includes a t-shirt, swag bag and kickoff dinner (tonight!).

On Saturday, Sparkhound will be hosting a table with our second annual Lego deconstruction competition, with an prize for the fastest times!

See you there, and best of luck to the organizers: Isral, Quinton, Lynsey, and all their many helpers and volunteers!

"What's New in SQL 2017?" at the Baton Rouge SQL Server UG meeting

We had a great joint meeting tonight of the Baton Rouge SQL and .NET User Groups at the Louisiana Tech Park, and I gave the first version of a growing presentation on new features of SQL Server 2017 (with quite a few new SQL 2016 features in there for good measure).

Thanks to everyone who attended from both user groups!

Link to the presentation slidedeck here (including all the hidden slides I couldn't get to tonight).

I included a question from our SQL Sever 2017 Administration Inside Out author "fun" survey, you can read the whole survey on my blog.

Thanks to Thomas Leblanc for photo