Presenting at Vancouver's BI PASS Chapter in April

Update (2009-04-21): I'm now presenting on Friday, April 24th - 10:00am!

Step four in world domination is now underway - I've tackled blogging, managing two open-source community projects, and am now a moderator at the MSDN SSIS Forums, so now it's time to start some public speaking.  This latest endeavour got started when I finally got off my duff and made it out to a Vancouver PASS chapter[1] meeting (which was great, BTW).  I live two and a half hours away from Vancouver (by cheap boat), and it's not that convenient to get myself over to Vancouver for evening events - but getting involved once in a while is worth it.  Scott Stauffer did a great overview of the capabilities of SSIS - exposing the tool to a great many people who'd heard about it, but never seen it in action.  Seeing how cordial the atmosphere was, I decided to hit up Richard Baumet for the opportunity to present.  Turns out that Scott is starting a second Vancouver PASS chapter - this one devoted to Business Intelligence.  I don't know how common this is, but it sounds like a pretty good idea in my books.

So on May 8th April 24th, I'll be presenting an SSIS primer: "CSV to SQL and Back Again - a Hobbesian Tale" to this new BI chapter of PASS.  The obvious play on words with regards to Lord of the Rings[2] is only skin deep - although I may expose a few Orcs and share a magic spell or two.  The less obvious "Hobbesian" part refers to Thomas Hobbes, a proponent of Social Contract theory - which plays into SSIS's type and metadata strictness tradeoff.  I've got it all laid out - the PowerPoint slideshow and SSIS package are all set.  (Once I got the booking, I just couldn't leave it alone.  I just hope I don't forget it all by the time May 8th April 24th rolls around.)  The presentation audio and slides will get posted online after the meeting.

I'll be showing how to move data from your typical CSV file into SQL Server with SSIS, using as many Tasks and Data Flow components along the way as I can while still keeping to just over an hour of time.  My use of each component will serve a specific (fictional) business purpose - demonstrating how to solve a real-world issue, rather than just showing off the tool's technical capabilities.  I'll then take some auditing and performance information from the run and dump it to a text file - to get the "and back again," and to show that SSIS isn't just all about getting data into SQL Server.  I know it will provide a great foundation for those wanting (or needing) to get into the SSIS world and frame of mind.

See you there!


[1] PASS is the Professional Association for SQL Server, a non-profit group dedicated to supporting Microsoft SQL Server professionals around the world.  Vancouver, BC has two chapters now - a general PASS chapter, and a BI-centric chapter.  VanPASS tries to meet in the evenings on the last Wednesday of each month - pizza and facilities provided by generous benefactors like Microsoft and Sierra Systems.  The BI chapter is looking to set a regular schedule of Friday mornings on the second Friday of every month.  It's quite likely that whatever city you live in or near, there's a chapter of PASS around with a monthly schedule.  Go to a meeting, chat up some colleagues to find out what neat (or boring) stuff they're doing at their work, and eat some pizza (a globally-recognized staple at these meetings, I gather - although others seem to get beer too... I'll have to work on that).

[2] "The Hobbit" or "There and Back Again (a Hobbit's Tale)" by J.R.R. Tolkien, the "prequel" to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.