SQL Server 2008 R2 was an exciting release for Reporting Services. It gave us features such as:
– Shared Data Sets
– Report Parts
– New Visualization, including spatial visualizations

There’s are also significant changes and new features to SSRS 2012 – but a some of these can only be materialized if you are using SSRS 2012 integrated in SharePoint 2010. Nonetheless these are still pretty exciting changes, and can change the landscape of reporting for our end users (read: more Self Service BI):
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SQLSaturday #114 in Vancouver is coming up. It will be held at the BCIT Burnaby Campus – SW buildings. Have you registered yet?

If you haven’t, you can still register! I love SQLSaturdays. I personally enjoy attending them a lot, and wished there were more SQLSaturdays in the Vancouver vicinity so I can attend more. Although if I had the time and money, I’d fly to other SQLSaturdays too (did you know there’s a SQLSaturday in Honolulu, Dublin and Portugal?).

If you’re in the database/SQL Server field, you should have plenty of reasons to attend. There’s lots of awesome stuff to learn, especially since SQL Server 2012 has just launched last March 7, 2012! Plus, this is a free training event. Yup, you read it right, it’s a free awesome event. One day of SQL Server training can cost you a few hundred dollars, but SQLSaturdays are packed with different sessions, and you don’t even have to worry about the dollar cost.

Here are the event details as posted at the SQLSaturday site:

Who:
YOU! All you have to do to get involved is register online to reserve your spot. Show up and attend the sessions that you choose.
What:
This is a FREE one day training event for SQL Server developers, administrators and other data professionals.

When:
Saturday, March 17, 2012. Register online now to reserve your spot. Attendee check-in will begin at 7:30 am until 9:00 am. The first sessions of our four tracks begin at 9:30 am.

Where:
BCIT South-West Buildings
3700 Willingdon Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5G 3H2
Canada

I have a couple presentations. As usual, I am both pretty excited and nervous.

ETL with SSIS for Beginners

You’ve heard of the term “ETL” before, but you’re not quite sure what it really is and how to do it. In this session we’ll demystify this so-called ETL. Don’t worry, no previous experience required. We’ll work our way from getting your data from your sources, to cleaning and reformatting them, and loading them to your data warehouse. We will also look at some standards and conventions you should consider when doing ETL to simplify your process, and save you some headaches in the future. Of course, our go-to ETL tool is SSIS.

You did what with PowerShell?!

PowerShell is cool. And powerful. Don’t believe me? See it for yourself. Come to this session, and I will show you cool things we can do with PowerShell – ranging from backing up your servers, working with BLOBs and XML, to automating SSRS report deployments and downloads, and even integrating with SSIS. We’ll work with different facets of SQL Server from a PowerShell perspective.

See you there!

One more SQLSaturday done I love SQLSaturdays, it’s always a fun experience for me. Uhm, ok, maybe let me qualify that. It’s always a nervewracking AND fun experience for me – when I’m speaking. I just always want it to be worth people’s time to attend my presentations.

I think there was a good crowd at my session, and I’m quite happy to see they seemed to have fun too (I hope!) …
Btw I have a couple more presentations in the upcoming SQLSaturday#114 – on PowerShell, and on ETL Basics.

Here’s a couple mementos for me to remember this day by. Thank you to everyone who attended, and spent their Saturdays with us …

These are the files. If you have any questions about them, please feel free to contact me.
SQLSaturday108 Redmond – SSRS Beyond the Basics Presentation – Donabel Santos
SQLSaturday108 – Donabel Santos – RDL files

SQLSaturday108 – Donabel Santos – PowerShell Files
SQLSaturday108 – Donabel Santos – jquery point generator

Thank you to all the troopers who attended my really-early-morning-cold-and-snowy session at SQLSaturday#65 in Vancouver, BC. It was such a great event; thanks to all volunteers, sponsors, speakers and organizers (kudos to Scott Stauffer (blog | twitter) .. Thanks to Todd McDermid (blog | twitter) too for helping me give out swags during my session, and thanks for the great powerpoint slide decks which I’ve used in 2 SQLSaturdays now!

As promised, here are the SQLSaturday#65 presentation materials for SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 Reporting Services from the Ground Up

Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) has a few pictures of the event

Sample Reports (pdfs)

Report with different visualization components (data bar, sparkline, indicator, gauge, chart)

Report with drilldown, barcode, gauge

Report using map (from ESRI shapefile for Canada) and Bing Maps layer

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I would like to say a huge and warm thank you to all who attended my sessions for SQLSaturday#43 in Redmond. It was such a great event, and I hope you enjoyed the sessions – and enjoyed the whole day with all the wonderful speakers.

As promised here are the files for my sessions:
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I did a presentation today for VANPASS on PowerShell and SQL Server – thank you to those who attended! It was a great lively crowd Thanks to Idera too – for the freebies – and to Black Ninja Software for the pizza and pop!

Here are the files as promised: VANPASS – SQL Server and PowerShell – Donabel Santos

The zipped file contains the presentation and all of the samples (ones that I demo’d, and ones I didn’t have time to demo). The demos are:

• Demo 01 – Common PowerShell Tasks – Complete.PS1
• Demo 02 – PowerShell Basics – Complete.PS1
• Demo 03a – SQL Server 2008 Mini Shell – Complete.PS1
• Demo 03b – Server and Database Properties.PS1
• Demo 03c – SQL Server Services and Jobs.PS1
• Demo 03d – Scripting SQL Server Objects.PS1
• Demo 03e – Searching for Objects.PS1
• Demo 03f – Basic DDL and DML Import.PS1
• Demo 03f – Basic DML.PS1
• Demo 03g – Backup and Restore.PS1
• Demo 04 – SQL Server PSX – Complete.PS1
• Demo 05 – SQL Server PSSnapin – Complete.PS1
• Demo – SSIS.PS1
• Demo – SSRS.PS1
• Out-Report from Chad Miller

I have used a lot of resources when I was creating all these samples, and I have tried to enumerate them in my presentation. And I also just realized I had a lot of samples and was only able to get through 2/3 of them.

I enjoy presenting at VANPASS, it is always a great crowd. Please feel free to drop me a line, or comment on my blog, or message me on twitter(sqlbelle) – if you have other SQL Server PowerShell questions, or if you had questions at the presentation that I wasn’t able to address.

Thanks to Richard Baumet and Scott Stauffer for inviting me to speak.
And thanks to Idera too – I love using your PowerShell Plus!

… written by one of our cool DevTeach speakers Peter de Betta?

Yup, it’s a free MS Press Ebook on SQL Server 2008. What else can we SQL Server junkies ask for? (Ok, fine I said that too soon, there’s probably still a fair bit of stuff we want out of SQL Server).

Anyway, this is the link to Peter‘s blog about the book :
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/peter_debetta/archive/2008/09/16/introducing-sql-server-2008-the-book.aspx

This is the excerpt:

To get your free copy, browse to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/sql/2008/default.mspx. From there, look in the Special Offers section for the “Free e-book offer“. Although the site states you can get excerpts, the whole book is available for reading.

Coolio?

DevTeach day
– done my presentation on PowerShell! thanks for my awesome crowd – they stayed with me from PowerShell ground zero to about 20 feet up. You’ve seen the tool now, go make me proud
– also attended Shereen’s session. She’s the master of customizing your SharePoint pages!

DevTeach night
– DevTeach speakers dinner at Sala Thai. Fun and lively chat with Scott Stauffer, Peter de Betta, and Ted Neward. Also brief chat with Kevin Kline and his wife while we were at the lounge waiting to go to dinner. Very nice people!

DevTeach tomorrow
– we have the Black Ninja Booth. Come visit us! We always welcome good chats, hi’s and hellos! We also have a few things to give away (shirts, goodies, and Telerik Web Control license!)
– looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions!

Twitter/Tweetie
– wow this could be very addicting eh? I find myself using my iphone/tweetie more.

Brag Bag
– got nominated for BCIT’s Teaching Excellence Award!! Did I put enough smileys here? Thank you to whoever nominated me, it is a pleasure and privilege and very much appreciated.

That’s it, I’m ready to crash for the night!

Updates : day after
– also fun chats with Don Kiely, Etienne Tremblay, Medhat Elmasry, Brian Pidcock at our Black Ninja booth, and quick chat with Richard Baumet while we were both prepping for our presentations
– when able to sneak out of the booth, attended Sherman Woo’s session on SharePoint Dev tips and tricks, Peter de Betta’s Choosing the Right Encryption Technologies , Kevin Kline’s End to End SQL Server Troubleshooting, Brad McGehee’s SQLDiag presentation; I wish I could have see more presentations!