What's happening on Friday 30th March 2011?

The theme for the Friday sessions is SQL Server 2012. The day's sessions are hand picked with up to 7 sessions running in parallel. There's bound to be something which catches your interest. In conjunction with the pre-conference seminars and the free Saturday conference this makes 3 days of top-class SQL Server content.

Will the Friday be the same as the Saturday?

No, the Friday event is different in the following ways:

• The content is hand picked by us with some input from the voting that is used to select the Saturday sessions.
• The majority of the sessions will be unique to Friday. We normally aim to make them all unique, but may allow 1-2 repeat sessions for very popular topics.
• The speakers will be well-known names from the world of SQL Server
• There is a charge to attend Friday, see pricing for full details.

What kind of topics will be covered on the Friday?

We are currently choosing the agenda, probably as you read this. The agenda will be available towards the end of the year. You can see sessions that have been submitted by going to the Sessions page.

Who will be speaking on the Friday?

The full line-up of speakers has yet to be confirmed, but some of those submitted so far are:

• Matt Mason, SQL Server Integration Services Team at Microsoft
• Thomas Kejser, Microsoft SQLCAT team
• Michael Rys, Product Manager SQL Server Engine Team
• Isaac Kunen, Senior program manager for StreamInsight,
• Cathy Dumas, Program Manager on the SQL Server Analysis Services team
• Bob Beauchemin, SQLSkills.com
• Denny Cherry, SQL Server MVP
• Adam Machanic, SQL Server MVP
• Simon Sabin, SQL Server MVP and MCM
• Chris Webb, SQL Server MVP
• Allan Mitchell, SQL Server MVP
• Christian Bolton, SQL Server MVP and MCM
• Jennifer Stirrup, SQL Server MVP

Where can I register to attend?

You can register for one, two or all three days of SQLBits here.

How come I'll have to pay to attend on the Friday?

Although we're able to make the SQLBits Saturday events free-to-attend through the generosity of our sponsors, there's no way we could raise enough money to support a two-day conference. As a result we made the decision to charge for the Friday event to help cover its costs. SQLBits is a not-for-profit organisation, run by volunteers, so no-one will be making any money from the Friday event.