What’s happening on Friday November 20th?

The four previous SQLBits conferences have all been great successes, but we’ve been very aware that there are a large number of people who’d like to attend SQLBits but can’t because it always takes place on a Saturday. As a result we decided to expand SQLBits to have a multi session, multi track day on the Friday, similar to the one we will be having on the Saturday. In conjunction with the pre-conference seminars this makes 3 days of top-class SQL content.

Will the Friday event be exactly the same as the SQLBits Saturday event that I know and love?

No, the Friday event is going to be different in the following ways:

• All of the content will be focused on SQL Server 2008 and the forthcoming R2 release
• The speakers will be well-known names from the world of SQL Server
• It’s not free – there will be a charge of £99 to attend if you register before October 31st, £149 if you register between November 1st and November 15th, and £199 after that.

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, so no-one will be making any money from the Friday event.

How will this affect the SQLBits Saturday event?

Not at all – the SQLBits Saturday event taking place on November 21st will be run on exactly the same format as all previous SQLBits conferences, and will continue to be free-to-attend.

What kind of topics will be covered on the Friday?

Topics covered on the Friday will include the following:

• Business Intelligence:
  • Gemini and self-service BI
  • New functionality in Reporting Services for SQL Server 2008  and R2
  • Master Data Services
  • Project Madison
• DBA
  • Multi-server management
  • Data-tier application control
  • Enhancements in the MDW
  • Policy-based management
  • Compression and Encryption
  • Mirroring enhancements, Compressible log stream and page level repair
  • Scalability – Going to 256 cores
  • Handling large data sets with partitioning management and query improvements
  • Improve large data operations with new bulk logged operations
• Developer
  • Enabling integration with 3rd party systems with Change Data Capture
  • Managing replication to 100s of devices using Change tracking and Sync Services
  • Spatial Data, Integrated Full text search and XML data
  • New data types and programming improvements

Who will be speaking on the Friday?

The full line-up of speakers has yet to be confirmed, but so far we have:

• Donald Farmer, from the Microsoft BI development team
• Thomas Kejser, from the Microsoft SQLCat team
• Chris Testa-O’Neill
• Simon Sabin
• Chris Webb
• Allan Mitchell
• Martin Bell

Where can I register to attend?

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