SQLBits 2026
Creative GitHub Strategies for the Modern Database Professional
Unlock GitHub's hidden potential with Amy Abel and Rob Volk. Move beyond version control and turn the platform into a creative workspace. Learn to handle operational oddities and manage database tasks in ways you never imagined.
GitHub often gets pigeonholed as a tool strictly for software developers or a basic storage locker for SQL scripts. If you are a database professional who only uses it for version control, you are leaving a massive amount of functionality on the table.
In this session, Amy Abel and Rob Volk challenge that mindset by demonstrating how to turn GitHub into a creative playground for the data professional. We will explore how to apply a new way of thinking to the platform, uncovering solutions to problems you might not even realize could be handled here. You will see how to bend the rules to handle operational oddities and manage your work in unexpected ways, whether you are using the interface or the terminal.
Attendees will leave with a fresh perspective on their existing tooling and a flexible set of ideas to make their work easier and more interesting.
In this session, Amy Abel and Rob Volk challenge that mindset by demonstrating how to turn GitHub into a creative playground for the data professional. We will explore how to apply a new way of thinking to the platform, uncovering solutions to problems you might not even realize could be handled here. You will see how to bend the rules to handle operational oddities and manage your work in unexpected ways, whether you are using the interface or the terminal.
Attendees will leave with a fresh perspective on their existing tooling and a flexible set of ideas to make their work easier and more interesting.
Speakers
Rob Volk's other proposed sessions for 2026
DBA Horror Stories and Practical Advice for Surviving Your Worst Day - 2026
DeepSQL: How To Discover SQL Server Internals - 2026
Rob Volk's previous sessions
Thats So Metadata: Discover Your Database From the Inside
Learn about the metadata features in SQL Server that describe your database and how they can make documentation, tuning, and maintenance much easier.
Tame Your Unruly Data...With Constraints!
Is your data badly behaved and embarrassing you? Are you tired of cleaning up its messes? Constraints can help you straighten out your wayward data and put it on the right path before it gets into too much trouble.
Revenge: The SQL!
Are you a frustrated DBA? Ready to snap? Before you do, come see Revenge: The SQL! and learn a kinder, gentler form of vengeance.
Lego Sets: Relational Building Blocks
Introductory Relational Theory Using Lego Bricks to Model Data and Set Operations
