{"id":107,"date":"2015-03-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sqlhammer.com\/blog\/sql-saturday-381-richmond-va"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:51:40","slug":"sql-saturday-381-richmond-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/23\/sql-saturday-381-richmond-va\/","title":{"rendered":"SQL Saturday #381 – Richmond, VA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday I attended #SQLSATRVA<\/a>, which was SQL Saturday #381<\/a>. It was a blast! The day started off with the usual registration process. Thankfully, I remembered to print out and cut my SpeedPass in advance. The line to use the scissors was ridiculous! I heard recommendations\u00a0that perforated paper be used next year.<\/p>\n

Once the sessions began, it was out-of-this-world SQL training, as always. SQL Saturdays<\/a>, no matter what day of the week they are actually on, never fail to provide SQL Server MVPs, MCMs, MCSEs, and a variety of\u00a0undocumented<\/em>\u00a0gurus from the community. I\u2019d like to extend a huge thank you<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0to all of the speakers, organizers, volunteers, and sponsors for having this event.<\/p>\n

While I loved the entire day, there was one session that will stand out in my memory for a very long time. In the last segment of the day,\u00a0The Wheel of DOOM<\/strong>, was planned. The original goal was for six speakers to submit 10 mins power point presentations. Once submitted, a speaker would randomly select a presentation and present without any preparation. They would not be allowed to select their own slide deck. I did, and still do, find the idea to be a lot of fun but not enough people submitted. So,\u00a0improvisation was required. After some debating we ended up playing\u00a0SQL Charades<\/strong>. Just like the traditional Charades game, we acted out SQL Server related terms for the audience to guess.<\/p>\n

The game was a lot of fun. Jessica Moss (b<\/a>|t<\/a>) and Tim Mitchell (b<\/a>|t<\/a>) kicked off the game and\u00a0I think we would all agree that Jessica was the best actor of us all with her rendition of the SQL Agent (sadly, it was not caught on camera). I learned that I need to\u00a0step up my game for next time.\u00a0Availability Group\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Fill Factor<\/em>\u00a0were the ones that enjoyed acting out the most;\u00a0GUID <\/em>was\u00a0<\/em>certainly\u00a0impossible, and\u00a0package<\/em>\u00a0made Jessica regret recommending the word.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Written by Derik Hammer of SQL Hammer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Derik is a data professional focusing on Microsoft SQL Server. His passion focuses around high-availability<\/a>, disaster recovery<\/a>, continuous integration, and automated maintenance. his experience has spanned long-term database administration, consulting, and\u00a0entrepreneurial ventures.<\/p>\n

Derik gives the SQL community credit for plugging the gaps in his knowledge when he was a junior DBA and, now that his skills have matured, started SQLHammer.com<\/a> as one small way to give back and continue the cycle of shared learning.<\/p>\n

Derik is the owner and lead author of SQL Hammer, a Microsoft SQL Server resource<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit http:\/\/www.sqlhammer.com<\/a>. Follow Derik on Twitter<\/a> for SQL tips and chat<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday I attended #SQLSATRVA, which was SQL Saturday #381. It was a blast! The day started off with the usual registration process. Thankfully, I remembered to print out and cut my SpeedPass in advance. The line to use the scissors was ridiculous! I heard recommendations\u00a0that perforated paper be used next year. Once the sessions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}