I was really happy to see such a great turnout for today’s session on how to get started blogging at Enterprise Data World (#EDW13).  I wasn’t just happy to have a full room, but that I got so many great, insightful questions and comments.

My Get Blogging slides are available for download now.

Some of the resources I mentioned during the talk:

• WordPress.com This is my blogging platform of choice.  You can set up a blog in 10 seconds, for free. 
• WordPress.org Same platform, but if you want to host it someplace yourself.  You can also find a third party host and they typically will have this ready to install from their catalog of approved applications.  It’s free.
• Windows Live Writer http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials-other-programs  This is what I use to compose most of my blog posts
• TechSmith.com Home of Camtasia (video editor of my choice) and SnagIt (my screen capture tool).  You want these.
• ERwin.com Go To page for all things ERwin, including their blogs (under the community page)
• Embarcadero.com Where to find ER/Studio blogs
• Dataversity.net Home of numerous blogs and articles

Remember, if you start blogging, I want to hear about it so that I can share, comment, and help you promote your writing.

Get Blogging!

I’ll be participating in this year’s Enterprise Data World 28 April to 2 May in San Diego, CA.  If you register using the coupon code DATACHICK you can get $200 off a multi-day registration.  That code saves you $50 on a one-day registration.

On Thursday, 2 May I’m giving a half day workshop on the data modeling process:

S5: Advanced Data Modeling: Be Happier, Add More Value and Be More Valued

Karen Lopez
Sr. Project Manager & Architect
InfoAdvisors

Thursday, May 2, 2013
01:15 PM – 04:30 PM

Level: 
Advanced

In this advanced workshop, Karen Lopez covers how to make data modeling more relevant in 2012 and removing pain points for modelers and other team members. It includes how to be successful in an agile/scrum environment, how to make models valuable in a NoSQL project, how to better work with DBAs, Developers, Project Managers and how to sound and be more valuable.

This follows a workshop format, with both individual and team exercises. It is expected that attendees will have more than two years of hands-on data modeling and database design skills at the enterprise level.

Starting a Blog for Data Professionals

On Wednesday I’m doing a professional development session on getting started with blogging:  Starting a Blog: Easy Step Show and Tell for Data Professionals.  This session is nicely placed between the coffee and desserts segment on the exhibit floor and the ice cream social that happens right after.  I’m expecting a lot of sugar-motivated potential bloggers.

I’ll also be doing some special activities with vendors and sponsors: watch your inbox for information from them about their events.

EDW is one of my favourite conferences of the year – part technical education, part data professional reunion, part data community revival.  You don’t want to miss it. 

This month’s Big Challenges in Data Modeling webinar is Thursday at 2PM EDT.  We’ll be talking about better collaboration with developers and the development process.

I have a great panel:

Missy Wittman, Information Modeling Engineer Specialist, American Family Insurance

Missy Wittmann is an Information Modeling Engineer Specialist at American Family Insurance. Missy has worked in the data modeling field for over fifteen years in various roles. She started out as a business partner on a project that did some data modeling and enjoyed the process so much that she changed career paths. Missy has facilitated projects for Business Modeling, Logical and Physical Data Modeling. Most recently she has been participating in projects that are creating XML Schema’s. Data Modeling is an exciting place to be in the world of technology. No matter what technology is being used to get the end result, we always need our blue-print!

Joe Devon, CoFounder, Diamond Web Services

Joe Devon is the co-founder of Diamond Web Services, a boutique web development shop based in Venice Beach; Startup Devs, a “Prototypes as a Service” company building MVP’s for startups, and founding partner of Television Four, where he is building a technology channel.

Joe has been a computer programmer for more than 20 years, working on projects spanning Search Engine technology, Performance Management, scaling Wide Area Networks; for Internet backbone providers, Investment Banks, Telcos & Media.

Joe serves on the advisory boards of leading development industry conferences (Zendcon, Semtech) and for the educational program of Cross Campus. Joe is an organizer of several technology oriented meetup groups in Los Angeles and CoFounded Global Accessibility Awareness Day, bridging the gap between disabled citizens and the Internet.

Gwen Thomas, President, Data Governance Institute

Gwen Thomas is a Data Governance pioneer, founder of the Data Governance Institute, and publisher of the web’s largest Data Governance resource at www.datagovernance.com. Gwen has personally assisted many large, mid-sized, and small organizations with their data strategies, data governance and stewardship programs, master data strategies, and other information practices. Gwen is a frequent presenter at industry data events and contributor to IT and business publications.

I’m expecting a lot of good discussion and sharing of tips about how data models and data modelers can best work with developers during fast-paced, get-er-done projects. 

Registration is free, but you need to do that to get the information to join.

What are Office Hours?

I’m drawing from an academic practice of educators publishing set times when students could stop by to get help from an instructor on a more direct basis than in a classroom.  However, my intention isn’t for this to be an Instructor/Student dynamic, but more of a professional information sharing opportunity to talk shop outside the bounds of our regular projects.

There is no presentation or agenda set by me.  It’s all set by the attendees, sort of like an unconference call.

I see this as the types of conversations that happen during breaks at user group / DAMA meetings or at the end of a webinar.  Not all work, but primarily about topics we share an interest in.  I also see this as a type of tertulia, which is a conversation by a group of people with a share interest.

This is open to anyone and everyone who would like to be part of a virtual meeting of data professionals where there is no set agenda.

Please enter your real name or Twitter ID when joining the meeting. It helps us connect better, which is why we are having these meetings.

What Office Hours are Not

The intention isn’t for us to provide 45 minutes of free consulting to solve a detailed data modeling problem for one person.  That’s what we do for a living. It also isn’t quite the bar discussion after a user group meeting where all topics are available.  However, I might be on a beverage break at the same time and so could you.  So think about the same sort of topics, approaches, and conventions you’d normally follow in the break room at work or over breakfast at a your local DAMA meeting.

This isn’t a user group meeting with a presentation or agenda.  Perhaps it is an “unmeeting” of sort.  You don’t have to join at the starting time, nor do you have stay all the way through.   If you want to bring your Barbie, GI Joe, or Wayne Gretzky action figure, please do so.

We are using a version of Go To Meeting that allows for 15 participants at a time.  That means that our group will be small at any point in time. I think that matches what my intent is.  It also means that we can share screens/applications and that you can use a computer headset or dial in to to talk.

If you’d like a meeting invite for you calendar, e-mail me Karen @ infoadvisors.com (remove those spaces).  You can also leave a comment here with a valid e-mail address so that I can send you the meeting invite.

So lets give this a try.  I’d love to hear your questions, comments, thoughts on DATA.  We talk about issues, challenges, funny stories, and whatever is going on in the news about data.

Office Hours Starting  1 March 2013

Due to my travel schedule, I may miss a few Fridays.  Check out my Twitter stream on Fridays to find out. 

If you are in an office environment with lots of background noise, please manage your own muting: Don’t Be That Guy. Also, it is good form not to use a speaker phone on a conference call.  This applies to all conference calls.

The Logistics

1. Please join my meeting.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/269989161

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) – a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.

Canada: +1 (647) 497-9391

Australia: +61 2 8355 1040

Austria: +43 (0) 7 2088 1399

Belgium: +32 (0) 38 08 1855

Netherlands: +31 (0) 708 912 514

New Zealand: +64 (0) 9 909 7882

Sweden: +46 (0) 852 503 498

Switzerland: +41 (0) 435 0167 07

United Kingdom: +44 (0) 203 535 0624

United States: +1 (646) 982-0002

Access Code: 269-989-161

Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Meeting ID: 269-989-161

You can dial in or use your computer to hear the audio and speak – whatever works for you.  The audio pin isn’t required, but it is helpful if you dial in and give the pin so that we can tell who is talking.

During this month’s Big Challenges in Data Modeling we’ll be talking about the state of data modeling. 

Last month Tom LaRock (@sqlrockstar | blog) wrote a post Data Modeling is Dead, Long Live Data Modeling. 

Data modeling is dead. It is a product of an era that has passed; that of corporate silos that created their own versions of software to suit their own needs.

That is no longer the world in which we live. That era was one that had high costs associated with building and maintaining a database of customers.

Today’s era is one where you can subscribe to Salesforce.com for just a few dollars a day. You can decide for yourself to run a new report. How much did that same report cost in the old era? How long would it take for IT to deliver that report? That’s why businesses today are using such services, because it reduces time and costs.

You need to read the whole post to get his position, but I find that his take on the state of data modeling is common in the IT world.  I posted a link to his blog post to a LinkedIn group and there was an extensive discussion.

I’ve invited Tom to join a real-world data architect and me to talk the current state of data modeling and what the future holds for data architects. 

This Month’s Panelists

Thomas LaRock

• Thomas LaRock is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of technical and management experience. Currently serving as a Technical Evangelist for Confio Software, Thomas has progressed through several roles in his career including programmer, analyst, and DBA. Thomas holds a MS degree in Mathematics from Washington State University and is a member of the Usability Professional’s Association. Thomas currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) and is a SQL Server MCM as well as MVP. Thomas can also be found blogging at http://thomaslarock.com and is the author of DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA (http://dbasurvivor.com).

Gabriel Tanase

• Gabriel Tanase is a Data Architect currently with a mid-size business consulting organization. He has accumulated some tough years of ordinary real-life data modeling experience and the not-unheard-of distinction of having taught it academically before really practicing. He is currently specializing in keeping everybody else in the project happy while quietly enforcing information meaning and integrity.

This webinar is free to attend, but you must register.  It officially starts at 2PM EST, but you can join us at 1:45 when we start our prep. We’ll be taking questions via the Q&A and we offer a real time chat so that you can be part of the conversation, too. 

I’ve recently taken over director moderator duties for the monthly Big Challenges in Data Modeling webinar hosted by Dataversity.net.  Former moderator, Graeme Simsion, has moved on to exciting things in the writing and film industry, so I’m stepping up to take on the role of agent provocateur in engaging the data community to chat and debate about industry and academic trends in the data world.

Big Challenges in Data Modeling #BCDModeling

In tomorrow’s panel, well be chatting about a soon to be released research paper based on a survey of data professionals.  This paper covers:

• Role of Agile/SCRUM on data modeling projects
• Data Modeling tool features
• Data Architecture staffing
• Big Data trends
• ..and more.

Joining me will be a great cast of characters team of experts in data management as we chat about the paper and how these things have changed over the years.

• Chris Bradley, IPL @inforacer
• Donna Burbank, CA Technologies, @donnaburbank
• David Dichmann, SAP (Sybase), @ddichmann
• Missy Whittmann, American Family Insurance … and real life data architect

We run a fun and engaging webinar where audience members can chat with each other and the panellists, so you get to be part of the insight and fun, too.  So make sure you join a bit early so that we can pre-chat.

You need to register to attend.

The value of data modeling continues to grow in new directions. This is partly due to the lure of cloud computing, but also because of the increasingly interconnected world of enterprise partnerships. As always, the need for speed and efficiency prevails, as well as the desire to reduce redundancy and thus provide a clean view of an organization’s information architecture. Fine-tuning Master Data Models is another goal of the modern enterprise. What to do? Register for this episode of DM Radio to hear Hosts Eric Kavanagh and Jim Ericson interview data modeling expert Karen Lopez of DAMA, plus Donna Burbank of CA Technologies, David Dichmann of SAP Sybase and Lovan Chetty of Kalido

Registration is required, but it’s free.  Chat with you on Thursday!

I’ll be leading two data modeling courses in Des Moines, Iowa the first week of October. Register now as spots are limited. 

Basic Data Modeling: For New Data Modelers

Registration and Networking: 7:45 AM Monday

Monday and Tuesday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Wednesday 8:00 AM to Noon

In this introductory workshop, Karen Lopez covers the theory and skills required to being working on data models in an enterprise environment on modern project teams.

Format

With demonstrations and several exercises, this training course provides the basics and tests attendees to demonstrate their new skills. This course follows a workshop format, with both individual and team exercises.

…but this isn’t your average "Here are all the Normal Forms, now go create a model" course.  Our goal is to make data modeling relevant to modern development practices and tools.  We’ll talk about some of the pain points modelers feel, why developers and DBAs sometimes don’t see the same beauty in our data models and how to ensure everyone, IT and business, sees the value of data modeling and data modelers.

Participant Pre-requisites

As a basic course, it is not expected that attendees will significant data modeling experience.  However, we do expect them to have more than two years of hands-on information technology skills at the enterprise level.   We offer advanced courses for those who do have data modeling experience.  It is also common for attendees of the Basics course to sit in on the Advanced courses to get a better understanding of the issues that experienced data modeler see on a regular basis.

Advanced Data Modeling: Be Happier, Add More Value and Be More Valued

Registration and Networking: 12:45 PM Wednesday

Wednesday 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM and Thursday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

In this advanced workshop, Karen Lopez covers how to make data modeling more relevant in 2012 and removing pain points for modelers and other team members.   It includes how to be successful in an agile/scrum environment, how to make models valuable in a NoSQL project, how to better work with DBAs, Developers, Project Managers and how to sound and be more valuable.

Format

With demonstrations, exercises and peer-discussions its goal is to give attendees the attitude and skills to add value and be more valued on modern project teams.  This course follows a workshop format, with both individual and team exercises.

Participant Pre-requisites

As an advanced course, it is expected that attendees will have more than two years of hands-on data modeling and database design skills at the enterprise level.   We offer a basics course for those who do not have this experience or feel they need a refresher before participating in this course.

Instructor Bio

Karen Lopez is a Sr. Project Manager and Architect at InfoAdvisors. She has 20+ years of experience in project and data management on large, multi-project programs.  Karen specializes in the practical application of data management principles. She is a SQL Server MVP, an advisory board member for Zachman International, and an Advisory Committee member of DAMA International.

Karen is also the ListMistress and moderator of the InfoAdvisors Discussion Groups at www.infoadvisors.com.

Fees

Intro class: $500 for DAMA members, $550 for non-members

Advanced class: $300 for DAMA members, $350 for non-members

Important: Karen strongly recommends purchasing a copy of Data Modeling Essentials 3rd Edition by Graeme Simsion and Graham Witt. These classes will be based on this book.

See DAMA Iowa event page for information about registration and cancellation policies.

The first is with co-presenter, Tom LaRock (@sqlrockstar | blog), where we debate, whine (Tom) and win (me)  several database design approaches and methods in front of a live audience (you!).  This is a warm up for our PASS Summit spotlight presentation.

Database Design Throw Down

Karen and Tom debate about the options and best practices of common and advanced design issues, such as: * Natural vs. Surrogate keys * NULL vs NOT NULL * Datatypes * Agile Database Design * Database Refactoring * Identity Crisis ? …and others. Bring your votes, your debates, and your opinions. Help us figure out who’s right and who wrong…or less right.

Session Level: Intermediate

My second presentation is on career management.

Career Management for Data Professionals

Career Success in Data Management during Turbulent Times: A workshop on issues and ideas that today’s data professionals can do to build their careers and networking skills with other data management professionals. Workshop topics will include: • Demonstrating your expertise • Building a portfolio of your success stories • Getting others to sell your skills and business value • Building & extending your data management skill set • 10 Steps to highlighting you and your work Bring your thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

Session Level: Beginner

There are many great speakers at this event and it’s FREE for a full day of learning. Registration is still open, but it is common for these events to sell out before the event. Register now!

I’ll be returning to the DAMA Puget Sound (Seattle) group to give an advanced data modeling presentation on how to add more value and be more valued while you data model.   This is a great group and I hope you can join us.

Advanced Data Modeling: Be Happier, Be More Valued and Add More Value

In this presentation, Karen will discuss the current state of data modeling and data architecture efforts and where we need to be in the current development and database environment to continue to provide value.  Topics will include:

· If the modeler isn’t happy, the data isn’t happy

· Data Modeling in an Agile / SCRUM / modern development projects

· Big Data and other euphemisms

· NoSQL, not-only SQL non-relational, post-relational or whatever you want to call them

· Tools: Where are we, where do we need to be

· Being physical doesn’t mean you have to get dirty

· 10 Steps to happiness, being valuable and providing value

This presentation will be highly interactive, highly relevant and mostly irreverent.  As usual.

---

Karen Lopez
Sr. Project Manager & Architect, InfoAdvisors
Karen Lopez is a Senior Project Manager and Architect for InfoAdvisors. A frequent speaker at conferences and local user groups, she has 20+ years of experience in project and data management on large, multi-project programs. Karen is a chronic volunteer, a SQL Server MVP, and an active advocate for WIT and Data Quality. 
Karen’s presentations are known for their lively and interactive approach to learning. Her motto: I want you to Love Your Data!

This is an evening event and there is a fee to register.  See the DAMA PS website for more information on registering.

On Thursday, 2 August I’ll be debating with Tom LaRock (@sqlrockstar), giving a preview of our SQL Saturday presentation of Database Design Throwdown: The Trailer.  In this wonderful smackdown, I’ll be talking about the importance of data quality, integrity and data governance while preparing database designs. I’m pretty sure Tom will be spouting wildly crazy, kooky ideas about performance, optimizing design to make life easier for DBAs and … I have no idea what else.  Probably bacon.  We won’t be giving the same presentation as on Saturday — it will be more of a trailer version of that.  Oh, wait…that doesn’t quite sound right.  It will be a teaser.  Yeah.  Something like that.  A teaser.

Kansas City SQL Server User Group

Details about the SQL Server User Group meeting:

Time

• 3:45 – 3:50 Greeting and Housekeeping
• 3:50 – 5:00 Database Design Throwdown: The Trailer
• 5:00 – 5:15 Door prizes and wrap up

Topic: Database Design Throwdown: A Trailer
Date:  August 2nd, 2012
Speaker: Thomas LaRock versus Karen Lopez

Overview: If a man is alone in the forest and there is no woman around to watch him design a database is he still wrong? Join us in this highly interactive debate regarding the options and best practices of common and advanced design issues such as natural versus surrogate keys, NULL versus NOT NULL, data quality versus performance, and others. Bring your opinions and experience and join the discussion.

About Speakers:

Thomas LaRock is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of technical and management experience. Currently serving as a senior database administrator with Confio Software, Thomas has progressed through several roles including programmer, analyst, and DBA. Prior to that, he worked at several software and consulting companies, working at customer sites in the United States and abroad. Thomas holds a MS degree in Mathematics from Washington State University and is a member of the Usability Professional’s Association. Thomas also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS), is a SQL Server MVP, and can also be found blogging at http://thomaslarock.com and is the author of DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA (http://dbasurvivor.com).

Karen Lopez is Sr. Project Manager and Architect at InfoAdvisors, Inc. Karen is a frequent speaker at conferences and user groups. She has 20+ years of experience in project and data management on large, multi-project programs. Karen specializes in the practical application of data management principles. Karen is also the ListMistress and moderator of the InfoAdvisors Discussion Groups at www.infoadvisors.com.

Location:

8700 State Line Road
Suite 200L
Leawood, KS 66206  (map)

Data Model Driven Database Design

On Saturday, 4 August I will be presenting at the Kansas City SQL Saturday (aka #SQLSat159 — don’t get me started on why they use a surrogate key as their names for these…) on Model Driven Database Design

Model-Driven Database Design

Model-Driven Database Development: Myths, Magic and Methods. In this presentation, Karen discusses data model-driven database development from the point of view of the Data Architect, the DBA, and the Developer. She will cover topics such as "Who does what?", "Why are we doing this?", "Do I have to Use a GUI?" and "Just who do you think you are?". Demos, too. Finally, 10 tips for making model-driven database development successful in your organization’s culture and environment.

Session Level: Beginner

Location: Cerner Corporation’s Riverport Campus, 6711 NE Birmingham Rd, Kansas City, MO, 64117

And Tom and I will be doing our full debate on Database Design: The Throwdown, as described above.  Registration is required for the SQL Saturday, but it’s totally free – you get swag, prizes and access to some of the best speakers in the SQL Server community.  I attended this last year in Kansas City and they did a fabulous job.  You want to be there, too.

I’ll be joining host Graeme Simsion (@graemesimsion) and panelists  Terry Buino, John Giles, and Chris Woodruff for a lively and (I’m hoping) contentious discussion about Data Modeling in an Agile Environment.  This free webinar event will be hosted by Dataversity.net as part of their monthly series on data management issues.

We invite you to join us in this monthly DATAVERSITY webinar series, “Big Challenges with Data Modeling” hosted by Graeme Simsion. Join Graeme and two or more expert panelists each month to discuss their experiences in breaking through these specific data modeling challenges. Hear from experts in the field on how and where they came across these challenges and what resolution they found. Join them in the end for the Q&A portion to ask your own questions on the challenge topic of the month.

We four panelists come from a variety of backgrounds.  Two of us are Microsoft MVPs, one just wrote a book on Agile Data Modeling and another calls himself a born-again agilist.  Graeme is always the stimulating and controlling jocular host at these events…he’d have to be to manage the characters he has to herd in just a short period of time.

Many data architects and modelers tell me that they can’t or won’t work on agile projects.  Or that they’ve heard that there are no data models in agile approaches.  Worse, they’ve attended presentations by certain industry pundits who have been so anti-architecture that they don’t understand why anyone would attempt this.  But it’s not that way in practice.  Most of my projects over the last few years have been agile or SCRUM.  So I’m going to bring my experiences and stories to discussion, along with tips that I have for working on a software-focused delivery methodology. 

Find out whether agile is your friend or frenemy.

All you have to do is register to attend.  It’s free, too.

On behalf of Embarcadero Technologies, I’m leading a workshop on Data Governance and Stewardship in Chicago, IL on 25 July.   This event is free to attend; all you have to do is register.

We’ll be talking about:
Effective data governance and stewardship is a crucial component of every business. InfoAdvisors’ Principal Consultant, Karen Lopez, will share essential guidance on:

• Leveraging enterprise data as a corporate asset
• Tips, tricks, and traps to avoid when developing a data governance program
• Managing business expectations cost-effectively and time-efficiently

Karen will also reveal highlights on compliance and policy programs from recent discussions with data professionals in the US Federal Government and Industry organizations.

Karen is a Senior Project Manager and Architect at InfoAdvisors with more than twenty years of experience helping organizations implement large, multi-project programs. She specializes in taking practical approaches to systems development and has helped many IT departments choose appropriate methods and standards, based on the department’s culture, experience, and focus. Karen is the Moderator of InfoAdvisors/ITBoards.com IRM discussion groups, an online community of several thousand data management professionals and is also on the Board of Advisors for DAMA International and Zachman International. For more information, visit http://www.infoadvisors.com.

Data Governance Workshop Details

Date:        July 25, 2012
Time:        2-4pm
Location:  Discover Campus

2500 Lake Cook Road
RW2 Platinum Room
Riverwoods, IL 60015

Phone: 224-405-0900

I hope to make this interactive and fun.  There may also be space photos….

If you are in the Chicago area, I will be be leading a similar workshop on 25 July 2012.  Details coming up in my next blog post.

PASS has been highly successful in locations outside the US, but they want to take more steps to ensure that they aren’t just a US-based organization that allows non-US members to join. I belong to many such IT associations and as a Canadian-based member, my needs are often not met or even valued.  Except for member membership dues.  That’s why I wanted to help out.

I’ve been involved in a few similar societal transitions over the years and I hope to bring that experience to the team.  Some of those organizations have been working for more than a decade to make such a transition. Others managed the transition well and are growing internationally.  That’s what I want for PASS.

Even though I have close ties to the US, I hope that I can bring a more global point of view to all the discussions.  In fact, we all can do that via the feedback mechanisms offered.

Background

PASS has set up a site with background materials and a preliminary plan for moving forward:

http://www.sqlpass.org/Community/GlobalGrowth.aspx

You will find background documents, a discussion forum, and an email address for sending your comments.  Check it out and then join us on Thursday and Friday to chat about it on Twitter.

Tweet Chats

A Tweet Chat is a focused set of discussions on Twitter that allow Twitter users to ask questions or provide comments and feedback on the Global Growth Initiative.  There are currently six sessions scheduled:

You don’t have to be on Twitter to watch the Tweet Chat, but you do if you’d like to post questions or give comments during the chat.  The hashtag we’ll be using is #SQLPASSGG .  You can use the Twitter search function by following that hashtag link to follow along. 

I’ll be staffing the 20 June 1700 GMT (1 PM ET) Tweet Chat and I hope to attend most of them as my schedule allows.

I’m excited about the path that PASS is taking and I hope you are, too. In my opinion, it’s important that SQL Server professionals have a common foundation for discussing SQL Server, methods, membership perks, and the direction of the association.  In order to this, we need a common umbrella organization (that’s even free to join!) to pull us together.

So stop by Twitter during one of the times (or even later) to give us your feedback.  I may even retweet you.

* North American here really means US and Canada in this context.  But as I always say: "one should not get their geography lessons from mobile phone companies".

We’ll be talking about:

Data Governance and Stewardship: Expert Guidance from Karen Lopez

Effective data governance and stewardship is a crucial component of every business. InfoAdvisors’ Principal Consultant, Karen Lopez, will share essential guidance on:

• Leveraging enterprise data as a corporate asset
• Tips, tricks, and traps to avoid when developing a data governance program
• Managing business expectations cost-effectively and time-efficiently

Karen will also reveal highlights on compliance and policy programs from recent discussions with data professionals in the US Federal Government and Industry organizations.

Karen Lopez, Principal Consultant, InfoAdvisors, Inc.

Karen is a Principal Consultant at InfoAdvisors Inc. with more than twenty years of experience helping organizations implement large, multi-project programs. She specializes in taking practical approaches to systems development and has helped many IT departments choose appropriate methods and standards, based on the department’s culture, experience, and focus. Karen is the Moderator of InfoAdvisors/ITBoards.com IRM discussion groups, an online community of several thousand data management professionals and is also on the Board of Advisors for DAMA International. For more information, visit http://www.infoadvisors.com.

Event Details

Date:        June 26, 2012
Time:        2-4pm
Location:  University of Minnesota Conference Center
                 1890 Buford Avenue. St. Paul, MN 55108
Phone:      612-624-3275
Register Now:  http://forms.embarcadero.com/forms/AMUSCA1206FieldEventMinneapolis6-26

I hope to make this interactive and fun.  There may also be space photos….

I’ll be part of a rockstar panel of data modeling experts this Thursday, 24 May for Dataversity.net.  Graeme Simsion will be moderating us (it’s worse that herding cats stoned on catnip) as we talk about our biggest challenges in the data modeling world.

You need to register before joining, but it’s free.

Panelists:

• David Hay: President of Essential Strategies (Resident curmudgeon)
• Alec Sharp: Sr. Consultant, Clariteq Systems Consulting (Process guy who still loves data)
• Karen Lopez: Sr. Project Manager, InfoAdvisors (Well, that’s me)

You can join the pre-show chat about 15 minutes before show time; I encourage all of you to join early and get your heckling and questions warmed up for the recording.

Hope to see you there.

Registration is required, but it’s free.

Attendees will receive a copy of my whitepaper 5 Things to Do Before Starting Any Data Governance Program.

Join this Webinar for Expert Guidance from Karen Lopez, don’t miss out on the opportunity to ask your Burning Question now!
Thursday, May 24
11am PDT / 2pm EDT

Effective data governance and stewardship is a crucial component of every business. In this webinar, InfoAdvisors’ Principal Consultant Karen Lopez shares essential guidance on:

• How your group can deliver organizational value
• What works and what probably does not
• How to meet cost, benefit, and risk goals.

Karen will also reveal highlights on compliance and policy programs from recent discussions with data professionals at US Federal Government and Industry organizations.

Join me tomorrow.  I’d love to hear about your tricks and tips around compliance, stewardship and governance.

On Wednesday, 7 March Microsoft is holding a virtual launch event for the newest version of Microsoft SQL Server to be released on 1 April.  You want to be there.  Yes, even you data architects, business analysts, project managers, enterprise architects and other IT professionals working in the upper rows of the Zachman Framework.  Why?  Because there are many new features in SQL Server 2012 made just for you:

• Master Data Services
• Data Quality Services
• BI Semantics
• Self Serve BI
• Hadoop integration
• New Data Tools
• New datatypes, database objects and other design features like ColumnStore Indexes.

MVP Lovin’

You’ll have access to SQL Server MVPs who will be standing by to take your questions and chat about the new features we are most excited about. I’ll be working at these Topic Pods:

• Application Development, Beyond Relational, Connectivity at 6 PM ET / 3 PM PT
• Business Intelligence & Enterprise Information Management at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT

If you register for the event, you can stop by and chat with some awesome SQL Server MVPs and me about some of the newest features of SQL Server. 

Prize Love

Unlike that other launch that is happening tomorrow, at the SQL Server Launch you can earn some really great prizes: cash gift cards, SQL Server Gear, and Xboxes.  So the more you watch, the more you engage, the more you can win.  Cash, Swag and Gaming.  What more could you want?

Lovin’ Just for You

While I think non-DBA types can get a lot out of the overviews of all the new features, I think developer and  data professionals will find these agenda items the most applicable:

Blazing-Fast Performance: A Technical Best Practices Tour with ColumnStore Index
Go behind the scenes with SQL Server engineers for a quick technical tour of the ColumnStore Index feature and an introduction to best practices for achieving astonishing performance with your ColumnStore Indexes.

Blazing-Fast Performance: Explore FileTables, Full-Text Search and Semantic Search for Faster, More Meaningful Results Across Unstructured Data
80% or more of the data produced and stored are so called unstructured documents and are often not stored in the database, but often need to be managed in conjunction with relational data. In order to facilitate the storage and management of unstructured data, SQL Server has evolved from storing blobs to providing a sophisticated integration with the Windows Filesystem and provides rich services over such data to provide an interesting and compelling application development experience. This presentation introduces the new unstructured data processing capabilities of SQL Server 2012 that provide full Windows application-compatible file management over files stored in SQL Server as well as the services to unlock the information in such data such as the extensions and improvements to Full-Text Search and the introduction of semantic similarity search.

Organizational Compliance: Using the New Security Features and Audit Enhancements to Increase Compliance Policies
Introduction to new security features in SQL Server 2012 such as User-Defined Server Roles and enhanced Auditing to increase organization compliance.

Peace of Mind: Quick Tour Through the New SQL Server Migration Assistant
In this session we will review SSMA modules that automate assessment, schema conversion, data migration and testing of Oracle and Sybase migrations to SQL Server 2012.

Unlocking the Value of Big Data with Microsoft Business Intelligence
Klout is a ground-breaking company that extracts signals from social networks to determine which people are most influential. Hadoop is a core part of how Klout captures and processes over 3 billion signals daily, however translating and analyzing these signals into meaningful information requires a scalable and cost effective business intelligence solution. That’s where Microsoft SQL Server 2012 comes in, delivering “speed of thought” ad hoc queries, with response times of under 10 seconds on 35 billion rows of data. Learn more about Big Data and BI best practices in this session.

Rapid Data Exploration: Empowering End User Insight Through Rapid Data Exploration and Visualization with Power View
Introduction to Power View, the new thin, self-service ad hoc reporting tool. In this session we will highlight its main features, scenarios, show a demo, and discuss its relationship to other products in the BI stack (SharePoint, Excel).

Rapid Data Exploration: Powerful Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot
Get a taste of what’s new in PowerPivot, the self-service BI experience that enables information workers to build their personal and team BI applications within the familiar environment of Excel: This session will provide a quick introduction to PowerPivot, followed by demos highlighting the top 5 new modeling features delivered with the release of SQL Server 2012.

Managed Self-Service BI: End User Created, IT Managed
Introduction to the BI continuum – IWs using the familiar tools like Excel, IT retaining control and governance of the workbooks. We will show how IT can manage the system in SharePoint, and how self-service BI solutions transition to managed corporate BI solutions.

Credible, Consistent Data: Going Under the Hood with the New BI Semantic Model
Introduction to the BISM, position tabular and multidimensional types of models. We will show how easy it is to create a model in PowerPivot, show how Power View is leveraging it, and highlight how easy is it to go from an individual workbook to the enterprise IT governed BI solution.

Credible, Consistent Data: Improving Data Quality with the New Data Quality Services
No matter how brilliant your BI tools are, it’s garbage-in-garbage-out. This session will give an overview on the new Data Quality Services product in SQL Server 2012. Come watch this important scenario to learn how to position, sell, and demo the new DQS product.

Credible, Consistent Data: Empowering IW / Data Experts to Efficiently Manage Important Data with the New Master Data Services Add-In for Excel
Introduction to the improvements and new functionality in the SQL Server 2012 release, empowering IW to curate the organization’s important data, maintaining it accurate and relevant through its lifecycle, via easy model creation and validation.

Credible, Consistent Data: Introducing New Team-based Data Integration with Integration Services
There are plenty of new features for SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) in SQL Server 2012 that make it a very compelling release for your customers. This session will cover some of the highlights of the release, including the new Change Data Capture functionality. We will demonstrate how to bring together key components needed to build an effective ETL framework using SSIS. This reusable framework will show off the new functionality and productivity enhancements for existing users, and present a compelling story for customers who have never seen or used SSIS before. We will cover the end-to-end lifecycle of an SSIS solution, including how to maintain and manage the framework once it has been deployed into production.

Scalable Analytics & Data Warehousing: Fast Track for SQL Server 2012
Fast Track for SQL Server 2012 has significant improvements, leveraging exciting new enhancements in SQL Server 2012 like the new ColumnStore Index feature. You will also see how Fast Track partners are working with the SQL Server team to transform the latest enhancements in server and storage technology into highly optimized data warehouse Reference Architectures.

Big Data Analytics with Apache Hadoop and SQL Server 2012
In this session we will explore Apache Hadoop on Windows Server and Azure and powerful insights we can generate integrating with SQL Server.

There are more sessions, so be sure to check them all out.  I hope you register and learn how you can Love Your Data with SQL Server 2012.  See you there.