Kevin S. Goff: Stages of Data

03/23/2012 - The Baker's Dozen Live - 13 straight Fridays of Microsoft Webcasts on SQL Server 2012 coverage

Hello, everyone! Thanks for attending my webcasts. For the next 13 weeks, I'll be talking about different topics in SQL Server 2012. There's a placeholder below for the subsequent weeks. The first week (3/23), I'll be talking about the new Columnstore index in SQL Server 2012.

I'm the SQL Server/Business Intelligence Practice Manager for SetFocus (www.setfocus.com), a Microsoft-certified partner for Learning Solutions. I encourage people to check out our free training portal (http://freetraining.setfocus.com), where we have over 100 hours of free training videos on .NET, SQL Server, Business Intelligence, and SharePoint topics.

I have several people to thank for this opportunity to deliver webcasts for Microsoft. Chris Caldwell and Eric Ostrowski at Microsoft have been very helpful in getting me set up for these webcasts.

My editors and friends at CoDe Magazine (http://www.code-magazine.com), Rod Paddock and Erik Ruthruff (and of course, the people who run the magazine, Markus Egger and Ellen Whitney), have been a huge source of support for my Baker's Dozen series in the magazine since 2004. Many opportunities would never have happened without their support!

And last, but certainly not least, my employer SetFocus (www.setfocus.com), for the opportunity to train on SQL Server and the BI tools. If you have training needs in the .NET, SQL Server, Business Intelligence, or SharePoint areas, please contact us!

On the Friday of each presentation, I'll post a download for the demo code/slides for that day. As of 3/30, we've done two presentations so far:

Wk	Week ending	Topic	Registration Link	Download examples
1	3/23/2012	New Columnstore Index		Download
2	3/30/2012	New T-SQL 2012 Features		Download
3	4/6/2012	New FileTable feature		Download
4	4/13/2012	New SSIS 2012 Features (1 of 2)		Download
5	4/20/2012	New SSIS 2012 Features (2 of 2)		Download
6	4/27/2012	Overview of new BI Semantic Model		Download
7	5/4/2012	The new SSAS Tabular Model (1 of 2)
8	5/11/2012	The new SSAS Tabular Model (2 of 2)
9	5/18/2012	What's new in PowerPivot 2.0 (1 of 2)	Register!
10	5/25/2012	What's new in PowerPivot 2.0 (2 of 2)	Register!
11	6/1/2012	What's new in DAX 2.0	Register!
12	6/8/2012	New in SSRS 2012 Integration with SharePoint 2010	Register!
13	6/15/2012	New Power View Reporting add-in for SharePoint 2010	Register!

2/5/2012 – Slides from SharePoint Saturday in Philadelphia

Thanks to everyone who attended my SharePoint Saturday presentation on BI with SharePoint 2010. Here's a link to my slide deck

Feel free to email me at kgoff@kevinsgoff.net.

KG

1/11/2012 – Philadelphia SQL Server User Group

Hi, all – I was scheduled to speak tonight at the Philly SQL Server User Group. Unfortunately, because of a family health emergency (unfortunately, a rather serious one), I won't be able to make it.

Here is a link to the slide deck and examples I would have covered, on what's new in SQL/SSIS 2012: New Features in SQL 2012

My deep apologies to the User Group….

KG

1/1/2012 – SQL Server MVP Again!

Got my MVP Renewal email from Microsoft this morning - SQL Server MVP for 2012!  That's always a nice way to start the New Year.

This is my eighth consecutive year. From 2005-2009 I was a C# MVP, and have been a SQL Server MVP since 2012.

I owe a big thanks to SQL Saturday and community event organizers where I've done community presentations - also a big thanks to SetFocus (where I'm a SQL instructor and Practice Manager) as well as Rod Paddock/CoDe Magazine for publishing my articles.

In (hopefully) a few days I'll post my speaking schedule for the first few months of 2012. Things are up in the air at the moment, but it looks like I'll be speaking at the Central PA .NET User Group and Philly SQL Server User Group in mid-January (both on SQL Server 2012), and possibly the Lehigh Valley .NET User Group (also on SQL Server 2012) in February. I'm already slated for SharePoint Saturday in Philadelphia on February 4^th. Also, for anyone in the PA/NJ/NY area, Philly SQL Saturday is tentatively scheduled for June 9^th in Malvern. There are a few more possible ones, which I hope to lock down very soon.

Happy New Year!
KG

12/11/2011 – Slides and examples from Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server User Group

Thanks to everyone who attended my user group presentation at the Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server User Group last Thursday night (on new features in SQL 2012). You can download my slide deck and T-SQL examples here.

I recorded the presentation using Camtasia. I'll be posting instructions later tonight on how to download the presentation.

11/6/2011 – Sessions from SQL Saturday in DC

Hi, all, slides and examples from my 2 sessions are posted:

New Features in Denali (SQL Server 2012)

Change Data Capture in SQL Server 2008

On the 2^nd topic (CDC), I've got answers to some attendee questions; I'll try to post them by tomorrow morning. Thanks for attending!

10/16/2011 – My fall speaking schedule

Wow – the Summer of 2011 has come and gone. I guess it's true, the older you get, the faster time goes! Time is also approaching the release of the next version of SQL Server (Denali, SQL Server 2012), due out in the first half of next year. Two of my scheduled fall presentations will be on different SQL 2012 topics.

I actually already started fall with a trip up to New York City for New York City CodeCamp, back on Oct 1. I did a presentation on T-SQL for Application Developers. This is one of my "standard" sessions. In this session, I throw close to 20 topics on the screen and ask attendees which topics they'd like to talk about. I never intend to get all 20 covered (that's what the code download is for), but usually I'm able to hit the big topics that attendees want to talk about.

Next up will be SQL Server Saturday in Washington, DC, on November 5^th. They have some great user group activity in the DC and Northern Virginia area, and this should prove to be a great event. Make sure to register soon before the registration closes! My sessions are TBD, as the schedule is still being finalized, but I just got the word that I'll be speaking

I don't normally like to travel between Thanksgiving and New Year's, but 2 events are just too important to me personally.

Next stop will be up at UConn on December 8th, for the Fairfield / Westchester SQL Server User Group. I'll be doing a talk on general features in SQL Server 2012 (Denali). The presentation won't cover any one area in any depth – the goal is just to show as many of the new features in Denali, ranging from some really cool features in SSIS to the new BI Semantic Model to Project Crescent.

Sometimes getting a full handle on all the new capabilities in a product is difficult, which is why I've put together this presentation. I love that campus up there (I'm a teacher at heart) and I love fall in New England (yes, I'm sentimental) – not to mention Mark Freedman and Leo Junquera are very cool guys.

And finally, I need to get my "fix" of one final dinner for the year at Heartland Brewery in Manhattan, so I'll be Andrew Brust's NYC BI User Group on December 12^th, talking specifically about new features in PowerPivot in SQL Server 2012. Microsoft has addressed some key areas in PowerPivot and the new release next year will be an important one. Andrew Brust is a good guy whom I respect tremendously, and he's done a great deal to promote SQL Server and Business Intelligence.

10/10/2011 – Free Training from SetFocus

Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a rookie, everyone in this industry eventually finds themselves back at square one, trying to wrap their minds around a particular technology. You could be a mainframe or an AS/400 programmer who now needs to learn SQL Server….or you could be a VB programmer who needs to ascend the object-oriented programming learning curve….or you could find yourself in a situation where you need to learn the basics of SQL Server Integration Services very quickly.

Maybe you need to learn this content as a step towards getting a job, or just looking to strengthen your skills.

Yes, there's a large amount of content on the web – often scattered all over the place. Once in a great while you might find a single website or article that covers exactly what you need. Other times (quoting a famous musician) it can feel like "wading through a cesspool in search of a water lily".

Well, the company where I work as an instructor and a practice manager (www.setfocus.com) has done something rather amazing about this.

We've made some of our training content available on the web, FOR FREE.

Our CEO (Mike Landau) and our president (Jerry Masin) talk about this free training initiative in an article in NJBIZ: Mike Landau also talks about this during an interview. (Note: on this interview link, you'll need to right-click and open in a new browser window).

If you're interested, here's how to get started:

First, the site is http://freetraining.setfocus.com. The free registration process is simple. You create an account (near the upper right corner), provide a valid email address and some general information (name, city, reason for joining). You will NOT be prompted to enter a credit card. (Many websites claim to offer free content, but still ask for a credit card). Free means free.

You'll receive a confirmation email, and then you can enroll in any of our free training courses. Here's a list of what we offer for free:

• An online course on Object Oriented Programming with C#. There are slides, videos, and labs on OOP basics, Class design, inheritance, interfaces, abstract classes, and more. Some of the content comes from our .NET Master's Program.
  
  
• An online course on Relational Database Management concepts. There are slides and videos on relational database models, data modeling, normalization, data integrity, and DBA concepts. Some of the content comes from our SQL Server Master's Program.
  
  
• Video content from our Business Intelligence Master's Program. There are videos on SQL Server Integration Services, MDX Programming, plus a link to some online articles and blog entries on different BI topics. This content comes from our Business Intelligence Master's Program.
  
  
• Video content from our SharePoint Master's Program. These videos cover SharePoint 2010 Forms-based authentication, creating Silverlight applications in SharePoint, creating workflows, creating custom ASP.NET pages, and creating input forms using InfoPath. This content comes from our SharePoint Master's Program.
  
  
• Video content on how to get the most out of LinkedIn. You might be thinking, "videos on how to use LinkedIn?" That's right – LinkedIn has a number of videos on getting the most out of LinkedIn, and getting your name "out there". At first, I was a bit skeptical about LinkedIn – the old "quantity vs quality argument". But I've come to see the value. With a job market that gets more competitive every day, business-related social networking sites can be a valuable tool. You never know when a connection might lead to something!

In addition, back in July I did a 3+ hour webinar for SetFocus on the entire Microsoft Business Intelligence platform. The webinar contains segments from our Business Intelligence Master's Program. (The same program mentioned in point 3 above). The link for this 3+ hour webinar is http://www.setfocus.com/onlinecourses/bi/bi.aspx.

While we have a substantial amount of free content, we'll continue to evolve this free training portal over time.

Finally, because I believe in telling people the whole truth, SetFocus might contact you via email to see if you have any further training or career services needs. But there's no obligation, no strings attached. Having said that, I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the unique strengths and competitive advantages that SetFocus offers (both in training and career services), which I blogged about a while back.

SetFocus is a Microsoft Gold Partner for Learning Solutions with Microsoft technologies. They have a long history of direct involvement in software community efforts. For years, they've hosted meetings for the Northern New Jersey .NET User Group, the New Jersey SQL Server User Group, and the New Jersey SharePoint User Group at their facility in Parsippany, NJ. They're also supportive of my community efforts as a speaker at different CodeCamp, SQL Server, and SharePoint events (not all companies are supportive of community efforts). This free training initiative is further proof.

So, if you're interested, take a few minutes and sign up. You have nothing to lose, and possibly things to gain!

10/2/2011 - Slides and examples for my talk on T-SQL For Application Developers

Thanks to everyone who attended my talk yesterday (at NYC CodeCamp) on Transact-SQL for Application Developers.  Here is a link to download the slides and examples.

9/15/2011 - Slides and examples for my talk on .NET with the BI Stack

Hi, all....from my last 2 talks in the past week on .NET with the BI stack, here's the download link.

Thanks to everyone who attended my session at the Central PA Code Camp and the NYC .Net User Group.

For those in the NYC area, I'll be speaking at Code Camp on T-SQL for application developers on October 1, and then I'll be back at the MS Office on Dec. 12th to talk about the new release of PowerPivot in Denali, for Andrew Brust's .NET User Group.