Survey: which US city should our next class be in?

One of the things I always find difficult is choosing where to host the next SQLskills Immersion Event. The community is so spread out that it's really hard to please everyone by coming to everyone's home town! We have some ideas of where we'd like to go next but here's your chance to influence us.

We're looking at scheduling another Immersion Event on Internals and Performance in the US in May, but where?

If you're thinking of coming to the next class, where would you like it to be?


(We'll try hard to meet your demands – now we'll know where we're most wanted!) 

Thanks!

21 thoughts on “Survey: which US city should our next class be in?

  1. Could I do a write in vote for Pittsburgh? I know I could vote for Cleveland but something just feels wrong voting for Cleveland. Nothing personal with Cleveland I was just born to be a fan of Pittsburgh. :-)

  2. Hey there John – Ha… it’s funny. Outside of Denver – most of the cities are on some form of river or large body of water. Maybe that’s subliminal wrt "Immersion" events.

    I never noticed it but it’s kind of funny. Anyway, maybe that’s why we didn’t think of Pittsburg (I think of it as relatively land-locked).

    And, yes, it’s a bummer that we won’t be able to be everywhere but we’re trying to get closer to where it makes the most sense. However, I do want to get a bit more insight into why Cleveland or Philly won’t work for you… I suspect you’re trying to choose somewhere where you don’t have to stay in a hotel at all? And, we understand that wrt costs. However, there are some HUGE benefits to breaking away. In fact, that’s really a big part of the overall "Immersion" experience (IMO). Every evening, folks gather in the lounge, we sit around and chat, go out for dinners, attend our evening events and network. To be honest, no matter where we go – we feel that people get a better experience if they’re at the hotel. In fact, that’s why we’ve chosen hotels instead of "training centers or classrooms" but we do understand how difficult it is to travel and take time away. It’s certainly great feedback!

    Thanks so much for the suggestion!!

    Cheers,
    kt

  3. I’m thinking St. Louis, hopefully on some dates when the Cardinals are in town :) Will this event cover the same topics as the Immersion event last August or will you be spending more time on a specific area?

  4. Hey there Kevin – There are 4 new Immersion Events and each focuses on a general "area" of SQL Server. Check out our Immersion Events page here: http://www.sqlskills.com/T_SQLskillsImmersionEvents.asp.

    The first week (Internals and Performance Tuning) is similar to last year’s Aug event but a couple of topics (Backup/Restore and Checkdb) were moved to week 3 (HA/DR) and we’ve added a few more design considerations and things to think about (like Locking) to week 1.

    Hope to see you again!

    Cheers,
    kt

  5. I would REALLY like it if you would hold it in Phoenix Arizona. May would still be cool enough to enjoy the sun, beautiful desert scenery. Not to mention that it would make it so I could could attend the most awesome SQL Server training ever provided. :)

  6. @kimberly – just a side note, the link in your post throws a "page not found" error. at least it did for me. Of course, I navigated to the section anyway, but wanted to let you know.

  7. Hey there Gabriel – Yes, someday we’ll get down to RIO! In fact, there are only two continents on which I have not stepped. South America is UNFORTUNATELY one of them. Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to make it to Antarctica before S. America. But, I doubt it! And, as far as a city – I guess Rio’s first in the running when we get down there. However, I’d really like to hit the other side of SA too (I wonder if we could do a "SUBmersion" event on the Galapagos Islands and visit a bit of Ecuador as well :-)).

    Hey there John – We’re also trying to hit cities that have good airport hubs. That makes it economical for the folks that have to fly in. Chicago (for example) is kind of ideal for that. But, Kansas City is a great recommendation for sure. Personally, I just don’t know a lot about the metropolitan area around KC but I found some great info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Metropolitan_Area. I remember Kansas being beautiful as well but it’s been a VERY long time since I was there (well, Lawrence, Kansas) as I had a friend that went to KU. Omaha’s another great recommendation.

    Thanks! These are all GREAT suggestions. We’ll only know what you’re thinking if you tell us!!

    Cheers,
    kt

  8. How about Portland, OR for one of the events instead of Bellevue? It is close enough to Bellevue to be viable for the people that travel, and would open up the training for people that are further south. (I think I could get my employeer to go for that, but they won’t pay for any travel for training that isn’t required by contract.)

  9. When you say "further south" do you mean that you’d travel to Portland, OR but not Bellevue, WA? That’s really interesting… and, you’re the first person that’s mentioned that. Given that the flight is only about 30-45 mins longer I don’t see much of a difference. In fact, I would have thought that there would be more choices in routes/flights. Definitely interesting though!

    But, as for your specific question about changing one or more of the Bellevue event. That’s definitely NOT going to happen! All 4 of the Bellevue events are "confirmed" (with students registered as well) so there won’t be any changes to them. These are likely to be our *only* West Coast classes this year. But, we will certainly consider Portland as an option for future events. However, it’s possible that San Fran and LA (San Diego) would be higher in the list as PDX is so close to SEA.

    THANKS!
    Kimberly

  10. I wasn’t expecting you to replace one of the current Bellevue events with one in Portland, I was just thinking that maybe you could add one or more in Portland at some point in the future. (It wouldn’t even need to be all four events.)

    Since I live and work in Portland, a class in Portland would eliminate the travel and accommodation expenses which would make it much more likely that my employer would go for it.

    As you said Portland is very close to SEA, so I wouldn’t think it would matter that much to people coming in from elsewhere, but it would open up the events to people that can do the traveling.

    Thanks for asking and considering alternative locations for future events.

  11. Hey, I voted for Denver but could I change it to Chicago? I’m kind of in between and Chicago and the midwest looks like it fits the most people.

  12. Hey there Tom – Actually, we’ve really gone back/forth on this but just this morning (literally I *just* hung up the phone), we’ve actually settled on Chicago. We’ve been able to secure a PHENOMENAL location for an absolutely wonderful hotel price of $99 per night. And, it’s a suites hotel so for $99 everyone will get a 2 room suite. They even have a limo service to/from O’Hare for only $26 each way.

    Details coming VERY soon!

    Cheers,
    kt

Leave a Reply to Kevin E Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Other articles

Wow! Wow! Wow! THANK YOU!

I announced my retirement from SQL/tech here and your comments on my blog, on LinkedIn, and on Facebook were overwhelming and humbling! I’m so touched

Explore

Imagine feeling confident enough to handle whatever your database throws at you.

With training and consulting from SQLskills, you’ll be able to solve big problems, elevate your team’s capacity, and take control of your data career.