With my travel schedule, I don’t always get out to events where I can see a community speaker. Sometimes, I just see pros. That’s the case this month. Instead of skipping the month entirely, which feels wrong, I’ve decided to do a special award.
Speaker of the Month for June 2015 are all the speakers (except me) on SQL Cruise Mediterranean 2015.
I’ve said it before and I don’t mind repeating myself, SQL Cruise changes people’s careers. There are a lot of reasons for this. The number one reason is all the work that Tim & Amy Ford do to put together the cruise, create the itinerary, ensure plenty of structured and unstructured time on the boat to ensure intense interaction, and all the rest of the stuff that they do. The second reason is the people that they get to staff the event as Technical Leads. These really are some of the smarter, knowledgeable, and most importantly, friendly and approachable, people in the industry. Look at the list: Stacia Misner, Andrew Kelly, Argenis Fernandez, Aaron Bertrand. Want to learn about BI? Done. Interested in hard core system tuning? Done. Want to know how to properly write your T-SQL? Done & Done. Most importantly, want to sit down on a couch, hand Aaron/Argenis/Andrew/Stacia a drink and have a nice long chat about ways to improve processes at your work, how to get started blogging, how to make the next jump in your career path and get answers to these questions from people who know what they’re talking about? Seriously and thoroughly done. Let’s not dismiss other Technical Leads from other cruises which includes: David Klee (flat out one of the single smartest AND nicest people you’ll meet), Jes Borland (probably the single fiercest community advocate going, plus a bundle of unbridled energy and intense knowledge), Kevin Kline (I’m not worthy), and Jeff Lehmann (let’s talk cross-platform knowledge as well as process and experience).
All these people working within the structure that Tim & Amy have created have more than earned Speaker of the Month. These are the people you want to learn from and they teach the knowledge you need.
Bad news is, next month won’t have any community people either. After that, back on the regular community speaker track.