Community – Becoming a Master

PNW Day of Data 2026

admin July 19, 2026 0 Comments

*speaker photo from SQL Saturday 2025* The indefatigable Steve Jones made a decision to go from the SQL Saturday brand to Day of Data. You may think it was presumptive for the Oregon group that all lives in Vancouver to claim the name for themselves, but there was a method to my madness. As we increase interest for Day of Datas in our region, the name is setup for a dash.... PNW Day of Data -...

Day of Data Baton Rouge 2026 – back home

admin July 19, 2026 0 Comments

When I was fortunate enough to be chosen to speak at #DayofDataBR, and I saw that tickets to New Orleans were quite a bit cheaper, I took the opportunity to fly there first. Louis Armstrong has always been an idol of mine, as I was growing up as a wannabe jazz piano player. I would listen to him along with some of the other influences from that era to understand the style. I'm glad I was able to...

Azure Storage – Day of Data Baton Rouge – 18 Jul 2026

admin July 10, 2026 0 Comments

You did everything right. You moved SQL Server to Azure, you paid for premium storage, you sized the VM generously. And it's still... slow. Your users are grumbling, your dashboards look fine on paper, and you're starting to wonder if the cloud was oversold. Here's the uncomfortable truth I've been sharing on stages this year: in Azure, you're paying for a service, and Microsoft is only going to...

Moving Forward

admin February 10, 2025 0 Comments

As I have told many people, I was REALLY busy between the last week of October and through Christmas. All good stuff, all busy. January was just the normal busy, but I used the time to make lists. Lists are good. You get immediate organization, you can check off items, and you can track your progress. Yes, this is the typical whiny post from someone who makes a blog and then ignores it for...

Planning for your own in-person data conference – Pt 2 – Location

Michael Wall December 10, 2023 0 Comments

Oregon Data Community/Oregon SQL has had their conference at many sites in both Portland and Vancouver. My first SQL Saturday was back in 2011 at the appropriately named Climb Center in Portland. There was an elevator, but it was small and slow, so it was faster to carry things up and down the four flights of stairs. This brings forth a number of good points in location selection Ease of Access...

Planning for your own in-person Data Conference – Pt 1

Michael Wall November 30, 2023 0 Comments

SQL Saturday Oregon and SW Washington 2023 is in the books and I hope everyone had a good time. As always, it was fantastic to see many people from the #SQLFamily. As always, I was running around like a chicken with my head cutoff due to many issues including coffee.... I expect that. It's hard to manage any size of group, and there will always be issues, especially when people are involved. We...

Maintaining a Balance

Michael Wall August 13, 2023 0 Comments

I'm not sure how some people manage to do it. It's been a stressful year between balancing my job, my family obligations, my health, my Lodge, my Data User Group, and having a little bit of fun for myself. Luckily I work with some really good people who are more than capable of getting things done. That being said, there are also a lot of people who just don't do anything unless pressed! But...I...

#NewStarNovember – Being a Mentor

Michael Wall December 01, 2022 0 Comments

As always, thank you to Ben for his continued positive influence on the data community and the world at large. Let's hope he likes my post! What got you into Speaking? I was fortunate enough to be near an active UG, originally the Oregon SQL UG based in Portland, OR. After discovering my first SQL Saturday in 2011, I became an active volunteer in 2015 and slowly started speaking. I had no idea...

SQL Saturday Oregon and SW Washington

Michael Wall November 03, 2022 0 Comments

I know, it's a little confusing. This event, one of the oldest SQL Saturdays, is going to once again be held in Vancouver, WA. Why? Portland, in the kindest way I can phrase, has become a challenging place to find meeting spots. Three of the Leadership members of Oregon Data Community live in Vancouver, all of us have an association with our site, Clark College, and Vancouver is just a fun city...

Being a Speaker – PASS Summit 2022 (yay!)

Michael Wall October 10, 2022 0 Comments

I was once again honored by the session evaluation team for PASS Summit to be chosen to speak this year at Seattle. I'm super excited as I will be doing my Professional Development presentation on Becoming a Master! There's still plenty of time to sign up for Summit, but hurry up as it's only going to get more expensive and harder to find lodging. You can sign up right here: PASS Data Community...