UTOUG Training Days

You probably know by now that I moved to Vancouver about 3.5 years ago. You also know by now that I like conferences (especially speaking, but also meet people and see places). This year I got accepted to speak at UTOUG in Salt Lake City.

I met Michelle Hardwick (Kolbe) in Denver last year, when I attended RMOUG Training Days. I talked with her about BCOUG as well and got some excellent tips from her. She also mentioned UTOUG Training Days (usually in March) so I decided to submit papers this year. I got two sessions accepted (funny enough, the same two I presented at RMOUG, but I don’t really mind because I like them) and started to plan my trip.

Arriving

Getting into Salt Lake City was easy. I took the 2-hour direct flight from Vancouver on Tuesday, then the TRAX (light train/TRAM) got me right to the hotel. It was a beautiful day and it wasn’t even too cold. The view of the mountains is amazing!
I checked in, went to have light dinner (which ended up to be a steak with mac & cheese, so maybe light is not the right description here) and went to sleep. The forecast said it’s going to rain and snow overnight and on Wednesday (the first day of the conference). And they were right.

First Day

I woke up to quite a white day (and much colder than the day before, but still not too bad) and I took the TRAX to the university, where the conference took place. They had to postpone everything a little bit as the snow made it difficult for people to arrive, so we ended up starting at 9 instead of 8:30. During breakfast I already met a few nice people and we chatted a bit. After that we heard the keynotes by Sam Clark (IT Director at the Department of Public Safety) and then Charles Kim (President of Viscosity NA). These were great talks about the cloud. I don’t like the sales talks about cloud, but really appreciate more technical and/or customer real stories that include challenges as well as success.
Then it was my turn, I had my two sessions in the first slots of the day (with lunch in between) and they went well. There were about 40 people in each session and I got great responses from the crowd. In between and after my sessions I talked for a while with Craig Shallahamer. He was in both of my sessions and really liked them (definitely an honor when it comes from people like Craig). I then heard Charles Kim talking about Linux best practices (lots of tips and best practices and quite technical, exactly the way I like it) and for the last session of the day I went to hear Alex Gibbs talking about “Cryptic Queries” (the title and abstract intrigued me). He is a very energetic guy (and loves comics) and he talked about different queries styles and features that we hardly use. I didn’t agree with some of it (and there was a discussion so I said what I think, I hope I didn’t go too far with that), but it was a very good and unconventional session.
We finished the day with speakers dinner (which was great) and off to bed.

Second Day

I skipped the first session slot and worked a little bit (yes, I need to do that sometimes). But attended sessions for the rest of the day. I started with Craig’s session about ASH, then decided to listen to a non-tech session by Jeff Baird about body language and other stuff you can do before or during interviews to improve your chances. It was quite interesting and made me think about interacting with other people. After lunch we had panels. I was a panelist with Craig and Sean Stacy and it was awesome. We got some very good questions about the life as DBAs (the future role, how we found ourselves in the field, what we like the most in the database and so on). Apparently all of us like to talk (surprising, I know) so it took us a while to answer each question, but I think it went really really well. Next I went to hear Michelle’s talk about machine learning which was very interesting (as this is completely not my area), and then another ASH session by Craig.
We closed the second day with Quest’s event hosted by Phil Rodas, which was a great finale for a great day.

Ski Day

Every Training Days conference, UTOUG organizes a ski day for any speaker and attendee that wishes to join to slopes. In the morning, Susan Schaefer (one of the UTOUF board members) picked me and Peter Koletzke and drove to Solitude, on of the (many) ski resorts in the area. We got there around 9, where we met Karen Cannell, David Peake and Sean Stacy. We skied, had lunch together and after David, Sean and Peter had to leave to catch a flight the rest of us stayed and skied some more. It was an excellent day, we managed to cover quite a lot of the mountain and I got back pretty tired.
Then I realized that I didn’t see SLC at all, so I had to go and see Temple Square. It was beautiful (unfortunately, the Tabernacle was closed for a rehersal.

Going Home

Now I have to say goodbye and tomorrow I’ll leave for the airport to get back home.
These regional conferences are the best! They are not huge and feel much more intimate, so they allow to actually talk to people and even recognize some faces in the second day. They are also shorter, so it’s easier to attend as they are cheaper and you don’t need so much time off. And in this case, the ski day is an excellent bonus.
I would like to thank Michelle for the amazing work and for convincing me to come (while in return I convinced her to come to Vancouver for our Tech Day conference in May). A big thanks to Susan for arranging everything and driving me around. And of course, all of UTOUG board for the great conference.
This is one of the best conferences I have ever attended. I have a feeling this wasn’t my last time in Salt Lake City.