Have you heard about SQL Cruise?
If you aren’t familiar with it, SQL Cruise is a great learning and networking opportunity for SQL Server professionals. It combines the fun of a cruise ship with the fun of hanging out with and learning from SQL people, all for a very reasonable price. Unlike other conferences, you don’t have to fight with other attendees for five minutes of an instructor’s time at the end of his/her session. Youʼre spending the week with those youʼre receiving training from. After class, at breakfast, while snorkeling, youʼre able to not only have them answer questions from their sessions, but youʼre able to spend quality time with them going over real issues youʼre trying to solve back on dry land. You also have fewer distractions while you are at sea, so you can focus on the great training you are receiving and let all that great information sink in without feeling obligated to field calls to your cell phone or constantly check your email. The other benefit is that many of these Technical Leads, are also highly paid consultants back on land; youʼre getting top quality SQL Server consulting for no additional cost. Training happens while you are at sea. You are free to live it up when you are in port.
The cost of SQL Cruise depends on the length of the cruise, destinations, time of year, etc. For 2015, the cost of SQL Cruise was $1395 – $1595 plus the cost of the cruise (which can be $100 – $200 per day depending on your room and activity choices). The cruise is through Norwegian Cruise Lines. For more info about SQL Cruise, visit the website. You will learn about why you deserve a SQL Cruise, what a typical schedule looks like for the cruise, and other frequently asked questions.
Why am I telling you all this?
SQL Cruise is run by this great guy named Tim Ford (t | b). When I run into Tim at SQL Saturdays I always tell him that I want to go on a SQL Cruise. But SQL Cruise has traditionally been focused on DBA training, and I’m a BI person. Although I do spend some of my time learning about “DBA things”, I would prefer to have some training more focused on the things I care about as a BI person such as dimensional modeling, BIML, SSIS, SSAS/Power Pivot, big data, and data visualization. Tim told me that we could get a SQL Cruise: BI Edition going for 2016 if I could demonstrate some real interest.
I need your help to make SQL Cruise: BI Edition happen!
If you are interested in being a part of SQL Cruise: BI Edition, please take a couple of minutes to complete the survey at the link below. Or if you aren’t comfortable filling out this survey, go to the SQL Cruise contact page and send Tim a note to indicate your interest to him directly. If you know someone who might be interested, please send them the link to the survey or this blog post. Once I get enough demonstrated interest I will let Tim know and he will help make this happen. I’ll post an update after PASS Summit to share the level of interest indicated and next steps.
Data Savvy 