Day One - Travel
I had my daughter and son-in-law drop us off at the airport. Yes, I'm traveling with my wife. Since work pays for my travel and we pay for hers, it's a struggle to get us seated together, and for this flight, we were not. However, I did get my aisle seat, and next to me was a woman probably around 5 feet tall, so it's all good for legroom. Our flight to Orlando left on time, and all was well. It took a while to get our luggage, but we were soon off to find some food and our hotel.
LIVE! 360 is held in Orlando during November. It is located at Loew's Royal Pacific Resort, which if you don't know, is part of Universal Studios Florida. The resort is pretty amazing. Water taxis to Universal, Christmas and Universal decorations abound, dining options are many, plus everything else you'd expect from a resort (exercise room, pools, etc.).
The lodging rates are great, much lower than you'd normally pay. It's a big conference, so you won't every feel lonely. And it is well run, from registration to the conference app. It's all seamless. My only gripe is it's very coffee centric. Man, just hit a brother with a morning Diet Coke, please!
There are many different education tracks you can take. Microsoft is the main sponsor, so it's very much oriented towards them. That said, you have:
Data Platform Live (for me, of course)
AI Live (Copilot)
Tech Mentor
Visual Studio Live
Cloud and Containers Live
CyberSecurity / Ransomware Live
Day Two - Workshop
I'm in a workshop on Sql Server 2022 new features, then a deep dive into Sql Developer. I'm stoked! Also, it’s really not working to take notes in here. Let’s just say the day will be informative.
This day, conference ended at 4. At 430, I was in line for Jollywood Nights, and by 530 we were in the park. No lines, lots of holiday shows. We shut the park down at 1230 am. On a somewhat conference related note, lots of the theme parks do after hours events this time of year. If you have the desire, you can learn all day and party into the night.
Day Three - Keynote and Breakout Sessions
Ok, so data, AI and the cloud. That was a lot to take in. Rather than summarize that poorly, let me tell you something else. I mingled this morning. Not my favorite thing or a skill I possess, but I tried. Here's what I learned.
- The conference continues to grow. They sold out their usual blocks here where I am, and then the next resort over, so they have now spread across 4 resorts. Booking early is key anymore, or you might have to walk a bit to get here.
- The conference has LOTS of return customers. Once people come, they are hooked.
- A lot of conference attendees have yet to stray over to Universal. It's that good that a theme park can't pull them away.
- Lots of teams are here. Sure, there are some lone wolfs like myself, but a lot travel in packs.
What the tracks look like on the big board.
A Jollywood treat.
Caught the last show of Fantasmic for the day.
The OG, Hollywood Tower of Terror.
Jollywood!
Happy Holidays!
Day Four: What is a Database?
Dude is talking datatypes, and my mind is swimming. I love that the presenters post their slides and demos, but also share their emails, make themselves available between sessions, etc. And I love that they aren't afraid to make fun of Sql Server. It deserves it some times.
Did I mention the food here is awesome? Well, breakfast is weak, but lunch brings its A game. Behold, the fajitas!
Also, snuck off last night to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Side note: the gas station located nearby has 44 ounce sodas!
I love that one simple conference session can help me feel inspired and ready to dig into things at work. Take this last session. We spent an hour learning about data types, indexes, data compression, etc. And the whole time, I'm thinking about things I need to check on at work to see if we can't make things better and faster on the database side of things. Indexes with where clauses? Row and page compression? So much to dig into.
On Wednesday, the conference hosts a luau for friends and family. I was amazed at the attendance, and by how many people travel with spouses, partners, children, etc. The after hours party was a lot of fun, and a great chance for my wife to see the nerds I hang out with. I thought about selling off my two free drink vouchers, but in the end did not. However, one thing I learned - nerds love coffee and mixed drinks!
The keynote speeches were inspiring. I loved how one talked about the industrial revolution and how companies that did not adapt quickly went out of business. If we don't embrace change, we can quickly get left behind in our industry. By the end, I was left with an impression that I need to help hasten our movement as an organization to the cloud before we all get left behind.
I attended two sessions about data governance, and they sold me on the idea a lot more than the people around work have. Again, I was left with an impression, that I should do more to hasten this work as well. Do I want the Informatica folks trolling around in my data? No, but I understand better why this must happen.
