Category Archives: Ljubljana

PASS SQL Saturday #356 Slovenia Recapitulation

So the event is over. I think I can say for all three organizers, Mladen Prajdić, Matija Lah, and me, that we are tired now. However, we are extremely satisfied. It was a great event. First few numbers and comparison with SQL Saturday #274, the first SQL Saturday Slovenia event that took place last year.

SQL Saturday #274

SQL Saturday #356

People

135

220

Show rate

~87%

~95%

Proposed sessions

40

82

Selected sessions

15

24

Selected speakers

14

23

Countries

12

16

The numbers nearly doubled. We are especially proud of the show rate; with 95%, this is much better than average for a free event, and probably the highest so far for a SQL Saturday. We asked registered attendees to be fair and to unregister if they know they can’t attend the event in order to make room for those from the waiting list. An old Slovenian proverb says “A nice word finds a nice place”, and it works. 36 registered attendees unregistered. Therefore, we have to thank to both, the attendees of the event and those who unregistered.

Of course, as always, we also need to thank to all of the speakers, sponsors and volunteers. All volunteers were very helpful; however, I would like to especially point out Saša Mašič. Her work goes well beyond simple volunteering. I must mention also the FRI, the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, where the event was hosted for free. It is also worth mentioning that we are lucky to live in Ljubljana, such a beautiful city with extremely nice inhabitants who like to enjoy good food, hanging around and mingling, and long parties. Because of that we could be sure in advance that both speakers and attendees from other countries would enjoy spending time here also outside the event, that they would feel safe, and get help whenever they would need it.

From the organizational perspective, we tried to do our best, and we hope that everything was OK for speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and attendees. Thank you all!

PASS SQL Saturday #356 Slovenia Pre-Conference Seminars

I am proud and glad I can announce two top pre-conference seminars at the PASS SQL Saturday #356 Slovenia conference. The speakers and the seminars titles are:

Both seminars will take place on Friday, December 12th, in the classrooms of our sponsor Kompas Xnet. The price for a seminar is € 149, with early bird price at € 119. Early bird price is valid until October 31st.

I am also using this opportunity to explain how and why we decided for these two seminars. The decision was made by the conference organizers, Matija Lah, Mladen Prajdič, and Dejan Sarka. There was a lot of discussion in different social networks about PASS Summit pre-conference seminars lately. If you have any objections for our seminars, please do not start big discussions in public; please tell them to the three of us directly.

First of all, unlike at the PASS Summit seminars, the speakers are not going to earn big money here, and therefore it is not really worth spending much time and energy on our decision. We think that any of the speakers who sent proposals for our SQL Saturday could present a top quality seminar. We would like to enable seminars for every speaker that wants to deliver one. However, in a small country, we will have already hard time to fill up the two seminar we have currently. Our intention is to reimburse at least part of the money the speakers spent on their own for travelling expenses and accommodation. In our opinion, it makes sense to do this for the speakers that spent the most for the travelling. Coming here from USA is expensive, and it also takes three days in both directions. That’s why we decided to organize the seminars for the first two speakers from USA.

Of course, this is not the last event. If everything goes well with SQL Saturday #356 and with the seminars, we will definitely try to organize more events in the future, and invite more speaker to deliver a seminar as well.

Thank you for understanding!

Conferences – 2nd Semester 2014

I am finishing my plan for conferences in the 2nd half of 2014. I think I will speak in most of them. Here is my list.

1. SQLBits 2014, July 17th-19th: high time to register, pre-conf seminars start in two days. I have an interesting pre-con seminar there – Advanced Data Modeling Topics. In addition, I have a session as well.

2. Kulendayz 2014, September 5th – 7th: I guess I will speak there. However, the most important thing there is to cool down:-)

3. SQL Saturday #344 Tirana, October 4th: Never been in Albania, looking forward to visit Tirana.

4. SQL Saturday #311 Bulgaria, October 11th: Visiting Sofia after many years. Nice people, good rakija.

5. Sinergija 14, October 20th – 21st, Belgrade, Serbia: Best barbecue. Besides great sessions, of course.

6. PASS Summit 2014, November 4th – 7th, Seattle, WA, USA: Can’t miss the most important community conference in the world.

7. SQL Saturday Ljubljana, December 13th, Ljubljana, Slovenia: I am co-organizing this event. Date reserved, call for speakers is going out soon. Consider coming – most of the session will be in English. Maybe not the best parties, but definitely the longest. Ljubljana lives all night.

Hope we will meet at some of these events.

SQL Saturday #274 Slovenia Recapitulation

Pure success!

I could simply stop here. However, I want to mention again everybody involved in this, and also some who were unfortunately missing.

First of all, PASS is the organization that defined SQL Saturdays. And apparently the idea worksSmile

I have to thank again to all of the speakers. Coming to share your amazing knowledge is something we really appreciate. The presentations were great, from the technical and other perspectives.

Of course, we could not do the event without sponsors. I am not going to enlist all of them again; I will just mention the host, pixi* labs, the company that hosted the event and who’s  employees helped with all of the organization. In addition, I need to mention Vina Kukovec. Boštjan Kukovec, an old member of Slovenian SQL Server and Developers users group, organized free wine tasting after the event. And what a wine it is!

Finally, thanks to all attendees for coming. We had approximately 85% show up rate; only 15% or the registered attendees didn’t come. This is an incredible result, worldwide! And from the applause after the raffle, when we closed the vent (and started wine tasting), I conclude that the attendees were very satisfied as well.

I want to mention three people that wanted to come, but run out of luck this time. Peter Stegnar from pixi* labs was the one that immediately offered the venue, and permeated with his enthusiasm also other pixi* labs members. Due to family reasons he couldn’t join us to see the results of his help. Tobiasz Janusz Koprowski wanted to speak, organized his trip, looked forward to join us; however, just couple of days before the event he had to cancel because of some urgent work at customer’s site. And what to say about Kevin Boles? He really tried hard to come. Think of it, he was prepared to come from USA! he was already on the airport, when his flight got cancelled due to technical problems. We were in constant touch Friday evening. He managed to change the flight, went to the gate, but was not admitted to the plane. because there was only seven minutes left till take off. Catching next flights would not make any sense anymore, because he would come too late anyway. He really did the best he could do, he just didn’t have enough luck this time. Peter, Tobiasz, and Kevin, thank you for your enthusiasm, we seriously missed you, and we certainly hope we will meet on our next event!

SQL Saturday #274 Slovenia Full House

SQL Saturday #274 Slovenia is full (150 registered attendees) for more than a weekSmile There are still some people in the waiting list. We sent an e-mail to registered attendees asking them to unregister if they already know they can’t make it. I have to thank to all of those who followed this advice and made room for part of the people from the waiting list. Apparently, we will really have a full house, and very low no show rate.

I am positively surprised with everything so far. Fantastic support from PASS, immediate help from sponsors, and a huge number of speakers prepared to spend their own money and time and come over to present high-end topics, and also passionate attendees who registered far in advance and are fair enough to release their place for somebody who can come more surely than they can. Let me also mention that we got classrooms for free, that we got minimal price for lunch, and we even got a free vine tasting during the event. Fantastic response from PASS, SQL Server Community, from sponsors, and from my fellow countrymen from Slovenia!

See you all on Saturday. We will all enjoy, this is a promise!

SQL Saturday #274 Slovenia

Yes, here it isSmile SQL Saturday #274 is coming to Slovenia (#sqlsatSlovenia). The event will take place on Saturday, December 21st, at company

pixi* labs, Informacijske tehnologije, d.o.o.
Poslovna cona A 2
SI-4208 Šenčur

This company generously offered to host the event. We, the whole Slovenian SQL Server community, are very grateful for this.

At this time, a call for speakers went out, and we are already getting the first proposals.

We are especially happy that we will get possibility to show the foreign speakers how beautiful Slovenia and especially the capital Ljubljana is in December. Expect a lot of partying right on the streets, no matter of weather. Be prepared, we have slightly weird customs when it comes to drinks. For example, our regular special discount offer is not three drinks for the price of two; it is six drinks for the price of five.

If you are a speaker or want to become one, consider sending a proposal. Since most of the sessions will be held in English and you don’t want to speak, consider coming as a visitor as well. Or maybe you would be interested to become a sponsor. Although we are targeting a low budgeted event, any kind of sponsorship is very welcome. Please feel free to contact the organizers if you are interested to become a sponsor:

Matija Lah – mlah@solidq.com, Mladen Prajdič – spirit1_fe@yahoo.com, or Dejan Sarka  – dsarka@solidq.com.

Looking forward to see you all!