Build a Business: Use your technical skills to build your own business

Have you have wanted to run your own business? Work for yourself? Set your own agenda? Select the projects and even the clients that you work on? Then this session might be for you.

In this session, we will discuss what it takes for a person with outstanding technical skills to build a product or service around those skills to become a marketable product you can sell to clients. You can build a business.

To build a business, let's say it's as an IT Contractor or consultant. You will need excellent technical skills; however, that's probably not half the battle you will need to

> Build and describe a product or service that solves a clients problem (Product Development)

> Build a brand around you and your product/service, so people are aware that it exists (Marketing)

> Talk to clients to understand what problems they are experiencing and how your product will help solve them. (Sales)

>Produce a sales document that evidences how the services and products you supply solve clients problems (Sales)

>Manage your time and resources to ensure that you deliver maximum value to your existing clients while continuing to find new clients (Business Management)

It can be a rewarding and fun way to work if you do it right, and in this session, we'll show how you can approach starting your own IT Contracting or Training business and hopefully help you build a successful business of your own.

Top Five Disasters we've dealt with in our time as DBAs

Gethyn and David have been DBAs for far too long. Between them, they have had to deal with their fair share of interesting times

Come and hear about our top five disasters and how we managed, or not, to dig ourselves or our team out of a hole.

This will be a fun session discussing some of the strange things that have happened to us in the combined 35 years we have been doing this.

Use your data platform skills to build your own business

Have you have wanted to run your own business? Work for yourself? Set your own agenda? Select the projects and even the clients that you work on? Then this session might be for you.

In this session, we will discuss what it takes for a person with outstanding technical skills to build a product or service around those skills to become a marketable product you can sell to clients. You can build a business.

To build a business, let's say it's as an IT Contractor or consultant. You will need excellent technical skills; however, that's probably not half the battle you will need to

> Build and describe a product or service that solves a clients problem (Product Development)

> Build a brand around you and your product/service, so people are aware that it exists (Marketing)

> Talk to clients to understand what problems they are experiencing and how your product will help solve them. (Sales)

>Produce a sales document that evidences how the services and products you supply solve clients problems (Sales)

>Manage your time and resources to ensure that you deliver maximum value to your existing clients while continuing to find new clients (Business Management)

It can be a rewarding and fun way to work if you do it right, and in this session, we'll show how you can approach starting your own IT Contracting or Training business and hopefully help you build a successful business of your own.

Top 5 Skills a Data Professional will need in 2022

It is 2022. Probably about twelve years ago, I remember people were writing about the demise of the DBA and how they won’t be around in the next ten years. However, as we progress through the decade, and those ten years have passed, the DBA role is still alive and kicking. The DBA has evolved in the last ten years and has changed since I started my career in the early 2000s. A whole range of other data profession careers has also evolved over that time.

This session will look at the evolution of DBA skills. We will look at what skills you would expect a DBA to have around the turn of the century and what those skills would be like in 2010 and compare it to what they will need in the 2020s and how the industry has developed and evolved in that time.

We will also discuss some of the skills and technology data professionals will need going forward

No doubt we will be covering:
New versions of SQL Server
Automation and PowerShell
Containers
Cloud technology
Data Analytics
Maybe some non-technical skills too

Whether you are new to the DBA profession or have years of experience, this session is for you to get my take on what skills a DBA needs to have in the Roaring 20s.

Moneyball – Build a killer Fantasy Football Team with Power BI

Moneyball – Build a killer Fantasy Football Team with Power BI - PHIT Football

Berry Wand is fed up with having a mediocre Fantasy Premier League team, making mediocre decisions and generally not in contention of winning any of the Fantasy Premier League that she enters. She does OK, but she’s always short of points when the title is being dished out.

In this talk, we will look at how Berry can use the FPL APIs, PowerShell and Power BI to build an analytical solution allowing her to identify valuable players from a crowded field. Allowing her to answer the soccer equivalent of the famous Billy Beane question, “Do they get on base?”

If you’re new to Power BI or just curious, about what I am going to talk about then this session is for you. We will talk about

- Data sources
- Loading into Power BI
- Cleaning and transforming the data
- Modelling the data
- Adding some measures
- Creating great visuals to show which players should be in our team and those that shouldn’t

Come along and have some Power BI fun.

For the avoidance of doubt, we are talking about English Premier League football/soccer.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Data-Driven Culture

Berry Wand has a new job. As the Chief Data Officer for a leading police force, she is in charge of creating a data-driven corporate culture and has all the tools she needs to make it happen. But she needed to figure out where to start; she had a vision, but it was the implementation and delivery that she needed help with.

That was until she heard about a splendid conference talk focused on building a data culture and how Power BI could support that process.

Now, she had the chance to dig into the topic and learn how to make the most out of her data. She was excited to start, so she arrived at the talk with a sense of anticipation.

During the session, Berry was immersed in a world full of potential. She picked up techniques and strategies she could apply to her job and tips and tricks she could teach her team.

She learned about

> Establish leadership support
> Strategies for Overcoming resistance to change
> Identify key data stakeholders
> Build a data-driven mindset
> Implement data governance
> Invest in data infrastructure
> Provide training
> Encourage experimentation
> How Power BI can help build that data culture

The whole experience had been a revelation for her, leaving her feeling as if she had finally cracked the code of creating a data-driven culture in her organisation.

As she left the conference venue, Berry felt energised and inspired. She had the blueprint and strategy for taking her data to the next level; all she had to do was put her newfound knowledge into action. It would not be easy, but it would be worth it.

People interested in this session may have the following job titles. Please note this is not an exclusive list. Not having this job title does not preclude you from attending.

Data Analyst
IT Director
IT Manager
Finance Director
Chief Data Officer

From Zero to Hero: Accidental SQL Server DBAs Survival Guide

This conference session will provide a comprehensive survival guide for individuals who are new or accidental SQL Server Database Administrators (DBAs). The presentation will cover key concepts and best practices to effectively manage SQL Server instances and databases, including installation, configuration, security, backup and recovery, monitoring, performance tuning, and troubleshooting.
Attendees will learn practical tips and tricks for
• Managing security
• Backup and restore strategies
• Regular maintenance
Whether you are a developer, IT professional, or accidental DBA, this session will equip you with the essential knowledge and skills to confidently manage SQL Server environments and ensure optimal performance and uptime. By following the guidance provided in this survival guide, you will be able to quickly move from being a novice to a hero in SQL Server administration.

Mastering Impactful Presentations: Captivate, Inspire, Succeed

Join us as we take a deep dive into Berry Wand's incredible journey from a self-doubting DBA to a sought-after speaker at numerous tech events. Discover how Berry overcame her fear of public speaking with the help of renowned speaker and mentor, Gethyn Ellis. Learn how they crafted an impactful abstract, selected the right conference, and refined her material to perfection. Be inspired by Berry's story of determination and perseverance, and learn how you too can overcome your fears and achieve your dreams with the right guidance and support.

Goals of the session:
> Understand why the title is vital
> Writing a compelling abstract
> Dealing with nerves and stage freight

Prerequisites

To attend this session, you should be either new or inexperienced in delivering presentations and public speaking and want to improve and learn new skills. If that describes you, then this session will be for you.

Mastering SQL Server Administration: A Comprehensive Training Event for New and Aspiring DBAs

Are you a new or accidental SQL Server DBA, feeling overwhelmed by the complex world of database administration? Don't worry, we've got you covered! This talk covers the essential skills you need to know to get started as a SQL Server DBA.

We will start with SQL Server security, covering the basics of authentication, authorization, and encryption, as well as best practices for securing your databases against common threats.

Next, we will dive into backup and restore, which is critical for protecting your data and ensuring business continuity.

Thirdly, we will explore how to maintain your SQL Server databases, covering tasks such as monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintenance.

Finally, we will cover performance tuning, which is the process of optimizing your databases for maximum performance.

By the end of this workshop, you will have a solid foundation in the essential skills required to be SQL Server DBA, enabling you to confidently manage and optimize your databases for your organization. You will be equipped with practical knowledge and tips to keep your databases secure, backed up, maintained, and performing at their best.

You will learn

You will learn how to create logins, assign permissions, configure firewall rules, and use auditing to track activity and compliance.

You will learn how to create and schedule backups, restore from backups, and test your backups to ensure they are reliable. We will also cover common backup and restore scenarios, such as restoring a database to a point in time or to a different server.

You will learn how to use SQL Server Management Studio and other tools to monitor system health, identify and resolve performance issues, and perform routine maintenance tasks such as database backups and index maintenance.
You will learn how to use tools like SQL Server Profiler and Database Engine Tuning Advisor to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, optimize queries and indexes, and improve hardware and storage performance.

Additional notes
You will be introduced to the following tools during the day
• Dbatools
• Sp_whoisactive
• Sp_blitz suite of tools
• Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance Solution

Prerequisites
The ideal attendee for this workshop will be someone new to SQL Server database administration or would consider themselves an accidental DBA. I’d say if you have been working with SQL Server as DBA for more than say 18 months then this session won’t be for you, I probably won’t introduce anything you don’t know already.