Friday, July 7, 2017

SQL Saturday Atlanta is almost here

     Well, it's that time of year again.  No, not summer time, where people take vacations with their family, spend lazy Saturdays at the lake or sitting on their patio with a beer.  It's that time of year when the idea of free time goes out the window. We've been hard at work planning SQL Saturday Atlanta.  We've moved to a new month (July instead of May) and a new venue (Lawrenceville instead of Alpharetta).  These changes have meant almost everything else changes too:  hotel, pre con dinner locations, speaker party location, after party location, struggling with room layout, where to put the sponsors, etc.

The search for a new venue was a treacherous one. We looked everywhere.




     The new venue is lovely, spacious & filled with light in the common areas.  Gwinnett Technical College has been a joy to work with.  Luckily, we've been able to get almost everything on the first floor.  We have multiple rooms that seat 90 people and most seat 50+.  We're going to need it too.  As of today, we have 709 attendees registered.  But as expected there are some last minute details to work out.  Things like having a custodian on staff so we don't run out of toilet paper in the men's room. Making sure we have a tech support person there to show us how this crazy AV equipment works.  Do we have WiFi for everyone? Can the ready room be locked overnight or do I have to move all our things to a different place & bring it back bright & early on Saturday?

     And let's not forget budgeting.  The new place is expensive.  I know a lot of SQL Saturdays get venues for little to nothing.  That isn't how it works here in Atlanta.  Not for 500+ people.  So we do this delicate balancing act of paying over $8,000 for a building that will hold us all, feed 500+ people a decent lunch in a very short window of time, host a speaker dinner & an after party all while making sure sponsors get their monies worth.

I find it helps to know your limitations.


     The best part is my team.  SQL Saturday Atlanta has done it again.  They've surpassed my expectations when it came to presenting ideas and executing on it.  They're pictured here, hard at work.



Our attitude for this upcoming quest?  Keep calm.




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