T-SQL Tuesday #145: Pandemic, Presentations and Perspectives!

Thanks to Xavier Morera for hosting December month of T-SQL Tuesday!

I never experienced how an in-person conference feels like. I started my speaking career during the pandemic through a virtual event New Stars of Data last year 2020.

I see different perspectives about virtual and in-person events. To be very sincere, I love virtual events for many reasons. Virtual events have given me and other new speakers a chance to speak at different conferences worldwide without having to travel.

As I never experienced an in-person event before, I am really looking forward to attending them in near future.

For this T-SQL Tuesday fun, Xavier asked a couple of questions to answer.

1. Which is your favorite conference and why?
2. Which is the best venue that you have visited for a tech conference?
3. Who is the best presenter that you have ever listened to?
4. Which location would you like for your next event to take place and why Costa Rica?

Which is your favorite conference and why?

My favorite conference will always be the one that has given me the stage and chance as a new speaker, that’s New Stars of Data.

I cannot stop with one conference 🙂 My next Favourite conference is DataWeekender which is also an online data platform event. PASS Data Community Summit 2021 and Data Platform Virtual Summit 2021 is equally my favorite one along with New stars of data and Dataweekender. To list all of my favourite conferences, the list is definitely going to be big. All the above conferences encourage diversity and give a chance for the new speakers to share the same stage as the experienced speakers. New stars of data organized by the DataGrillen team is especially dedicated to new speakers. Their support for new speakers is just incredible. DataGrillen team also organized Dativerse specially dedicated to the speakers coming from underrepresented communities. They also started Dataminutes which is a ten-minute lightning talk conference and now the New Star of Data- Speaker improvement library. DataGrillen team continuously comes up with new ideas to help support the community in every way possible.

DataWeekender team has a style that I love. I just love the way they organize, advertise the event in the most entertaining way possible with an amazing logo. They encourage new speakers from diverse backgrounds and support them.

I am thankful to PASS Summit 2021 and DPS 2021 for encouraging new speakers coming from diverse backgrounds to submit to their conferences and giving them incredible support and a chance to share the stage with very well-known speakers out there. For many new speakers, it is a dream to speak at big events. As these conferences were virtual, many professionals used this wonderful opportunity to challenge themselves and took their first step in their speaking journey. If you can count the number of new upcoming speakers from the SQL Community for the past two years, you will be truly amazed. I believe we need to keep online conferences alive even when we choose to have other in-person conferences. This will help people who cannot afford to travel to other places or countries due to various reasons like family situations/young kids/visa waiting process etc but still interested in presenting and learning from other speakers.

Which is the best venue that you have visited for a tech conference?

I never attended an in-person event before 😛

Who is the best presenter that you have ever listened to?

That’s a really tough question. Every speaker is special in their own way. I have one speaker who actually inspired me to start thinking about speaking. BrentOzar valuable suggestions from one of his podcast interviews helped me think about becoming a speaker. I cannot thank Brent enough for his continuous support of the community. Kudos to you Brent.

Which location would you like for your next event to take place and why Costa Rica?

If my first in-person event will be in Costa Rica, how amazing that would be? I mean, look at the below picture from Tortuguero (‘Land of Turtles’). Who would not love to spend their time watching sunrise and sunset here?

Thanks again Xavier for hosting this month of T-SQL Tuesday!