I spent this past Saturday in NYC at another SQL Saturday event. This blog isn’t typically about my day job. But sometimes things overlap.

SQL Saturday is basically a community run, volunteer event where folks who use SQL Server, or are interested in it, get together, present and attend talks and share ideas.

I unfortunately missed the keynote given by Grant Fritchey, but from what I understand, he discussed the importance of networking for DBAs: and he didn’t mean the kind running on TCP/IP handshakes as much as the one running on human handshakes.

This is exactly why I’ve wanted to teach at a SQL Saturday for awhile. I can’t claim my presentation was as well attended as many others and I can’t claim my presentation was as useful as some, but it was well received. (I would be lying if I didn’t say I think handing out cookies didn’t help!)

I’m a firm believer in passing on what I’ve learned. It’s how I learned, others took the time to pass information on to me and I take the time to pass it on to others.

One thing I really like about the SQL Saturday community is how much folks leverage off of each other. Often an idea presented by one presenter is seized upon by another who then expands upon the idea and adds to the body of knowledge.  Then the first presenter will take the updated idea even further.

This is how we learn, by taking ideas, expanding and sharing them back.