If There Were SQL Saturday Rankings…

Then SQL Saturday #53 (Kansas City) would be ranked quite highly. In fact, they would be number one for all the SQL Saturday’s I have attended to date. Everything about the event was done as well as anyone else and in most cases they were far ahead of others. Let’s recap the event starting from the speaker dinner last night:

1. Met at Kaufmann Stadium for the Speaker dinner. Yes, it was in a suite at a baseball game. The suite allowed for people to interact without the bustle and din of a restaurant and the Royals put on a great show just outside the doors. By far the best speaker event in terms of social interaction and entertainment. The food wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t bad either, and you could find some frozen custard right behind center field. [NOTE: Drinking in the parking lot before the game does not a tailgate make. If you don’t have food, then it isn’t tailgating, you are simply drinking in public.]
2. A few of us left the game by about 9:30 and went to ride the roller coasters at Worlds of Fun. As a bonus WoF is doing a Halloween theme right now so the park at 10PM was filled with a lot of “extras” that did everything they could to enhance the experience of simply walking around. It cost $30 to enter and they closed by midnight, but there was still time for us to get six or seven rides done, more than you would get in a full day at most parks.
3. The SQL Saturday event itself was held in an old casino. Know what casinos have? Lots of space for people to congregate. In terms of social interaction, the venue allowed for this quite easily. The classroom space was good, they were easy to find and you weren’t distracted by people walking around.
4. Lunch was provided by Oklahoma Joe’s, a place that Anthony Bourdain said is one of the places you must eat at before you die. We ate in the old buffet room of the casino which had lots of space for people to eat and see each other. There was also a porch for some extra seating which is where I sat down to enjoy some beautiful Fall weather.
5. Getting in and out of the airport was easy enough to do, as well as getting through security. Oh, and there is free Wifi here at the airport, as I write this before getting on my plane (which just arrived, thankfully).

In short, the event this past weekend was simply the best SQL Saturday I have ever attended, and all future SQL Saturday’s will be held to this standard. I’m not sure I should have an official ranking for these events, but I’ll consider putting one together. The criteria for being listed would be simple:

• Have a speaker event that is unique for your location (everyone has a good restaurant, find one with some history or something that makes us feel like we visited your town/city).
• Your SQL Saturday venue has to allow for people to easily congregate and talk.
• Your classrooms should be able to seat 30 people comfortably, and need to be free of distractions.
• Lunch should be something unique as well. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but something from a well known local sandwich shop is better than grinders from Subway.
• It should be easy to get to/from the airport and hotels.

If you manage to hit all those points, you are going to have a successful event in the eyes of many participants. As a vendor I have additional thoughts about what makes for a successful event, but I am going to focus on the viewpoint of the non-vendor participant.

And in my opinion, this one was the best. I’ll be in Orlando in two weeks. Let’s see if they can knock KC out of my top spot.

And to everyone who put in long hours to make the KC event so successful, I offer a big THANK YOU for everything. The BBQ crawl on Friday afternoon was amazing and I can’t wait to come back next year.