Andy Warren reflects on hosting the only in-person SQL Saturday in the United States this year:
We held an in-person SQLSaturday here in Orlando last weekend (Oct 30th). We didn’t organize one last year, there was just too much risk and too much uncertainty, so it felt good to return to something close to normal this year, even in scaled back fashion. I’ve got a lot of notes to share about how we ran the event this year!
The journey started at the end of 2020. We wrote up our plan for 2021 knowing there were a lot of unknowns, but hoping things would improve enough to resume doing the things we used to do as a local group and that included organizing a SQLSaturday. As this year has progressed attendance at our virtual meetings dropped, as did our enthusiasm for having them. Enthusiasm matters a lot when it comes to volunteer work and while I know many of you like the virtual format, it’s just not what I want to do. That narrowed the option list to having an in-person SQLSaturday or not doing one at all, not a great range of choices.
Read on for a lot of details. I appreciate how transparent Andy has always been with respect to running events like this and if you’re thinking about a SQL Saturday in 2022, definitely read Andy’s post.
Also, the event was small, but it was really nice to get to see people I hadn’t seen in years, so thank you, Andy, for putting on the show.