Category: SQL Saturday

Just a week ago, on April 27, 2024, we brought back the in-person SQL Saturday event to Orange County for the first time post-COVID. It’s the perfect moment to share our experiences, the successes, and the lessons we learned along the way.

The journey to revive the SQL Saturday in Orange County was not without its challenges. After the hiatus caused by the pandemic, rekindling interest in these events was like navigating a catch-22 situation—organizers were hesitant because they felt the community interest had waned, and potential attendees thought there were no more events due to lack of organization. Despite these initial doubts, it was clear there was still a strong desire for these gatherings within the community.

The Rebirth of a Community Favorite

Our team at Data Driven Technologies, Inc., also known as the SQLSatLA Team, has always held a deep connection to the SQLSatOC and SQLSatSD events. Drawing from our past experiences and the guidance we received from previous organizers, we were determined to do whatever it took to breathe new life into SQL Saturday in Orange County. When our offers to help the original organizers didn’t pan out, we took the initiative to manage everything ourselves, hoping that our efforts would eventually bring everyone back together. Our main goal was simple: to revive a beloved event.

Overcoming Obstacles

Reviving SQL Saturday presented several obstacles:

• We had no venue as the event previously took place at Golden West College.
• We lacked access to past attendee, speaker, and sponsor lists.
• Local volunteer support was minimal, and we had limited ways to communicate.

Despite these hurdles, our team was fueled by determination and equipped with a wealth of experience, a collaborative mindset, and a robust set of tools that made organizing simpler:

• Thanks to our non-profit status, we had our own Microsoft Office tenant, which helped us create new communication channels as early as June 2023.
• By December, we secured the Microsoft Irvine Office as our venue, thanks to Jen Beiser.
• Our preparation included building a social media presence, frequent communications with volunteers, and using platforms like Sessionize and EventZilla to streamline event organization.

Event Highlights and Successes

The event saw numerous successes:

• We welcomed over 80 attendees, with more than 200 registrations.
• The pre-conference day featured a session on Tuning Databases by Brent Ozar, which was a major draw.
• Our venue choice, the Microsoft Irvine Office, proved ideal.
• The speaker appreciation dinner at Andrei’s Restaurant and a well-organized lunch from Mendocino Farms added to the positive experience.
• The use of technology like the EventZilla Organizer app and Microsoft Forms with QR codes enhanced the attendee and speaker experience.

Lessons Learned and Future Improvements

While many aspects of the event were successful, we identified areas for improvement:

• Streamlining the check-in process, particularly during the pre-conference.
• Providing clearer information about venue amenities like Wi-Fi.
• Improving wayfinding within the venue with more and larger signs.
• Testing room connectivity in advance to ensure a smooth experience for all speakers.

As we reflect on SQL Saturday 2024, we are grateful for the community’s enthusiasm and participation. Each challenge was an opportunity to learn and each success, a moment to celebrate. Looking forward, we are excited to apply these insights to make future events even more rewarding and engaging for everyone involved.

Join us as we continue to build on this foundation, ensuring SQL Saturday remains a cornerstone event for our community. Thank you to everyone who joined us this year, and here’s to many more successful gatherings in the future!

We are looking for volunteers. We are looking for awesome and passionate people to help us organize and deliver the event. This is a live and in-person event.

Please follow the link below to register as a volunteer or scan QR code.

https://forms.office.com/r/a7HtYVDvr0

We are looking for speakers. We are looking for awesome and passionate people to present on different data-related topics, such as:

RDBMS/NoSQL – SQL Server, Postgres, Oracle, MySQL, Snowflake, MongoDB, and others

Public cloud: Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba, Oracle, IBM, and others

Visualization – Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, and others

Please follow the link or scan the QR code below to submit your session(s): https://sessionize.com/2023-sql-saturday-silicon-valley

https://forms.office.com/r/KSyBG2w41Q

Sponsorship Plan

We appreciate you taking the time to consider sponsoring 2023 SQL Saturday Silicon Valley. We have assembled a few sponsorship plans that you can select from. Donations for this event will be used to cover the costs of running the event. If we have any surplus, it will go into sponsoring future events. The event is put on by Armando Lacerda (lead organizer), Data Driven Technologies, Inc. a local 501.c.3 non-profit, and its volunteers.

Event Overview

The SQL Saturday Silicon Valley is a single-day conference that offers data professionals the opportunity to improve their skills and learn about new products while networking with others in their field and connecting with other members of the local Database community and our sponsors.

This event is put together by a group of dedicated San Jose database community volunteers, local database user groups, and volunteer speakers from Los Angeles, California, other US States, and across the globe. 

Attendance

We anticipate 150 attendees. This is going to be our first event after COVID. SQL Saturday Silicon Valley used to bring 600+ attendees prior to 2019.

Cost of Sponsorship

This year, sponsorship ranges from Swag Only at $0 to Platinum at $2,000.00, depending on the package you select:

Tier	Swag	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
Amount	$0	$350	$650	$1250	$2000
Sponsor Logo and URL on the event website	x	x	x	x	x
Sponsor Logo and URL included in social media/email campaigns	x	x	x	x	x
Sponsors Logo included in session slides	x	x	x	x	x
Sponsor Logo included in YouTube videos	x	x	x	x	x
Social Media posts Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram	x	x	x	x	x
Sponsor Raffle	x	x $25 GC included	x $50 GC included	x $75 GC included	x $100 GC included
Collect Raffle Leads*		x	x	x	x
Email sent on behalf of a sponsor			x	x	x
Sponsor table (comes with 1 table, 2 chairs, WiFi and electricity) (based on availability)			x	x	x
Product-focused sponsor session  (based on availability)				x	x
Sponsor a room (name a room) (based on availability)				x	x
Caffeine and pastries				x	x
Sponsor Email					x
Speaker Appreciation dinner					x

To sponsor please follow this link to fill out the sponsorship form: https://forms.office.com/r/2NAqbp24uC. An invoice will be emailed to you (generated by PayPal) and can be paid by check or credit card. All fees must be paid in advance.

Cancellation Policy

Any cancellation that is caused by us will result in a full refund. It’s really that simple – no event, no expenses, no need for sponsorship money.

Raffle Management

Raffle registration is used to opt-in attendee information with our sponsors.  Remember the raffle prize is your key to success and the better the prize the more leads you will collect. Attendees must be present to win.

We will manage the raffle and collect, clean up, and de-dup the data for you and send you the leads after the event.  We will let you know who the winners of the raffle are, and you can send them the prize.  At the same time, we strongly recommend we take over prize disbursement as well, to be a one-stop shop for an entire raffle lifecycle. Please let us know if you would like to handle the raffle prize on your own.