Today I was in Chicago for SQLSaturday #67 to present my "What's New in SQL Server Denali" deck. You can download the deck and samples below.

I mentioned during the talk that THROW is another command added to the list that require the previous statement to be terminated with a semi-colon. Here is the blog post I referenced that talked more about why you should start using semi-colons today.

I liked the feedback mechanism at this event. Everyone was handed an evaluation, and the drawings took place after each session at the chapter table downstairs. Much more compelling to get your evals in right away, and even better, I get them back right after that. Which means I can tally my scores and see what went well, and more importantly, what didn't go well (and wasn't obvious). The evals were much simpler than some other events. Two basic questions and room for comments (not everyone left comments, and not everyone answered both questions):

Expectation (circle one): Did Not Meet / Met / Exceeded

Met: 23 / 34
Exceeded: 11 / 34

Overall quality (5 = great):

 
3: 4 / 32
4: 11 / 32
5: 17 / 32
Average: <b>4.41</b>

Not top scores, no, but I still feel pretty good about this. What I liked most? Seven comments included one of my brand words, "knowledgeable." Well, a couple used the variation "knowledge" – but that counts, right?

The comment that surprised me most was a complaint that I didn't cover any BI. Even though I stated multiple times at the beginning that I wouldn't be covering BI – and even dedicated my very first "real" slide to this fact. Still, I've taken the feedback. For future events I'm going to change the title of the session to "SQL Server Denali : What's New in Engine, Setup and Tools."

I also gave a quick demo of SQL Sentry Plan Explorer in our vendor session at lunch (we were a "You Rock!" sponsor of SQLSaturday #67, after all). I didn't use a deck and it was all demos. Plan Explorer is free; if you haven't already tried it, please go to the download page and read my previous blog posts about the tool.

File Attachment: SQLSat67.zip