As you may already know, I’ve gone crazy for speaking at SQL events. I can’t get enough of it. If I had the means, I would be hitting SQL Saturdays all over the country. It’s only logical, therefore, that I submitted the maximum of four abstracts to the PASS Summit. I have no idea what my odds are of getting chosen; I dare not even guess. For a very short time, you can up those odds by “preferring” (voting) for my sessions here.
To give you a better idea of what I’m hoping to speak about, I’ve listed the abstracts below, along with a little blurb about why you should vote for it, and ultimately, and hopefully, attend.
“Ben, why didn’t you tell me?”: Reporting Services Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Level: 100
What is it about?
Like Luke Skywalker, sometimes we wish we had received certain information a little earlier. In this session, we’ll cover ten tips — gleaned from real world lessons — about Reporting Services that will help you skip ahead on the learning curve. Attendees will learn simple tricks to quickly test report subscriptions, keep the Reporting Service from falling asleep, jump-start new report creation, and more.
Why should I care?
If you’ve ever wished for the SSRS equivalent of an “Accidental DBA” or “Top 10 Mistakes DBA’s Make” session, your wish is granted. Imagine you were taking over your first Reporting Services instance from me and I had one hour to give you tricks to make life with RS easier. That’s what you’ll get in this session.
Bump, Zoom, Flip: Precision Report Design
Level: 200
What is it about?
Do you feel stuck with the default appearances of your report objects? If you’re ready to take complete control of your report visuals, this session is for you.
Attendees will learn to control the finer points of Reporting Services report objects through the manipulation of properties like PointWidth, CustomInnerPlotPosition, WritingMode, StripLines, and more. We’ll also go off the beaten path into the strange and seldom-visited underworld of the Grouping Pane known as Advanced Mode.
Why should I care?
Because you care about the little things. Because to you, reports should look like your resume: impeccable. Because there’s too much white space around these charts. Because you want complete command over how your reports look.
Data-Driven Subscriptions with SSIS
Level: 200
What is it about?
Do you have the need for data-driven subscriptions, but no room in the budget to buy Enterprise Edition? If so, this session is for you. We’ll cover how you can deliver reports, by both file share and e-mail, on a limitless number of schedules, all using one simple package.
Why should I care?
Because you don’t have Enterprise Edition, but you have more reports than you can easily administer using Report Manager. Although I’ve taken out proprietary stuff, this setup is nearly identical to one I’ve run in production for over a year. Plus, I’ve added some enhancements that weren’t part of the package the last time I presented it. If you’ve been thinking about creating your own data-driven subscription framework, you’ll want to see this first.
Developers are from Mars, Report Servers are from Venus
Level: 100
What is it about?
Do you remember what it was like to fall in love? Wasn’t it wonderful?
Lately it just hasn’t been the same. There’s just no spark anymore. You’ve been stuck in the same old routine, doing the same old charts and tables. Maybe Reporting Services won’t tell you what’s wrong. Maybe you’re even thinking about seeing other reporting products.
In this session, Doug will re-ignite your passion for RS by reminding you how reports perform best, what RS has been trying to tell you (but you haven’t been listening), and show you some new — and easy — tricks you may not have known RS can do. You’ll leave knowing more about troubleshooting with the execution log views, understanding how to better design reports for performance, having a plan to deal with unwanted blank pages, and more. After this session, you’ll want to spend some time alone with your new old flame.
Even though this is a 100-level session, it’s still useful for people in the 200-300 range.
Why should I care?
Business Intelligence should be fun, but it’s hard to have fun when you get frustrated. Think of this session as couples therapy for you and Reporting Services. This is an upbeat session that’s meant to help you understand why Reporting Services doesn’t always behave the way you expect it to, and how you can develop a great working relationship with it.
Of the four sessions I’ve submitted, this is my favorite because I get to tap into some of the reasons people hate SSRS and not so much convince, but remind them it really is a great product.
“Tick tock, Clarice.”
Time’s running out. Head over to the PASS Summit site and give these and other sessions you like the thumb’s up. Thanks for your consideration!