What Happens in BIDS, Stays in BIDS

That's right - it's time to start planning for the Fall 2008 SQL Server Connections Conference in Las Vegas. It's going to be held at the Manadalay Bay Resort and Casino from November 10th through November 13th, and there are lots of excellent sessions scheduled. In fact, I will be delivering two SQL Server Integration Services sessions:

SQL Server Integration Services Development Best Practices
Are you tired of feeling like you’re making the same mistakes over and over again? Would you like to have a roadmap that outlines the pitfalls you’re likely to encounter when building ETL solutions with SSIS? Then this session is for you! You’ll learn how to get the most from the SSIS tools and platform through a set of SSIS development best practices from a battle-scarred database and BI consultant who has survived the rough projects and lived to tell the tale.

SQL Server Integration Services Performance Tuning and Optimization
SSIS packages have many capabilities, from control flow to event handlers to scripting. But the SSIS data flow is where the decisions you make will have the greatest impact on the performance of your packages. In this session, you’ll learn what’s going on under the hood in the SSIS data flow pipeline, and how to take advantage of that knowledge to make your packages perform better. You’ll also learn general tips and tricks to improve SSIS package performance and how to get the most out of your packages.

Sound like fun? Well, it gets even better!

Do you remember the Business Intelligence Virtual Conference I mentioned a few weeks back? I'll post more information about the virtual conference once we get the session schedule finalized, but for now you should know that if you attend the Business Intelligence Virtual Conference - $100 for three days worth of amazing content - you will get a $150 discount for the Fall SQL Server Connections conference.

How cool is that? If you're planning on attending the SQL Server Connections conference (or any of the Dev Connections conferences being held at the same time, because a ticket to one gets you admission to all of them) then we're essentially paying you $50 to attend the Business Intelligence Virtual Conference. That's like $50 better than free, which in my book is pretty darned cool.

So start planning now, and I'll look for you in Las Vegas!