It’s Official !!

The host for SQLRally 2012 has officially been given to Dallas and the North Texas SQL Server User Group.  NTSSUG is elated to have been chosen as the host for this event.  We have hosted three SQLSaturdays in the last 12 months, so we are prepared to dig in our heals.  Well, this is Texas so we’ll be digging in our spurs.

SQLRally is still in its infancy, but it has some amazing and seasoned event leaders behind it.  That’s why it’s expected that an event this large will need continuous process tuning.  Even getting to this point there have already been a lot of lessons learned.  One of the biggest lessons comes in finding venues.  A lot of venues require hotel room blocks that can run anywhere from $50,000 to $120,000.  If the rooms don’t get filled, that’s a lot of money to put at risk.

Nashville and Denver were also on the slate to host SQLRally, but unfortunately those room blocks ultimately took them out of the running.  The SQLPASS board felt there was too much risk to the organization to put up that kind of money.  I agree, even if that would have taken Dallas out of the running.  PASS is an amazing organization with some top notch people, so when decisions like this are made we should know that they were made with the best interest of the organization at heart.  Even though it came out in our favor, I absolutely think the right decision was made and would have the same decision myself.

That being said, I still find it disappointing that there was not more than one city in the running.  If there had been more than one option on the table then it would have gone to a community vote.  That would have been an awesome thing for the SQL community to “Rally” around.  Unfortunately, life handed us lemons this time, so maybe we’ll just have to serve lemonade at the rally.

We’re hoping to have an unforgettable event in Dallas next year, so start saving your pennies now!

NTSSUG also wants to give our President Sri Sridharan (Blog|Twitter) a very special thank you!  We appreciate your hard work in advocating to get SQLRally here in Dallas.  You’re a machine and we value your leadership!