Category Archives: Events

The following posts are for event I attended, am attending, am presenting at and/or events I helped put on.

December events to attend in Wheeling, WV

Posted on December 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Hello everyone,  I want to share some cool events going down in Wheeling, WV in December. 

If you like wine or technology I highly recommend catching the Greater Wheeling Chapter of the Association for Information Technology Professionals meeting on December 9th.  This meeting is open to the public. We will meet on the forth floor of Wheeling Central High School at 6pm.  All attendees will have the change to share their 2009 accomplishments while we chow down a pizza dinner.  Dinner will be followed by a wine tasting at the Good Mansion Wines store. Check out the event page to signup for the 2009 December meeting.

Are you a young superstar go getter? If so, OVConnect is the group for you.  The mission is to bring young professionals in the valley together.  This months installment includes a holiday toy drive with a happy hour twist.  On December 17th at 5:00pm we will socialize and get our drink on at River City.  In order to attend all you have to do is signup and bring a toy or make a ten dollar donation.  All donations benefit Catholic Charities.

Bonus Pittsburgh Technology Event

Are you a .NET programmer and interested in what’s going on with MVC?  If so, this months installment of the PGH.NET User Group is a must attend free event.  The PGH.NET meeting is on December 8th. You can find more info here or register here.

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Pittsburgh SQL User Group: Data Warehousing Presentation

Posted on November 16, 2009 by | 5 comments

Today, I am giving my first presentation at my local SQL Server User Group.  Below are links to the slides.  I will also add some more resource here after todays presentation.

Introduction to Data Warehousing slides

DEMO: Build Your First Cube

Below is the description of the discussion.

November’s presentation will include an Introduction to Data Warehousing with SQL Server presented by John Sterrett, a Database Administrator and Web Engineering Specialist for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.  If you are interested in learning how Analysis Services, Integration Services and Reporting Services can provide Business Intelligence this meeting is for you.  We will start with the basic concepts of data warehousing including key terms and definitions.  Next, we will cover some sample business cases while we walk through the process of designing a data warehouse.  Once this session is complete you will be able to develop your first cube.

Date: Monday, November 16, 2009

Time: 11:45 a.m. Registration; 12:00 PM – 2:00 p.m.

Venue: Council Training Room, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Cost: No charge

RSVP: Email Heather Jones at Heather_Jones@Dell.com

If you have any questions, need more information, or would be willing to participate in any upcoming presentations or discussions, please Heather Jones at Heather_Jones@Dell.com.

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AITP Region 18 Conference

Posted on October 20, 2009 by | 4 comments

This past weekend I attended the AITP Region 18 Conference in Columbus, OH. This was a great opportunity for me to meet and network with several Information Technology Professionals.  If you have never attended a AITP meeting I highly recommend that you do.

The following was our agenda and a brief afterthought of the topics:

  • Ice Breaker – Got to trade name tags and learn a few facts from a new friend.
  • Leadership – Caught up on the leadership changes within AITP on the national level.
  • VMWare – Learned how VMWare is moving into the cloud.  I was very impressed with the ability to move in and out of the VMWare cloud.
  • Cloud Computing – This really makes it easy to do a SaaS startup.  I am looking forward to trying azure out.

Following the technical sessions we had a great dinner and networking session at the Buckeye Hall of Fame.  Unfortunately, it looked like my presence cursed Ohio State.

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SQLSaturday Update & Future Presentations

Posted on September 29, 2009 by | 1 comment

I wanted to give a quick update and thank everyone who has responded to my initial posting about bringing SQL Saturday to Wheeling, WV.    I have spoken to a couple technology groups and several individuals and everyone is very supportive of this event.

The following are upcoming work items:

  1. Establish a budget
  2. Build a support team that will help with organizing the event.
  3. Find a location and pinpoint a date (tentatively First Quarter 2010.)

I look forward to blogging the status of these work items.

On another note, It looks like I will be presenting the following topic “Building a Data Warehouse with SQL Server” twice in November.  I will present first at the Greater Wheeling Chapter of AITP meeting on November 11th.  I will also give the same presentation at the Pittsburgh SQL Server User Group Meeting on November 16th.

You will soon see a series of blog post that go over building a data warehouse.  You can find the first one here.

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Can SQLSaturday happen in Wheeling, WV?

Posted on August 16, 2009 by | 8 comments

I noticed a great event that is occurring down south.  Its called SQLSaturday and one of my short term goals is to see if it’s possible to bring this great event to Wheeling, WV. 

What is SQLSaturday?

SQLSaturday is a platform for free one day training events for SQL Server professionals. This event focuses on speakers, providing a good variety of topics, and making it all happen through the efforts of volunteers. Whether you’re attending one or thinking about hosting your own(this would be me), we think you’ll find it’s a great way to spend a Saturday.

Initial Goals:

  1. Bring technology professionals from Pittsburgh, Columbus and Morgantown to Wheeling.
  2. Have 50 to100 attendees attend this initial event.
  3. Provide great speakers to present topics about SQL Server and .NET
  4. Utilize sponsors to make the event 100% free to all who attend.
  5. Provide the opportunity for IT Professionals to network with their peers.
  6. Provide exposure for AITP and the Greater Wheeling Chapter of AITP 

Conclusion:

Will this event happen?  I sure hope so, but  I am still planning.  I hope to have an answer soon.  If we do go live I am targeting early 2010.

I will post my future action items and the decisions I make soon.  I hope that this series of posts are helpful for people who are contemplating if they should start a similar event in their area.

If you have any comments, thoughts or suggestions please share them.

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Review of the August 2009 PGH.NET User Group

Posted on August 11, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Tonight I made the trip from Wheeling to Pittsburgh to attend “Four Guys with Code.”  I thought David, Jeremy, John and Erick all presented good presentations.  The following are some afterthoughts from the event: 

Being a die-hard Pirates fan  I really liked the “Build a RESTful Data-Driven Application with jQuery” presentation.  David leveraged a baseball stats database while showcasing how easy it is to use jQuery.  I have now implemented jQuery on a few projects so its always good to see how others are using this great library. 

David mentioned that there will be a code-lab in September covering “Build WCF Data-Driven Applications with jQuery.  I will add more when I get details.

The following three presentations all gave me some good thoughts.  Being new to Silverlight John’s presentation opened my eyes toward things you must consider before you release a RIA application. Eric’s presentation gave me insight towards refactoring code and setting coding standards. Jermey’s presentation gave me a good introduction into dynamic C#.

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AITP Tours the Center of Educational Technology

Posted on April 1, 2009 by | Leave a comment

This month’s meeting of the Greater Wheeling Chapter of AITP is tour of the Center for Educational Technologies. It will start at the CET office located on the WJU campus at 316 Washington Ave. Wheeling, WV 26003-6243 on Wednesday, April 8th 2009. The meeting will include a presentation of video conferencing and a tour of CET given by Dr. Bruce Howard.

Social hour will start at 5:30 P.M. We will meet in the CET lobby on the third floor.  The tour and presentation will start at 6:00 P.M.  Dinner will follow at 7:15 P.M and it will be held at the White Palace in Wheeling Park.  Dinner will be followed by a tech session on IE 8 presented by Chuck Hill.
 
Cost for the evening is $18.00 for AITP members, $10.00 for AITP student members, and $23.00 for guests.  To RSVP please email kkovacs@dwc.org.  If you have any questions or need help with directions please call John at 304-780-8532.

Driving Directions:
The Center for Educational Technologies® is located on the campus of Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV. To reach the center, take exit 2B off I-70 in Wheeling
If you’re coming from the West, turn left at the end of the exit ramp and follow Washington Ave., bearing right at the end of the bridge. If you’re coming from the East, turn right onto Washington Ave. From either direction, then, the entrance to the campus is on the left. The center is the first building to the left off the main campus drive. Parking is available in the rear of the building.

campusMap

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Microsoft is coming to Wheeling AITP Meeting

Posted on February 3, 2009 by | Leave a comment

This month’s meeting of the Greater Wheeling Chapter of AITP  is titled Virtualization with Hyper-V and will be held at The White Palace in Wheeling Park on Wednesday, February 11, 2009.   

 

Ian Lindsay will present Virtualization with Hyper-V.  Ian is a Account Technology Specialist with the Microsoft Corporation located in Pittsburgh, PA.

 

Virtualization with Hyper-V presented by Microsoft.  How does virtualization fit into Microsoft?  What is the virtualization capability with Windows Server 2008?  Through this meeting you will be able to understand licensing for virtualization and also determine what investments and resources are needed.  Ian will also welcome questions and answers through the session. 

 

Ian had been in the IT industry for over 20 years, with the last nine (plus) spent at Microsoft Corporation.  As an Account Technology Specialist, Ian is responsible for providing solutions and architectural guidance to core healthcare and financial services customers in Microsoft’s Pittsburgh Account group.  Ian’s experiences range from software development on UNIX to designing enterprise network infrastructures using the latest technologies.  Prior to joining Microsoft, Ian was Operations Manager with Actium Corporation (now Idea Integration).  He was responsible for the Actium network infrastructure, as well as running the Actium Training organization and providing training on all of Microsoft’s BackOffice products. 

 

Social hour will start at 5:30.  Dinner will be at 6:15.  Meeting/presentation will follow dinner.  Cost for the evening is $18.00 for AITP members, $10.00 for AITP student members, and $23.00 for guests, which includes a buffet dinner at Wheeling Park.

Please reply to this e-mail message or e-mail Karen at kkovacs@dwc.org, or go to the Greater Wheeling Chapter’s website at http://www.aitp-wheeling.org  to make reservations.  Reservations are essential to ensure there is sufficient food and seating available for our group.  Please respond early to give the restaurant ample time to prepare.  No shows will be billed for the reserved meal. 
 

 

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