Calling Local Speakers

There's likely a call for speakers open somewhere near you. When I was early in my career, I'd see these calls at large conferences like Comdex, TechEd, even the PASS Summit, and I'd think I'd never get the chance to present, with the best of the best speakers being accepted and no chance that I would be chosen. Things have changed in the world with the growth of SQL Saturday, there are a dozen open calls right now, all around the world, with many opportunities for new people to give a presentation. When Andy Warren came up with the idea for SQL Saturday, the idea was that we would mostly find local speakers to help present at the event. We thought it might be expensive, and hard, to get the same speakers that present at larger conferences. This event would give many of the talented DBAs in local areas the chance to speak to larger audiences than they get at many user groups. SQL Saturday has been so successful, and the growth is amazing. We've started to see more and more well known speakers traveling substantial distances to attend events. That's great, but I do worry about the lack of local speakers at some events I've attended. Read the rest of "Calling Local Speakers" at SQLServerCentral.