Interview With PASS Summit 2012 Speaker - Davide Mauri

This is the tenth and last in a series of interviews with speakers leading up to the 2012 PASS Summit which will be held in Seattle from November 6th - 9th.  My last post with Cindy Gross was done before I left Trinidad and this one was done in Chicago! This interview is with my Italian SolidQ colleague and friend, Davide Mauri.

Tell us about yourself

I am a SolidQ Mentor and member of the Board of Directors of SolidQ Italia.  I am also a Microsoft SQL Server MVP who speaks at international SQL Server conferences. I enjoy working with T-SQL and relational modeling and studying the theory behind it. My knowledge of Reporting Services, .NET, and object-oriented principles as well as my understanding of Integration Services and Analysis Services, gives me a broad area of expertise around the Microsoft Data Platform and the vision and experience to handle development of complex Business Intelligence solutions.

Blog(s):  http://sqlblog.com/blogs/davide_mauri/default.aspx

Twitter: @mauridb

Tell us your favorite thing about your PASS session(s)

DMVs are my favorite thing! Right from when Microsoft started to ship them in SQL Server 2005, they made my life much easier (and customers happier) since you can have a great understanding of what’s happening inside SQL Server, which is great when you have to do performance tuning or database administration.

Tell us about your first time at PASS Summit

My very first time was in Dallas. It was really great, since you can really feel the community and understand that there is not difference between being a speaker or not. Everyone is here just to share, learn and grow…and that’s really incredible!

What advice do you have for PASS Summit First Timers?

Ah, good question and a complex oneJ. I wrote a blog entry on this topic: PASS Summit for SQL starters, since it’s quite a broad one. In addition to what I said there, I would also add that the DVD is really a must have, since there are by far too many interesting session happening at the same time. And also networking is important too and you cannot do that after the event.

What are your can't-miss PASS sessions?

As said before I have wrote a blog post on this topic dedicated to the first-timers. My personal selection of session is the following:

 1. Inside SQLOS 2012 (Bob Ward)

2. Dive into the Query Optimizer: Undocumented Insight (Benjamin Nevarez)

3. Big Data Meets SQL Server (David DeWitt)

4. Performance Tuning Through the Plan Cache (Jason Strate)

5. Recovering Lost Data (Robert Davis)

And, of course, my session J DMVs are really a life saver, so everyone working with SQL Server should become very confident with them.

Besides sessions, what's on your must-do list at Summit?

Networking! Connect with other people, talk to speakers, discuss your ideas and problems with SQL CAT and SQL Development team….learn as much as you can, there’s no other place like this for someone involved with SQL Server. 

How can attendees become involved in the SQL Server Community and continue their learning throughout the year?

Well, the PASS website is surely a great resource, but also local PASS chapters are a great way to stay connected and up-to-date. In addition to that SQL Saturdays and 24 Hours of PASS (24HOP) offers additional possibilities to learn and improve.