Over the last few days we here at SQL Cruise have been teasing who our first-announced Technical Leader for our 2014 cruise would be. I am proud to announce that distinction goes to Andrew Kelly (blog|twitter).

Andrew J. Kelly, SQL Server MVP and Mentor with SolidQ will be joining SQL Cruise 2014 Caribbean as a Technical Lead.  Andrew will be presenting two classroom-style sessions as well as taking part in all of our Office Hours sessions along with Tim Ford, SQL Server MVP and additional Leaders from SQL SQL Server Community yet to be announced.  Andrew has over 20 years experience with relational databases and application development but his main focus now is SQL Server. In addition to general SQL Server training and mentoring he specializes in Performance, Scalability and Maintainability of large-scale SQL Servers. He is a regular speaker each year at many conferences and user groups and is a contributing editor and writer for SQL Server Pro Magazine. Has been a Microsoft SQL Server MVP since 2001.

Enough about Andrew’s official bio.  Here is what others have to say about Andrew Kelly…

“Andrew Kelly has been distilling the best parts of performance monitoring for years, and he’s at the top of his game. He doesn’t get the blog press that the other speakers get, but believe me, he knows his stuff forwards and backwards. One of my favorite gauges of presenter quality is the number of notes that attendees take during the session, and I always see people scribbling like crazy while Andrew’s onstage. – Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited

“Andy was one of my early mentors with respect to performance and tuning. His attention to detail is amazing & I learned a lot from him. – Allen White, UpSearch

“Andy Kelly is a friendly, knowledgeable speaker with years of SQL Server experience, and shares his knowledge freely. I’ve known Andy for several years and always enjoy my time with him at conferences and other events. – Aaron Bertrand, SQL Sentry

“Andrew Kelly is one of those people you just want to learn from. He’s got a wealth of knowledge that he’s accumulated and he’s great at communicating it to others in ways that makes that information useful. And he’s actually a fun guy to hang around with. – Grant Fritchey, Red Gate

Andrew will be presenting the following technical sessions on SQL Cruise Caribbean 2014

Demystifying Performance Monitoring

Too many DBA’s lack the confidence and experience to make the right choices when combating performance problems mainly due to a lack of understanding of the key aspects of SQL Server. We will break down the core aspects of SQL Server when it comes to performance monitoring and identifying potential performance bottlenecks. We will how you exactly how easy it is to identify the bottlenecks and poor performing queries without requiring an extensive infrastructure or years of experience. And more importantly you will begin to understand how to determine the proper course of actions to correct them. Of course experience is always a factor but we can give you the confidence to get started in the right direction so you can concentrate on what’s really important and what are simply side effects. Don’t let performance issues get the best of you. Come see how to better utilize your precious time.

Query & Procedure Call Statistics

Did you know that SQL Server keeps track of almost every stored procedure you execute or ad hoc SQL call you make? Not only can we see what the call was but what resources were consumed for each type of call as well. We can use the information gathered during the previous executions to identify which queries or stored procedures we should be spending our time tuning the most and in what order to achieve the biggest ROI on our time. This information can be obtained directly from built-in dynamic management views with the supplied code so you can get started in your environment immediately without relying on tools like trace or Profiler.

What are You Waiting For?

Registration is open and seating is limited for the 2014 Caribbean SQL Cruise. If you want more information on the itinerary for this event check out our 2014 Cruise Page. To skip right to the front of the line and register then surf over to our Registration Page. While you’re here take a look around and get an idea about what SQL Cruise is all about!

SQL Cruise: Learn. Network. Relax. Grow. Just Add Water

New Training Event: SQL Cruise 2014

Today we mark the announcement of our 2014 SQL Cruise schedule.  We’ll be returning once again to the Caribbean in January 2014 for our first 8-day cruise.  Full details are available on our 2014 Events Page.

Norwegian Cruise Line Massive Sale Through 2/15/2013

Norwegian Cruise Line is providing free room upgrades, on-board credit, and 50% off deposits through 2/15/2013. (details here)  This means you can reserve your spot on a future SQL Cruise (Alaska 2013 or Caribbean 2014) for as little as $125.00!

SQL Cruise Offers a Valentine’s Day Gift to the Community

SQL Cruise will sweeten the deal as well and allow you to place a deposit on your SQL Cruise training fee rather than pay the full amount now.  Through 2/15/2013 you can place a $500 deposit on the $1,395 SQL Cruise training fee and won’t need to pay the balance until 75 days prior to your cruising.  This is good for both of our future SQL Cruises for new registrations only.

Just contact our dedicated cruise consultant at NCL, Alex Gonzalez (details on our Registration Page) to secure your stateroom and get your booking number.  Once you’ve that information complete our registration form and you’re on your way to joining us!  Use Discount Code “VALENTINE” for the $500 deposit through 2/15/2013.