Neal Waterstreet

Speaking at SQLSaturday #733 Atlanta 2018

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On Saturday, May 19th, I’m speaking at SQLSaturday #733 Atlanta 2018! I’m presenting my session “Master Data Management with SQL Server 2016 MDS”. The event is at a new location again this year, Gwinnett Technical College on Old Milton Pkwy. I’m speaking during the first sessions at 8 a.m. in the Patagonia room. Nothing like a fresh cup of MDM first thing in the morning to get the day started!

Want to know the position Master Data Management and MDS play in an organization’s overall data strategy? We’ll review the key concepts and the different roles and responsibilities to help you get your organization moving forward with MDM. We’ll then take a look at the features of SQL Server 2016 MDS that make it an excellent tool for MDM. This demo-packed presentation will cover architecture and installation, different ways of processing data, hierarchies, security and many other features that will get you up and running with MDS.

Solved: Presenting with Lenovo W541

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Recently I’ve been presenting much more often and have run into a problem during my presentations. It has to do with my Lenovo W541 connecting to projectors. I would connect and my main display was fine, but when I wanted to switch to the demos I was only able to extend the screen and not duplicate. This was a nightmare for my demos since I would have to turn and look at the screen instead of the audience. Obviously, this really distracted from the presentations and was noted in some of the feedback I received.

At first, I thought I had resolved this by switching resolutions. That seemed to work somewhat but made the screen unusable during the demos. 800*600 just doesn’t work very well for anything.

I did a little research and found out that the NVIDIA display card does not switch over by default. It must be updated in the BIOS and not through the NVIDIA Desktop Manager.

In the BIOS, go to Display >> Discrete GFX Perf Mode >> High Performance and restart.

There might be some performance hit after the display card is switched. I haven’t noticed any difference in performance or battery.

Speaking at SQLSaturday #699 Tampa 2018

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On Saturday, February 24th, I’m speaking at SQLSaturday #699 Tampa 2018! I’m presenting my session “Master Data Management with SQL Server 2016 MDS”.

Want to know the position Master Data Management and MDS play in an organization’s overall data strategy? We’ll review the key concepts and the different roles and responsibilities to help you get your organization moving forward with MDM. We’ll then take a look at the features of SQL Server 2016 MDS that make it an excellent tool for MDM. This demo-packed presentation will cover architecture and installation, different ways of processing data, hierarchies, security and many other features that will get you up and running with MDS.

Presenting at Atlanta Microsoft Business Intelligence Group

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I’m presenting Master Data Management with SQL Server 2016 MDS at the Atlanta Microsoft Business Intelligence Group on Monday, January 30th. Pizza and networking starts at 6:30 and the presentation should start about 7:00. Here is the address:

115 Perimeter Center Place
Atlanta, GA 30346
South Terraces Building
The Auditorium room (first floor)

Here is the abstract:

Organizations that invest in master data management and improving the quality of their informational assets will be best positioned to reap the huge data dividend! Join this presentation to learn how you can manage your master data and reference data with SQL Server Master Data Services (MDS). Learn about the new MDS features in SQL Server 2016.