How Did I Start Speaking?

November 3, 2022

New Starts of Data organizers asked us to tell our story about how we started. I want to thank William Durkin (T) and Ben Weissman (B|T) for this great initiative that has produced over 100 new speakers.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015, I did my first lightning talk, ‘Manging SQL Agent Job History,’ at New England SQL Server User Group. The main speaker was David Klee (B|T), talking about “Right sizing your virtual SQL Server.”

I was regularly attending user group meetings for years. I was always mesmerized by looking at the speakers. I never thought of myself speaking in front of a crowd. One day I was sitting in the first row, and Mike Hillwig (T) pointed at me, saying, “You are our next lightning talk speaker.” I had no clue at that time what topic I would be talking about. Right around that time, I was working on an issue with SQL Agent Job history at my workplace. With much help from Robert Padilla, I prepared my talk.

That lightning talk led to a one-hour session I presented at SQL Saturday Boston 500 titled “SQL Server Agent : All the Knobs You need to Know.” The room was set up with a long table and chairs around it. Jes Schultz (T) sat at the front end of the table, wrote down every question, and handed me the notes once I finished.

From that time, it never stopped. You can see my recent engagements here.

Many other people in the community helped in this journey. I am thankful for all the opportunities I am given. I always consider this an honor and privilege when someone comes to listen to my talk.