What is SQLBits?
SQLBits is the largest data platform conference in Europe. It has been running every year since 2007 in a different city in the UK providing sessions into all things data platform. I have frequently written about SQLBits, it is a conference close to my heart and has had a significant impact on my life, my career and my circle of friends.
Where and when?
This year it is in Newport, Wales at the International Convention Centre Wales (ICC) Tuesday 14th to Saturday 18th of March, 2023
You can register to attend here
What is there at SQLBits?
Tuesday and Wednesday are training days with all day sessions provided by subject matter experts including Microsoft Product Group members, Microsoft Valued Professionals, Microsoft Certified Trainers, and other experts. There are 30 options covering all areas of the Data Platform and none-technical sessions as well.
You can see the training day agenda here
Thursday and Friday have 50 minute, 20 minute and 5 minute sessions with a wide range of topics and levels.
Saturday is the FREE to attend day. It also has 50 minute, 20 minute and 5 minute sessions with a wide range of topics and levels.
There are about 250 sessions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday
You can see the general session agenda here
What else is there outside of technical stuff?
Oh My!!
The biggest benefit is the people, for networking, for answering questions, building relationships with Microsoft product group or local Microsoft, meeting companies who are sponsoring, finding your new job or your new team members, learning and sharing with your peers.
There is also a pub quiz on Thursday evening, the Friday night costume party, the community zone.
How do I find the sessions?
With so many sessions, its hard to find the ones that you want or to get a good overview in the format that you want. So I built a PowerShell module to get that information for you easily in any format you like. (Editor - thats a fib, he built it so that he could write Pester to ensure that speakers were not scheduled when they were not available)
The SQLBitsPS module
You can find the SQLBitsPS PowerShell module on the PowerShell Gallery
As with all PowerShell modules from the Gallery, you can install it by running
Install-Module SQLBitsPS
I find that a lot of people like to use the ShowWindow parameter to have the help in another searchable window.
Get-Help Get-SQLBitsSchedule -ShowWindow
Use the help
to find out how to use any PowerShell command you should use Get-Help and this module is no different. The help for the commands is built in and can be accessed with
Get-Help Get-SQLBitsSchedule
Getting the schedule
You can just run Get-SQLBitsSchedule and by default it will get the schedule and if you have the ImportExcel module available it will write an Excel Workbook with each days agenda on a different sheet and colour code the service sessions like Registration, lunch and coffee breaks
To save you having to click to open Excel I have added a Show parameter which will open it for you!
I would like a csv instead
The output parameter gives you a number of options for the format of the output. If you do not have the ImportExcel module it will default to -output csv which you can also combine with the Show parameter
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -output csv -show
I would like a html page instead
It’s not awesome but you can also create an HTML page. This may be useful if you wish to print the agenda yourself so that you have a hard copy.
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -output html -show
Let me decide what format I want
You can also output a [pscustomobject] which you may use to PowerShell to your hearts content!!
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -output object |Format-Table
Maybe you would like to see the sessions that are on Friday at 16:50
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -output object |Where-Object {$_.Day -eq 'Friday' -and $_.StartTime -eq '16:50'}
They look amazing, I recommend Mladen Prajdic session. That one blew me away at Data Grillen and I may very well attend that again.
I can’t do anything fancy, just let me search
If all you want is to search for your favourite speaker then you can use the search parameter which will perform a wildcard search.
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -search Cathrine -output object
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -search Monica -output object
You can also use it search for topics
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -search 'Mental Health' -output object
and even to search for wisdom!!
Get-SQLBitsSchedule -search wisdom -output object
I want to make it better
Awesome, thank you.
This is all open-source and you can find it on GitHub at
https://github.com/SQLDBAWithABeard/SQLBitsPS
There are some brief instructions here
https://github.com/SQLDBAWithABeard/SQLBitsPS/blob/main/DevelopingREADME.md
Join us
SQLBits is the largest data platform conference in Europe. It has been running every year since 2007 in a different city in the UK providing sessions into all things data platform.
Where and when?
This year it is in Newport, Wales at the International Convention Centre Wales (ICC) Tuesday 14th to Saturday 18th of March, 2023