Bit-Wizards attended SQL Saturday 2011 in Pensacola, Fl. on Saturday, June 4th, 2011. Bit-Wizards was a platinum level sponsor and helped support the exceptionally informative event for the local development community. For the conference, Bit-Wizards provided Hawaiian-designed speaker shirts, a booth in the sponsor area, and three speakers for the sessions.

SQL Saturday 2011 offered attendees a wide range of sessions covering many areas of development. DBAs benefited from many database-centric sessions covering topics such as Data Warehousing, SQL Azure, and Execution plans. Bit-Wizards’ employees especially enjoyed the sessions around SQL Server Memory Deep Dive, Dynamic SSIS, and SQL Server Partitioning.

The conference also provided development sessions for .NET developers. Topics included Dynamic Data, Entity Framework, and XML for Dynamic Docs. Russ Fustino’s session on maximizing profits with Windows Phone applications was especially interesting to the audience as it provided many helpful tips to increase sales of Windows Phone 7 applications. In addition, the Windows Phone Garage presented by Joe Healy, Microsoft Developer Evangelist, and Kevin Wolf, Microsoft MVP, was packed full of knowledge (and attendees!) covering all areas of Windows Phone 7 development.

Bit-Wizards’ employees Vince Mayfield, Kevin Grohoske, and Bryan Soltis presented at the conference, each providing expert instruction on Windows Azure, SQL Azure, Microsoft’s Sync Framework and deploying applications to Microsoft’s cloud platform. Bit-Wizards’ engineers provided half of the sessions for the .NET track and were a great addition to the conference. All of the sessions demonstrated real-world examples of Windows Azure and SQL Azure and the benefits of the cloud-based platform.

Vince Mayfield, Bit-Wizards CEO and Senior Software Engineer, covered Microsoft’s Windows Azure for the conference. Vince discussed all areas of Windows Azure, including account subscription and pricing, configuration options, and resources available for companies who are thinking of migrating their applications to this new platform. He provided great insight into the cost savings and benefits of Windows Azure as well as a logical, clear path for businesses to take advantage of the instant infrastructure.

Kevin Grohoke, Director of Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer, covered a common business scenario of designing and developing business applications for a mobile workforce that is only occasionally connected to the corporate network. Oftentimes this mobile workforce still needs the ability to retrieve and create enterprise business data independently of their corporate network, then synchronizing their data with the existing business systems when reconnected. In developing “Occasionally Connected Business Applications” utilizing the Microsoft Sync Framework much of the heavy lifting of synchronizing and merging the data becomes a very simple task, allowing the application developer to build very powerful applications is a much shorter time period. In Kevin’s demonstration, he utilized Microsoft Sync Framework and demonstrated seamless synchronization of data across business applications and discussed the next release of the product which will seamlessly extend that same capability to the Microsoft’s SQL Azure.

Bryan Soltis discussed deploying a Kentico CMS application to Windows Azure in his session. Bryan covered all areas of development for migrating a Kentico CMS application to Microsoft’s cloud platform, including converting a Kentico site to a web application, SQL Azure database migration, Windows Azure configuration and deployment, and management within Windows Azure. Bryan discussed Azure instances and pricing, subscription models, and SQL Azure database configurations. Bryan provided great insight into utilizing Windows Azure to its fullest potential while minimizing costs for businesses as they migrate their content to Microsoft’s newest platform. Bryan continued his demonstration with an overview of existing applications that Bit-Wizards is currently hosting in Windows Azure, advanced deployment configurations to increase cost savings, and future enhancements to Windows Azure and Kentico CMS.

Additionally, Bryan was invited to join Joe Healy for the Windows Phone Garage session to discuss his experiences developing the Kentico Mobile Manager application for Windows Phone 7. Bryan shared many aspects of the experience with the packed room, including acquiring the development tools, AppHub account creation, and the marketplace submission process. Bryan continued with a live demonstration of the design and functionality of the Kentico Mobile Manger application, which received great reviews and praises from the audience. Bryan utilized Visual Studio 2010, Expression Blend for Windows Phone, and the Window Phone Emulator to exhibit Bit-Wizards first Windows Phone 7 application and provided a first-hand perspective on the development process.

SQL Saturday 2011 had some very exciting prizes for attendees to win. Many sponsors provided copies of their software and services in support of the conference. Redgate software, stacks of books, mounds of stress relievers and pens, and even a copy of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate (an $11,000 value!) were given away at the conference to lucky attendees. Anne Johnson was fortunate to win an Xbox 360 250GB console with Kinect provided by Bit-Wizards in cooperation with Jason Jones, Microsoft Product Account Manager, and Mike Ward, Greater Southeast Area Microsoft Partner Sales Manager.

SQL Saturday 2011 proved to be one of the most informative and helpful conferences to date. With many of the speakers being Microsoft MVPs in a variety of technologies, attendees were treated to a wealth of knowledge and real-world examples and implementations. Great content and a great host and organizer made for a fantastic conference for all who attended. Bit-Wizards looks forward to future SQL Saturdays and being part of an organization that gives so much to the development community.