Integral Thought & Memory's Chief Software Architect Matthew Roche has been selected as the conference chair for SSWUG's first ever virtual Business Intelligence conference. The conference will be held online September 24, 25 and 26, and has a stellar list of speakers, including:

• Donald Farmer: Donald is the Principal Program Manager for SQL Server Data Mining at Microsoft and was the Program Manager for SQL Server Integration Services for the SQL Server 2005 RTM release. Donald is always a much sought-after and highly rated speaker, especially when he's talking about his favorite topics like data mining and fish farming.
• Brian Knight: Brian is a SQL Server MVP and the author of multiple books on SQL Server Integration Services. He's presented regularly at major conferences like TechEd and PASS, and is a great speaker all around.
• Ted Malone: Ted is a Visual Studio Team System MVP, but knows more about the Microsoft BI stack than most SQL Server MVPs I know. Ted is also a great speaker who has presented at various conferences on lots of SQL Server related topics.
• Matt Masson: Matt is a developer on the SQL Server Integration Services team at Microsoft, and worked at Cognos before joining Microsoft. As an SSIS insider, Matt has great insight into the inner workings of the product, and will be sharing them during his sessions.
• Sonya McNeal: Sonya is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and consultant who specializes in the Microsoft BI stack. She presented some of the highest rated instructor led labs at the TechEd conference in Orlando this June, and will be bringing her many years of training and presenting experience into play for the virtual conference.
• Scot Reagin: Scot is a SQL Server MVP and a mentor with Solid Quality Mentors with more than 20 years experience in the database and BI field. Scot has presented at many major conferences including TechEd, PASS and SQL Connections.
• Matthew Roche: Matthew is a SQL Server MVP and the Chief Software Architect of Integral Thought & Memory, as well as a Microsoft Certified Trainer with over 11 years classroom experience, and an experienced conference presenter as well.
• Craig Utley: Craig is a mentor with Solid Quality Mentors, and used to be a Program Manager on the SQLCAT team at Microsoft and is the author of several books. These guys are the best of the best - they're the ones that get called in when no one else can solve the problems. Craig is also a regular presenter who can make even the most complex BI topics easy to understand.
• Erik Veerman: Erik is a SQL Server MVP and a mentor with Solid Quality Mentors who has co-authored several books on SQL Server Integration Services and is responsible for the SSIS ETL best practices in Microsoft's Project REAL. Erik is a regular author and presenter on all facets of the Microsoft BI stack.
• John Welch: John is a SQL Server MVP and is the Chief Architect at Mariner, where he is responsible for the full end-to-end Microsoft BI stack. John is an experienced presenter with deep insight into all of Microsoft's BI products.

For more information about the Virtual BI conference, visit the conference web site at http://www.vconferenceonline.com/business-intelligence/.

Matthew Roche delivered two breakout sessions at Microsoft's largest technical conference - TechEd 2008 IT Professionals:

• BIN-450: Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services Deployment Best Practices
  So you've built a set of SSIS packages to populate your data warehouse, and everything works great on your development environment - but what next? SSIS has a great set of tools, but when it comes to preparing for and executing a seamless deployment from development into test and finally into production, it's not always obvious what tools to use or how to best use them. In this session you'll learn how to prepare for and execute a seamless deployment of complex ETL solutions through a repeatable, testable process for both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. If you're tired of saying "but it worked on my machine!" then this is one session you can't afford to miss. 
• Bin-451: Moving Beyond Package Configurations: An End-to-End Approach for Custom Package Portability
  SQL Server Integration Services includes Package Configurations – a powerful mechanism for implementing location independence in SSIS packages, and an integral part of successful SSIS deployments. But package configurations are not adequate to every SSIS deployment scenario, and unfortunately there is no mechanism to extend or customize their behavior – it’s all or nothing. This means that if package configurations don’t give you what you need, you need to build your own replacement from scratch. This session will present a complete end-to-end replacement for package configurations, implemented using the SSIS .NET API. This solution includes not only the core code to implement the configuration functionality but also a set of development and management utilities to ease deployment, testing and validation tasks that “just work” with package configurations but which must be replaced when using a custom solution. We will look at the design criteria that necessitated a move away from the built-in package configurations feature, the code used to implement the solution, focusing on the challenges presented by the SSIS API, and a real-world SSIS solution in which the code and tools presented have been used for large scale production deployments.

The presentations were a huge success, with each receiving high ratings from attendees. Highlights from attendee comments include:

• "Excellent session and will be applicable right away."
• "Good presentation, there's a bunch of info here and a lot of things to think about, but he did a good job about how to build a proper foundation."
• "Great information on deploying Integration Services Packages. Anyone working with SSIS should attend this session."
• "Great Presentation!"
• "I liked the tips that Matthew presented and he made it easy to understand."
• "I really enjoyed the speaker. He was able to present the subject matter in a light hearted way while keeping a steady pace."
• "Highly Technical but that is exactly what was needed for doing Custom Configs for SSIS."

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, between the TechEd Developer conference and the TechEd IT Professionals conference, Integral Thought & Memory's Chief Software Architect Matthew Roche delivered a Train The Trainer session for Microsoft Certified Trainers on SQL Server Integration Services. MCTs from around the world attended the session to learn more about SSIS and how to effectively deliver training on SSIS topics. The details of the session include:

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a true enterprise-scale Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) platform with unparalleled performance and extensibility. But despite its capabilities, SSIS includes an incomplete and complex set of tools, and can sometimes be unintuitive to use and difficult to master. This complexity can be both a blessing and a curse for Microsoft Certified Trainers who deliver the MOC courses on SSIS and the SQL Server BI product suite – a blessing because more people see the need for training, and a curse because the MOC courses fall short of preparing students for the painful realities of SSIS development projects.

This 2 hour 45 minute session is designed for MCTs who deliver (or plan on delivering) the SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 SSIS MOC courses and who want to better understand the real-world problems their students face – and the right solutions for those problems. This session will include:

· Coverage of SSIS in both SQL Server 2005 and 2008
· Package development best practices
· Package deployment best practices
· SSIS Architecture and performance tuning
· Online and offline resources for post-session continued learning
· Lots of interactivity and Q&A throughout the session

SSIS is the cornerstone of any SQL Server BI application. As an MCT you strive to prepare your students for their projects to the best of your ability. This session will go far beyond the MOC courseware and will help prepare you to face the most challenging classes with confidence.

The PowerPoint presentation for this session can be found in the Resources section of the IT&M web site. 

On June 4th, 2008, at the Microsoft TechEd North America conference in Orlando, Florida, Integral Thought & Memory's Chief Software Architect Matthew Roche attended Microsoft's Influencer Roundtable Luncheon with Bill Gates and S. "Soma" Somasegar, the owner of Microsoft's Developer Division. This event was held to recognize the contributions of the attendees to Microsoft's technical communities around the world.

This luncheon provided a unique opportunity to speak directly with the people most responsible for the direction and strategy behind Microsoft's developer products and tools, as well as with some of the most influential people in the world who are applying those tools to make the world a better place.

For more information about the event, please visit S. Somasegar's blog.