What is Data Saturdays

Firstly, not everyone will know what a Data Saturday event is, so lets start with that. There are two parts to it.

A Data Saturday is an event that provides (usually free) training and information sessions about Azure Data and SQL Server. At present they are hosted online.

The Data Saturdays resource is an open-source repository (this one) which enables event organisers to easily build a web presence as an entry point into their event. It integrates with other free event management solutions such as Sessionize enabling Call For Speakers, easily integrating the schedule, room links and speaker walls. The website is https://datasaturdays.com

We open-sourced the code and hosted it in the Data Platform Community GitHub organisation alongside community tools such as dbatools with a MIT licence so that it is free for anyone to use and to collaborate with. The website is hosted on GitHub Pages which generates static pages using Jekyll. We figured that this not only enabled a quick free solution but also offered opportunities for people to enrich their skills by collaborating.

We wanted to include other community leaders to assist with guiding the project and we were proud that everyone we asked to be involved accepted. The people who are Admins of the project (who can approve changes to the code and therefore the website) are :-

• Gianluca Sartori
• Rob Sewell
• Monica Rathbun
• Randolph West
• Johan Ludvig Brattås
• Elizabeth Noble
• Warwick Rudd
• Matt Gordon

We have now (03-2023) enabled 34 Data Saturday events to exist, which we still think is amazing!

Where is it?

The website can be found at DataSaturdays.com and is hosted on Github Pages

Wiki

There is a wiki

New Events

• Current events listed at https://datasaturdays.com/#events
• Past events can be found at https://datasaturdays.com/#pastevents
• To add a new event, follow the steps in the wiki

Goals

• Provide a website for listing events taking place around the world
• Enable event owners to be able to set up a web presence for their event and administer it easily
• Web prescence to include list all evsponsors and their contacts

To paraphrase Jeffrey Snover, don't build what you don't need to, concentrate on the things that provide value. My view is that some of these things already exist and what is required is a way to consolidate them and make it easy for people to use them. Don't re-invent the wheel.

Culture

We expect and demand that you follow some basic rules. Nothing dramatic here. There will be a proper code of conduct for the websites added soon, but in this repository

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER

Do I need to say more? If your behaviour or communication does not fit into this statement, we do not wish for you to help us.

What can you do?

• We have issues and discussions
• We would like you to comment on them and provide help and assistance
• We will have code to write and CI/CD to create
• We have no idea what else is required, thats for you, the community, to decide

What this is not

• For profit
• Owned by anyone - This is by the community for the community and will succeed or fail in that manner.
• Holding any personal information
• Associated with any organisation. We appreciate that in general the events we are looking to provide for will be primarily catering for Microsoft products.