Hitting the Road to Albany

V-RodDBA on the Road

Hitting the Road to Albany

August 6 – 9, 2026  ·  Day of Data Albany #1144

IND → MDW → ALB and back again ALB → MDW → IND

BEGIN TRAN Albany calls, and V-RodDBA answers. Four days, two Southwest legs each way, one community data conference, and — allegedly — the world's largest Walmart. Time to SELECT * FROM adventure WHERE city = 'Albany'. Let's go.

Thursday · Aug 6

Wheels Up from Indy

Travel Day

WN IND → MDW → ALB

✈ Southwest out of Indianapolis, connect through Midway and land in Albany. No stored procedures required — just a boarding pass and a carry-on. Bags in hand, let the adventure begin.

🍽 #SQLFamily Dinner with Jason & Sheila Romans, Kristyna Ferris, Chris Hyde, Andy Yun, and Deborah Melkin — venue TBD. Fair warning: index talk may occur between courses.
Their blogs: The DAX Shepherd (Jason & Sheila)  ·  Data on Wheels (Kristyna)  ·  Hydrate Consulting (Chris)  ·  SQLBek (Andy)  ·  Deb the DBA (Deborah)

Friday · Aug 7

Exploring the Capital Region

Pre-Con Day & Shenanigans

☕ Coffee & Bagels at Uncommon Grounds — a Capital Region institution. Fueling up before the day's adventures.

🛒 World's Largest Walmart?? Apparently this is a thing in the Albany area. And… what on earth is a Cartalator? A cart elevator? A shopping cart escalator? Either way, it's a full table scan of the grocery section. Investigation required. Photographic evidence will be obtained.

🍽 Lunch with the Romans' — venue TBD. Always good eats, always great company.

📊 Speaker Dinner — Reconnecting with #SQLFamily before the big day. Kristyna Ferris and Chris Hyde are wrapping up their full-day pre-con Modern Data Warehousing with Microsoft Fabric, so expect them to arrive with strong opinions about Lakehouses and at least one hot take on medallion architecture. Joining the table: Taiob Ali, Steve Jones, Kevin Feasel, and the rest of the Day of Data Albany speaker crew — the kind of dinner where the conversation never quite leaves the data world, and nobody minds.

Saturday · Aug 8

Day of Data Albany 2026

The Main Event — #1144

☕ Coffee & Bagels at Uncommon Grounds — the perfect pre-conference ritual. Coffee, bagels, and the calm before the #SQLFamily storm.

Community Conference

Day of Data Albany 2026 (#1144)

A one-day, community-driven technical conference for anyone working in data — SQL Server, relational databases, analytics, machine learning, AI, and beyond. Sessions from beginner through expert level.

📍 Massry School of Business, UAlbany 🗓 August 8, 2026 👥 Capacity: 300 🎟 In-Person 🎤 My session: Intro to PowerShell with dbatools — because your DBA toolkit deserves a throttle, not just a mouse

Hosted by the Capital Area SQL Server User Group (CASSUG), a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Attending alongside speakers including Jason Romans and Kristyna Ferris.

→ Event page & registration

Sunday · Aug 9

Wheels Down in Indy

Return Travel Day

WN ALB → MDW → IND

🍳 Brunch with the Romans' — venue TBD. If you're in the Albany area Sunday morning, come join us! Always good eats, always great company. #SQLFamily welcome!

✈ The first leg out of Albany is shared with Jason & Sheila Romans. Southwest passengers on this flight: you have been warned. This crew may be loud, caffeinated, running hot from 48 hours of data conference opinions, and still debating whether NULL equals NULL.

🏠 Connecting through Midway and back home to Indy. Another great trip in the books. COMMIT TRAN

V-RodDBA · August 2026 · Albany, NY  |  Day of Data Albany #1144