Back home from Columbus Ohio after a trip up for Data Saturday #71. This conference is run by the fabulous Peter Shore and team. As I noted in my blog about it last week, this was my third year in a row attending this conference and it hopefully will be a streak I continue.

Getting to hang out with Peter and all of the speakers and attendees was, as always, such a great thing. According to my records, this is at least the fifth version of this conference I have attended through the years, with the first being in 2010 (No pictures from then, just expense reports I keep around for just this sort of query!)

The Venue

The Point at Otterbein Place, taken at the end of the day, because I forgot during the day!

This year’s event was at the same college, but in a different building. I like the building itself, the architecture outside was cool, and inside it felt really nice. Not the classic historical vibe of the previous venue, but it was a really great location.

The Content

I attended some great sessions in the classroom and one in the halls.

Kristyna Ferris gave one of the most interesting sessions on licensing I have attended, all about how Microsoft Fabric is licensed. Hope Foley made Purview seem interesting. Jonathan Stewart was really great, though in my eyes his subject was already interesting on its own. Finally, to end the day I went to Jeff Foushee‘s session on JSON, which made me want to do some posts on the subject.

My favorite hall session was when I cornered Jonathan and his “emotionless support animal” Kevin Feasel and picked their brains about designing for Fabric.

All in all, it was a great day filled with learning, and at the end of the day, came my actual favorite session: the after-party dinner. Great conversation, great food, and a surprise sponsor for the food that night, Ben Miller/DbaDuck.

All in all, it was a great day filled with learning, and at the end of the day, came my actual favorite session: the after-party dinner. Great conversation, great food, and a surprise sponsor for the food that night,

The Scenic Route

The drive between Columbus and Cleveland TN is not littered with a lot to do. The one thing I have seriously planned to do this year (Kings Island) was just not in the cards because it is too early to take vacation, and I can’t go to a theme park for just a few hours.

During the trip, we at some interesting food at Skyline Chili and Joella’s Hot Chicken. I didn’t even think to take a picture of Skyline, but I did get some. from Joella’s. Definitely worth a stop if you are longing for some fried chicken that makes your mouth hurt ans smile at the same time!

And of course, we had to stop and see Buc-ee at least once!

I usually try to stop at a park, either theme or outdoors, and this time I stopped at Cove Lake State Park in Tennessee (don’t judge my pictures versus the one on there website!

While it is probably not a park I stop at again, it looked like a nice park if you had it pretty close. It has a wonderful lake, some nice trails (at least partially paved), and if I had time (and legs) to hike around the park (map Cove Lake (3400×2700)) it looks like a nice park to visit. The part that was easy to visit by car was a lot like a really nice city park with shelters, basketball, etc.