The following is a list of presentations from that I have delivered so far this year in 2012.  For each presentation there is a link to the event and the presentation materials, if they are still available.

If you are interested in having any of the presentations delivered for you user group or company, just reach out and we’ll see if we can work out a time that works.

• SQL Saturday 104 | Colorado Springs (January 7, 2012)
• Discovering the Plan Cache – Execution plans are stored after execution in the plan cache. This metadata about how queries are executed can provide insight into how your SQL Server environment is functioning. By using XQuery to browse and search the plan cache you can find potential performance issues and opportunities to tune your queries. This information can be used to help reduce issues related to parallelism, shift queries from using scans to using seek operations, or discover exactly which queries are using what indexes. All of this and more is readily available through the plan cache. In this session we will explore the plan cache and start you on the road to discovery.
• Choose Your Own Adventure: Performance Tuning - Life is all about choices, and when it comes to SQL Server it is no different. If you don’t have a methodology for researching questions and resolving issues then you need to get one, and soon. Join Microsoft MVPs Jason Strate from Digineer and Thomas LaRock from Confio Software as they help guide you while YOU make the choices in this interactive performance tuning adventure.
• Iowa SQL Server User Group (January 11, 2012)
• SQL Profiler and Extended Events Cage Match - Rival technologies often need to be thrown into a cage match to determine which is the victor. This time the rival technologies are SQL Profiler and Extended Events. SQL Profiler is the tried and true champion when it comes to performance monitoring and troubleshooting. But Extended Events is the newcomer that promises to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” In this session, we’ll briefly review the core architecture of extended events. We’ll also take a look at a number of performance monitoring scenarios and compare the application of SQL Profiler and Extended Events to the issue.
• Digineer Webcast (February 16, 2012)
• Discovering the Plan Cache – Execution plans are stored (after execution) in the plan cache.  This metadata about how queries are executed can provide insight into how your SQL Server environment is functioning.  Using XQuery to browse and search the plan cache can help you find potential performance issues and opportunities to tune your queries.  Additionally, this information  can be used to help reduce issues related to parallelism, shift queries from using scans to using seek operations, or simply just  discovering  exactly which queries are using what indexes.  All of this and more is readily available through the plan cache.
• Idera – Secrets of SQL Server (March 14, 2012)
• What Are You Waiting For? – In this session, we’ll look at wait statistics and what they are. We’ll look into how they are accumulated and how they can be monitored. By the end of the session, you’ll be equipped with the tools needed to determine if there are resource issues in your environment and methods to start mitigating them.
• SQL Saturday 111 | Atlanta (April 14, 2012)
• Extended Events, Work Smarter Not Harder – There are many ways to performance monitor your SQL Server environment. In this session we’ll review Extended Events, which is one of the newer SQL Server monitoring platforms. Learn the ins and outs of how to get detailed information on the errors and events that occur within SQL Server and how to dig into the information. With a few T-SQL statements, issues that could take weeks to research can be investigated in minutes.