So why do you want to come to our training? And the winner is…

Wow! We had 35 entries in 5 days for our competition to win a free seat at our Master Immersion Event on Internals and Performance in Dallas in February. That was a lot of reading to get through to pick the winner, but we made it. Five people even started SQL Server blogs so they could participate!

First off – we’d like to thank you all for the kind words about us. To be honest, if you’d written about how we suck, you wouldn’t have won :-) To everyone who entered, send me your snail-mail address in email and I’ll send you some SQLskills.com laptop stickers.

Here are some quotes – funny and otherwise:

• Shawn Melton: ‘well I would kiss a sheep square on the mouth.’
• Sankar Reddy: ‘I can help the community better after attending this training.’
• Steven Ormrod: ‘It would be like watching the MCM videos in 3-D, but without the glasses.’
• Jens Vestergaard: ‘Did I mention that I once played the guitar in a band called Stoned Sheep :)’
• Rob Sullivan: ‘With technical debt, you sometimes have to write SQL checks that your brain can’t cash. This class is like adding a few 0s to your brain balance.’
• Dan Holmes: ‘I know there is a considerable amount of knowledge and experience in the SQLskills team but answering an unsolicited email was a personal touch that endeared me even more to the group at SQLskills.’
• Drew Minkin: ‘It will be Very Model of a Modern Engine-Semina’ (I used to be in Gilbert and Sullivan shows when I was younger)
• Drew Minkin: ‘This contest is the most efficient cost-based optimization since SQL Express’
• William Durkin: ‘if I do win, I will be taking a glass lift ride that I’m sure I will never forget.’
• Jason Brimhall: ‘I know the content of this training is bar-none the best there is.’
• Alexander MacGregor:’If they were teaching a foreign language, everyone else would be equivalent to using something like Rosetta Stone while they would be equivalent to spending a year in the country and having several native speakers by your side at all times. There’s simply no comparison!’

There were so many good entries that we literally couldn’t decide, and we struggled *really* hard. We narrowed it down to the top 6 entries and put them in a virtual hat (SELECT CONVERT (INT, RAND () * 1000) % 6 + 1). And we decided to give away two free seats instead of one as so many people entered the competition and this is the inaugural class of our new training curriculum for 2011 onwards.

The grand prize winners are………..
SANKAR REDDY and MARTIN CATHERALL – who each win $3500 of training!

Then we decided, in a moment of madness, to offer the other four top people the ability to come to the class for half price.

The runners up are………….

ERIC HUMPHREY, SAMSON LOO, JASON BRIMHALL, KENDRA LITTLE – who each win the ability to come to the class for $1750!

Woohoo! Well done to all of you! We’ll be sending you all an email later today with instructions on what to do next. All prizes are non-transferable and have no cash value.

Commiserations to those who didn’t win, but again, thank you for trying.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Dallas in three weeks!

Paul and Kimberly

Here are all the entries, in the order in which they were posted – if you need some way of justifying the training to your company, just point them here!

1. Subhash Pant: Why I want to attend SQLskill’s 5-day Internals and Performance class in Dallas
2. Shawn Melton: Training for the Master from the Masters
3. Sankar Reddy: Why do I want to attend 5-day Internals and Performance class
4. Samson J. Loo: Internals and Performance Class by SQLskills
5. Bender (that’s all I could find): I want to go to Dallas
6. Colin Smith: SQLskills Training: Why I need it.
7. Ronald Dameron: SQLskills Free Immersion
8. Brad M McGehee (who’s already coming to the class): SQLskills Master Immersion Events 2011
9. Martin Catherall: Internals and Performance class in Dallas
10. Jana Sattainathan: My shot at free expert level training from SQLskills
11. Steven Ormrod: SQLskills Immersion Training: Internals and Performance
12. Jens Vestergaard: Competing for a free seat on Internals and Performance class by SQLskills
13. Chad Stowe: A Prize Offering of EPIC Proportions!
14. Lakshmi Randall (who’s already coming to the class): Master immersion training session on SQL Server internals and Performance from SQLskills
15. Anthony Young: DBA Scared Sheepless
16. Mala Mahadevan (who’s already coming to the class): Why I am attending a Master Immersion Event
17. Rob Sullivan: Pack the powder, light the wick!
18. Dan Holmes: Master Immersion Internals and Performance class
19. Eric Humphrey: A Seat at Two Masters Table
20. Ryan Adams: Sheep and Double Rainbows!
21. Andie Letourneau: Master Immersion Event Competition (Entry)
22. Kelly Martinez: SQL Obsession: Smells like a sweet contest
23. Rudy Rodarte: Rudy: An MCITP Today. Rudy: An MCM Tomorrow?
24. Drew Minkin: Why SQLskills Master Immersion Event on Internals and Performance is Critical to BI
25. Muthukkumaran Kaliyamoorthy: SQLskills Master Immersion Events 2011 competition
26. Tone S. Hansson: Challenge accepted
27. William Durkin: Am I Charlie Bucket?
28. Kendra Little: Internals Matter: Why You Should Check Your Page Verify Settings, and I Should Go to Masters Immersion Training (SQLskills Contest Entry)
29. Feodor Georgiev: The talk of the gods
30. Robert Miller: Internals and Performance Class by SQLskills
31. Stephen LaRochelle: Why I Need Immersion
32. Kenneth Liao: Internals and Performance = Opportunity + Time
33. Jason Brimhall: Immersion in Internals
34. Aaron Nelson: Why I Need a Week of SQLskills Immersion
35. Alexander MacGregor: SQLskills Blog Contest – Free SQL Immersion Event

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