Tuesday 11/1/2011 is a big day for SQL Server 2012.  The SQL Server engineering team will be in the house at DevConnections in Las Vegas.  This post is for people who are attending SQL Server Connections and others who want to learn about SQL Server 2012 and connect with the team.  You can download the complete schedule here.  You can get some hands-on experience with the SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit here.

We’ll be Tweeting throughout the day and would love to see your Tweets as well!  Please use the following hash tags:

• Database Tweets: use #SQLServer + #DevConnections
• Business Intelligence Tweets: use #MSBI + #DevConnections
  

Keynote (Mandalay Bay E & G, 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM)

Kamal Hathi will deliver the keynote on Tuesday entitled KEY02: Delivering Breakthrough Insight with SQL Server 2012.  Kamal directs the engineering effort for SQL Server Business Intelligence technologies including both on-premise platforms and the cloud.  Attending this keynote session is an excellent way to learn about what’s new and exciting from a BI perspective in SQL Server 2012, including breakthrough technology like Power View.  Be ready for a few surprises!

After the keynote you can choose from twelve different breakout sessions organized into three tracks, and you can connect with the presenters at the Microsoft booth in the Expo Hall.

Developer Track (Mandalay Bay E, 10:15 AM – 04:15 PM)

These sessions are designed for Visual Studio and .NET developers who want to learn about the latest tools and capabilities for building the next generation of database applications for both on-premise environments and the cloud.  Attendees from Visual Studio Connections, ASP.NET Connections, Silverlight Connections, HTML5 Connections and Windows Azure Connections are also encouraged to attend!

• SMS01: Database Development with SQL Server Data Tools
  Presenter: Gert Drapers
  SQL Server Data Tools provides a brand-new developer experience for database developers by bringing familiar Microsoft Visual Studio development paradigms to bear; debug, refactor and maintain your database declaratively. This session introduces you to the new tools and how you can leverage them to build and maintain you SQL Server and SQL Azure database, standalone and inside a team environment.
  
  Connect with Gert in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 12:30 PM – 3:15 PM.
  
• SMS02: What’s New for Application Developers in SQL Server 2012 & SQL Azure
  Presenter: Tobias Ternstrom
  Come and learn about what is new and cool for application developers in SQL Server 2012 and SQL Azure. There are several interesting additions to T-SQL, this session will focus on what they are, why they were added to the product and how you can benefit from using them. This session will also cover the new Local Database Runtime deployment option for SQL Server Express, powerful new capabilities for managing content as an integrated part of your database application, and improved support for spatial data.
  
  Connect with Tobias in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
  
• SMS03: Leave the 90’s Behind: New ways to Develop, Deploy, Upgrade and Migrate your Database
  Presenter: Shireesh Thota
  Tired of the same old routine of hand-coding scripts to develop, deploy, upgrade, and migrate your databases? Come see the next-generation of management tools and services that work together through the Data-Tier Application Framework (DAC Fx) to help reduce the amount of time you spend provisioning your on-premise and SQL Azure databases.
  
  Connect with Shireesh in the Expo Hall:
• Wednesday 11/2/11 from 09:00 AM – 11:30 AM
  
• SMS04: StreamInsight - Adding a Real-Time Tool to Your Belt
  Presenter: Isaac Kunen
  There is a growing need for real-time analytics in a wide array of scenarios, including monitoring, fraud detection, logistics, clickstream analysis, and many others. While traditional tools like relational databases are extraordinarily effective at storing and querying data, they have their limitations: data have to hit disk before they are analyzed; streaming, continuously changing data are hard to deal with; and time-series queries are notoriously difficult to express in SQL. StreamInsight gives you a new tool, combining powerful temporal semantics with the ability to handle high volumes of real-time streaming data. This session will explore and demonstrate StreamInsight, and show how it can be integrated into CLR applications to provide real-time analytic processing.
  
  Connect with Isaac in the Expo Hall:
• Wednesday 11/2/11 from 09:00 AM – 11:30 AM
  

BI Track (Mandalay Bay D, 10:15 AM – 04:15 PM)

These sessions are designed for developers and IT Professionals alike who want to learn about the latest tools and capabilities for building the next generation of business intelligence solutions for both on-premise environments and the cloud.  This track will also cover all the latest details about integration between SQL Server 2012 BI and SharePoint.  Attendees from SharePoint Connections, Exchange Connections and Unified Communications Connections are also encouraged to attend!

• SMS05: Deep Dive into the new features of PowerPivot in SQL Server 2012
  Presenter: Julie Strauss
  A deep dive into the PowerPivot for Excel covering the new features that we are introducing with the release of SQL Server 2012. Capabilities that will be demonstrated include many of the new modeling features that will also be available for Professionals working with the new Tabular Project type in BI Development Studio, including the new measure grid, hierarchies, perspectives, KPIs and diagram view just to name a few.
  
  Connect with Julie in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
  
• SMS06: What's New in SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services
  Presenter: Roger Doherty
  We will cover all the new capabilities of SSRS including PowerView, the new ad-hoc self-service reporting technology, self-service alerting, setup and integration with SharePoint, and SQL Azure Reporting.
  
  Connect with Roger in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
• Wednesday 11/2/11 from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
  
• SMS07: Building the Perfect Analysis Services Tabular Model for Power View
  Presenter: Julie Strauss
  In this session we’ll focus on the new Analysis Services Tabular project type that will available in the BI Development Studio (BIDS) with SQL Server 2012. We’ll cover features like security and partitioning as well as talk about how you can create the right models for users to create their own insights using Power View, the new Self-Service reporting technology as part of SQL Server 2012.
  
  Connect with Julie in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
  
• SMS08: Introducing SQL Server 2012 Data Quality Services
  Presenter: Gadi Peleg
  In this session we’ll introduce you to an exciting new set of tools and services to be introduced wit SQL Server 2012 called Data Quality Services. DQS helps organizations improve data quality using a knowledge base. After you build the knowledge base, you can continuously improve it, and then reuse it in multiple data-quality improvement processes. DQS makes complex data scrubbing tasks like cleansing, de-duplication, and validation using cloud-based reference data a snap.
  
  Connect with Gadi in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
  

DBA Track (Mandalay Bay C, 10:15 AM – 04:15 PM)

These sessions are designed for database administrators and IT Professionals who want to understand what’s coming in SQL Server 2012. Attendees from Windows Connections are also encouraged to attend!

• SMS09: SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Solution Overview
  Presenter: Santosh Balasubramanian
  In this session we will talk about the new high availability solution that is being introduced in SQL Server 2012. The session provides an overview of AlwaysOn and explains how you can build a high availability solution using the new features and capabilities. In this session you will learn about how to deploy an AlwaysOn solution, how to utilize your secondary hardware for better return of investment and how the new solution simplifies deployment, management of high availability in your environment. The session will also describe how to manage application connectivity of your primary OLTP applications and reporting applications in an AlwaysOn environment.
  
  Connect with Santosh in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 12:30 PM – 3:15 PM
• Thursday 11/3/11 from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
  
• SMS11: SQL Server 2012 Integration Services Overview
  Presenters: David Noor and Andy Conrad
  In this session we’ll cover all the cool new improvements coming in the next release of Integration Services including the enhanced Developer Experience, the Project & Parameter model, and the new Server based deployment features. We will also cover project “Barcelona” which is designed to help developers and DBA’s alike perform impact analysis of schema changes across an enterprise data topology.
  
  Connect with David or Andy in the Expo Hall:
• David: Tuesday 11/1/11 from 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
• Andy: Wednesday 11/2/11 from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
• Andy: Thursday 11/3/11 from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
  
• SMS10: SQL Server 2012 Database Engine Improvements for the DBA
  Presenter: Lubor Kollar
  The next release of SQL Server is coming and it is chocked full of enough cool improvements to make even the most skeptical DBA giggle with excitement. This session will provide a survey of a few of the top improvements including support for new ColumnStore indexing technology, more online operations, support for 15k partitions, enhanced full-text search and breakthrough new statistical semantic search technology.
  
  Connect with Lubor in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
  
• SMS12: Upgrading to SQL Server 2012
  Presenter: Joe Yong
  This session will show you all the caveats, tricks and tips and guidance on how to perform successful database upgrades to SQL Server 2012. By the end of this session you’ll understand the key steps involved in the upgrade process. You will learn how to assess upgrade issues, and find resolutions to accomplish a successful upgrade.
  
  Connect with Joe in the Expo Hall:
• Tuesday 11/1/11 from 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM