From Attendee to Speaker: My first Data Saturday session

This past weekend, I traveled to Zagreb for Data Saturday Croatia 2026.
While this was my second time visiting the event, it was more significant for me since it was my very first time as a speaker at Data Saturday (and any Data Platform event for that matter).

Last year

My first time attending Data Saturday Croatia left a positive impression on me.
I’ve managed to meet Brent Ozar in person at his pre-con. Side-note: meet your heroes, kids. It’s good for you.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how friendly and welcoming the Croatian data community is, and I wasn’t expecting people to already know who I was from my blog and LinkedIn activity.

The only downside was the fact that I was only able to be there for Friday and Saturday, so not much time to explore beyond the hotel where the conference took place.

Returning to Zagreb

It was great to return to Croatia.
Zagreb is such a tourist-friendly city and it feels familiar to me due to the architecture being very similar to the one in Romania’s largest cities (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara).

The fact that Zagreb also has a cat cafe is an added bonus.

This time around I planned ahead (albeit still poorly, but more on that later) and had more days to explore Zagreb and the surroundings.

Since I had a few more days before and after the conference, I was able to explore more of Zagreb, and on Sunday my wife and I went on a day trip to Rastoke and Plitvice Lakes National Park.
If I have to describe both places, the expression “out of this world” is the first thing that comes to mind, but it feels like it doesn’t do them justice.
Rastoke feels like something straight out of a fairy tale, while the waters in Plitvice have colors that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

If you’re ever in Zagreb and have the time, I can’t recommend enough planning a trip to these places.

The conference experience

As a speaker at Data Saturday

Speaking of the event itself, shifting from an attendee seat to a speaker’s stage changes the vibe entirely.
You’re suddenly hyper-aware of the clock (so much so that I accidentally cut the session short by a few minutes), the slides, and the audience’s reactions.

Even if this was my first session as a speaker, and I had a bit of a rough start (I went through the first 3 slides like Eminen in Rap God), the attendees, their interactions and questions, and the feedback I’ve received right after the session, left me with a very good overall feeling and the desire to improve and build on this experience.

For anyone who might be interested in the session, it’s covered in my blog post about the hidden costs of heaps.

As an attendee

Outside of my session I was able to slip back into attendee mode and take part in some top-tier sessions:

• “CTE Myths-Busted!” by Uwe Ricken.
  Having followed Uwe on LinkedIn for a while, I knew we shared a specific frustration regarding CTE myths. It was incredibly satisfying to hear him dismantle them live.
• “My data is GOOD?” by Catalin Gheorghiu.
  It felt like a bit of home-ground advantage seeing another Romanian presenter tackling such a nuanced topic.
  Great job, Catalin.
• “SQL Server 2025 Vector Data Type and AI Models” by Mladen Prajdic.
  This was a fascinating look ahead. With AI integration becoming standard, understanding how SQL Server 2025 handles vector data is going to be crucial for us DBAs.
• “The Latest Performance Improvements Azure SQL Database, Managed Instance, and SQL Server 2025” by Ola Hallengren.
  Seeing Ola in person was a career highlight. He is a legend in our community, and his insights into Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2025 performance improvements were exactly what we needed.
• “For a Few Rows More: Mastering Row Goals” by Erik Darling.
  Erik is as entertaining as he is knowledgeable. Meeting him face-to-face after years of following his work was a bonus. His deep dive into row goals was both funny and technically dense.

Besides the sessions, the conference was a great opportunity to network with members of the community.
I ran into folks I’ve met last year and also made new connections who share similar interests in the Microsoft Data Platform.
Just as last year, I was genuinely surprised (and humbled) when more people mentioned they recognized me from my blog, my LinkedIn posts, or my FOSS contributions.

The speakers’ dinner on Saturday night was the cherry on top. A chance to decompress and laugh about the quirks of our industry.

Not everything went smooth

I tried to pack too many activities (museums and sightseeing) into Friday and afterwards I ended up burning the midnight oil making some last minute adjustments to my presentation and demos.
As a result, I was running on fumes on Saturday.

This, plus first-time jitters, made me misjudge the duration of the session, and I sped through the last couple of slides, cutting the session short by ~5 minutes.
And, while this might not have impacted the overall quality of my session, I did feel a bit like a zombie for most of the day.

As for the poor planning, I’ve somehow managed to miss the fact that The Offspring were scheduled to perform in Zagreb on Sunday.
Unfortunately, by the time I found out, I already had the day trip to Rastoke and Plitvice Lakes booked and paid.

Advice for future speakers

After some comments from Alex Powers over on Bluesky, I’ve realized that I should add a tips section for anyone interested in speaking.

Get proper rest before the conference

Don’t be like me, make sure you have a few hours to unwind before bed and then get a solid night’s sleep before the big day.

Backups, Backups, Backups

Have multiple backups of both your slide deck and your demo scripts.
I had one copy on my PC, one on my laptop (the one from which I presented) and one in Proton Drive.

If you have cloud sync enabled with your preferred cloud provider, you’re pretty much cover, but I like good old-fashioned multiple copies.

Dry runs

Do at least two dry runs before the conference and make sure you get consistent timing and demo results.
Tweak your slide deck and/or your demos to ensure you don’t run out of time and also leave a block of time at the end for worst case scenarios and Q&As.

Don’t rely on just your demo scripts

When doing those dry runs, take screenshots of everything you wanted to point out during the actual demo.
Use arrows or shapes to mark what you want the attendees to pay attention to (query duration, execution plans, IO stats output, etc.).
These screenshots will serve two purposes:

1. They’ll help you get in the habit of showing attendees what you want to point out in your demos.
2. Will serve as a backup in case something goes wrong with your environment.

Change freeze

One week before the conference, I’ve paused Windows updates on both my laptop and PC.
I’m sorry, MS Windows Team, but the track record for Windows updates has been iffy at best lately, and, even if I’m still a Windows fan, I won’t let an update sabotage my session.

The same applies to HomeAssistant and my home router. Any new updates were ignored until I got back home after the conference.

Pre-checks and pre-steps

Check that your environment is working as expected a day before the session (so that you have enough time to troubleshoot and fix any potential issues), and also an hour before your session is supposed to start.

My actual demo instance lives on my PC that was back home.
So, I had to test:

1. The VPN connection to my home.
2. The Zigbee button that turns on my PC via HomeAssistant (for the WoL fans: it’s been hit or miss, and I’d rather not rely on it).
3. SQL Server service startup.
4. SSMS connectivity from my laptop to the instance running on my PC.

Additionally, be prepared to use your mobile phone as a mobile hot-spot in case the WiFi network at the conference is weak or unstable.

Any steps that would take too long to run during the actual session (generating dummy data, workload simulations, etc.) should be done right after you’re done with the final pre-checks (the ones you’ll do one hour before your session).

Conclusion

Despite the exhaustion, presenting my session was worth every minute of lost sleep.
It reinforced why I value this community so much.
I’m grateful for the warm welcome, the great questions, and the community that makes these events special.

If you are thinking about submitting a talk next year, just do it.
The fear of the first session fades quickly once you realize the audience is there to learn with you, not judge you.

See you at the next Data Saturday!