Last week I presented at the March Minnesota SQL Server User Group (PASSMN) meeting on using CTEs in SQL Server. The session is meant as an overview and introduction to CTEs with some examples of their use and what some of the effects can be.
Overall the session was well received and I got the following scores:
| Area | Rating (1-5) |
| Effectiveness of Demos | 4.211 |
| Usefulness of Materials | 4.289 |
| Presenter Skills | 4.211 |
| Blend of Demos | 4.447 |
| Overall presentation | 4.289 |
I had some pretty good comments from the attendees:
- Demos can be better organized
- Good job
- Great display of CTE uses
- Great stuff – I can’t wait to start putting them to use
- I found it to be a very interesting demonstration. My work still uses SQL 2000, but they’re looking to conver to 2008 later this year, so good.
- Very informative
And some that a little less than happy but still very useful for the next time I do this presentation:
- Seemed like too much time was spent on the surface repeating examples when we could have gone further in depth.
- Add some useful examples for takeaway
- Too much focus on simple example and not enough focus on complex useful examples
- Lots to cover, a bit rushed due to time constraints
For those that want to dig into some of the examples provided, here is the presentation for download.
Strate SQL 
Hey Jason,
I left one of the "less than happy" comments – my "criticism" was I like to walk away with some knowledge (and did) from the presentation, but also with something I can take to work the next day and use. Maybe a couple of different examples to make a common task simpler. But that is just my 2 cents.
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I'll definitely be looking at ways to add something that can be taken away and immediately used. There was a script I included a couple times in the past that I removed due to its complexity. Maybe a simplier version of that would be useful to include.
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