AI Workshop by Erik Darling: Nobody Wants to Tune Queries by Hand Anymore

Erik Darling’s full-day, hands-on AI workshop. Why Erik? Erik Darling is one of the best-known names in SQL performance tuning. He has worked with 600+ SQL Server clients, spent years consulting with Brent Ozar Unlimited, and speaks at PASS Summit and SQLBits. If you’ve run sp_QuickieStore, sp_PressureDetector, or sp_HumanEvents, you’ve already used his work. He also builds a free, open-source monitoring tool for SQL Server and PostgreSQL. Who should come: Database professionals and engineers who work with SQL Server and want AI to handle the tedious parts of tuning. In Erik’s words: I’ve spent a long time teaching people to tune queries and indexes by hand. Open SSMS, read the plan, write a DMV query, test a rewrite, repeat. Nobody wants to learn that way anymore, and I don’t blame them. It’s not how most people are going to work from here on out, and it’s not how I work either. These days I let AI do the annoying stuff, and I spend my time deciding what’s worth doing. That’s what this workshop teaches. Yes, AI gets things wrong. So do people. If you asked someone to write a DMV query from memory, they’d screw up a bunch of stuff too. But let them run it, read the errors, fix them, look at the results, and try again, and things work out in the end. AI is the same way. The more you let it get into things, the better it gets at catching and fixing its own mistakes. So we’re going to let it into things. Responsibly. You’ll hook AI up to your monitoring data so it reads real numbers, have it read execution plans with tools built to keep it from misreading them, and have it reproduce problems so you can test fixes against something real. Writing and testing a dozen versions of a query for correct results and good performance is miserable work for a human. It’s easy work for a robot. Your job is to review what it found and pick where to go next. That’s the part that still needs you. You got a query from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Cool! Where are those 10 seconds going? We’ll also make your AI a copy of you: your rights, your reservations, and your restrictions. What it’s allowed to touch, what it has to check before it tells you something, and what it should never, ever run. The more it works the way you do, the more it gets done the way you’d do it. I use this setup every day. I build Performance Monitor, Performance Studio, and a set of Claude Code plugins with it, and that’s the tooling you’ll use all day. We’ll work on StackOverflow2013, and you’ll leave with the setup to do the same thing on your own servers. You’ll leave able to: • Set AI up to work on your databases directly, with access to monitoring data and execution plans and the ability to run, check, and fix its own work • Use AI to reproduce problems, and test rewrites and indexes for correct results and performance, then decide where to tune next • Give your AI your rights, reservations, and restrictions, so it works the way you would and can’t change what you wouldn’t What’s included: The attendees will get access to the video course Work With Your Databases the Way I Do (Pre-sale price: $250 until December 1, 2026, then $500) Food and drinks: Coffee, breakfast pastries, lunch, an afternoon snack, and sodas, with vegetarian and vegan options. What to bring / Before you arrive (please do this at home) • A laptop with SQL Server installed. Developer Edition is free. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads • StackOverflow2013 already restored. It’s a large download, so don’t plan on pulling it over venue Wi-Fi that morning. https://downloads.brentozar.com/StackOverflow2013_201809117.7z • An AI agent that can run commands. No agent? You can still follow along and set it up afterward. • If you’re bringing a work laptop, check your company’s AI tool policy first. Check-in: Microsoft requires a valid government-issued photo ID at the front desk. Please register under the name that’s on your ID. Free on-site parking. Can’t make it? Transfer your ticket to a colleague. Refunds are available up to 7 days before the event, minus Eventbrite fees. Code of Conduct NESQL events seek to create a respectful, friendly, patient, considerate, and inclusive event experience, and an environment where all participants feel welcome We, therefore, ask all participants to honor this Code of Conduct. Any kind of disruptive, intolerant or inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated, and we reserve the right to remove any participants who violate our Code of Conduct from the event. We do not tolerate any harassment or discrimination. Although this list cannot be exhaustive, we explicitly honor diversity in age, gender, gender identity or expression, culture, ethnicity, language, national origin, profession, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, physical and psychological ability, and technical ability. Please report any concerns, harassing behavior, suspicious, or disruptive activity to the event organizer or staff and send a copy to [email protected] Refund policy Refunds are issued up to 7 days prior to the event date. Eventbrite Refund Policy Refunds will include the ticket price less the Eventbrite fees (which consist of the payment processing fee and the service fee combined).