SQL Server Magazine Connections is coming again to Las Vegas in November and I’m happy to be speaking there again. Not only is it a great opportunity to meet new people and reconnect with old friends, it’s a treat to be able to go to “work” in my home town. Oddly enough, I don’t do any work in Vegas, so driving anywhere other than to the airport (or of course to local establishments for social reasons, I really do leave the house on occasion!) is a strange experience. But one that I look forward to next month! Stop by and say hello if you’re attending.

Here are the topics I’ll be covering:
Configuring Reporting Services Security Correctly
Understanding the relationship between Reporting Services and ASP.NET, IIS, the database, and Windows security is vital to establishing the appropriate security policy for your environment and configuring the report server correctly. This session starts with a review of the security architecture of Reporting Services in native and SharePoint integrated mode. This session also includes a series of practical examples that show you how to set up IIS authentication, service accounts, and Reporting Services data sources for various deployment scenarios, including single server or multiple server environments. You’ll see the Reporting Services security architecture. You’ll understand the dependencies between Reporting Services, ASP.NET, IIS, database, and Windows security layers. You’ll learn how to configure IIS, service accounts, and data source credentials to support security requirements. 

Creating Reports with Reporting Services 2005 and Analysis Services 2005
With the introduction of Reporting Services 2005, you now have a Query Designer to generate the MDX required to retrieve data from a cube as a great first step, but you can extend this query to satisfy more complex reporting requirements. In this session, you’ll learn several tips and tricks about working with Analysis Services 2005 as a source for your reports, including how to customize an MDX query, how to handle aggregate values, and how to implement cascading parameterized MDX queries. You’ll understand the benefits and limitations of the MDX Query Designer. You’ll learn how to modify an MDX query to produce specific results. And you’ll learn how to override default parameter behavior to create cascading parameters. 

Data Mining for the Rest of Us
Don’t worry if you don’t hold a PhD in data mining or even if you didn’t take statistics in college. You can still use and, better yet, understand data mining now that Data Mining Add-Ins for Office 2007 is available. Whether you regularly analyze data now or provide technical support for those who do, it’s time to learn how take business intelligence to the next level in your organization. This session will show you specific examples for exploring common data sets, such as sales and financial data, to find the hidden information in your business. You’ll understand the technical architecture requirements for the Data Mining Add-Ins. You’ll learn how to prepare data for data mining. You’ll learn how to apply data mining techniques to specific business problems.