Here’s just a sampling of some of the free training you can watch right now from the comfort of your home:

• Brent Ozar and Kevin Kline doing a day of DMV training
• A Sysadmin’s Guide to SQL Server by Tim Ford, Tom LaRock, and Brent Ozar
• T-SQL Tuning for Race Car Drivers by Brent Ozar

With so much free training out there, not to mention the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS, why would anybody pay for training?

The Problem with Free Training

The first answer is simple: interaction.  When you’re part of a huge group training session, the presenter can’t read your personal expressions.  He can’t tell when you’ve got a question, can’t slow things down, and can’t dive off on a tangent to explore things that are important to your shop.  When he’s got a one hour time slot before the next person starts, he usually has to march forward quickly to cover everything planned.  If you’ve got a question afterward, you have to wait in a long line of people, and you know some of ’em just never let go of their questions.

On the #SQLCruise, we’ve only got a very limited number of attendees.  We’ll get to know your background and comfort level right away, talk about the kinds of systems you manage, and then tailor our training stories to you.  When you’ve got questions – and you will have questions! – we can have a relaxed, friendly discussion without worrying about the clock.

The second answer: quality.  We take our training sessions very seriously, and we’re determined to bring you content so good that you’ll see the registration fee as a huge bargaining.  You won’t have to stare at a list of abstracts and speakers and ask yourself, “I wonder if this person’s ever presented before, and how good they really are?”  Just check out some of the comments from Brent’s SpeakerRate page:

“Brent does a nice job of mixing in humor with his presentations. The only negative to “Virtualization and SAN Basics for DBAs” presentation were the time constraints. Otherwise Great Presentation!”

“Very engaging speaker with enough expertise to go off-topic, and well, when questions come up.”

“DBAs do like to pretend they know about everything, and it was refreshing to hear a presentation that didn’t mince words. I do wish you had a longer presentation time to allow a deeper dive into these topics.”

“I like how you have a very deep knowledge of the stuff but present it in an easy to follow manner.”

“Talk about out of control. I’ve never had so much fun with a topic! Despite the antics of the cast, the content remained well presented, and on-topic.”

If you like free events with one-hour sessions, but you’re ready to take your training up a notch, it’s time for a cruise. The next SQLCruise won’t be this inexpensive, so if you’re on the fence, go for it.  Register for SQLCruise today!