If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that one of my favorite sessions delivered at the recent PASS 2006 European Conference was delivered by Don Vilen, a PM at Microsoft on the SQL Server team, and was titled "Transparent Benefits of Upgrading from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005". The jist of the session was that SQL Server 2005 does lots of things better than SQL Server 2000 - and that you can enjoy those benefits merely by running your SQL Server 2000 application on a SQL Server 2005 server.
I knew, intuitively, that such benefits existed. But I didn't have any idea how many benefits existed until I attended his session. Now, as it turns out, you can hear it on-line any time you like.
I think this is probably the #1 session I would recommend for skilled DBA's who want to step up to SQL Server 2005. It provides good insight into how SQL Server 2005 improves on SQL Server 2000, plus it makes a good case for upgrading.
Let me know what you think....
-Kevin