I followed this tutorial http://blog.ulf-wendel.de/?p=215#hello. I tried both on Visual C++ 2008 and Visual C++ 2010. Either static or dynamic, the compiler gave me the same
According to MySQL 5.1 Reference Manual if you are using the Version 1.1 of the MySQL Connector C++:
"get_driver_instance() is now only available in dynamic library builds - static builds do not
have this symbol. This was done to accommodate loading the DLL with LoadLibrary or dlopen. If you do not use CMake for building the source code you will need to define mysqlcppconn_EXPORTS if you are loading dynamically and want to use the get_driver_instance() entry point."
If I understand the previous note correctly, you have to use the dynamic build and define mysqlcppconn_EXPORTS.