And we’re off! To the PASS Summit, that is

As I posted earlier, I’ll be speaking at the Professional Association for SQL Server Summit (PASS Summit) in Seattle next week. This is going to be my first #SQLPASS (this is the Twitter hastag for the conference), but I feel as if I’m going to a friend reunion.  Like a family reunion, but fun. 

Many of the SQLCruisers who joined us on the first ever SQL Cruise will be speaking and attending.  Many of my Twitter friends will be there, too.  So unlike other “first time” conferences, I’m not going to be standing on the sidelines or circling the lunch tables looking for the friendliest table in hopes of having a decent conversation.

The sqlpass.org website has a schedule builder which I used and what popped out the other end was a calendar double and triple booked for every hour of the day.  It’s going to be like Enterprise Data World, where I want to be everywhere at the same time.

Not only are there incredible sessions, but there’s a ton of fun professional networking I’ll be attending:

Tuesday has a special, unofficial #inappropriatePASS sessions meeting where a bunch of us are getting together to give “unpresentations” as I call them.  These are anti-patterns or opposite topic presentations.  Topics include things like leaving your SA password blank, turning off referential integrity for better performance, etc.  What I love about this fun night is that it helps you think about a topic by arguing the opposite of what you actually believe.  A classic teaching method that makes for a lot of fun.

Wednesday is Women in IT (#PASSWIT) Luncheon.  Lots of swag and great discussions about why we need better diversity in IT. There’s also a Chalk Talk and other events about Women in IT throughout the conference.

Wednesday is also #SQLKilt day, where attendees, speakers, and exhibitors wear kilts because….heck, I don’t know why.  They just do.  Jen McCown of Midnight DBA fame has even designed a WIT t-shirt that merges both the WIT luncheon and sqlkilt memes.  Check it out.

Thursday 1PM: My presentation on Starting with More than a Blank Page: Implementing Industry Standard Data Models.

Exhbits: As in most conferences, these run for a couple days.  I love these parts of the conference because I get to see what vendors, sponsors and associations are doing in the data world. 

Informal networking: My favourite part of any conference.  Meeting new people, convening with old friends, making connections.

DArcVC: While this new Data Architecture PASS virtual chapter has already had it’s first meeting, I see the summit as its “coming out” party.  I look forward to meeting with SQL Server professionals who also share a passion for data architecture.  Joining DArcVC is free.

Watch the #SQLPASS, #PASSWIT, #DArchVC hashtags on Twitter to see what’s happening.  You don’t have to join Twitter to see the posts, just go to search.twitter.com and enter one of the hashtags.

And if you are going to be at SQLPASS, be sure to say “Hi” to either one of us.

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