Everybody loves the carnival. It only comes around every few years, but when it does, it brings in a variety of people from all around. Young, old, short, tall, skinny, chubby, and even Buck Woody – they stand in line for tickets, mill around for hours, and endure noise, crowds, and temperature extremes for a little dose of fun. What…
Have you voted yet for my sessions your favorite sessions for SQL Rally? If not, this is a friendly reminder to hop on over and vote now. You have to have a PASS login to vote, but don’t worry – it’s free to get one and takes about 2 minutes. Out of the 60 total sessions to be presented at…
As I write this, I’m somewhere in the air over Florida, headed back home to Dallas from participating in the first-ever SQL Rally event. The past few days have been an adventure in many ways, and I’m happy to report that the entire experience was both positive and memorable. Wednesday The trip started out in chaos: an immense line of…
The sessions are over, and the post-cons are done; the vendor parties are but a memory, and the #sqlkaraoke music has died. Another PASS summit is in the books, one billed to be the “best PASS summit ever”, and I’d have to concur. The Best PASS Ever Perhaps it started with the entertaining (albeit ill-advised) Tina Turner impersonator during the…
Today is the last official day of the SQL PASS 2010 summit, which also means the last day for live blogging during the keynote. This has been a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to doing it again next year. Today’s ceremonies will include a keynote by Dr. David Dewitt. Before that, PASS board member Rick Heigis gives the…
This year, PASS is taking an extra step to help identify first time summit attendees. Most attendees are given ribbons for various recognitions, including Speaker, MVP, Chapter Leader, and other accolades. This year, attendees who are attending the PASS summit for the first time are recognized with a yellow “First Timer” ribbon on their badge to allow those of us…
The second day of the SQL PASS summit has already started in unique fashion. Today is #sqlkilt day, and there are a dozen or more guys and gals dressed in fine Scottish attire. Bill Graziano, executive VP of finance for PASS, was playfully booed when he took the stage for having worn pants on kilt day. Bill took the time…
The day 1 keynote was kicked off by a Tina Turner impersonator doing a rendition of “Simply the Best”. Rushabh Mehta followed up with a Tina wig of his own, though he fortunately had a much less revealing outfit. Rushabh starts off with an overview of the PASS activities for the year. PASS has touched over 65,000 individuals this year…
The PASS Summit is just around the corner, less than a month away. Although I’m not presenting a session at the event, I’ll be contributing through a couple of other outlets this year. First of all, I’ll be hosting a table at the Birds of a Feather lunch on Tuesday, November 9th. The BoF lunch is designed to facilitate targeted…
Though things have died down a bit since the initial #passvotes backlash, the recent development in the PASS board election process is still the talk of the town. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a number of folks about this, and have read some excellent blogs and other opinion pieces from those on both sides of the debate. I…