Today is the first day of official activities for the week. The PASS Summit hasn’t yet started, but I’ll be spending the day at the MVP Summit, surrounded by a few hundred people much smarter than I am. The details of the MVP Summit are all covered under NDA, so today’s update will be brief. 06:00am: I woke up and…
This week, I’m attending two different summit events in the Seattle area. On Sunday through Tuesday, I’ll be participating in the Microsoft MVP Summit in Bellevue, Washington. For the remainder of the week, I’ll be attending and presenting at the PASS Summit in Seattle. Although there is much I won’t be sharing (especially at the beginning of the week), I’m…
As I write this, I’m airborne and on my way to Seattle for the summit week (the Microsoft MVP Summit, followed by the PASS Summit). I was struck with the notion – and not for the first time – that I’m not really looking forward to these events for the technical content as much as I’m looking forward to networking…
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” No, not the end-of-year festival of repetitive music, overeating, and trampling on other people to find that perfect gift. No, it’s time again for the PASS Summit, the annual gathering of SQL Server and data professionals from around the world. The event, which is run by the organization formerly known as the…
It’s that time of the year again – time to make your voice heard as a PASS member. The PASS board elections are upon us, and if you’ were a PASS member as of June of this year, you should receive your ballot via email tomorrow. Remember that this year’s voting window is very narrow – just five days –…
This past weekend I made the relatively short (about 3 hours) trip to the Oklahoma City area to attend and speak at the third annual SQL Saturday event there. I’ve been invited to speak at each of their three events, and I’ve been impressed with each one of them so far. The folks in the OKC and surrounding groups have…
I’m back home after a long week attending and presenting at the SQL PASS 2012 Summit in Seattle. This was the best event yet, in my opinion, and for me it was certainly the busiest. For the second year in a row, our SSIS Design Patterns team was invited to deliver a full-day preconference seminar before the Summit. Unlike last…
It seems just yesterday that we were all in Seattle together, getting a crash course in what’s new and exciting in SQL Server. It couldn’t possible have been 8 months since we were attending after-party events together, stopping by the Tap House for a beer, or closing down Bush Gardens with some spectacular SQL Karaoke. Yet here were are, getting…
This past Saturday, our NTSSUG group hosted SQL Saturday 56, which was our second SQL Saturday of the year. This event was a departure from the typical SQLSat in that it strictly focused on BI, and featured topics including SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, SharePoint, MDX, and other disciplines in and around the Microsoft BI stack. Due to space and logistical issues,…
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…