The PASS Global Alliance Program (GAP)

One of the topics I forgot to mention from the Roundtable was a swell of dissatisfaction with the GAP. Not all understood it, and it’s clearly not “global” from the perspective of the non North American events. I don’t know if GAP is a good idea or not, but it started to help sponsors (and […]

The ROI of SQLSaturday

Following up on my notes about the 2016 SQLSaturday Roundtable I wanted to write more about the ROI of SQLSaturday. I suppose there are many ways to measure it, but I think it boils down to two views: How many people did we train/hours we deliver to our members? That’s what we’re in business to […]

Notes from the 2016 SQLSaturday Roundtable Meeting

Each year PASS holds a meeting for SQLSaturday event leaders and key players on Tuesday morning. It’s a valuable meeting, though I have some criticisms about both format and content this year, more on that in a minute. Watching and listening, I appreciate more than ever that while it’s useful for the audience, it’s an […]

Thoughts on the 2016 PASS Summit

I’ll have several more posts this week on specific activities at the Summit, but wanted to start with how the trip went personally: I flew out Monday instead of Sunday. Whether it just that or my pacing for the week, I wasn’t wiped out on Friday afternoon I didn’t take the direct flight to Seattle […]

MVP No More

Back in September I received a call from my MVP lead that I wasn’t being renewed. Not a big surprise, though still a disappointment. The program has changed a lot since I joined in 2008 and today has much more focus on “data platform” than just SQL Server (where I continue to focus). I’ve also […]

Writing More This Month

I haven’t written much in a while, having had to put more time into both personal and professional obligations over the past year. I still don’t have a lot of time/energy for it, but I miss the effort – calming, cathartic, useful. I still want to do more long form writing, but maybe that is […]

SQLDinner/Meetup Tonight at PASS Summit

If you’re at the PASS Summit and would like to meet some new people, come see us from 5:30 to 6:30! Take the convention center escalator to the first floor and turn left, you’ll see us and some volunteers. Here’s the plan: We’ll give you a large card and a marker. Write (clearly!) three topics you’d […]

How O'reilly Picks Sessions

Read this and wanted to share as we head to the PASS Summit next week: This is how we do it: Behind the curtain of the O’Reilly Security Conference CFP

Notes on Designing an After Hours Event for the PASS Summit

This year we’re trying out two ideas on Thursday night, a networking dinner (of a sort) and game night. I wanted to share some ideas on how and why we put these together. We’ve long tried to encourage more after hours events with limited success. Of course not all events get listed and many people […]

PASS Summit 2016: Dinner, Dinner, Game

Part of making a week long trip to a big event like the PASS Summit successful is finding something to do in the evening that recharges you. PASS has a number of events listed for After Hours this year. Steve Jones and I are organizing three of them: Monday Night Networking Dinner Thursday Night Networking […]