PASS Summit 2016 Program Committee

As I usually do, I applied to be a member of the Program Committee for the 2016 PASS Summit.  I have been on the program Committee the last 4 years and 5 of the last 6.  I was shocked when I got an email saying I wasn't selected, but I'm not disappointed.  The reason I'm not disappointed is because, unlike when I first became involved, there were so many applicants they had to reject people.  I think it is a great thing that there are so many people who want to keep the PASS Summit the best conference it can be by being involved in creating the program and I look forward to seeing what they come up with for a schedule.  I just hope I'm on it since I will be submitting sessions.

I hope that this increased community involvement continues and leads to even more people being interested in serving on the Nominating Committee and the PASS Board itself.  I know I'd love to have at least 2 board candidates for each seat available every year.

For those who may be new to the Program Committee, please feel free to reach out to me if you want to know anything about my experience.  I had experience both with abstract review and speaker review.

Priorities and the PASS Summit

As most of you know, I am not attending the PASS Summit this year.  I had all my plans made, airline tickets, hotel, and a schedule laid out for the week.  Then during lunch on Friday my son’s school called to let us know that he had injured his arm falling off a swing during the lunch recess.  Of course, we thought nothing of it at first, thinking he may have sprain or minor fracture, then we got to the school and could immediately see that the arm was broken.  By the end of the day Friday we knew that Evan had a “nasty” displaced fracture of the ulna and a fracture at the head of the radius and that he would need surgery Saturday to repair everything, including having a plate inserted to hold the ulna in place. 

Even with that, I still held out hope that I’d be able to make it for most of the week.  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to leave on Sunday, as I had originally planned, so I cancelled that flight Saturday morning, but kept my return flight for the next Friday.  By Saturday afternoon I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to make it all, so I let my roommate, Mike Walsh (@mike_walsh) know and he took care of cancelling my hotel reservation for me.

We got Evan home a little after 7pm Sunday night and I have to admit that Sunday night watching the #sqlpass hash tag on Twitter was hard.  Seeing many friends getting together with people I haven’t had the opportunity to meet in person made me wish I was there.  As the week has gone on, yes, it’s only Tuesday morning, every day I realize even more that I made the right decision.  Evan is still in a lot of pain and I don’t think that there is any way that his mother, Alice, could have handled him and the other 2 kids alone without going crazy.  This is where priorities come in.  Even though the Summit is a great time and a great way to advance professionally, my career isn’t at the top of my list of priorities.  My priority list is: faith, family, friends, and then work.  My wife and kids need me to be home this week so that’s where I am.

I’m going to live the Summit vicariously through Twitter and the Live Stream of the Keynotes.  It certainly isn’t the same as being at Top Post, the Tap House, or any of the other events and places, but it’ll do.

Have a great time and I hope to see people at the SQLRally in the spring!

My PASS Summit Schedule

Several bloggers have posted what their plans are for the PASS Summit and I’m following suit for 2 reasons:

1. So people who may want to meet me, hopefully there are some, will know where I’ll be.
2. To hopefully give the members of my O.C. group an idea on where to find me.

Sunday

My flight is scheduled to arrive at 3:15pm.  I’ll be traveling with Kendal Van Dyke (@sqldba) on this flight.

Once I get checked into the hotel, staying at the Sheraton with Mike Walsh (@mike_walsh), Mike and I are planning on attending a service at Mars Hill Church.  If my flight is on time we may be able to make the 5pm service.  After church I’d like to try to connect with anyone from my O.C. group who is arriving on Sunday and head to the dinner Andy Warren (@sqlandy) is planning (details). One of the goals of the O.C. is to get people introduced and starting with a dinner with Andy and Don will be a good start. 

Since I don’t have anything early on Monday morning I’ll probably use Twitter to find out where people are hanging out and stay out a bit later.

Monday

While I’m not attending a pre-con, I’ll have plenty to do on Monday.

Each morning there will be an opportunity to meet up with other Christians to pray (see Mike Walsh’s post) that I’ll be involved in.

I’ll likely meet up with Andy Warren at Top Pot Donuts (his favorite morning hangout in Seattle) and anyone else who wanders in before anything else happens.  Being on Eastern Time still means I’ll probably be awake by 5am.

At 10:00am I’ll be in the SQLSaturday Round Table and then I’ll be trying to meet-up with my any of my O.C. crew and others for lunch. 

I believe that there is a volunteer networking session with Don Gabor during the afternoon that I will likely attend.

At 4:30pm there is a 2 hour networking session with Don Gabor that I may attend if any of my O.C. crew registers.  I need to get this ironed out this week so I can get that paid for and scheduled.

At 6:00pm I’ll be at the Welcome and Orientation session for new attendees along with my O.C. crew. 

From 6:30-8:00 is the Official Welcome Reception and Quiz Bowl and I’ll be at that.

Then I’ll be heading to the SQLServerCentral Party.  There is also a Volunteer and Speaker party, but I committed to the SSC party prior to the volunteer party invite coming.  I’m frustrated that I can only attend one, but that’s life and there are plenty of people to see at either.

I’m not a big SQLKaroke guy, so I’ll probably turn in early (by midnight).

Tuesday

I’ll probably head to Top Pot Donuts in the morning and then to the convention center before the keynote to try to meet up with my O.C. crew.

Because there is so much I need to learn about it is hard to decide which sessions I’ll be attending throughout the week.  I’m also going to try to focus on areas that I have little to no experience like SSAS.  There are definitely times I’ll be just hanging out in the convention center talking with people, but here are sessions I may attend:

10:15 – Virtualization and SAN Basics for DBAs – Brent Ozar

I’ve seen Brent speak so I know this will be a good session and I need to better understand Virtualization and SANs.  My alternate in this block would be Getting SQL Service Broker Up and Running – Denny Cherry.  I know Denny, but have never heard him speak and Service Broker is a technology I think I need to know because I’ll be using it at my office soon.

Lunch is the Birds of a Feather lunch where each table will be hosted by an MVP who will moderate/lead a discussion around a specific topic.  Last year I sat at Paul Randal’s table on HA/DR.  This was my favorite part of the official Summit.  I don’t know what table I’ll be at this year, but whichever one it is will be good I’m sure.  I’ll likely pick one where I don’t know the MVP, at least not well, and on a subject I know little about.

1:30 – Entity Framework for the DB Administrator - Faisal Mohamood

Entity Framework is going to be around so I want to know how to use it and deal with it.  I probably do more development in my current position than DBA work, so I’m definitely interested.  My alternate for this session is Best Practices for Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 with Eric Hanson

3:00 – Demystifying MDX in Reporting Services – Stacia Misner

I follow Stacia on Twitter and would like to meet her.  This is also staying with my theme of subjects I’m not familiar with and would like to know more about.  My alternate is An MDM Methodololgy with SQL Server 2008 Master Data Services – Paul Bertucci

4:30 - SQLCAT: SQL Server Consolidation - Enabling Tools and Lessons Learned (90 mins) - Guy Bowerman; Prem Mehra; Sylvia Vargas

My alternate is Building FILESTREAM solutions with SQL Server 2008 – Klaus Aschenbrenner

For the evening I’m planning on attending the SQLSentry Party and then who knows?  This is what Twitter is for, knowing where to head next.

Wednesday

From 7:00am – 10:15am I will be serving as an Ambassador, helping get people where they need to be, which should be the key note.

10:15 – I’ll be at the Chapter Leader & Regional Mentor meeting

This is the time when the Chapter Leaders meet to help each other and help PASS help us.  This is when you find out that you aren’t alone in facing issues with sponsors, speakers, venues, etc…

Today is the Women in Technology luncheon which I missed last year, and I’ll try to attend this year.  This is not a female-only event, but an opportunity to discuss the role of women in technology.  With a daughter I definitely have an interest in what is happening with women in the work force.  I’m also friends with several of the organizers of the luncheon so I want to support them as well.

1:30 - 50 surprising features of SQL Server Business Intelligence - Amir Netz; Donald Farmer

I think BI is an area I need to know to be marketable and you can’t get better than Donald Farmer, right?  My alternate for this slot is Making SQL Server Extended Events Work for You – Charles Hawkins

3:00 - Conducting Effective Meetings – Joe Webb

I complain constantly about meetings, so I want to be able to schedule and lead productive meetings if and when I ‘m ever in a position to do that.  My alternate is Data Warehouse Design and Architecture Best Practices – Eric Veerman

4:30 - Inside Latching (90 min) – Bob Ward

I didn’t attend Bob Ward’s session last year and found out that I missed one of the best sessions of the Summit.  I’m not going to make that mistake this year.  This will go beyond locking and help me to better understand some internals.  My alternate is Business Intelligence – end-to-end - Donald Farmer; Pej Javaheri; Russell Humphries

Wednesday night is the Microsoft party at Gameworks which I’ll spend some time at and then see where other people end up.  As usual, Twitter is the tool I’ll use to find people.

Thursday

This morning’s keynote is by Dr. David DeWitt who had a highly lauded keynote last year.  So if you are going to make one keynote this is the one to make.  This is where I’ll be.

10:15 - Upgrade and Migrate your SQL Server with Just Minutes of Down Time – Chris Shaw

I’m looking at upgrading from 2005 to 2008 R2 in the next few months, probably January, so this is a session on a subject I can use in the office almost immediately.  My alternate is DBA Mythbusters – Paul Randal.

Lunch is the chapter leader lunch and I’ll be at the Orlando table so if you are from the Orlando area be sure to find my table.

1:00 - Starting with More than a Blank Page: Using an Industry Standard Data Model – Karen Lopez

I’ve met Karen and have wanted to hear her speak and this is a great opportunity and good topic to understand.  My alternate Know thy Report Server! - James Luetkehoelter

2:30 - Automating SQL Buildouts with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2008 R2 – Robert Davis

Virtualization is an area I want to understand better.  My alternate is N-Tier Applications Designed for Optimal Performance – Areas to focus from a connectivity perspective. - Lars Giusti; Luiz Santos

4:00 - SQL Server and Hyper-V - getting the most out of new features – Guy Bowerman

Alternate is ETL from the Trenches:  Using SSIS in the Real World – Dave Fackler.

I’ll be having dinner with the Friends of RedGate and then likely heading back to the hotel to get packed up.

Friday

I fly out at 10:30 so I’ll be heading to the airport pretty much first thing in the morning.  I’ll be ready to get home to my family by this time.

I know I won’t be in every session.  I’ll probably miss the after lunch sessions every day because of lunch discussions.  I also want to make sure I make it through the exhibition hall to talk with the vendors.  There is definitely something you can learn from the vendors and many of the products are worth taking a look at.

I hope to see you there.  Be sure to come say, “Hello” to me during the week.

People I Can’t PASS on Meeting

One week from today I will be in Seattle for my first ever PASS Summit.  One of the things I have heard is what a great event this is for networking with other SQL Server people.  I think I’ve been able to experience this in a small way at the three SQLSaturday’s I have attended in the last year, but I’m sure the Summit is different.  Tom LaRock (@SQLRockstar) blogged about this back in May and listed some people he has met at the Summit and people he wants to meet this year.  That’s what this post is, my list of people I want to meet and converse with at the Summit.  Most of these people I have interacted with on-line via Twitter or SQLServerCentral, but have not met in person.  The list would be longer, but I met a few who would have been on this list at SQLSaturday #21 – Orlando (Kevin Kline, Andy Leonard, Buck Woody, and Joe Webb) all of whom I look forward to spending more time with, but they don’t qualify for this list as this is for people I have not met in person yet.

Let’s start with the PASS Board of Directors both sitting and new members:

• Wayne Snider
• Rushabh Mehta
• Bill Graziano
• Greg Low
• Christoph Stotz
• Lynda Rab
• Rick Heiges
• Pat Wright
• Douglas McDowell
• Tom LaRock
• Rick Bolesta
• Neil Buchwalter
• Kevin Yam
• Kristina Kerr
• Jeremiah Peschka – Newly elected
• Brian Moran – Newly elected

Why this group?  The board is the group that sets the direction for PASS and I am interested in where they think PASS should go and I have my own opinions on that as well.  They are influencers and I’d like to try to influence them.  I do have an in, as my friend Andy Warren is on the board and can introduce me.  Hopefully they will all be at the pre-conference networking session with Don Gabor.

The next group comes from my peers at SQLServerCentral.  SSC is, in my opinion, a true community and these folks have helped me to be a better SQL Server developer and DBA by being willing to answer questions on their time and sharing their experiences.  I don’t even know if everyone on the list will be going to the Summit or if I am listing real or screen names in some cases, but I’ll list them anyway:

• Grant Fritchey
• Gail Shaw
• R. Barry Young
• Alvin Ramard
• Bob Hovious
• Paul White
• WayneS – obviously a screen name
• Lynn Pettis – I don’t think Lynn will be there this year, but if he is, I want to meet him.
• Jeff Moden

Then there is the SQL Server Twitter community, and I do mean community.  I have received help and given help to people in the Twitter community and think it is a great way to begin a relationship, and has definitely made it less intimidating to attend the Summit because I feel like I already have lots of friends there.  Again I don’t know if everyone I list will be there, but I hope they will be:

• Brent Ozar (@BrentO)
• Michelle Ufford (@SQLFool)
• Wendy Pastrick(@Wendy_Dance)
• Mike Walsh (@mike_walsh)
• Allen Kinsel (@sqlinsaneo)
• Mladen Prajdic (@mladenprajdic) – don’t know that he’ll be making the trip from Europe, but he definitely has earned a spot on this list.
• Paul Randal (@PaulRandal) – yeah, I know, he’s on everyone’s list.  Maybe I can catch him for 5 minutes.
• Kimberly Tripp (@KimberlyLTripp)
• Linchi Shea (@linchi_shea)
• Marlon Rubinal (@MarlonRubinal)
• Robert Cain (@arcanecode)
• TJay Belt (@tjaybelt)
• Mark Wisecarver (@msftwise)
• Marc Beacom (@marcbeacom)
• Aaron Bertrand (@AaronBertrand)
• Jason Strate (@StrateSQL)
• Arlene Gray (@whimsql) – I just live her Twitter handle.
• Tim Ford (@sqlagentman) – another great Twitter handle.
• Eric Humphrey (@lotsahelp)
• Blythe Morrow (@blythemorrow)

I’m sure that I’ve left out someone I shouldn’t have, but this is a good starting point, and I hope all these people will be interested in meeting me. 

This is definitely not an all-inclusive list.  I want to meet as many people as I possible and still get together with the “old friends” from SQLSaturday’s as well.  I’m sure it will be a busy, fun, and profitable week! 

Hope to see you there.  Next up I’ll post what I know of my schedule so on the off chance you want to meet me you’ll know where I plan to be.