SQL Pass Summit pre conference – Networking and Karaoke

It's Tuesday, day 3 of MY SQLPASS, and day 1 of the actuall PASS Summit.  I'm sitting at the bloggers table with some famous internet bloggy folks, listening to the president of MS Server and Tools, and I'm feeling good.

That takes me back to last night, where 20 of my closest summit friends and I walked a mile downhill and to the left, through what is most definitively Seattle's little Asia, to a fabulous little karaoke bar.  The locals put on a great show, and then the PASS crew – say REPRESENT! – raised the roof with all your favorite hits.  If you want to see a few grainy pix, check out Denny Cherry's TwitPic:

One of the hits of the night was an old Chinese guy who got up and sang a beautiful, soulful and (most importantly) in tune "And I'm Feeling Good".  Sean and I cut out early (around midnight) for some soup at Ho Ho Seafood Kitchen, and got some sleep.

Backing up again…Sunday and Monday were all about meeting people.  Being here is great, being here with an insider like Sean as my guide is supergreat.  But the best possible thing I could've done for myself is to get involved in the community beforehand, and I did.  When I got here, I already knew more than 30 people. We're past the days where you have no choice but to show up at a conference knowing only the 2 guys from your user group that're also attending.  We have forums and blogs and Twitter.  We have great magazines and websites and wiki sites.  Coming to a conference with preexisting penpals is a very different experience from coming to a conference and knowing no one. 

It also opens you up to approach and talk to the people you admire, the officers and authors and other various bigwigs, because you talk to them online, you're familiar with their blogs, you've emaild them questions about their latest book.  You guys who didn't get to come to the summit, yeah, it sucks…but you still get to be a part of the community and talk to people, get names, ask questions, and pass notes in class like the rest of us.  Hell, I think Jorge Segarra (SQLChicken on Twitter) is the most famous Twitterer, and he's a non-attendee…no, let's call him a "virtual attendee".

Greg Low hosted the chapter leader meeting yesterday, and that was interesting.  Everything has been affected by the bad economy, and the PASS board were afraid they were looking at up to a 40% drop in attendance this year…no small worry when you're resource and amenity planning for a few thousand people.  Something that I also hasn't thought about is the summit location. The PASS Summit was held in Seattle this year and last to take advantage of all the local Microsoft folks that wouldn't be available if the conference were hosted in, say, Chicago.  It's a big consideration, and PASS leadership are very interested in our, and your, opinions on the matter. Should the summit be in Seattle every year to get that?  Should it move around to make it available to potential attendees who can't travel?

There was an interesting side note from Gail Shaw, the SSUG lead from South Africa, and Pinal Dave of India. When asked whether one side of the country was better for attendees from the other side of the world, Gail said "It's a 22 hour trip here, or 18 hours to the east coast. It doesn't really matter."  You know that's one killer trip when a 4 hour flight doesn't really factor in.

Quick notes: Paul Randal and Kim Tripp's preconference session got amazingly high marks.  I didn't go, but it sure was fun following Paul on Twitter as he fed Kim fake questions through Twitter: "So how many indexes do I need?"

The Quiz Bowl last night was simply killer.  It was done in the style of Jeopardy, with categories of increasingly difficult questions.  The teams were Paul and Kim, Brent Ozar and Kevin Klein, Grant Fritchey and Joe Webb.  It was hilarious, and Paul and Kim cleaned up (thanks in large part to about 6 DBCC questions…Paul WROTE DBCC!)  I sure hope there's going to be a vid of that available…there's nothing like 20 SQL puns in a row…

Some other wonderful Summit blogs:

I'm done for today, gotta get on sessions and meetings and interviews. We're also doing two or three giveaways today, so remember to follow us on Twitter!

-Jen McCown, http://www.MidnightDBA.com
Blogging for http://www.SQLServerPedia.com