Author: way0utwest

I’m not a big party guy, and in fact, more than a few people can attest to the fact that I’m likely to duck out early at evening events. However there are some fun things at PASS that I wanted to mention, and let you know what you can (likely) look forward to next year.

SQLServerCentral

I mention this a lot, at least I think I do, but we typically host an opening night party at the PASS Summit. We’ve done it for 6 or 7 years, and I’ve settled on a casino themed party. We have a code that you can use when you register to get a free ticket, or you can buy a ticket for $30.

We spend all the money that we get for the party on the event. I typically give away a polo shirt and a book to everyone, and then a lot of other prizes. Lots of DVDs, books this year, flash drives, cameras, and more. I save 3 big prizes for the big gamblers (a Zune HD, $150 to Best Buy, and a camera this year), and then randomly gave away other prices like a digital photo frame, to others at the end.

This has also become the event for the Exceptional DBA award presentation.

SQL Karaoke

I heard that after my party on Monday a bunch of people went out to a karaoke bar. I got dragged out there on Thursday night and while I didn’t torture anyone by getting on stage myself, it was great fun for about 20-25 Summit attendees.

I’m not sure that I’d want everyone coming, but there are a few places yo can go and if you have a group of people you’ve met, suggest that they go out and try something. Even wandering down near the water and finding a restaurant to sit and chat in would be great. There are also lots of bars with bands in Seattle.

Gameworks

I’ve always wondered by Gameworks wasn’t more a part of the Summit since it’s across the street from the Convention Center. I’m sure it’s a money thing, but this year it was rented by Microsoft for a Wed night party. I was only there for an hour, but it seemed people really enjoyed it. A great way to get to know someone and have fun playing games.

Vendor Parties

These are typically invitation only, but are a lot of fun. Ask about them at the various booths and see if you can get invited. I typically attend the SQL Sentry party since I’ve known the people working there for years and consider them friends. It’s usually a fairly small affair, but this year was packed with close to 100 people at one point.

Quest also usually throws a big party and I hear great things about it. There are likely other parties as well, so spend some time networking and getting to know vendors. If you are a customer, be sure to ask if something is going on. I also usually attend the Friends of Red Gate dinner as well.

SWAG and Dinner at the Day One dinner

It’s not necessarily a real party, but it can be fun. The end of the first day of sessions takes place in the vendor expo, with dinner catered among the various booths. It’s a chance for you to talk to vendors and grab some swag in a fun atmosphere.

There’s More

There are no shortage of things to do in Seattle, or in any of the other convention cities. Tim Mitchell wrote about being “That Guy” and he certainly wasn’t that guy this year, getting on stage to sing and attending other parties.

There are a number of MVP events, which limits them to a few people, but if you’re a part of that group, be aware.

Seattle is an interesting city, and things are relatively close. Cabs aren’t expensive, especially with 3-4 people sharing them, and you can reach a number of places. Things I’ve done in the past and would recommend:

• The Space Needle – Not much here, but it’s a worldwide landmark
• The Experience Music Project – Worth going in, and it has a Science fiction Museum in the building.
• Seattle Seahawks / Seattle Mariners – Professional sports.
• The Underground Tour – I found this fascinating and learned about Seattle history.
• Museum of Flight – Good for adults and kids. Walk through a Concorde.

There are other museums and theaters as well if you like those things. I’d even recommend bringing your family the weekend before or after and seeing Seattle. My son and I had a great time in 2008 touring the city.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the keynotes and some things I think they could do to improve them.

I thought that we got a great Summit from PASS in 2009. This week I’ll be looking back at some of the things that occurred and give you some notes from my perspective on the event. I’ll also include some pictures from myself and others, along with a few videos where I can.

First, thanks and congrats to the PASS Board, and the PASS Staff, all of whom put together one of the smoothest Summits I’ve seen. It might be the best one, and while there are things that need to be changed or tweaked, the event just ran smoothly.

I wrote some blogs about the keynotes, but for the most part I was meeting people and seeing sessions all week, so I didn’t have time to blog. Heck, I barely had time to write editorials and no time to shoot video of them. The blogs I put out from last week:

• Wayne Snyder
• Bob Muglia
• Ted Kummert
• Opening Remarks (Wed)
• Tom Casey
• Opening Remarks with Bill Graziano
• DELL Keynote
• David DeWitt Keynote

I also wrote a bit about the Women in Technology lunch, which was great. I enjoyed it and plan to make that an annual part of my Summit experience. I’d encourage everyone to attend this, and to encourage women to come into technology. It’s not that men don’t need encouragement, but stereotypes often mean an extra effort would help with women.

The overall organization of the event, I thought, was much better this year. I didn’t see people too lost or confused. While many of us attend the Summit yearly, or every other year, a survey showed that this year we had about 40% first time attendees. That’s a big number, and while I saw a few people looking confused (I stopped to ask them if they needed help), it seemed that people easily found sessions and rooms, despite things being spread across 3 floors and both the North and South sides of the Summit.

It also seemed that quite a few people attended a pre- or post-conference session. That’s good to see, both for speakers and attendees. A full day of training, where you can get in depth knowledge on one particular subject. If you were in one of those sessions, I’d love to have specific notes about what value you got from the sessions.

Tomorrow I’ll write about some of the fun events from the Summit, things that are worth going to as a way to relax and have fun outside of the sessions.

I’ve never been to Las Vegas, and was looking forward to going for the first time this week for SQL Connections. SQLServerCentral is sponsoring a track and I was looking forward to speaking to a new group of people that doesn’t usually come to the PASS Summit.

That’s off now and it looks like I’m not meant for Vegas at this time. I have cancelled my trip, and won’t be attending the show.

I would like to go, I was planning on it, and slightly dreading turning around for another trip so soon. As late as Saturday afternoon, as I was driving back from the airport, returning from Seattle and the SQL PASS conference.

Then I got a call from my wife. I’d left her a message when I arrived in Denver, and as I got off the highway, my cell phone rang.

“Hi honey, glad you’re home from Seattle. I broke my arm.”

That was the welcome home for me. I immediately turned and headed to the hospital where I found my wife. She’s fine, in fact, more annoyed by the experience than hurt. She’s also more worried about the young colt she was working with than herself.

However with a spiral fracture of her forearm, and a hard splint until Wednesday, I can’t leave her alone. Between the need to feed horses, an older dog that needs help standing up, and kids, we aren’t confident that she could manage without hurting the fracture more.

She could manage, but she’d likely do too much, and turn what should be a simple fracture into something that needs surgery. That’s the big reason I need to be home.

So I’ll miss SQL Connections, a show that I’ve never been to. But I plan on going next year, and being prepped for a couple presentations. We’ve had bad luck with this trip, as another speaker also had to cancel due to medical issues with his family. I’ve learned that you need to be sure you have an extra presentation or two in your bag, just in case.

Barnes and Noble recently announced their new e-book reader, the Nook. It looks pretty cool, and in some ways I think it really blows past the Kindle. There is another reviews from Technology Review.

There are two big features that make me think this is a great new product that blows past the Kindle.

The first one is the lend feature. If you haven’t heard, with this you can “lend” your book to a friend to use not only on their Nook reader, but on their smartphone or PC/Mac. Any device that has a B&N reader can see the book for 14 days. That’s cool as I can give others an idea of what I recommend.

I know Amazon has the share among Kindles, but they devices have to be on the same account. I don’t necessarily want my wife on my account, or vice versa as I don’t want to see her books, or even manage a budget between us.

I don’t think this is a big deal, and I can’t see it costing lots of revenue. It’s more a way to create community and interest people. It also sounds good, which is important to ensuring people are happy with the device.

The second thing that I like is that it has wi-fi built in. I did find it interesting that Amazon is no longer using Sprint, but moving to ATT, which is the carrier for the nook as well. However ATT has horrible coverage where I am, and I constantly hear people complaining about coverage from them. So if that’s the case, and I can’t buy a book when I want, like from bed or in an airport, then wi-fi is a great second solution.

I like the idea of e-reading. I’m mostly using my iPhone to read for now. I would like to get a dedicated reader again at some point, mostly for the ease of reading in bright environments, and the tremendous battery life. However until I get some insurance or other coverage, and I have an easy way to get books from multiple sources, I’m not sure I want to invest in one.