Voice of the DBA

Tag: PASS

  • The Cost of SQL Bits v the PASS Summit

    UPDATE: This post originally priced Charlotte, NC, but the Summit is in Houston, TX. I have corrected costs and locations. The difference is about $300 less for a flight and about $20-30 more for hotels.

    Recently I was chatting with someone about SQL Bits. It’s my favorite conference of the year, and unfortunately, I can’t attend again this year because of a schedule conflict.

    Still, I think you should go if you can. I’ve had people over the years think it’s too expensive and too costly to go to England for a conference and my friend was speculating if that was the case. I decided to take a look.

    Cost of Attending

    The costs of attending the conference are (generally)

    • Admission
    • Travel
    • Lodging
    • (some) Food
    • Pre-Conference Days (optional)

    I’ve been fortunate to often not pay admission as I speak at events, but I do attend sometimes. Lodging is expensive, and certainly not all meals are covered by the event. If I’m traveling, I do like to do a pre-con, since it’s a good chance to get focused learning in an area.

    With that in mind, let me price out what it costs for each event. I’m looking forward, so I’ll take a look at SQL Bits 2020 v going to the PASS Summit later this year.

    SQL Bits 2020

    SQL Bits takes place from Mar 31-Apr 4. I’m coaching on the 30th and the 4th, so I can’t actually get there and back. Well, I could get there Tuesday, but I’d have to leave on Friday. The event has pre-conference days on Tuesday and Wednesday (called Training Days), and the conference on Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Saturday is a free day, like a SQL Saturday, and I’ll assume two training days here. After all, if I’m flying to England, I want to make the most of the time.

    Pricing is available, and right now I’d be paying £1199 = US$1600. I’m rounding a bit, but this is roughly my cost in the US. This also includes two training days, which are each around US$490. If I dally and don’t register until after 15 Feb, this is about US$2000.

    Flights for me (on United) would be US$966 from Denver. This is the direct, and traveling 29 Mar to 5 Apr. This is a good time of year to fly to the UK, and I’ve done it often. I’m giving myself a day to adjust. In reality, I’d likely make this a longer trip and take my wife. Let’s also factor in another $50 for the train to and from the airport.

    2020-01-10 10_25_19-Review trip itinerary _ United Airlines

    Lodging is always pricey in London. I usually stay ion Hilton hotels, and the DoubleTree near the venue is £122, or £620 for the week. That’s about US$810-ish. Call it $900. I usually travel back to Heathrow that night, so another US$150 for a night there.

    If I were to look for something else in a hotel, I see similar rates. As low as US$90 for a Holiday Inn to $160 for Aloft (where I’ve stayed). AirBnB in this areacan be as low as a room for $30-50 to a flat for about $100.

    Food can be pricey in London. The lunches are covered by the conference, and two dinners at the Thur and Fri night events. Breakfast is provided all the days and there are lots of snacks. I’ve eaten really well at SQL Bits.

    That means I’d be looking at these meals

    • Breakfast – Sun
    • Lunch – Mon
    • Dinner – Mon, Tue, Wed, Sat

    Let’s say $12 for breakfast (it’s a big city) and $50 for dinner. Lunch, call it $20. That’s a total of $242. I do like a few drinks, though you might be able to get sponsors to cover some of your costs here. I’ve roughly included a drink with dinner. I’m guessing that I’d spend another $150 in drinks.

    Total for attending, in round numbers: US$4,062

    • Flight $1020
    • Lodging: $1050
    • Conference: $1600
    • Food: $392

    You could do better by shopping around a bit, but these would roughly be the costs I’d need to go to my boss to cover. Or split the cost with them.

    If I spoke, this would be closer to $2000. Maybe more of you ought to try and speak Winking smile

    The PASS Summit in 2020

    Let’s look forward to the Summit. Their pricing is more staggered, and if you can register really early (like now), it’s cheaper. US$2599 now, but I’ll assume I won’t be able to get this until summer. At that time, the cost of attendance is US$3299. This includes two pre-con sessions as well.

    This year the event is in Houston, TX. For me, this is a nonstop flight from Denver, but not that cheap. I can get a $350 flight if I want to travel early, but I don’t. There are flights around $400 as well. The convenient flights for my schedule are around US$475. The exact pricing for me is $476.80, call it $480 after I tip the car guy. You’ll need a couple Uber/Lyft items, so say $50 here.

    Lodging is better in Houston than Seattle, where the event usually is held. It’s still pricey. A hotel for me is around US$200 a night or more. I want to be close, so I’ll split the difference with a Garden Inn. This givers me a cost of $1,395.23. Call it $1400 ish with a few tips, as I’ll go over this.

    Other hotels are similar, as low as $125 and well into the $300 range. AirBnbs are like London. I see lots of $50-60 a night for rooms or small 1 bedroom places. Closer to downtown we’re more into the $120 range and up.

    Food will be similar. Charlotte has cheap and expensive places. The conference does cover breakfast and lunch. Dinner is two nights, the opening and the next night in the exhibition hall. I’d need these:

    • Breakfast: Saturday
    • Lunch: Sun
    • Dinner: Sun, Mon, Thur, Fri

    If I go with similar costs, I’d be with a similar $242 + $150 for drinks.

    Total to attend PASS: $5,6921

    • Conference $3299
    • Flight: $480 + $50
    • Lodging: $1,400
    • Food: $392

    The big difference here is the cost of the conference, which overwhelms the small flight difference.

    Conclusion

    It’s cheaper to attend SQL Bits from the US than the PASS Summit. I think so, and while you can do it cheaper than I’ve outlined, you can still likely make SQL Bits cheaper. What’s more, you get to experience another country and culture, along with many, many more people from even other, different cultures. That means a lot to me.

    I also find that SQL Bits is a more casual conference, with less security and hassles. People have been able to bring their wives and kids to the event, or at least the party. Dressing up on Friday night at SQL Bits is a blast.

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    The PASS Summit is an iconic event. I’ve been very lucky to attend most of them, and it’s a huge gathering place for SQL professionals. I enjoy going, learning, and seeing lots of friends. However, it has grown to be an expensive event.

    No matter what you choose, you’ll see some amazing speakers, meet lots of experts and get the chance for incredible networking. If you’ve been to one, consider the other.

    What I would say is that SQL Bits is my favorite, and if you’re in the US, it’s not that expensive to go, even to London. When they move the event to other locations, the transport cost will rise, but hotels will be cheaper. I’d expect I’d save another $300-400 on the trip in Liverpool or Nottingham.

    You do need a passport, so factor in $100 and 4-6 weeks, but you should have one anyway. Traveling is a great way to enjoy and experience more of life.

  • How Did I Do?

    I made a number of predictions for the opening keynote at the PASS Summit. I wrote the predictions a week before the event, making my own guesses about what might be revealed. I was busy in pre-conference sessions on Monday and Tuesday, so I had to write something well in advance of the event. I was flying home yesterday, so I had no chance to watch the keynote until later, so this is a look back after catching up Wednesday evening at home.

    How did I do?

    With the Ignite conference taking place this week, I had guessed that SQL Server 2019 would release there and then be a part of the Summit keynote. I was right. On Monday, as I was taking a break during the SQL in the City Summit, I saw that SQL Server 2019 had been released. A milestone, and perhaps one that I think changes the data platform. It’s an inflection point, and I agree with this tweet from Distinguished Engineer, Slava Oks. Rohan Kumar did announce it at PASS as well, so maybe half credit here?

    I didn’t mention Hyperscale yesterday, as I wasn’t sure what I knew as NDA and what was possible. The demonstration of Azure Arc, and Hyperscale for PostgreSQL, is pretty cool. While I used to think Hyperscale was only for the largest of the large databases, I now think that many smaller, 2-4TB systems (I can’t believe I think of that as small), might consider moving to Hyperscale and preparing for future growth into the low single digits of TBs. BTW, Azure Arc is amazing. I knew about it previously, but didn’t expect it this year. I did mention Azure Stack deploying on premise, and I think the Azure Arc covers this, so 1 1/2 right.

    Azure Synapse was something I didn’t expect. I have been looking at Big Data Clusters as a game changer with the relational platform. Synapse combines the Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Data Lakes into a platform. Since these were both the places where we first got compute separated from storage, this makes sense. Both of these platforms seemed similar to me, so combining them and letting customers drop structured and unstructured data.

    The Edge is a bigger deal than I thought. This was mentioned as a private preview during Build, and I should have guessed this would move to public preview. This as one of those areas that I haven’t been as focused on and wasn’t sure about information I’ve gotten under NDA, so I didn’t include this. Certainly a miss here, but I do think the demo in the keynote with Zeiss and making decisions from sensor data is something more organizations will do. Sensors generate too much data and trying to move all that across a network to the cloud doesn’t make sense. Train models and let some low power SQL Server Edge engine make a few decisions without moving data.

    There was more in the keynote, and it’s worth watching. If nothing else, I think both the opening Ignite keynote and the opening Summit keynote are inspiring for us as data professionals. You can dream about possibilities and truly see that data is an important asset that Microsoft is empowering us to make better decisions about based on analytics.

    Steve Jones

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  • Voting for the PASS Board

    Voting is open for the PASS Board, as of yesterday (Nov 6). The candidate page is up, and there are 6 amazing candidates for 3 slots. They are:

    I’ve linked to their applications, so you can read what they’ve written about their candidacy. I know all of these individuals, and I think they would all do well. In other years, I’d likely have voted for all of them against others.

    I can only choose 3, and it was a hard choice for me. This was really one of the best total groups of candidates I’ve seen.

    I am endorsing, and I have voted for these candidates:

      • Hamish Watson
      • Johan
        Ludvig Brattås
      • Melody
        Zacharias

    You might notice a trend here in that I’ve picked all three non US candidates. This was a factor for me because I do think PASS has been too North American focused, with less appreciation and understanding of the rest of the world. I also think these are the individuals least influenced by the way the organization has been run in the past.

    They talk about diversity and transparency and communication, which ultimately are very important to me. I don’t think that PASS has done well with any of these in the past, though certainly they have made strides at times.

    I am hopeful these individuals can find ways to differently influence the board to be more open and transparent, to be more of a collaborative group with the community than bit aloof about ideas, directions, proposals, and disclosure.

    This in no way implies Chris, Mindy, or William aren’t qualified or would not do a great job. I think they would, but I had to make choices, and those were mine.

    Please read all the applications, think about what you would like from the organization, and then vote.

     

  • Make the most of your PASS Summit Evenings

    At this year’s PASS Summit, I’ll only be around for a short time, and really only Monday night. I have two pre-cons to do and then need to get home for some personal commitments. I am hoping to make the first of these events, but if you’re there all week, I’ve got two things for you to attend.

    Monday Night Networking

    Years ago Andy Warren and I (mostly him) set up a networking dinner on Monday night. The idea was to get people together that were there early and have them socialize and meet fellow professionals. We ran it for a number of years before handing it off to Lisa Griffin Bohm, who continues to run it now.

    This is listed as one of the community events, and it’s on Monday, Nov 4, at the Tap House on 6th. It’s from 5:30-8:30 and I’m going to drop by and say hi.

    You can sign up here, and I highly recommend this if you don’t have plans. There are free tickets, but this is mostly to manage the flow of people. This is buy your own, but it’s a fun time for everyone.

    Come meet some people and share a drink or dinner.

    Game Night

    Another idea from Andy and I (again, mostly him), but this one was fun. We decided that we didn’t want a loud night in a bar that some vendor hosted. We knew lots of fellow attendees felt the same way, so we hosted a game night in a room at the Convention Center. Quiet, bring your own games or join in with others. There are lots of gamers out there and some really fascinating games.

    To ensure we can cover a bartender with both non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, tickets cost something here, but the tickets can be exchanged for a drink.

    Kevin Hill hosts this now and there are two nights. Sign up for Wednesday with Kevin or Thursday with Matt Cushing (or both nights).

    Community and Vendor Events

    PASS doesn’t run a party anymore, but there are lots of things happening all throughout the week. There are a number of events (including those above) listed on the PASS Community Hosted Events page. Click the various boxes at the top to see different events that are happening.

    I urge you to engage in some social event. Something quiet, something fun, it doesn’t matter. Just meet and network with others. If nothing else, sit with someone at lunch and then ask if they want to get a quiet (or not so quiet) dinner later.

    Or set up your own event. A number of these events are started by someone in the community, and the next fun thing could be yours.

    One hint: if you want to attend a vendor party where things are paid for, go have an honest conversation or two with a vendor in the expo. Ask them questions, learn what their products do, and see if something might help you at work. Regardless of budget, educate yourself and maybe you’ll get a ticket to one of their evening parties.