Voice of the DBA

Tag: PASS

  • Dreaming of SQL Saturday

    I’m truly stunned at the responses I received to my post asking how far people have traveled for a SQL Saturday. I posted here, and at SQLServerCentral. In addition, I got plenty of emails from people, detailing their travels.

    Early warning, this gets a little long.

    I am truly stunned. In fact, when I read some of the notes and comments, I got tears in my eyes.

    Tears of joy. I’m touched by the way people feel about SQL Saturday. A few random things that stood out:

    “This was my first time attending and I would gladly attend again.  The distance is about 3000 km.  I elected to attend the SQL Saturday in Orlando and to include it as part of my vacation plans. ” 

    I asked, and this person moved their vacation plans to get to the event. That’s amazing. Someone changed vacation plans (slightly) to attend a SQL Saturday.

    (paraphrased) “As an attendee and volunteer I’’ve been to 14 SQL Saturdays, from 7miles to 266miles from my home” – This person moved, and has been to multiple events, each in the state of residence.

    Another person had gone to 2 events, both over 100mi. away. their quote: “Why? bc I love hearing the discussions and learning. Also since they are on weekends I make mini vacations out of them and do other fun activities. That may be something you may find others do as well. I have asked my company for Friday off since I am spending all my own time and money which makes it a 3 day weekend.”

    This one is sad to me: “We (3 of us) traveled 160 km twice. Two of our colleagues, from our remote site, traveled 300 km once. It is just too much, so we stopped attending.” I understand, especially in less populous areas that it can be hard to get to events like this. I have a dream, see (way) below

    This is great: “Pursuant to your article on  SQL Saturday, the controlling issue is “information and not “distance” – if the information is extremely valuable,  I would travel one thousand miles!” 

    While it’s quite exciting, I’d hope that no one would have to travel 1000 miles.

    This next response stuns me. I’ll describe it because it’s a mix of things. A person has lived in the middle of the country. There is a SQL Saturday in their city. In fact, they’ve been to that event 4 times. In total, this person has been to 19 SQL Saturdays with distances of: [21, 21, 450, 516, 251, 21, 511, 516, 319, 21, 450, 319, 378, 203, 6, 595 516, 319, 378]. Of those, they were an attendee at 16 of those events.

    Now, you might say, “see, people will go over 400 miles for an event.” Absolutely, and I don’t argue that. However, what I’d do is flip this around.

    How many events would this person attend if there were more within 100mi of their house? How many more people would get training if there were more SQL Saturday events, more often, in more locations? 

    Dreaming of 500

    I’d like to see 500 events a year in the US. I’d like to see three or four events in many cities a year. I’d like to see a thousand more speakers, just average DBAs and developers that are willing to share some knowledge. I want more, many more, many more slim, easy events. Have big ones if you like, but let’s get more training out there.

    I want more chances to speak, and learn, with the challenge of picking and choosing. I want to think of what we can do, not what holds us back.

    There’s a great scene in Apollo 13, which I bet a few of you remember. The engineers need to get the power usage to 12A from 60A. They have to find a  way to get the spacecraft back to Earth from the projected point in between the Earth and Moon where the astronauts might die.

    They are challenged to do so, with a famous quote that you may remember.

    I challenge you. I want you to think about how we make that leap to 500 events a year. I want every organizer to think about how they can create more events, not just their one big event a year. I want the events to fit a budget, not the other way around. Find a way to 500 events a year.

    I want every speaker to think about how you can inspire, prod, cajole, convince, and support another person or two in your area to speak. I challenge you to staff 500 events a year.

    I want everyone at PASS, from the Board of Directors to the staff at HQ to the volunteers that help PASS to think about growing SQL Saturdays, and finding ways to provide support. Maybe more support for some events and people than others, but take the challenge. Don’t tell why you can’t, dream of why you can. I promise you, more events will create more SQL Saturdays, and more changes to make larger, paid for events work for PASS.

    I want every attendee to share SQL Saturdays with your friends, and help grow to more events in your area, or a new area closer to you. Fifty people can make an event, if you just give back a little.

    Failure is not an option.

    It shouldn’t be. Let’s dream big. After all, who would have thought we’d get this far? Andy and I certainly used to wonder if we could actually have 12  year.

    500 events in the US in a year is crazy. It’s silly. Maybe it’s not possible, but I’d like to think we can get to 500 if you challenge yourself and just dream a little.

  • Slimmer SQL Saturdays

    I’ve had this idea for some time. It’s been bugging me, but I haven’t really been pressured to write, nor inspired. That changed a bit with the announcement of the rules change for SQL Saturdays, as well as a few discussions I had with people.

    I dislike the announcement for a few reasons, which you can read if you like.

    Of What does a SQL Saturday Consist?

    Like my grammar? I was desperate to avoid the preposition at the end. However, I’m wandering away from what I want to write about.

    What does a SQL Saturday consist of each week? I think this is a high level view of the tasks that have taken place at many of the events I’ve attended in the last few years.

    • Get a venue
    • Sell sponsors some advertising/exhibition package
    • Perhaps put together pre-con events (get more space and manage logistics)
    • Get speakers to come speak
    • Market the event
    • Put together a speaker dinner
    • Have some sort of speaker gift
    • Order shirts for speakers and/or volunteers
    • Contract for some sort of lunch
    • Get volunteers to help with logistics
    • Buy some prizes
    • Teach people in sessions
    • Have a closing and give stuff away.
    • Get people to come to an after party, often providing some food and drinks.

    Now, what do we need to have a SQL Saturday?

    • Get a venue
    • Get a few speakers
    • Market the event
    • Teach people in sessions

    The core of this event is teaching people. It’s about touching many people that may never go to the PASS Summit, or DevConnections, or SQL Intersection. It’s about helping people get inspired in this business, learn something, meet colleagues. It’s about building a community.

    Everything else is gravy.

    Let’s be clear. I have no issue with events that can put on a fancy dinner for speakers, or give nice gifts, or cater lunch, or give away XBOXs to an attendee. I have no issue with any of that, and if you can, do it. However, please don’t feel you have to. Please don’t compete and build an event based on the budget you want, or have seen elsewhere. Please don’t make this event about stuff.

    Remember the attendees.

    Money is Tight

    Money is tight with product vendors, and it’s tight with recruiters, and it’s tight with venue sponsors. I have been worried about this for a few years now, as I think vendors have gotten caught up in the SQL Saturday excitement as much as organizers, speakers, and attendees. There has been lots of easy money, and as a result, I’ve seen competition and effort put into making a SQL Saturday more like a mini-Summit than a free, grassroots, one-day event.

    I am not complaining about anyone’s efforts. Many of you have done amazing jobs putting on events, and I’ve been impressed, and also quite humbled by your efforts. You really care and do a great job.

    However.

    The easy money isn’t sustainable, and I want many of you to be cognizant of that. I want you to ensure that you run another event next year, based on the budget you have, not the budget you want.

    Most of all, I want you to feel successful with your event because attendees came and learned something. Attendees don’t care about the extras that much, at least not overall. Someone will always complain. Extras are nice, but people come to learn and interact. They come because they’re hungry to be better at their jobs.

    Please don’t expect that you need to raise, or spend, $10,000, or even $5,000. Raise what you need, but build the event that suits you. I won’t think any less of you if I need to buy my own breakfast, coffee (yes, that’s a separate meal), dinner, and drinks.

    I promise you, the attendees won’t think less of you either if there’s a room, a speaker, and a slice of pizza for lunch.

  • Growth or Control – #sqlpass

    I’m disturbed.

    I read an announcement from the PASS organization this week that bothers me. I am less upset with the content than the manner in which it was presented, though I am not pleased with either.

    Making SQL Saturday Sustainable was released this week, with a few changes to the SQL Saturday franchise. You can read the piece, but there are two fundamental changes being made for 2017 and beyond:

    • [PASS] will be reducing this to amount to $250 and targeting those cities/locations that really need the financial support to grow, rather than well-established events.
    • [PASS] is implementing a new 600-mile radius and concurrent event timing restriction to reduce competition between individual SQLSaturday events in Canada/USA.

    There are comments on these notes at the bottom of the announcement.

    Heavy Handed and Ham Fisted

    I’m not sure why, but it seems that no matter who has been elected to the PASS Board of Directors seems to believe that they must make decisions without communicating, collaborating, or consulting the community. Decisions made year after year, on various topics (Summit location, pre-con speaker criteria, code of conduct, org name change, etc.) are announced without and sort of discussion or communication with the community they serve.

    We are a community of diverse and disparate individuals. We won’t agree on many topics as a group, but we can discuss and debate them. We can have open and transparent disagreement about how to handle situations. Ultimately the board must decide (after a vote), but I’d hope and expect, really, I demand, that they solicit views before making decisions. It’s ridiculous in this age of instant communication, of no-cost publishing, of email votes, to not propose changes, gather feedback, and then make a decision.

    Doing otherwise is as disrespectful as it is heavy handed.

    This is not specific to this decision, but rather the way the PASS BoD has operated across a decade. I will say that I don’t think the Board makes all bad decisions. But they have made some that could have been avoided with a little more collaboration with those affected, us, the voters.

    The Decisions

    What about these specific decisions? Well, I have a few thoughts.

    I do think these decisions are intended to slow the growth of SQL Saturdays. There is something to be said for this, in that sustaining fewer events for the long term is easier to manage and may not require replacing Karla Landrum as an evangelist. This benefits vendors, including my employer, but it’s not great for attendees. There will be fewer chances to learn, and smaller events in places that will never grow to 200+ people will likely die. Or move to a Code Camp/different model, abandoning SQL Saturday. That makes me sad. This appears to be less about growth, and mostly about controlling fewer events.

    First, on the financial aspect. Let me say I know there are events that raise well over $20k (I have no idea what the record is). I also know there are events that have only raised $2-3k. The low level might even be lower. It doesn’t matter what you think about event cost, some events don’t need $500 and there is a limit to what PASS can support. I think not committing to funds for every event is good. However, what I’d like is flexibility.

    Don’t set a hard limit, and note that events could get up to $500, but PASS reserves the right to not provide any financial support.

    Now, the 600mi radius for events. Well, it’s not just 600mi, but also 600mi + a weekend either way. Let’s see 600mi from a few cities. Rob Volk tweeted this image:

    2016-07-19 20_59_24-Rob Volk on Twitter_ _@codegumbo Nashville_Salt Lake City on consecutive weekend

    This is 600mi from Nashville and Salt Lake City. That means that most of the US couldn’t have an event in a month with these two, at least not if there were a holiday weekend. Certainly some large cities are still here (major TX cities, NY area, etc), but most of CA, the West, the Midwest are all cut off.

    Know what cities are within 600mi of each other? Vancouver and Portland. These two cities have held events book-ending the PASS Summit to allow speakers from overseas (or US speakers/attendees) to go to one or both events around the Summit. That’s now cut off.

    There are probably others, but I will say this. The hardest part of getting an event going is the venue. There are more than a few organizers and events that have worked out deals with schools or other events. Baton Rouge and Oklahoma City? One might need to move. Those markets have had events in the same month, within 600mi of each other.

    I have always thought the 400mi limitation was ridiculous. Events can happen within 400mi if they can manage to find speakers and raise funds. Rather than arbitrarily limit events by distance, why not limit by viability, or by fundraising?

    I love that we’ve grown to over 100 events in a year. I think it’s great, but I also think the competition and effort put into making large events is crazy. I don’t like 10+ tracks. I don’t like 30+ speakers. I don’t like $20k spends that include fancy dinners.

    The aim here is to train people, teach them something, inspire them, and expose them to options for SQL Server, including vendors. I get that vendors struggle to justify going to so many events. That’s fine. Make choices. I suspect vendors will support larger events and smaller ones will struggle.

    I’ll put down thoughts, but smaller event, just be smaller. Don’t buy dinner. Don’t make shirts. Don’t try to provide a great meal for attendees.

    Teach them. That’s what the event is about. Stop there and you’ll be fine. Everything else is nice to have, but in no way necessary.

    And PASS, please, stop believing you need to earn your position and make hard decisions as a small group. Work with the community, with proposals, not decrees.

  • Thanks, Karla

    I heard the news this week, and I’m still sad. Karla Landrum is leaving PASS after five years of acting as the Community Evangelist.

    Thank you, Karla, for all you’ve done.

    In the last five years, we’ve seen tremendous growth in the SQL Saturday franchise, as well as other chapters. Most of that has to do with Karla’s work ethic and success in supporting even organizers all over the globe.

    When Andy Warren and I transferred the SQL Saturday franchise to PASS, we were hoping that the organization would provide a bit more support and help in organizing events. Our expectations were wildly exceeded with tremendous growth in the number of events. In 2010, when we transferred the responsibility, there had been 26 events held. That was across the span from Oct 2007 to Mar 2010.

    2016-07-13 10_14_39-Book1 - Excel

     

    That tremendous growth in 2011-2015 is Karla. Even this year is on pace to exceed last year’s event total.

    All of you that have attended, spoken at, or learned something from a SQL Saturday should send a thank you to Karla for your tireless advocacy and help in ensuring that many of us could get free training almost every weekend somewhere in the world.

    Karla will be missed by many of us, and I just wanted to publicly thank her and let her know how much I’ve enjoyed working with her over the years.

    I hope PASS can find someone that can continue her work in growing our SQL Server community.