The following is my highlights and thoughts about the day two keynote at the SQL PASS Member Summit.
Douglas McDowell started recapping yesterday events shortly followed by some great information about PASS financials. Five years ago there were no SQL Saturday, no 24hrs of PASS less than half the amount of chapters. Currently PASS is a 8 million dollars as a non-for profit organization. The majority of the funding comes from the member summit and it’s a bargain for attendees.
Wendy Pastrick, James Rowland-Jones and Sri Sridharan were introduced as new board members serving two-year terms from Jan 1 2013 to Dec 31 2014. It’s an honor to have them help lead our SQLPASS future.
Tom LaRock takes the stage. PASS wouldn’t exist with out the strong commitment from its volunteers. Due to growth the PASSion Award acknowledges volunteers every month. Glad to see some of my great friends in Dallas like Sri Sridharan, Ryan Adams and David Stine were winners. Jen Stirrup wins the PASSion Award for the year.
Tom talks about how PASS is working on improving its communication. If you have a recommendation for improvement PASS Board of Directors are walking around with black book to take notes. You can also attend Friday’s Board of Director Q&A to get instant feedback.
PASS Member Summit will move to Charlotte, NC on October 15-18 2013. This is a major move as many of us are in love with Seattle due to the Member Summit.
Tom thanks tons of companies who have sent more than five people to the PASS Member Summit. Many companies have sent 20 to 30 people.
Todays must see list includes WIT Luncheon, Community Zone, SQL Server Clinic, Dev Chalk Talks, Hands on Labs, Community Appreciation Party at EMP. Tomorrow’s must see to do list includes Dr. David Dewitt, Birds of a feather luncheon, Community Zone, SQL Server Clinic, Dev Chalk Talks, Hands on Labs, Board Q&A.
Quentin Clark the Corporate VP of Microsoft takes the stage and talks about data lifecycle. In my humble opinion, from this point on the rest of the keynote should have been moved to a general PASS session. It would have made a good Power Pivot session for that targeted audience. I believe it’s way too long for a keynote presentation for database professionals. If were going over BI I am expecting some short hitters that would wow me instead of a deep dive on a single topic. It’s also hard for me to follow along with the presenter. During the very first demo the speakers used ZoomIt so we could see the demo. From this point on it wasn’t used and I wasn’t able to see the examples and it made it hard for me to follow along.