PASS, the largest annual SQL Server conference, is quickly approaching. This means you only have a very short time to convince your Boss to make it his good deed for the year to send you. If you are required to justify why your company should spend thousands of dollars for you to attend, check out the ROI page on the PASS website for help/tips. Use all your charms and give it your best shot.

My first time

This is my first PASS conference and I'm looking forward to it as much as all of you. It’s all about SQL Server and I’m crazy about it. I’m hoping that I will finally meet those that I have interacted with on the web through Twitter, email, chat, the forums, and LessThanDot. Please introduce yourselves (I’ll do the same) and hopefully we can have the same great conversations in person as we do online.

I’ve also signed up for different PASS activities that would allow me to give back once again to the community.

During PASS, I will be involved in the following:

PASS Summit MVP Birds of a Feather Lunch

Mike Walsh is the man who facilitates the Birds of a Feather Lunch. I know it sounds like it’s just an ordinary lunch where chicken is served but it’s actually more than that (and I’m not sure if they’ll serve birds at all). A bunch of MVPs and SQLCAT team members will be in the lunch area at PASS and they’ll be seated on their table of expertise. Each table will have a different topic for discussion. You can then pick the table with the topic you’re most interested in and talk about the topic until you’re full (literally and figuratively). You can ask about disaster recovery options just as you would ask for someone to pass the salt. There’s no stress in openly asking questions. I’ll be seated at the "Cheapest DR/HA Options on SQL Server". The focus will be on lowering cost while still maintaining uptime and recovery from disasters. This is definitely something you wouldn’t want to miss especially after what your company spends to send you to PASS. Of course, if all you want to talk about is the weather, I’m up for that too. That is, what’s the DR for cold weather? Or we can just heckle the table next to us. One way or the other, I think we will all have a great time.

To read more about this part of PASS, check out Mike’s blog post, PASS Summit MVP Birds of a Feather Lunch 2010.

Ask the Experts

The Ask the Experts area is another great way to interact with MVPs and other experts in different areas of SQL Server. I’m not sure yet what my schedule to be there is but I will definitely be there. Please make sure to stop by and ask all the questions you have. Or just stop by to say hi and introduce yourself.

I encourage you to attend both of the events above even if you don’t have questions. It’s a good way to expand your network and get to know some people in the community.

There are a few other activities I’ve signed up to be a part of. Most of these are still in the planning stages and are not yet scheduled. Once they are, I will update this post.

Again, I hope to meet all of you. I definitely will be looking for many of you myself. See you there!