Tag: Summit

PASS Summit 2014 PASS Board Q and A

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At PASS Summit 2014 in Seattle, I attended a couple Q and A sessions with the PASS Board of Directors members. There were three such sessions. I missed the general Q and A as my Summit presentation was at that same time. Rather than try to capture the play by play of everything, I decided to distil all my notes into a single post that is more of an article. I have not really tried this type of journalistic article before, so I hope you will bear with me.

For the past two years, the PASS Board election process has been somewhat less than smooth from a Community perspective. Last year, there was uproar over the fact that people with multiple sqlpass.org accounts could vote from each account, thereby allowing them to vote multiple times. To try to rectify that situation prior to the 2014 election, PASS instituted a policy that required people to update their PASS profile in order to be eligible to vote. The plan was to also look for duplication in the accounts and have people with multiple accounts choose a single one to serve as their account. As listed in this post by PASS President Thomas LaRock (Blog|Twitter) on the PASS blog, PASS communicated this requirement many times on many different channels. Despite this, there were many members that did not receive the message and/or take necessary action to ensure their eligibility to vote in this year’s election. Once again, there was a massive outcry against PASS over this situation. When asked about this situation, PASS Executive Vice President, Finance and Governance, Adam Jorgensen (Blog|Twitter) replied, “A significant amount of work went into the communication plan on this. People didn’t get an email, but email was not the only thing.” Given the fact that PASS tried so many avenues of communication, Adam wants to ask PASS members the following: “What is the BEST way to make sure, when we communicate with folks, that they read it AND take action? What is the best vehicle? What channels are most effective for them?”

All of this outcry started once the election began and people discovered they were not eligible to vote. There was an understandable amount of frustration for people whose reactions suggested they felt they were being disenfranchised. The PASS Board responded to this outcry by extending the election to allow people more time to update their profiles. I asked what went into making that change. Adam explained that the PASS organization is governed by Bylaws as well as the laws of the state of Illinois. As such, it is not going to be able to turn on a dime. According to Adam, “We had to decide if wanted (and if so how) to change things and extend the election. This required 12 people in a very short time. HQ did a great job to help coordinate that. We had to talk to our legal counsel to assess the ramifications of changing things midstream.” Denise McInerney (Blog|Twitter), PASS Vice President, Marketing, added to this, “HQ did an amazing amount of work during that election change. A lot of credit goes to HQ for enabling us to do this as quickly as we did.” Adam went on to describe some of the thinking that was involved in this process. “Is it good governance or bad governance to extend or change the election in the middle? LOTS of conversation on that.” In the end, the Board made a conclusion that I agree with: “[It is] bad governance to change the election, BUT governance isn’t just about trying to err on the side of good or bad governance, but also about keeping a community what we want it to be.” The Board decided it was more important to keep the community whole than to perfectly adhere to policies they had enacted.

Another topic that has ben on people’s minds is the decision to commit to continuing to develop the Business Analytics (BA) Conference. At the Blogger Q and A, Thomas LeBlanc (Blog|Twitter) asked why this investment was going to continue given the challenges it has faced. Thomas LaRock gave the first response. “Three years ago, Microsoft came to us and said, ‘You guys have built something incredible. Can you go find the Business Analytics folks?” Basically, PASS has helped to build and foster an amazing community around Microsoft data technologies in terms of those who develop tools, and provided the services for others to do so. Microsoft asked PASS to try to do the same thing for the people who consume those services and that data. In the age of Self Service and tools like Power Pivot, there is certainly some overlap in terms of people enable analysis of data and those of perform that analysis. But largely, the audience for the BA Conference is one that PASS has not really targeted or served before.

Regarding the fact that the BA Conference has not really found its footing yet, Denise contributed, “You learn as you go. We didn’t quite hit the mark on getting the program and audience matched up. We tried to be too many things to too many people.” She added that PASS does Community very well. I have to agree on that. And that Community really helps people develop and learn. Attendees at PASS events often have great experiences of learning something cool and saying, “I’m going to try this at work on Monday.” According to Denise, “We want to create THAT experience for the business data user.”

Adam acknowledged that there have been questions around why PASS didn’t just do a BI (Business Intelligence) conference. “It’s not about BI. And if you do a BI conference, where does half of Summit go?” He then added what I feel is a great point, “We don’t want to split audiences up; we want to bring them together.” This is key as it reinforces that understanding that many of us have that the audience for the BA Conference is not really a subset of the existing PASS Summit audience; it is a different group of people that PASS has not served before. As Adam explained, “Are we taking something away? We’re not. We are building something new that is additive.”

Regarding BA Conference location, the first was in Chicago. Last year was held in San Jose, CA. Next year will be in Santa Clara CA. 2016 is back in San Jose. Thomas LeBlanc asked why the BA Conference is not as mobile as Summit. According to Denise, “Silicon Valley was strategic. Silicon Valley is on the leading edge with what is happening with Analytics. By locating there, we thought we would have access to a pool of speakers that would be local to the conference.” The idea is that this would make it easier to get speakers. Locating in Silicon Valley is not just about speakers, though. Denise continued, “Lots of the target audience lives there. Exhibitors would be nearby and it would be easy to get them.”

The topic of Speakers brought forth the topic of the decision NOT to have a Community Call For Speakers for the BA Conference this year. Instead, the speakers will be invited only. For many, this is seen as a problem. I, myself, being a speaker who has content appropriate for business users, was disappointed by this decision at first. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. In the existing PASS Community, we have a lot of presenters with content around BI. But we have very few with analytics topics. My own content around showing people how to use Power Pivot is still BI, even if it is aimed at the business user. It is still about enabling analytics as opposed to performing analytics. Adam pointed out that when Summit first started, there was not Community Call For Speakers. According to Adam, “We have looked at the [evaluation] results over the past few years. People liked it but the program was mis-targeted to them.” Some have asked why the board did not choose to do a community call for a percentage of the sessions. Adam indicated that the board discussed that and arrived at this though: “What percentage is acceptable to be NOT OK with attendees? That would be zero.” I have to agree with Adam, here. That is also why I totally understand why I did not receive an invitation to speak. I have not demonstrated that I have content appropriate to an Analytics audience.

At this point it is appropriate to bring in some comments from the separate Q and A about the BA Conference. Jen Stirrup (Blog|Twitter), Director-at-Large, Virtual Chapters, gave further explanation behind the decision to keep forging ahead. “We did a lot of research with the BA Conference. People are really excited in Microsoft products, so that will continue to be a base. But, Tableau, for example, has its own user conference. We don’t want to just create another Tableau conference. I have spoken at those. They were much more sales driven and about user stories. With PASS, the main emphasis is on practicality. Learn on one day and apply it on the next.” She then put a key difference between BI and Analytics that I had not heard before: “BI projects focus on deliverables. BA stuff focus on business value.” That makes sense to me. With BI, we work to produce some object, whether it be a data model, cube, report, dashboard… As Jen added about Business Analytics, “[it] is less time-boxed and more value oriented.”

Amy Lewis (Blog|Twitter), Director-at-Large, PASS Programs, made a fine point here as well: “One thing we did poorly before was focusing on the tools. We saw we need to stop focusing on the architect perspective and more on the data analyst standpoint.” When asked about the personas present in the intended audience, Denise added, “We have come to understand it is not about job title. It was about what they do all day. What they have in common is Find Data, Make Sense, Produce Something With Impact.” Denise went on to point out that there were marketing issues in the past. “As far as Marketing, last year people thought it was a SQL conference. It has its own site, now. All the messaging is consistent now to clarify that.” Head on over to the new website to learn more about the new and improved messaging.

I want to close with a direct request from the Board. Adam pointed out that the PASS Board are fairly reachable people and are happy to respond to questions they receive. He stressed, “I would request that if you want to know the answer to a question, ASK THE QUESTION. We are happy to have conversation, but the judge, jury, and executioner style is just NOT productive.” Adam gave a great example of a blogger who wanted some facts for a blog post and ended up having a great conference call with several board members to get the information he needed. Tom then added, “I have really enjoyed this blogger Q and A at Summit. We should find a way to do this more.” We discussed the idea of doing this quarterly or something and in a format like #DataChat on Twitter happens now. That sounds like a good plan and a good way to help people who may feel they are not being heard to have another avenue to speak out.

I hope you found this helpful. I certainly feel better about these topics having attended the Q and A sessions and put in the work to write this up.

My PASS Summit 2014 Submission Feedback

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Speakers have been asking PASS for feedback regarding their Summit submissions for a few years. This year, following a bit of a heated “discussion,” PASS announced that session feedback would be available upon request. I, like so many other speakers had done, applaud this decision. PASS did make it clear that the both the quantity and the quality of the feedback varies widely.

I am a big proponent of learning from the experiences of others. As such, in the hopes that someone can learn something from the feedback I got, I hereby share what I received. I want to thank the reviewers who took the time to make these comments.

Analysis Services Terms and Concepts For The DBA (REGULAR SESSION – NOT SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

Despite some overlapping concepts, the worlds of the Relational engine and Analysis Services really are quite different. With more and more organizations realizing the power of Analytics, there is a good chance a BI initiative will come your way at some point.

 

This session is intended for the DBA that wants/needs to learn more about SQL Server Analysis Services. The goal is to provide a meaningful base of knowledge that will allow you to effectively participate in discussions of Analysis Services in your organization.

 

Through both slides and demos, you will learn:

— The differences between SSAS Multidimensional and SSAS Tabular

— Key terms like Measures, Dimensions, and Hierarchies

— Storage options such as MOLAP, HOLAP, ROLAP, and Direct Query

— Monitoring with Extended Events

— Overviews of MDX, DAX, and XMLA

— And more

 

Come take a few steps into the exciting world of Business Intelligence with SQL Server Analysis Services.

FEEDBACK

Seems this may be a 100 level session
Good topic, sounds more like a 100-level session to me.
No need of prerequisites to be SQL Server Administrator. should also focus on OLAP DW part and schema concept, slice and dice part of SSAS OLAP cube if someone wants to show the power of BI Analytics using SQL server analysis services.
Thanks,
Excellent and useful topic!

 

DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting (REGULAR SESSION – NOT SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, we have learned a lot about the chemistry of the brain and why humans react the way we do to events in our environment. The idea of Emotional Intelligence – EQ – is a compelling concept that applies this knowledge in a set of learn-able, improvable skills for leading others. Although EQ is often applied to corporate leadership, this session will explain the basics of EQ and demonstrate how you can use it to make your presentations better in the following areas:

 

• Crafting better slide decks

• Preparing yourself for presenting

• Delivering your content

• Dealing with the unexpected

 

Understanding and practicing the concepts of EQ can make your presentations a better experience for everyone in the room – including you.

NOTE

This session was chosen as an Alternate last year and I ended up presenting. It was greatly successful (narrowly missed being in the Top Ten sessions) so I submitted it again, noting to the committee why I was doing so. That should provide some additional context to some of the feedback.

FEEDBACK

Excellent topic. Excellent consistency across session name, abstract, topic and goals. Perhaps, given the topic, some real examples should have been added. Reference to PASS is 2013 should have been avoided.
While the abstract and topic are great I’m not sure that we would want to see a repeat session from last year.
Delivered too recently at the past Summit. Very targeted audience.
The abstract goes too much into EQ and feels disconnected from the title.

 

Keeping the "Business" in Business Intelligence (REGULAR SESSION – NOT SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

It is no accident the term “Business Intelligence” starts with “Business.” Any Business Intelligence initiative should, likewise, start with the needs of the Business. For many years, BI was seen as a technology project. This is one reason why so many BI initiatives fail. Rather than a Technology Project, BI is a Business Program. It must grow and evolve as the Business grows and evolves.

 

In this session, we will discuss the following:

— Why BI is a worthwhile investment (using case study examples)

— What criteria to use in determining the success of a BI initiative

— Several reasons why BI initiatives fail

— Critical Success Factors for BI

 

So much of the success for BI happens before the requirements are even gathered. Come learn how you can set yourself up for success with Business Intelligence.

FEEDBACK

Could be an interesting approach to a rather dry topic
The abstract is clear about what will be discussed as for failures of BI projects. If it has real examples, maybe you can get some demo to demonstrate. You can demo the results in chart, as time and effort, even the results.
Thanks for the abstract.

 

Power Query: Data Chemistry for The Masses (REGULAR SESSION – SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

ETL Developers have being doing chemistry with data for years in tools like SQL Server Integration Services. These tools require training, experience, and time that few business users have. But in the age of self-service BI, those business users need a way to shape data to support their analysis.

 

This session will show how Power Query can be easily used to take advantage of data’s properties to drive the change we need to support our goals.

 

We will discuss/demonstrate:

— The simple process of accessing a wide variety of data sources

— The ease with which simple transformations can be achieved using the Power Query Ribbon

— Power Query’s fantastic ability to travel through time to see every step taken with the data

— The foundations of the Power Query Formula Language, informally known as "M"

— Using "M" to take Power Query WAY beyond what the Ribbon has to offer.

 

Come learn about what may well be the most exciting member of the Power BI family.

FEEDBACK

seems like too much to cover in 75

 

MDX Trek: First Contact (REGULAR SESSION – NOT SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

As with so many aspects of life, a solid foundation makes a huge difference. This Star Trek themed introduction to MDX leads you on a voyage through the terms and concepts necessary for a solid foundation for learning this fascinating language. Terms covered include:

— Measures and Measure Groups

— Attributes and Dimensions

— Hierarchies

— Members

— Tuples

— Sets

 

This session also shows how you can think about the cube space in a way that is very easy to understand. The word "cube" suggests a 3 dimensional object. That way of thinking is fraught with confusion. Forget about the Rubik’s Cube. It doesn’t help.

 

With that foundation, we then dive into MDX syntax and fundamentals including:

— Query Axes

— Slicer Axis

— Tuples and Sets

— Hierarchy Navigation Functions

— Crossjoin

— Functions allowing us to travel through time

 

Come join us for a fun voyage through the cube space and boldly go where no MDX presentation has gone before.

FEEDBACK

Is the topic about MDX or DAX? Just got a little bit confused. The abstract states what will be discussed and what the analogy comes from. About the level, it may be better to be at level 100 since it is an introduction of MDX.

 

Getting Started with SSAS Extended Events (LIGHTNING TALK – SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

With SQL Server Profiler on its way to retirement, our friends on the relational database side of the house have already been taking great advantage of the power of Extended Events (XE). There is a lot of great info out there for using XE against the database engine. For Analysis Services, there is a lot less.

 

This Lightning Talk will demonstrate how easy it is to get started very quickly with SSAS XE once you have some basic information.

 

We will demonstrate:

— Creating an SSAS Extended Events Trace which outputs to a .xel file

— Make sure your trace is running via the DISCOVER_TRACES rowset

— Importing the contents of that .xel file into a SQL Server db engine table for analysis

— Deleting the SSAS Extended Events trace

FEEDBACK

Good topic and the abstract explains exactly what the attendee can expect from the session
Great abstract with details on what will be presented and what to expect to learn!
Thanks for the abstract,It’s good to have someone talk on the  power of Extended Events (XEvents) part.

 

Reporting Services Pagination Triple Play (LIGHTNING TALK – NOT SELECTED)

ABSTRACT

The ability to have some control over the pagination of Reporting Services reports has been around a while. But it never hurts to review the fundamentals.

 

This demonstration will cover:

— Basic pagination in Reporting Services using Rectangles (Love these)

— Adding a page name that carries to Excel exports

— Adding a basic Table of Contents to your multi-page report using Bookmarks

— Adding a more dynamic, data driven Table of Contents to your report using Bookmarks and expressions

 

Come on out to this ballgame where we hit on  SSRS pagination with a report about three of the most famous infielders in the history of Baseball.

 

FEEDBACK

Great abstract
Excellent topic that people always ask about in classes
100 demo!
Level appropriate to content
lots to cover in 10 minutes

 

My Takeaways

Given that there seems to be a wide range in terms of quality and quantity provided to speakers, I have to say that I feel I made out pretty well here. I am pretty happy with both the quantity and quality here.

I am a little puzzled about the confusion over whether my MDX session is on MDX or DAX. And I think MDX is complex enough that any session on it is at least a 200 level, particularly given that almost everyone learns TSQL first and must “unlearn” some things in order to grasp MDX.

Given that the Keeping the “Business” in Business Intelligence is about concepts and ideas, and not technology, I am not sure how I could add demo to it that would not be contrived in an attempt just to say there was some demo.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this feedback and glad PASS made the decision to make it available.

Thanks.

Presenting at PASS Summit 2014

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I am beyond delighted to announce that I will be presenting at PASS Summit 2014 in Seattle in November. I submitted a total of seven sessions (five regular sessions and two lightning talks). I ended up with one of each: one regular session and one lighting talk. This is a huge honor for me and a great step up from last year, for which I had one alternate session (which ended up getting promoted over the Summer, much to my joy).

Regular Session

Power Query: Data Chemistry for the Masses

ETL Developers have being doing chemistry with data for years in tools like SQL Server Integration Services. These tools require training, experience, and time that few business users have. But in the age of self-service BI, those business users need a way to shape data to support their analysis.

This session will show how Power Query can be easily used to take advantage of data’s properties to drive the change we need to support our goals.

We will discuss/demonstrate:
— The simple process of accessing a wide variety of data sources
— The ease with which simple transformations can be achieved using the Power Query Ribbon
— Power Query’s fantastic ability to travel through time to see every step taken with the data
— The foundations of the Power Query Formula Language, informally know as “M”
— Using “M” to take Power Query WAY beyond what the Ribbon has to offer.

Come learn about what may well be the most exciting member of the Power BI family.

Lightning Talk

Getting Started With SSAS Extended Events

With SQL Server Profiler on its way to retirement, our friends on the relational database side of the house have already been taking great advantage of the power of Extended Events (XE). There is a lot of great info out there for using XE against the database engine. For Analysis Services, there is a lot less.

This Lightning Talk will demonstrate how easy it is to get started very quickly with SSAS XE once you have some basic information.

We will demonstrate:
— Creating an SSAS Extended Events Trace which outputs to a .xel file
— Make sure your trace is running via the DISCOVER_TRACES rowset
— Importing the contents of that .xel file into a SQL Server db engine table for analysis
— Deleting the SSAS Extended Events trace

A Note To My Fellow Speakers

I wanted to take a moment to shout out to my fellow Summit Speakers, especially those for whom this will be your first time speaking at Summit. With the announcement today about speaker selection, there were quite a few Congrats going around the Twitterverse. That was good to see. As a speaker myself, I know how gratifying it is when people are excited for you at a time like this.

There was also a fair bit of negativity today. We in the SQL Community are a passionate bunch. We care deeply about what goes on and can be vocal when we think something isn’t the way we feel it should be. We are all humans as far as I am aware; humans are emotional creatures. So, sometimes, passions will get the best of us and we may not communicate it in the best way as a result. I think there was a fair amount of that today. There will always be people that are disappointed with certain choices made by PASS or any other organization. Sometimes that disappointment is justified in a real way, and not just via the perception of a few. Sometimes it is hard to see it as anything other than lashing out with disappointment. PASS, like any other organization, is not perfect. One thing we need to remember, though, is that while the process may be imperfect, there are a lot of people working very hard to do the best they can. I think some people forgot that today. Even if there are some legitimate concerns about the perception created by certain choices, I think we need to be careful not to jump too quickly into an accusatory posture. There are constructive ways to air concerns and there are destructive ways. Today, there was a little too much of the latter.

I beg you, fellow speakers, not to let that negativity dampen your excitement or pride over having a session accepted to such an incredible event as PASS Summit. I join with you in being just pumped about getting to speak again. Congratulations and I will see you in November!

PASS Summit 2013 Recap of Madness and Mayhem

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Greetings! Another PASS Summit has come and gone. This was my third Summit and I have to say that I am truly hooked on this spectacular event. I had the privilege to be a bit more involved this year than in years past. I love when I can give some of my time and energy to help out an organization that has been hugely important for me in my career with SQL Server.

I spent much of Tuesday in meetings related to the PASS organization. There was the Regional Mentors meeting, the Chapter Leader meeting, and a chance to sit down with the Canadian Chapter Leaders. As a PASS Regional Mentor for Canada, that was great since I don’t often get the chance to see them in person.Summit 2013 Badge

Since it was already confirmed on Twitter, I would like to say that I will be working with SQL MVP and Winnipeg  SQL Server User Group chapter leader, Mike DeFehr (Blog|Twitter), on planning a SQL Saturday in his fine city. I am hoping I will get to go as well. I have never been involved in running a SQL Saturday and I thought helping Mike would be a great way to fulfill my role as a Regional Mentor and also give me the experience to better help others with their event planning in the future.

PASS invited me to be on the Blogger Core and have a seat at the Bloggers table for the keynotes this year. While it can be challenging to keep up with meaningful things to post while live blogging, I really enjoy it. I always get a lot out of it. You can read those posts at PASS Summit Keynote Live Blog – Day 1 and  PASS Summit Keynote Live Blog – Day 2 respectively.

When PASS invited me to serve on the Blogger Core, they also indicated I would have access to an Interview room. I had never interviewed anyone before, but it seemed like a great opportunity to capitalize on connections I had made at PASS BA Conference, Tech Ed North America, and past PASS events. I decided, with the fast pace of change occurring in Business Intelligence both at Microsoft and in the industry as a whole, that I should try to sit down with prominent Microsoft personnel to talk about their work and the future of Microsoft BI. Being a lowly blogger from Minneapolis, I didn’t expect to get very far, but I had to try. I was astonished at the access I was given. Listed in chronological order of when the interviews took place, I sat down with:

  • Matt Masson (Blog|Twitter), Senior Program Manager for SQL Server Integration Services
  • Kamal Hathi, Director of Program Management for Microsoft Business Intelligence
  • Kasper de Jonge (Blog|Twitter), Program Manager for SQL Server Analysis Services

I know! Right? For real.

Transcribing the audio from these interviews is taking a little time. Each interview will get its own blog post. I hope to have the first one released next week. I have to express my great appreciation to Matt, Kamal, and Kasper for giving of their valuable time to chat with me. I also need to say thanks to Microsoft’s Cindy Gross (Blog|Twitter) for helping with my connection to Kamal Hathi.

I also had the honor of wearing a SPEAKER ribbon on my Summit badge this year. It was my first time speaking at PASS Summit; a career milestone to be sure. I am happy to report my presentation, DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting, went extremely well. And, despite presenting right after Dr. David DeWitt’s brilliant keynote and being on the other end of the Convention Center, there were very few empty chairs in my room. The feedback I have received so far is all very positive. Thanks to all who chose my session when there were so many great options to choose from.

While I ended up having to miss the public Q&A Session with the PASS Board of Directors, I do have some notes from the private Blogger Q&A with the executive committee. I will prep that for another post.

If you ever get the chance to go to PASS Summit, grab onto it with both hands. There’s nothing like connecting, sharing, and learning with a few thousand of your closest friends to get you jazzed about what you do.

GO

A Milestone: Presenting at PASS Summit

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I have been presenting for several years. I can’t properly explain how much I love it. Since before I even attended my first PASS Summit, it has been a career goal that I would one day present at the premier SQL Server focused training event on the planet. When I got the email a while back that my DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting session had been chosen as an Alternate for the 2013 Summit, I was pretty happy. It was my best result yet.

It is with tremendous joy that I now report that I am no longer an Alternate. Due to a cancellation, PASS had an opening in the Professional Development track and asked me to fill it. Not only do I get to fulfill a career goal of presenting at the Summit, but I get to do so with an exciting new session. I honestly feel this session will not only help new presenters get started on the right foot, but will also help re-invigorate more experienced folk.

You can read the abstract for it here: DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting

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Summing Up PASS Summit 2012

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I attended my second PASS Summit this year. And my experience, once again, was awesome. This year was definitely a different kind of awesome, though. Last year, I was a First Timer and was awesomely overwhelmed at pretty much everything. This year, I was a First Timer Mentor, helping a group of First Timers learn the ropes and get their feet wet in the most excellent SQL Training event there is. This year was my first Summit as a PASS Regional Mentor. So, I had some official stuff I needed to do like attending the Regional Mentors meeting and the Chapter Leaders meeting and spending some time helping out in the Community Zone (a new feature this year). I also had the change to sit down with Chris Shaw (b|t), the other Regional Mentor for Canada, and several of our Canadian Chapter Leaders for an in-person meeting to talk about the challenges they face and how we, as Regional Mentors, can help them out. That was fantastic. Particularly since Canada is so vast, and Chris and I both live in the US, it was an amazing opportunity.

I also volunteered as an Ambassador, helping answer questions and direct people to where they need to be. It was my involvement this year that made such a difference for me. Putting together an event like the PASS Summit is a massive undertaking. Even though my part was miniscule, I felt honored and proud to help out a community that means so much to me. I also got to meet the AWESOME people of PASS HQ and do what I could to make their time a bit easier.

The sessions I attended were really cool and I cannot wait to start watching the session recordings. I met a lot of new people, including Buck Woody (b|t) and Denny Lee(b|t) and so many others for the very first time. I got to spend time with so many people who I rarely see. There are too many to name that fall into this category. SQL Karaoke was EPIC and frequent. That was just awesome to do karaoke to a live band. Just. Awesome.

I was asked recently what my biggest takeaway from Summit 2012 was. It only took about 1 second to come up with the answer, “Community.” This year, for me, was more about the Community than anything else.

I have to send out a hekaton of thanks to PASS HQ, the sponsors, speakers, volunteers, vendors, Microsoft, and everyone else who made the 2012 PASS Summit just friggin awesome.

Oh, and it took all week, but on Friday, I finally managed to juggle three of the full-sized beanbag chairs in the Community Zone.