PASS Summit 2013 : A success in Charlotte

There has been plenty of back-and-forth about whether the PASS Summit should be held in Seattle or move around the country. I understand and agree with the benefits that each side sees, and I've always sided with the Seattle folks by a very large margin. I won't get into the reasons or try to turn this into a political debate, but I will say that – after having experienced the event in Charlotte – I'm now much more amenable to the road show. Charlotte was just fantastic and I think, aside from the room size problems that are near impossible to solve, this was easily the smoothest version I've ever attended (and it was my 9th).

Making Memories Last

I do want to extend a special thank you to Pat Wright (@SqlAsylum). Pat has been selflessly taking mountains and mountains of pictures of this event for as long as I can remember. A lot of you probably don't realize that when you sit through a keynote and watch all of those montages, and maybe even see a shot of yourself up on the big screen, that picture was probably taken by Pat. I found a rare picture of him in his own flickr stream and got his permission to crop it and post it here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/asylumphoto/10293419546/

Thanks for all you do Pat!

My Performance-Related Sessions

I had three sessions at this year's Summit; one was a panel discussion on remote work with several of my esteemed colleagues, and the other two were spotlight sessions on Transact-SQL and performance (one on my own, and one with my good friend and co-worker Kevin Kline (@kekline). I promised I'd post the decks and samples from the two performance-related sessions, and I have posted them to the Summit web site, but they don't appear to be available for download yet. So I'm also sharing them here.

T-SQL: Bad Habits and Best Practices [AD-209-S]

Session Details | PowerPoint | Samples

10 Query Tuning Techniques Every SQL Programmer Should Know [AD-104-S]

Session Details | PowerPoint | Samples | Watch it Online!

If you were at our sessions – heck, if you went to any sessions at all – please be sure to go back and fill out the evaluations. Speakers crave all feedback, but especially the constructive kind, because we're always striving to be better at delivering content to you. You can fill out session evaluations through the end of Friday, October 25th.

SQL Sentry at the PASS Summit

Being in our hometown, SQL Sentry went all out for this event. We sponsored #SQLRun, SQL Karaoke, the Quiz Bowl at the Welcome Reception, the Women in Technology Luncheon, and ran shuttles around town for three nights. We also sent 6 contest winners from earlier in the year around the Charlotte Motor Speedway at speeds of up to 160mph; several of us were able to get involved in a ride-along as well. I'll post more pictures as I find them… if you have any to share, please let me know.

Our evening shuttles proved invaluable in getting folks to some of the too-far-to-walk areas, like NoDa and NC Music Factory, and of course getting them back home SQL Sentry went there, marked the route, and provided the T-shirt – we supplied 100 quick-dry running shirts, but were overwhelmed with many more runners than shirts Paul White and I discuss the pros and cons of MERGE – if you missed it, during the conference, my tip on using caution with MERGE was published Once again, the SQL Sentry team does its best to represent on kilt day – for your own safety, please try to avoid staring directly into the lights (or our legs)

One lucky Quiz Bowl participant, Joseph Cunningham (@joseph_c), took home this great prize: a 32GB Retina iPad Kevin Kline only looks like Brad Keselowski here, before he goes on his 160mph ride-along Nick Harshbarger and I share a quick laugh before I take my turn around the track – I'm sure he's helpfully reminding me that the speeds here aren't in Canadian metric Kevin Kline, Kimberly Tripp and I pose for a quick shot

The Richard Petty Driving Experience was fantastic. We have a video called "World's Fastest DBA" that will give you a much better sense of how exciting Charlotte Motor Speedway was on Friday night. Watch our Facebook page for more updates!

See you next year!

PASS is back in Seattle next year, and I hope to see a lot of you there. It's a shame this event only happens once a year, but I guess that's part of what makes it so special.