So as most of you know this was my first Summit experience and I can’t say enough great things about it… it was probably the most busy week of my life and sleep just seemed to get in the way of all the learning and networking.  I can’t even begin to list off all the amazing people I met this past week and what was so great about it was that they were just as pumped to meet me (or at least they pretended really well).

I STRONGLY recommend picking up the Summit DVDs cause even as an attendee some of those sessions were pure #bacon and need to be watched again…. while other sessions (Bob Ward’s Wait Types presentation) seemed (to me anyways) impossible to take it all in with one viewing.

I’ve never felt so welcome by a group of people I had just met and I think Twitter has to be given a shout out for helping break the ice.  There are a few people that I consider to be “SQL Royalty” and having chatted with them before on Twitter definitely made things very comfortable to strike up a conversation and go for drinks with.

The PASS Summit is a no-brainer for me to attend every year now for the rest of my SQL life and if you didn’t get a chance to go this year and you’re not sure if your company will send you next year…. put away a little money each month cause you CANNOT buy better training, networking, or general awesome fantastical fun than the PASS Summit.

A couple nights we hit a local hole in the wall karaoke bar named Busch Gardens… nothing but pure entertainment here hahahaa… where else can you see….

• @PatrickDBA sing Rhinestone Cowboy
• @MrDenny sing Eye of the Tiger
• @StatisticsIO “rickroll” the entire bar with Never Gonna Give You Up
• 30 of your new closest friends singing Bohemian Rhapsody together to close down the bar

FANTASTICAL!!! 

See you all next year… and if I haven’t met you yet…  you’re ALL on my hitlist for 2010

Enjoy!!

Day 2 (Monday) was full of meetings so while it wasn’t the most exciting of days it was very informative and I continued to meet all the tweeps I chat with daily and a bunch of new people (thanks to Don Gabor’s networking session).

In the evening a bunch of us decided to head out to an annual tradition (or so I hear) at the Summit and that is going to the karaoke joint called Busch Gardens… it was like sitting with 30 of my closest friends as everyone had a great time and there are plenty of incriminating photos and videos kicking around

Day 3 for me was what I considered to be REALLY Day 1 as all of the community and spotlight sessions started and I quickly saw why this is THE SQL event of the year.  I’ve been working with SQL Server for 13 years and one of the session I attended on Tuesday made me feel like I was back in year one.  I heard people refer to PASS as trying to drink from a firehose and I get it now… I get it.

I called it an early night last night as I wanted to make sure to keep my energy battery at least at 50% as there are still 3 days to go and I want to continue to do my best to take in as much information as possible.

Missing the family a tonne and had a good chat with @MidnightDBA, @SQLRockstar, and @Wendy_Dance about it which helped alot (thanks guys/gals)… this is my first time being away from my wife and kids EVER and being able to chat about it with some conference/travelling vets helped me out HUGE.

So I’m out for now… time to drink (the knowledge… not the Jaeger lol)

Enjoy!!

I can’t even begin to list all the people that I met yesterday and the big group is still coming today.  I went for dinner with Jason Massie ( @statisticsio ), Jason Strate ( @StrateSQL ), and Michelle Ufford (@SQLfool) and it’s amazing how welcoming and friendly EVERYONE is here.  We started our evening at the Tap Room… then headed over to the Pike Bar and Grill and met up with another 15 people… then went back to the lounge at the Sheraton and met up with another 15-20 people and then tried our best (and eventually got to) Zig Zag pub. 

I decided to turn in somewhat early last night (around midnight) in anticipation of a very busy week ahead. 

Day 2 preview… started out having breakfast with Brent Ozar ( @BrentO ) and then Tim Ford (@SQLAgentMan), Pinal Dave (@PinalDave), Damon (@DamonRipper), Grant Fritchey (@GrantFritchey) and Jeremiah Peschka (@peschkaj) showed up.  I mean seriously… where else can you go and chat and geek out with some of the best of the best out there for SQL Server folks.

So I’m out for now… will blog more later… Apparently I have a strong Canadian accent and it’s quite entertaining just to hear me talk… well at least Jessica Moss (@JessicamMoss) thinks so LOL.

Enjoy!!

I’ve already met up with the Member Information Officer from EDMPASS (Chris Wood) who is also on his way to the Summit with his wife.

I’ve been reading all the Twitter updates using the #SQLPASS tag and wish I was there already to start meeting and greeting people.  I’m absolutely horrible with names so hopefully my tweeting and chatting with these people everyday will make it easier.

This is the first time I’m away from my wife and kids for any length of time on my own… feels really weird but they are all VERY supportive of me and my career.

I’m wishing anyone reading this on their way to the Summit to have a safe flight and for those of you who are unable to attend the Summit this year I hope to meet up with you soon.

Enjoy!!

Da Da Da Da Daaa

Da Da Daaaa Da

and so on and so on….. if you’re confused see here:  The Final Countdown

So here we are but 1 week away from my first Summit experience and I’m pumped, primed, and ready to go!

With so much going on and everything I’m involved in with the Summit one of my main focuses is to make sure that I don’t forget why I’m there and to get to as many sessions as possible.  There are some amazing speakers and so many sessions that I just can’t miss and I’d be kicking myself in the butt if I didn’t make it to them.

I’m sure there are a bazillion posts on the upcoming Summit so I wont go into my top 10 list of people to meet or sessions to go to cause it just feels wrong to not include everyone and every session cause I want to meet everyone and do/see everything… maybe next year when I’m a “Summit Vet” I’ll have a better idea on how to manage my schedule

See you all in Seattle (hopefully)!!

Enjoy!!

Much like the webcast I did on Auditing in SQL Server 2008  when I first watched/listened to the webcast I immediately thought of a million things I could of done better or explained more clearly but at the end of the day it was a one take webcast and it wasn’t something that we rehersed together so all in all I think everyone did an amazing job.

If you haven’t signed up for Quest Connect… head on over to the Quest Connect site and register.  There are a tonne of on-demand and pre-recorded sessions and did I mention that it’s FREE!!!

… and if you’re looking for our webcast on the Top 10 SQL Server Administration Mistakes  head on over to the On-Demand Webcasts – Hall C and I believe we’re the 4th one down.

Enjoy!!

A few minutes later I received an email from Brent (and Heather) from Quest Software with the subject line…. “You’re my favorite loser”.

So I opened the email and it turns out that being Quest Software’s favorite loser is a good GREAT thing!!

Brent Ozar and Quest Software wanted to thank me for everything that I’ve contributed to the community and (even though I didn’t win the “Dream Trip from SQLServerPedia”) they wanted to reward me by giving me a free pass (pun intended) for the 3 day PASS Summit in Seattle.

Talk about right out of the blue AWESOMENESS.

So I immediately emailed back thanking them and confessing my “geek-crush” on SQLServerPedia and Quest Software for everything they’ve done to help me get my foot in the door in the SQL Server community over the past year.  I explained that as a Chapter Leader I was already able to go to the Summit for free and asked if it was ok if I gave this free admission to one the EDMPASS members. (which they 100% agreed to)

So we sent an email out to the EDMPASS members explaining the situation and informing them that we were going to do a draw and to be included in the draw you must not already be registered and attending the Summit… that way we can get someone else to go who wasn’t already going in the first place… .if we were unable to find new attendees then we were going to draw names from the EDMPASS members who HAD already paid and they would get a refund from PASS.

We ended up getting a few entries who talked to their companies and go approved funding for flight/hotel… so without further adieu…  The winner of the free Registration for the PASS Summit is………………

LEAH EXNER

Congratulations Leah and please contact me for details on how to register.

Happy Friday Everyone!!

Enjoy!!

I’ve been asked to help coordinate the volunteers and make sure that they know where they should be and when during the Summit.  I’ve added a page to the Benchmark IT Consulting homepage called Summit Volunteer Info (tab located at the top). 

On this page is a current schedule as well as a link to download the current Summit Volunteer Schedule spreadsheet.  Now be sure to come back and check this page out again a day or two prior to the Summit as this is a living document and there will be additions and changes in the coming weeks.

Here is a look at the groups of volunteers that this will be geared towards…

Now…. if you currently DO NOT fall into one of these categories don’t fear… Blythe Morrow (PASS Community Coordinator) would be more then happy to bring you on board to volunteer and help this event run as smoothly as possible.

See you all at the Summit!!!

Enjoy!!

1. I’m flying into Seattle on the Sunday and flying out on the following Saturday… I haven’t committed to any pre or post conference workshops yet but if I do I still wanted to make sure I have ample time to meet up with some of the MANY people I tweet with and would love to meet
2. I’m sharing a room with a friend (newly appointed MVP – Jeremiah Peschka) who has been to the Summit before so he should be a useful resource for information… we’re also planning on doing a video-blog after each day together and we’re hopefully going to be able to interview some other attendees/speakers/organizers/etc
3. I’ve already started to try and make plans with some people to meet up for a drink or meet up at the airport and travel to the hotel together, etc
4. I’ve ordered business cards a plenty as I don’t want to be caught without a card if someone is asking
5. I’ve purchased a netbook so I can be sure to be “connected” at all times without needing to lug around my massive laptop

So to any and all of you veteran Summit attendees out there… do you have any other recommendations on how to help make this the best Summit experience ever for a first time attendee?  (other then an ample supply of Jaeger and Bacon? LOL)

Enjoy!!

We had our most successful EDMPASS meeting ever last night.  We were lucky enough to get (newly appointed MVP) Brent Ozar via Live Meeting as our feature presenter.  The session was titled “Hit the Ground Running with SQL Server 2008″ and it was a great presentation on the Central Management Server, Policy Based Management, and the Resource Governor. 

I jokingly refer to Brent Ozar as my “Mr Miyagi of the SQL Server Community”… when I first decided to start blogging and get more involved in the community he was always more then willing to lend a hand and opinion on how best to approach things and his advice has always proven to be invaluable.

I was shocked this morning when I heard that Brent Ozar is NOW an MVP… I always thought he was one as he’s been one of the many great leaders in the community so I guess Microsoft was just a little behind the curve but at least they got it right now

My congratz also go out to my friends Jeremiah Peschka and Tim Ford as well as to all the new MVPs… keep up the good work everyone!

Enjoy!!