As I was registering for my first Summit back in 2004 I asked my manager Vinny if he felt that I should look to attend one of the many available pre-conference seminars that were being offered. Vinny didn’t hesitate to say “yes”, and in fact I believe he said something to the effect that “…at many conferences like this you will find that there is more value in the pre-conference sessions than the regular sessions, because you are there all day to learn a specific topic.”
[Yeah, Vinny was full of awesome, thanks.]
So off I went to Orlando to learn about “Optimizing Procedural Code – Understanding Logging, Locking, and Performance!” presented by Kimberly L. Tripp. Know why I chose that one? Because when I mention the name of the presenter (whom I had never heard of before) my mentor Frank simply said “Oh? She’s good.” That was all I needed to hear!
The day of the seminar I went to breakfast. Alone. I sat at a table with two others in an effort to not feel so very alone. And that’s when Pat Wright (blog | @sqlasylum) made his way over to our table. Pat and I talked for a bit and then we went to the seminar and sat next to Allen Kinsel (blog | @sqlinsaneo).
That was seven years ago this week. Since then I have had the honor to serve on the PASS Board of Directors with each of them.
And when I introduced myself to Kimberly at the end of the day, I doubt she looked at me and thought “There’s the future VP of Marketing for PASS”. I certainly didn’t have such aspirations at the time. But the truth is the future leaders of PASS are always right there, in front of you, sometimes they just need a little coaching.
