2009 PASS Summit Summary

“We are expecting big things from you this year.”

As I was leaving the Microsoft MVP dinner on Friday night I was told those exact words by a smiling gentleman. Confused, I responded with “How so?” After all, how could I do big things for the MVP program?

“Well, we elected you for a reason. You got my vote in particular because I know you’ll do great things for PASS.”

Oh. PASS. Right.

Big things? OK. As I type this I feel I missed an opportunity to nail down specific requirements on what is meant by “big things”. I was heading out the door to the airport and walked back with my very good partner in crime friend Tim Ford (blog | @sqlagentman). All of this happened less than 24 hours ago. I think it is important for me to do my best to summarize what this Summit meant to me before the memories slip away.

Ghosts of Summit Past

Every previous PASS Summit I have attended, I have always made it to a session in each time slot. I would sit in on a session simply to absorb some additional technical knowledge. This year I knew I would not be able to attend every session as I had commitments as a member of the Board of Directors that would not allow for me to be in two places at the same time.

I did make it to a handful of sessions, including ones by Bob Ward, Paul Randal, and Buck Woody. I even sat in on one by Itzik Ben-Gan for about an hour before I had to leave. So, I certainly do not feel as if I missed out on anything as far as technical materials go. Actually, I think Paul’s session may have helped solve a current production issue but I won’t know for certain until I review some additional details next week.

This Time, It’s Personal

In the past week, I met over fifty people for the first time. Most of them were familiar to me through the use of Twitter, including my brother-from-another-mother Colin Stasiuk (blog | @BenchmarkIT). Some of my twitter peeps are independent database professionals, others are working for vendors. But they were all filled with liquid awesome.

When I was not in a session I was spending time connecting with individuals. I probably spent more time in the Exhibit Hall this year than any other year, speaking with new vendors. I spent about an hour with Buck Woody one day (blog | @buckwoody). Can anyone really put a price tag on that experience?

What this means is that this conference was not necessarily about technical content, it was about building and managing relationships. As I continue to progress in my career, relationship building is a valuable skill to acquire. This past week hammered home that point to me quite well. Learning about people, helping them to connect with others, sharing experiences with one another…all good things that will serve me well not only while I serve on the Board of Directors but these are skills I will have for life.

Technical skills are hard skills, and hard skills usually put a ceiling on where your career can lead. Soft skills, such as building and managing relationships, are the skills that allow for you to lead your career, instead of the other way around.

“I’ve Got This Idea…”

Being able to spend time with people at the Summit not only allows for us to get to know each other, it allows for us to bounce ideas off one another. I did not want to leave the conference without getting some feedback on the events from the week. We had a Board meeting on Friday morning where I expressed my passion and interest for the next year is growing the conference. I have been helping to grow and build my own network and brand for the past two years and I want to scale up, if you will. I want to take a 2,500 person conference, make it larger, and still retain (or enhance) the current user experience.

The only way to find out what your customers want is to ask. So, on Friday afternoon I found myself talking to others about some of my very general ideas about the conference. Should we grow to five or ten thousand attendees? Maybe have new and different tracks? Should we offer sessions after 6PM? How do we find ways to improve our customer retention?

And I did not only ask about conference ideas. I also spent time asking about chapters. I have never run a chapter. I have never even been a chapter member. I have attended a handful of chapter meetings, but nothing more. I asked leaders simple questions in order to get an idea of what it is they want from PASS. I asked my questions in the lobby of the Sheraton, in the lounge, during the MVP dinner, and even at the airport while waiting to board our plane home.

I ask the questions because I want as much information as possible in order to make informed decisions. Information about where the community should be heading towards. In the coming months, I will review different ways for the PASS community to provide some feedback to the Board. The first step is that I promise, here and now, to arrange for a live UStream feed on a regular basis where people can attend and ask me questions related to PASS. If I can go one better and use LiveMeeting and allow for people to ask questions rather than typing in a chat window, I will.

I am promising to do what I possibly can in order to keep the community informed about what I am doing as a Board member. In the coming weeks, I will find out what my assigned duties are along with the associated success metrics. As soon as I know them, so shall you, and I hope we can have a dialogue together on the progress we make in the coming months.