24 Hours of PASS Q&A

Prior to our announcing the 24 Hours of PASS: Celebrating SQL Server 2008 R2, I took part in an interview to help explain more details about the event. Since that interview went live last week I have fielded a handful of additional questions. I decided that the best way to answer them was to just post the questions and my answers here. Let’s get started!

Q: How were the speakers selected?

That’s a great question, and the one that has been asked most frequently. I was responsible for speaker selection for the event. I did not operate in a vacuum, I had a group of advisers help me along the way, but primarily it was up to me to recruit speakers.

The first wave of invites went to the people that had participated in the first 24 Hours of PASS event along with some other notables. We wanted the biggest names possible, and I went after those names first. And truth be told, we secured roughly 12 speakers in that first wave (out of roughly 24 invites, I believe).

So, then we went to our bench, so to speak. After getting people to agree to participate, I then reviewed the 3-5 sentence abstract they sent along. My next goal was to find speakers that could tie into some feature of SQL 2008 R2 directly. We got another 8 or so people in that wave, leaving us about four slots remaining. From there it was one last check on some topics such as Parallel Data Warehouse and Master Data Services, and we recruited people specifically for those topics.

So, there was no call for abstracts, as we were quite focused on finding people that could speak on R2 in some way, shape, or form. Not every session has to be on R2, but we did end up with 14 sessions that are related to R2 in some way, which I thought was a perfect balance between R2 features and features applicable to SQL 2008 in general.

If we do this again we will probably recruit speakers in the same way, but I would like to do a call for abstracts, if possible. Of course then I would have to answer the questions “why wasn’t my abstract selected”, which is actually similar to all of the  “how do I get on the list for next time” that I have had sent my way. Which is my way of saying that no matter what we try to do, it won’t be perfect for everyone, but I do promise to be open and honest about everything.

Q: How do I get on the list for next time?

If you have presented at a previous PASS event, then you are already on “the list”.  We are more than likely always going to want someone with some prior speaking experience, either at a SQL Saturday, a PASS Virtual Chapter, or even at a PASS Chapter meeting. And the more times you present, the more experience and recognition you get, the more likely you are to be asked to participate in a 24 Hours event.

Besides the speaker list, we also need people to help moderate the sessions. So there is a second list that you may want to be a part of. Last time we had various PASS Chapter leaders from around the world help us by moderating the session on behalf of the presenter. So, there is more than one way to be involved. Typically we send out a request to the PASS Chapters for volunteers and that will probably remain the same for future events.

Q: Will your event take away from SQL Saturday events?

I don’t believe so, no. SQL Saturday events are face-to-face events, whereas our event is virtual. Also, our sessions are recorded and people will have a chance to view them later, whereas SQL Saturday events are not recorded; if you don’t go, then you miss out on the content. Not saying one is better than the other, just that they are two distinct events. I recognize that there are two SQL Saturday’s lined up on May 22nd, just two days after our event ends, but I cannot see that either event will take away attendees from the other.

Q: Will you be attending every session?

Probably not, no. This event starts at 8AM in my time zone. That means I will need to take one full vacation day from work on May 19th. If I were to attend every session then I would need to miss a second day of work. I love donating my time to the Community, but I cannot spend all of my vacation on PASS events. For those that are not aware, I also use vacation time when I attend PASS Board meetings. Believe me, one or two days here and there throughout the year start to add up. I need to reserve time for my family and have to cut corners when I can. This is one of those times.

I will, however, UStream myself again, same as last time. It just will not be for all 24 sessions. I will probably attend about 18 or so.

That’s all of the questions I have fielded directly so far. As more come in I will update this post. So, if there is something else you want to know, just ask!