Tomorrow I fly West to Seattle, heading to the Microsoft MVP Summit for Sunday and Monday followed by the PASS Summit on Tuesday through Friday. I usually try to write some type of Summit preview post but time was short this year. Instead I decided to share something else with you, and that’s a specific item I will have in my backpack.
It’s a book, not a very long one, and something I read on the plane from time to time whenever I am heading to events.
The title of the book is George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, and it was gift to me from three very close friends: Karen López (blog | @datachick), Denny Cherry (blog | @mrdenny), and Tim Ford (blog | @SQLAgentman). They gave the book to me while at a previous PASS Summit in Seattle and I’ve carried it with me everywhere since (and I don’t think they know this).
But just buying it for me wasn’t enough. No, they needed to find a part of the book and highlight it for me as if it was their personal advice to me, or something they felt I really needed to be reminded about. I never really asked for more details.
Here’s Karen’s entry, I’m guessing the extra ‘u’ is why she chose this one:
Here’s Denny’s entry and I have no idea what he means by this:
Here’s Tim’s entry and this one is fairly clear to me, actually:
Why am I sharing this with you? It’s because I want you to understand how much I value the time I get to spend with my #SQLFamily.
The PASS Summit is much more than a conference. It’s more than just some event. This will be my 11th Summit and each one is better than the one before. I go to Summit every year for the people there. Not just the ones I already know, but for the ones I haven’t met yet. The smile on their face as they say “this is not like any other conference I have been to before” helps to remind me as to why we continue to work so hard to keep PASS growing.
The sense of Community that binds everyone together at Summit is addictive. As data professionals we often work alone, or just feel alone in our silos. Even flying on a plane I can feel alone, too.
And it’s during those moments, when I feel as if I am all alone, I will open the book, think of my friends, and smile.
Oh, and the book has some good tips on how to act proper and all that. For a Philistine like myself it never hurts to have reminders of what is right and wrong.
See you in Seattle.
George on Tweeting:
“18th Read no Letters, Books, or Papers in Company but when there is a Necessity for the doing of it you must ask leave: come not near the Books or Writings of Another so as to read them unless desired or give your opinion of them unask’d also look not nigh when another is writing a Letter.”
Looking forward to finally meeting face to face after many years of following your blog 🙂