With the PASS Summit less than two weeks away, I wanted to write a post for people who are going to the Summit for the first time or maybe have attended in the past, but felt they could get more out of their time at the Summit. I have to disclose that I’ve only gone to the Summit once where I wasn’t either volunteering with the Program Committee or working for SQL Sentry, but I do think that I’ve received a ton of value each time I’ve attended.
- If you can swing it (or better yet get your company to purchase them), buy the session recordings. Even if you went to a session during every slot available, you’re still going to miss sessions that you want to see. It’s also a great way to be able to share that content with the people at your company. There also might be times that you just miss sessions for other reasons explained below.
- For those of you that tend to be extroverted, the following goes without saying: IT people in general seem to lean toward introversion. Walking into a huge group of people that you don’t know might sound like the last thing that you want to do after a day of sessions. Do it. Take advantage of the activities outside of sessions. Sit with people that you don’t know during breakfast and lunch. Talk to them. Keep in mind that a vast majority of the attendees (including me) are inherently introverted. The only difference is that we’ve had the chance to meet people and we’re no longer in a group of strangers. We’re in a group of friends. And that’s awesome.
- I’ve said this during SQL Saturdays that I’ve spoken at and I’ll say it again here. If you have the choice between attending a session and having a conversation with someone that has written a book that you’ve read, someone whose blog you read, someone you follow on Twitter, choose the conversation. Every time. I’ve always been amazed at how helpful the SQL Server community is with all of the forums and #sqlhelp to name a few. You never know how building and growing those relationships can help you in the future. I’ve had people very generously help out when everything went terribly wrong on a SQL Server. I’ve also had the opportunity to go in a different direction in my career, a direction that I’m exceedingly happy with – and that wouldn’t have happened without building relationships with people that I met at the PASS Summit.
It might be obvious by now, but for me, the Summit is not only a great educational opportunity, it’s also a way to meet people who do what you do. Who understand midnight upgrades, writing code that isn’t terrible, being on call, and all the other pieces of being a data professional. I’ve met so many wonderful people over the years and plan to meet more this year. I’ll be at the SQL Sentry booth (you won’t be able to miss it). I’m terrible with names, but I do remember faces. Please come by and say hi. I’ll be the short one 🙂
Lori (@loriedwards) has been with SentryOne since 2013, and has recently transitioned from her role as Senior Solutions Engineer to Training Manager. She is responsible for all learning strategy and architecture, including building, executing, measuring, and evaluating training for SentryOne. Lori is also currently serving as a Director at Large for PASS.
Lori shares tips and tidbits for DBAs picked up over years of working as a DBA, as well as stories about her job here. Whether you are a new DBA who wants to learn or someone interested in learning about what it is like to work for SentryOne, be sure to check out Lori’s blog.
