Wednesday, February 28, 2018

PASS Summit 2018 – Call for Speakers

It is that time again. PASS has opened the Call for Speakers. I have submitted for the past 10 years, and have been selected the past 7 years. This was such an important milestone in my career to be selected and then to present. Making sure I know what I am talking about and present in a meaningful way has increased my understanding of SQL Server and other data platform tools.

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After you login, you have to fill out the profile of yourself. It really helps to list as much of the previous speaking you have done. This helps with I am sure the speaker ratings. Speaker ratings is one of the measures to be selected.

This is a time where I can review the speaking opportunities I took advantage of in the previous year.

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It all started with the Database Normalization talk in 2010. Wow!!!

Please go through the definitions to understand the “rules” and sign the speaker agreement and get started.

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It is time to Connect, Share and Learn!!!

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Speaking at PASS.org Summit

For the last 7 years, I have been speaking at the PASS Summit. This event is usually in Seattle, but one year it was in Denver (did not speak at this one) and one year Charlotte, NC. It is hard to explain everything that goes on during that week because there is too much to mention. It really depends on the intention of the attendee on what he/she wants to do during the week. You cannot do everything.

Help PASS continue to be a great conference by filling out a survey - Program Content survey.

For a speaker like me, I have to spend the majority of the time making sure I provide value for the session(s) I will be giving. In the mean time, I try to catch at least one of session each day, spend time in the community zone and network with other attendees. On Tuesday, I might be in the User Group, SQLSaturday or Virtual Chapter get together. At night, just pick something.

So, lets go through some of these items.

Attending other sessions

My first goal with attending others sessions is to learn something new or expand on a subject and bring this back to the office. I try to implement this within the first month. The second goal is to implement a different skill or best practice within the next 3 months. If I get that done (which happens occasionaly) then I can go to the 3rd lesson learned.

Community Zone

If you are not familar with this area of the Summit, just look for the bean bags. Here is usually where I find other people I have meet at a SQLSaturday, a local User Group or while hosting a Virtual Chapter or 24 Hours of PASS session. These opportunites to talk with other experts in the Microsoft Data Platform community give me contacts when I have questions.

Networking

This is real simple. I eat breakfast and lunch everyday at the convention center and just pick a random table and start conversations. There is not much effort to this because I have to eat. This is usually an hour twice a day to meet others. There is even a Birds of a Feather lunch for sitting at a table for a specific topic.

So, why am i talking about this stuff. Not to get you to attend, but for you to submit to speak at the PASS Summit. Please watch PASS.org and the newsletter for an annoucement about session submissions. If you want to send your abstract to me for review, I will be more than happy to help. Why? becuase a couple of speakers helped me in the beginning.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

VSLive 2018 Austin, TX

VSLive events are nice conferences to get a wide range of topics from .Net to mobile development to the data platform. It looks like they have added some Hands-on Labs on Friday in addtion to the Workshops on Monday. Regular sessions are Tuesday thru Thursday. The hotel is in downtown Austin, so it is easy to walk around before or after sessions.

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The VSLive events are in Austin, Las Vegas, Boston, Redmond, Chicago, San Diego and then the big Live! 360 Event is in Orlando. I have spoken at Live! 360 the past 3 years, and looking forward to returning this year. The variety of sessions are great to slum around learning different topics. The code ATSPK15 can be used to get $400 off 4-day registration.

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The Austin event is a new one for me. I have 2 session for developers: Power BI for Dev and Reading Execution Plans. I am really surprised at the number of attendees in the Execution Plan session. I did one similar at SQLSaturday Orlando and had 50-60 attendees.

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Amplify your knowledge at Visual Studio Live! Austin — bring the issues that keep you up at night and prepare to leave this event with the answers, guidance and training you need.  Register now: http://bit.ly/ATSPK15Reg