SQLBits IV was held in Manchester, England, Saturday March 28th, 2009, and was attended by more than 360 attendees. This free SQL Server event is the largest of its kind in Europe. It included 28 sessions by 28 different speakers. Below are a few photographs from the event.

Simon Sabin, SQL Server MVP and event organizer, welcomes attendees to SQLBits.

Simon Sabin speaks on SQL Server performance tuning.

Brad M McGehee presents a session on database maintenance.

András Belokosztolszki presents a session on SQL Server internals.

SQLBits was held at Manchester Metropolitan University,

Theo Spears, (at left) helps out at the Red Gate booth.

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As most of you know now, the Call for Speakers for the 2009 PASS Community Summit is open from March 20, 2009 through April 10, 2009. Each year, the PASS Program Committee, which is responsible for selecting the sessions offered at the Summit, receives many more speaking abstracts than they can accept. If you want to increase the odds of being selecting, please consider the following suggestions:

• If you are not already a member of PASS, join right away. Membership is free and gives you access to the full contents of the www.sqlpass.org website.
• If you have not already done so, complete your PASSPort profile.Complete is as fully as possible, completing the Profile, Community Activity, and Work Experience sections. Not only will you need the URL to your profile when you submit a speaking abstract, your profile will be used extensively as part of the speaking abstract selection process. When you go to the Call for Speakers website, you will also have to reenter some of your biographical information in the Profile pages, and this may seem a little redundant. But it is important that you do so.
• Be sure you visit the Call for Speakers Resource page and read it carefully. It provides sample biographies, sample abstracts, tips for submitting your abstracts, and most importantly, the 2009 PASS survey that tell you exactly what type of content PASS attendees are looking for. There is no point in submitting an abstract on a topic that is of little interest to PASS members. This survey is long, so you will want to take some time to carefully review it all.
• Besides the Call for Speakers Resource page, you will also want to check out the Resources for Speakers page, which lists many different resources for helping you become a better speaker.
• Next, visit the Call for Speakers website and begin the submission process by filling out your speaker’s profile. Complete the profile accurately and completely.
• Something that has been added to the Call for Speakers website this year is the ability to view abstracts that have already been submitted. Before you add your own abstracts, you may want to see what others have submitted. If you find that ten people have already submitted similar abstracts, you may want to find a more original topic.
• As you select your topics, ensure that they are topics of interest to PASS members (see the survey), fall in your area of expertise, and most of all, are topics that you have a passion for.
• As you complete each abstract, be sure that you select the proper Core Track and Target Audience. In addition, as part of your abstract, be sure you clearly state what the learning objectives are for your session, and how you intend to meet these objectives. The more case studies and demos you can include, generally the better.
• After you enter your abstracts, you have the opportunity to go back and “fine-tune” them if you like. In fact, this is probably a good idea, as a fresh look at your abstract after a few days after originally entering it may help you identify weaknesses in it that you can fix. But don’t wait too long, as once the Call for Speakers ends on April 10, 2009, you won’t be able to make any changes.

Disclaimer: I am a PASS volunteer in charge of Speaker Management for the PASS Program Committee. While I have been involved in helping create the Call for Speakers website and the Call for Speakers Resource page, I don’t have any direct involvement in selecting abstracts. That task is done by separate PASS Program committee volunteer members.

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This year, I was asked to participate on the PASS Program Committee Management team as the “Speaker Manager.” One of my tasks is to create a Speaker’s Resource page on the SQLPASS.org website to aid speakers who want to submit session abstracts for the 2009 PASS Summit, which will be held in Seattle, WA from November 3 — 6, 2009.

As part of this Speaker’s Resource page, I want to include a section called “Speaking Tips,” which will offer general tips on how to create and present a great session.

Instead of trying to write all the tips myself, I am soliciting your help. If you have spoken before any audience before, and have learned any tips of the trade that would benefit other speakers, please share them with me with on this blog. Once I get everyone’s suggestions, I’ll compile them and include them on the PASS website’s Speaker’s Resource page.

If you are asking yourself, where is the Speaker’s Resource page on the SQLPASS.org website, you are right, as it has not been released it. We are still working on it, but it will become available shortly before the PASS Community Summit Call for Speakers, which opens on Friday, March 20, 2009. When the page becomes available, it will be announced in my blog, on the SQLPASS.org website, and in the PASS Community Connector newsletter.

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At the recent MVP conference I attended, Microsoft filmed a promotion for their ad campaign. They had the entire MVP audience shout “I’m a PC and I’m an MVP", which was captured on video. You can see a blog about this here, and view the video here.

By some odd chance of luck, you can see me in the front row, shouting along with all of the other MVPs.

If you are thinking about, or planning to attend the 2009 PASS Community Summit, here is your opportunity to tell PASS what type of sessions you want to see included. The following link will take you to a survey form that you can complete to indicate your interests. It will take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and you must complete it by Friday, March 13, otherwise you will be too late.

Click here to take survey.