If you’ve ever been to a PASS Community Summit, you know that each day is packed with a ton of great activities. Sure the sessions are top notch, unparalleled for technical education pertaining to SQL Server. But there is much, much, more. There are fun networking activities and games to help you mingle with other SQL Server enthusiasts. There are side-bar meetings such as the Chapter Leaders’ meeting to help you find like-minded people from around the world. And there are impromptu “let’s have a cup of coffee and catch up” times. Those are the ones that I really like.

Each one of those activities by themselves are great. And I find it hard to say “No” to any of them. As a result, my days at PASS are usually busy from about 6:00am to after midnight. But it’s worth it.

If you’d like to hook up to sit down for one of those coffees I mentioned before, I’d love to chat with you. I know I have several commitments during the week – some are public and some are for specific groups of people. Here are some of the places I know I’ll be:

Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) Lunch

I’m hosting a table at the BOF Lunch on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, from 11:45am to 12:45pm in Expo Hall 4B. If you’re interested in IT Consulting, please come join me for lunch.

Enhance your T-SQL Skills for Better Performance

I’m presenting a couple of sessions this year at PASS. If you write T-SQL for a living, you may find some interesting tips and tricks to help your queries run faster in this session. It’s November 3, 2009, from 1:30pm to 2:45 in Room 615-617.

SQL Server MVP Deep Dives Book Launch & Signing
As one of the 53 authors that joined together to write a technical book to benefit a very worthwhile charity, I’ll be at the official book launch and signing on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, from 11:30am to noon.

Creating Data-Driven Subscriptions in Reporting Services

In this Spotlight Session, I’ll discuss how standard reports can be updated and turned into a report that can be readily used as a basis for data-driven subscriptions. I’ll demonstrate how to keep state in a stateless environment. It’s in Room 604 on Thursday, November 5, 2009, from 10:45am to 12:15pm.

Other Activities

I’ve listed some of the official activities that I’ve signed up for during the week of PASS. I have some other non-official meetings and activities planned such as the SQL Server Appreciation Event at GameWorks, but those may be hit or miss for me.

Techies for Jesus

As a person of faith, I also plan to attend a couple of prayer breakfasts and a lunch. The breakfasts were the brainchild of Mike Walsh who would like to gather Christians from around the world to encourage and spur one another on while in Seattle. The “Techies for Jesus Lunch” is an initiative by Brian Moran to connect Christians not only at the event itself but perhaps afterwards somehow. I’m looking forward to both.

See you in Seattle next week.

Joe