Last week I had one of the best experiences of my career – attending this year’s PASS Summit in Seattle. I felt like this event came up suddenly, as this last year has been a blur with the move to Maine, working and expanding our business, learning new things, and traveling all over the place. But… last week was both intense and calming at the same time, all while time felt like it stood still during this #sqlfamily reunion.

I was lucky enough to present three sessions to packed rooms. The first was an all-day precon on SQL Server virtualization, and we went until 6pm with questions! I learn so much from you all every time I present a precon, and hope I get selected for another precon next year!

I also presented a general session on SQL Server virtualization to a packed room of die-hards who stayed to the last session of Wednesday to hear the content. Thank you all for staying late, and we went almost two hours into the evening answering questions!

I also sat on a panel session on Thursday with Denny Cherry, Joey D’Antoni, and Geoff Hiten called PASS the Bacon, all sponsored by SIOS and SanDisk.

Finally, Argenis Fernandez and Lou Lydiksen from Pure Storage and I presented a session on storage benchmarking on Friday. We had a blast talking to folks about how synthetic tools are not what they are cracked up to be, and how real world workloads can do a much better job showing you what your storage underneath your SQL Servers can truly handle.

The networking and comradery does not have to end when the last session wraps up either. I put out a few tweets inviting folks to the Seattle Underground for a 6pm tour, and we ended up with over 50 people! The 6pm tour was sold out by the time the bulk of people arrived, but we were all able to squeeze into this tour and the one at 7pm. We had a great time touring the underground locations and learning more about the history of this attraction.

Remember to keep your Friday night free if you’re staying over until Saturday, as I try to gather informal fun activities at this time each conference.

I will always attend this conference, no matter if I’m presenting or just attending. If you are a SQL Server professional, you should make it mandatory to attend. Take the time to network, get to know people, strike up conversations with random passersby, and learn!

PASS, as always, this was the best PASS Summit ever! Keep up the great work!