This week is the annual PASS Data Community Summit. I'm up in Seattle, getting ready for the event. This year the conference is a little shorter. Rather than being gone from home for an entire week, I arrived last night and am heading home on Thursday. That's nice as I've been gone a lot this year. My fun with travel post looked at my travel and contained a lot of blue lines in 2026.

In any case, I'm both glad this is a short week and sad that it's not the big event of the past, where I spent five or six days visiting with friends and making new acquaintances at the PASS Summit. I loved the promotions we did years ago for PASS, which funded a SQL Server Central party on opening night. I miss the chaos of a full convention center, navigating the crowds in search of a session, getting distracted chatting with others, and the fun atmosphere in Seattle, running into fellow data professionals throughout the streets.

I have many great memories of past Summits in Chicago, Seattle, Orlando, Dallas, Charlotte, and Denver. I've had the opportunity to meet many people, visit different places in the US, and connect with my peers every year, building strong bonds and learning from each other. The Connect-Share-Learn motto has truly described the event over the years.

Each year the Summit is slightly different for me. Some years I go to learn. Some years network and connect with others. In some years, it's been a business trip, early on I was growing SQL Server Central, and later, chatting with customers and prospects about Redgate Software.

If you've never attended a PASS Data Summit, you're missing something in your database career. The people, the closeness, the fun we have with each other is unlike any other conference I've attended. The days don't end when the sessions do, with many attendees getting together for drinks, dinner, and fun at night.

I know budgets are tight, and organizations want justification for sending someone to a conference. Unlike other events where you might only see speakers for a short time, and attendees disappear for the evening, the PASS Summit lets you make contacts, engage in deep discussions on your challenges, and get answers from experts who have come from around the world. Tell your boss this is an investment, a perk, a retention effort, and a training opportunity that is rare to find.

If you're in Seattle this week, say hi. If not, aim to come in 2027, and let's chat face to face.