Facility9

This afternoon I sat in a chapter leader break out session. I didn’t get to stay for all of it because of PASS ambassador training, however there was a lot that I took away from it.

First off were some great tools to use for getting the news out for chapter leaders:

The first is eNews Generator for the creation of bulk emails to chapter members. It also lets you include content from other news sites by either typing in the article code from a magazine or else searching through the content they have available online.

The next one was an add-in for Outlook called Send Personally. Basically, it lets you send out emails to a list of people, however it will generate a single email for each recipient, rather than mailing to a BCC’d bulk list. This lessens your chances of being flagged as spam. There’s a 20 day trial that lets you email up to 100 people, but otherwise it costs money.

There was a lot of great discussion specific to chapter leaders, so I’ll leave that out, but needless to say it was a great experience and I’m looking forward to continue to meeting as many people as I can.

If you read this in time, I’m going to be a contestant in the SQL Server Quiz Bowl at 6:00 PM in the convention center.

Update

Brent Ozar has posted his review to today’s festivities.

He also has a link to Andy Leonard’s review of the day as well.

Evening Update

I went to this evening’s welcome reception where I participated in the SQL Server Quiz Bowl. I came in second place in a pretty solid competition. Sadly, I know next to nothing about SQL Server Replication (time to learn), so the second round of questions stumped me completely. But, it was a total blast.

I also stopped by the Application Development SIG booth and signed up to volunteer. My plan is to begin helping out however I can and develop content through both written articles and web casts.

PASS is such a great organization and I’m looking forward to contributing over the years to come!

If I’ve missed anything, my apologies, I’m writing this as fast as people are talking.

Chapter News

Greg Low

• DVDs of past conferences
• Four physical mailings a year of PASS related news
• Part of a huge group of professionals:
  
  62 US chapters, 70+ chapters outside of the US

Program

Lynda Rab

• Speaker and abstract management system
• Program to develop new speakers for PASS
• Upcoming speaker resource site in Q1 2009

Volunteer Program

Pat Wright

• Monthly volunteer newsletter
• Volunteer org chart has been put together
• Upcoming task lists to help people contribute to PASS
• Quarterly/annual report coming from board of directors
• Increase in contact with new volunteers

Special Projects

Rick Heiges

• Started a virtual road show in January for SQL 2008
• SecondLife virtual user group
• PASS Tips
  Initially designed to help attendees choose content at the Summit.
  Moving forward, tips from PASS members on various SQL Server related topics that help us get our work done.
  A Live Meeting account will be made available to help people share tips.

Online Content

Chuck Heinzelman

• SQL Server Standard Magazine was acquired 1 year ago.
  Print publication discontinued in June (in part due to increased costs).
• Transitioning to an online content tool.
  This gives quicker turn around, better resource usage, less overall cost.
  Quality will be guaranteed by copy and technical editors.
• There have been problems getting content in place in the past.
• New content model will be rolled out as quickly as the technology can be put in place.
• The SIGs will be involved in generating and checking content.
• Old content will be added, some has already been staged for release.

Marketing

Bill Graziano

• There will be a marketing committee made up of volunteers.
  This is new for this upcoming year.
• Microsoft marketing has made a large investment in PASS.
  Prominent advertising on the Microsoft website, in publications, etc
• A public relations firm has been hired to help align public announcements.
• Updated graphics and logos were created to give a cohesive brand and marketing to PASS
• A repeatable strategic marketing & communications plan has been put together for both the conference and the other parts of PASS (yes, there are other parts of PASS)

Technology

Rushabh Mehta

• The goals of the new web site
  • not to replace existing content on other sites
  • Provide a hub to search for content and contributions from the community.
• Twitter feed
• RSS feeds will be available, will include tweets tagged with #sqlpass
• Upcoming community portion of PASS website to make networking easier.
  Goes live Thursday morning.
• PASS website leaves beta on Thursday morning.
• Events registration and notification (chapter meetings!) will be revamped on PASS site and will allow searching by geography, online/offline events, technologies, languages, etc. Coming in the next two weeks.
• Membership management will be integrated into the PASS website.
• Integration modules for DotNetNuke are ready.

Other news

Tim Ford has also blogged about today’s happenings.

Amazing Presentation by Itzik Ben-Gan

I registered for the Advanced T-SQL Querying & Programming in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 & 2008 at the last minute this morning and I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get in. Turns out that I had every reason to worry – the presentation room was packed, and with good reason.

Itzik is an amazing presenter. He’s obviously passionate about his job and passionate about writing T-SQL and that comes across in his presentation style – very engaging, very animated, and exceptionally capable of answering any questions that the audience threw at him. I plan on ordering his newest book later this week. He has two more Inside SQL Server 2008 books coming out in 2009 and I cannot recommend them enough to T-SQL developers out there. The new editions promise to have additional chapters giving a solid foundation in relational algebra and set mathematics which can only improve the skills of any database developer or DBA.

After the first question, Itzik remarked ‘There are two types of questions: good questions and excellent questions. A good question is a question that I can answer, an excellent question is answered in another slide in my presentation.’ This set the tone for the presentation, almost every question he was able to answer on his feet and provide amazing, in-depth responses about not just the how but also the why of the problem at hand.

I was able to take something away from every portion of the talk. In some cases, it was confirmation that I’ve been doing the right thing, but I came away knowing the underlying principles of why I should be doing what I’m doing. All-in-all, coming to Seattle was worth it for this session alone.

Data Geeks in Seattle

Today brought some added bonuses, as well. I finally got to meet and chat with Brent Ozar, TJay Belt, Tim Ford (sqlagentman), Tom LaRock (SQLBatman), Louis Davidson (drsql), Blythe Morrow (from PASS, she’s been amazingly helpful getting the Columbus chapter started), and so many other fine people that my head is reeling and I’m glad that we all wear badges at the conference.

Tuesday’s Agenda

Tuesday brings volunteer training where I learn how to keep TJay out of my hallway (we’re both volunteering as ambassadors at the same time) as well as learn more about how I can help out PASS beyond starting a chapter and keeping it alive in Columbus. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to volunteer with PASS as a whole and involve myself in this great organization.

In addition, I’ve volunteered to be a victim in the Quiz Bowl – Tim Ford and Louis Davidson volunteered me while we were waiting for the volunteer bowling event to start, and I happily agreed to embarrass myself in front of my fellow nerds.

If you want to know more, check out Rob Boek’s Google Calendar for PASS for more goings on as they arise. Also, keep an eye on Brent Ozar’s blog for more info, especially since he’s going to very different sessions than I am.

Update: Additional recaps

Both Brent Ozar and Buck Woody have posted recaps of the first day of the conference.