Allen Kinsel (twitter | blog) and I have been fielding a draft email back and forth this afternoon. Rather than bore you with the backstory, here’s the body of the email:
After we heard from a few Microsoft employees who work outside of the normal speaking groups, we decided to do something about it. We’re asking you, and anyone else you know who falls into this category, to submit your sessions during the community call for speakers. This is our way of making sure that you don’t slip through the gap. Please pass this on to any of your colleagues who may find themselves in the same situation.
One last thing: The Call for Speakers ends Saturday, so you will have to hurry.
Why would we do this? Microsoft have their own call for speakers, right? They do, but it’s a Microsoft internal process – we can only make suggestions about the final speaker selections.
Here’s the deal – there are some speakers out there that we feel are an important part of the community, speakers who are outside of the normal Microsoft speaker track. They aren’t on the product development team, they aren’t architects, they aren’t general managers at Microsoft. These are the DBAs who keep Microsoft’s databases running, CSS/PSS, and other DBAs out there in the trenches. Most importantly, they’re also members of our community.
You probably know some of them – they’ve spoken at the PASS Summit, at SQL Saturdays, and at user groups. They’re highly rated speakers and they’re valuable members of the community.
If you know someone who falls into this group of people, pass this message along. We are working to make sure that this year’s PASS Summit is the best one that we’ve had and we know these people will make it even better.
Thank you.
