Another in the PASS ‘First Timers’ series…
Do you remember when were in high school, and went to your first school ‘dance’. Maybe you were new in the area and didn’t know anyone. You may have stood on the sidelines, watching all of the ‘cool kids’ having fun, wishing that someone would just come up and invite you to join in. Most likely they didn’t; perhaps you went home unsatisfied, yearning for a different experience. Yes, you can say that you went to the event, and yes, you chatted with a few other ‘outsiders’. BUT, you didn’t really feel that you were part of the ‘excitment’. Maybe next time you told yourself, or you thought that perhaps maybe next time you would just blow it off and go to the movies. At least you wouldn’t feel like an outsider. They could just have their blasted dance!
I’ve attended 11 of the past 12 PASS Community Summit conferences. My first time was like the description above. I was an outsider; I went to sessions and got a lot of great information.
This community will teach you, help you, hire you, and give you opportunites to soar.But I noticed that quite a few folks seemed to be connecting in ways that eluded me. They were chatting about sessions and meetings that were not on the printed schedule, what they did in the evenings -even some ‘parties’ sponsored by various vendors. Somehow, they just seemed to be able to find out about things that I hadn’t heard about.
But eventually, I discovered that the PASS Community Summit was far more than just a set of sessions published in the attendee packet. Eventually, I was brought into the circle of ‘cool kids’ -the ones that seemed to be always having fun. I’ve made it my goal over the years to look out for the new folks, the outsiders, and help bring them into the community. Now PASS has undertaken a concerted effort to reach out to the new folks.
I discovered that the PASS Community Summit was far more than just a set of sessions published in the attendee packet …There are quite a few volunteer Big Brothers/Big Sisters that are reaching out to first time attendees. I’m one of those. In the weeks up to the Summit, we will be offering nuggets of information based on our own experiences. We will gather information from others about how they have helped first time attendees. We will serve as a conduit for questions from first time attendees. We will strive to help first time attendees have as good of a Summit experience as those of us who have attended many times.
The really important word is ‘Community’. When attending the Summit, your main interest ‘should be’ to get to know and understand the SQL Server Community. This is one of the greatest professional communities/networks with which I have ever had the pleasure of association. This community will teach you, help you, hire you, and give you opportunites to soar. Everyone is approachable, everyone is accessible, everyone is willing to help. Or they would not be at the Summit. We all come to Summit to network, to trade information, to learn from each other, to help each other, AND to have fun while doing it. Sure, at times, someone may be preoccupied and seem gruff, even ‘put-offish’ -but hey, I bet you have your ‘unpolished’ moments too. Generally, anyone you meet at PASS is ready to get to know you, answer your questions, point you in the ‘right’ direction.
So, in the next few weeks I will be offering my suggestions and ideas about how a ‘first timer’ can maximize their personal ‘ROI’ for coming to Summit. I’ll readily point to others that are also making an effort to make the PASS Community Summit a truly great experience.
Please add your own contributions to this effort.
(I’ll send out a bat-signal tweet when I add more information. Follow: @ArnieRowland and #FirstTimers; send an email to join us in this adventure.)
Additional articles about the PASS Big Brother/Big Sister [FirstTimer] Initiative:
- PASS First Timers Program Information
- Tom LaRock
- Luke Hayler
- Tim Radney
- Malathi Mahadevan
- Kendra Little
- Yanni Robel
For more information on the PASS “First Timers’ program, click here.
Thanks for the blog post and I continue to get excited about going to PASS. I went to Tech-Ed in 2010 and had a great time. I have never been to the Northwest and I’m really excited to be there.
Hello Arnie!
Thank you for starting this series of posts for PASS Summit first-timers. Although I have been working with data for years, my initial exposure to SQL began last summer. I discovered a new passion and have immersed myself in learning as much as possible ever since. While attending SQL Saturday #68 I was encouraged to attend PASS Summit to learn more and build relationships in the SQL Community.
The Big Brother/Big Sister program sounds like a great idea and I signed up for it as soon as I received the email notification in my inbox. I am looking forward to being assigned a sponsor and reading more of your posts on this subject.
Thanks again!
Richard
p.s. Is there a way to get notified of updates on this subject for those of us that are Twitter(less)?
Great post Arnie, and thanks for your support!
My guess, and this is just a guess, is that SQL Connections doesn’t have the grassroots organization that PASS does. PASS, being a nonprofit group, gets a ton of free labor. The regional PASS folks have a vested interest in promoting the PASS Summit, and they get discounts on their costs. SQL Connections isn’t a volunteer organization , so they don’t have the volunteer army to build buzz. Pretty much any for-profit organization faces that challenge.
It is nice to see this program get more organized, since I think it is a great idea. Thanks for helping to publicize it!
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That session Thursday with you was my first time seeing Buck speak and it definitely was surprisingly motivating for the time of day, jet lag exhaustion and heat in the room. Very informative, enlightening and, well, fun. Made me go see two of his other presentations the next day.I am with you, Buck is a great speaker. The kids he has in his University of Washington class are incredibly blessed to have a teacher who loves his trade, can give a great presentation and can make a topic fun and exciting. Microsoft is fortunate to have him and I am glad that we can steal him at PASS summits.That being said, I would still go to the PASS summit if Buck Woody wasn’t presenting. There are a ton of great presenters. Sure most of them don’t pull of the dunk tank clown insult routine like he does and make everyone feel equally welcome at the same time. Sure some of the presenters are dry but I go because of the wealth of knowledge, meeting others in the community and having opportunities to network.I had to go through some hoops to get the company pay for the airfare to a west coast conference, even as a PASS volunteer so Summit cost being essentially negated. I know of other folks who would LOVE to go to a PASS conference but can’t do the travel to Seattle for whatever reason. If we could have every 3rd Summit (for example) in CST or EST it would allow us to have it at a different time (it’s kind of tough for folks who speak at both PASS and Connections and then fall into the holidays) and it would allow more (and different) faces to be in the audience. Sure we may miss some of the extra MS folks but hopefully MS could foot the bill for at least a couple speakers, we have a community of experts to speak (many pay their own airfare being independent consultants) and it would still be a great time of learning and fun had by all.It would allow more people to get interested in PASS and volunteering. It would get more people hooked on the Summit experience and the budget would increase because attendance could come from more first time attendees. As for me, I’ll pay my own airfare and take FTO if I have to but not everyone can make that choice.