First, I’d like to send a HUGE thanks to the PASS organizers! Can you believe this large of an event is organized by such a small team of people? And that most of the presentations are delivered by community volunteers? (I’m pretty sure the only exception is the Microsoft guys & gals who do this as part of their job…but of course we love them too!)
The highlight of PASS Summit 2012 for me has to be that I was given the opportunity to speak at two sessions. Not just one, but two! Of course I've been joking that the list of selected sessions has some data quality issues, but all jokes aside, I am as appreciative and thrilled as a human can be that I was given this chance. After my first time on the "big stage" I gained confidence & definitely learned some things to do better next time.
Second on my highlight reel is that I got to meet a lot of new people for the first time. If we rewind about five years, I really had no idea about the value of relationships in a career. I've grown to highly value the people I know in the industry. Getting to meet new friends & catch up with old friends is so much fun!
I'm also excited about all the new information I'm taking home with me. In addition to all the sessions & conversations from the week, I attended a SQL Saturday organizers meeting & a User Group organizers meeting. My OneNote is full of all kinds of new ideas & information!
Last but not least, it was just plain fun. Since I’m an early to bed person (and kind of a wimp about it), so the time change beat me up a bit. Although I wanted to head to bed by dinnertime every night, I managed to stay up pretty late one night to see SQL Karaoke which was super fun!
