Today was the first official day of the full (3-day) conference, with about 2,200 full conference attendees. Officially, PASS claims there are 2,998 registrations from 46 countries, but that number includes pre- and post-con attendees (who are also attending the full conference), plus Microsoft employees.

As you might expect, the Seattle Convention Center was packed with DBAs all wearing their orange and brown lanyards with their attendee badge, many carrying bags of swag they picked up from the various vendors attending the conference.

Lots of attendees bought books at the PASS bookstore.

The morning started with opening remarks from Wayne Snyder, current PASS president, and then was followed up by Microsoft keynote speakers Bob Muglia and Ted Kummert.

Immediately following the keynotes, the first sessions began. Attendees had 14 different sessions to choose from, often making it a difficult choice of which presentation to attend. Fortunately, all the sessions are being recorded, and they all will eventually be available on the PASS website for later viewing.

At lunch, there was a Birds of a Feather Luncheon, where about 50 tables were staffed with volunteers in various areas of SQL Server expertise. Attendees could pick any available table, eat lunch, and discuss the SQL Server topic assigned for that table. I sat at the Professional Development table, which was lead by Arnie Rowland, who did a great job of leading a discussion on the many various aspects of DBA career development.

Arnie Rowland, top center, lead the Professional Development Birds of a Feather table over lunch.

Right after lunch, I did a session in the Professional Development tract called, “Manage Your DBA Career: Don’t Let it Manage You.”

After the session, I headed down to the Red Gate Software booth and signed a bunch of copies of my book, How to Become an Exceptional DBA, which Red Gate Software was giving away free to attendees. After that, I headed back to the hotel to prepare for my Wednesday presentation.