Hopefully everyone saw the announcement already, either via the PASS Connector or the Twitter announcement, but we have – finally! – a logo:

I think it’s pretty good and almost everything I hoped for; simple, clean, emphasis on SQLRally but still showing the PASS association. The one thing we didn’t get was the checkered flag, but I guess it’s easy to over do the rally bit (and I bet we’ll see some at the event!).

More importantly though, it’s a win for transparency and community involvement, because we had a voice in the selection as well as a chance to submit designs. It’s easy to overlook that, to say ‘just another contest/web poll’, but the part that is easy to miss is that we consciously looked for places to involve the community, and this is one of them. We can’t vote on every decision, or even discuss every decision, but there are cases – like this one – where it is not just possible, but I think essential.

It’s too early to predict the future, but imagine the sense of ownership you’ll have in this event if you participated in the process and get to attend #1. Or #10! Intangible, but powerful. I think that’s how we win long term as an association, making sure our members feel a sense of ownership, which is a lot different than just being a member or a name on a mailing list.

Thanks to Kendal Van Dyke and the PASS marketing team for their efforts on the logo project!