Here are the most interesting people I met at PASS Summit 2012

Mickey Stuewe (sqlmickey)

Neil Hambly (neil_hambly)

Bob Hovious

Gail Shaw (sqlinthewild)

Ed Watson (SQLGator)

This is the short list of the many many many people I met while at Summit 2012 (the list is too long).  I appreciate the opportunity I had to meet each person whether mentioned in this post or not from the past week (Karla and Rodney Landrum, Tony Davis, Rob Farley, Jason Strate, Robert Davis, Wes Brown, Jes Borland, Martin Catherall, Tim Ford, Jim Murphy, Mike Fal, Louis Davidson, Kevin Kline, Jorge Segarra, etc, etc) .  This short list happens to be a list of people that I had a good amount of time to sit down around a table and chat for long periods throughout the week.  Some of them I even had the opportunity to chat multiple times.  They are all interesting for different reasons.  And some I have known for a fair bit longer than just this last week at Summit through online interactions and so forth – but I never actually met them until this last week.

Why are these the most interesting five?

I found them interesting for different reasons.  You should have your own list of most interesting people you met.  Here are my reasons for them being the most interesting in the order I met them at Summit.

Neil Hambly

I met Neil briefly for the first time at the MCM study group Sunday evening.  Two things that stood out immediately was his accent and that he was blunt and to the point.  Neil strikes me as a person that pulls no punches and tells it straight.  I like that.

Neil is very personable and very funny.

Ed Watson

Ed has an easy going southern kind of charm.  I met him Sunday evening as a bunch of us gathered at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  We sat and joked all evening.  We talked about amusement parks for a bit and mostly talked about a lot of stuff that was inconsequential.  Like myself, Ed has no problem having Cheesecake as a meal.  I frequently prefer to have my desert first, so thought this was cool that somebody else was willing to go against the grain.

I ran into Ed several times throughout Summit and we had several opportunities to chat.  I enjoyed meeting him and having so many opportunities to just chat and joke.

Gail Shaw

I have known Gail longer than any of the others on this list.  But I had never actually met her in person.  Like Neil, Gail will tell it to you straight.  She too has a thick accent being from South Africa.

With being busy at Summit, Gail was still finding time throughout the day frequently to continue to help people online.  That stood out to me quite a bit.  There are some very good reasons for why she was doing it too.  But in the true sense of giving of her time, she was making time to continually try and help people.  She was even asked last minute to fill in and present.

If you have the chance to get to know Gail, you will appreciate the opportunity.

Mickey Stuewe

The timeline for meeting Mickey gets a little grey here.  I actually ran into her the first time at the Exceptional DBA awards party.  We didn’t actually sit down and do a lot of chatting until Friday evening though.

Friday evening, a bunch of us met at the Crab Pot.  The food was really good and really too much!  There were about 12 of us in the group and Mickey and I were sitting across from each other.  We had a good long conversation about things from health to Summit to volunteering to performance tuning.

Mickey laughed a lot.  She also happened to be wearing her own design of SQL jewelry. Should you get the chance to meet her, you will probably find her laughing.  If she isn’t laughing – you should probably be able to make her laugh.

Bob Hovious

Bob (known as the Dixie Flatline on SQLServerCentral) is a grey haired gentleman with a lot of insight, good stories and deep knowledge.  Bob is a former lawyer and is a hoot. I enjoyed him prodding at Gail from time to time for a reaction.  Gail just played along – but it was fun.

I really enjoyed many of the stories that Bob shared.  Bob and I shared a lot in common and that is a big reason as to why we talked a lot.  Bob is a personable man with plenty of southern charm.  Bob is a good person and it seems to me that he likes giving back to the community.

Who are the five most memorable people you met at Summit?

Part of going to Summit is the huge opportunity to network with others.  If you are reading this, think about the people with whom you socialized during Summit week.  Who are the most interesting people you met?