Let’s start with the keynote. The biggest take away was how having to support multiple data platforms is growing and becoming the norm. This has been my experience and I know it can be overwhelming to those who have been able to specialize for a long time. Jack of all trades for the win!
But one of the other things pointed out were how many folks were here on PTO/paid their own way. That’s not right. I know that justification for why folks should attend PASS have been put out for years. The value justification is definitely there. My time on the vendor floor meant I came away with potential solutions to vexing issues back at work. That kind of opportunity cannot be underestimated. It goes to show, though, that logic doesn’t always win. However, if you are having a struggle getting your manager to approve, keep at it.
There were great sessions all day but I think the one I got the most out of over the last two days was the Simplifying and Streamling Database Deployment presentation by Kathi Kellenberger and Chris Yates. It was conducted in an interview format and while there were a few slides, it was mostly Aunt Kathi and Chris talking with Kathi asking Chris about his org’s DB DevOps journey. Chris also questions of the audience about their DevOps journeys. There was a great deal of information shared due to this format. It reminded me a lot of Andy Warren’s SQL Server statistics talks where he just used a whiteboard. Less was more because we were able to focus on what Andy was saying. The same was true in this case. I hope we’ll see more of these focused interview type of sessions in events.
And that wraps up PASS for me this year. PASS has been a blast and I’m glad I came. I got to catch up with a lot of friends in addition to the learning, but missed some others. That’s due to the size of the conference, and that’s a great thing. If you’re a data professional, this is a conference you should definitely try to get to each year.