I read with interest the post from Bob Pusateri that discusses what seems to be the next iteration of the SQLSaturday logo. Informative, calm, and I thought had quite a few valid points. I don’t know that I can be as logical or as calm!

Logically, I’d add to the list of concerns the signage that so many events have purchased. The lack of  signs directing attendees to the event were for years the number one complaint and events (in some cases with help from PASS) obtained signs to reuse year over year. I hate to see those thrown out and money spent again. Perhaps they can be grandfathered in.

I struggle with the value of changing a logo with far deeper recognition than anything else in the PASS space. I get that sometimes you want to “freshen” a brand or tweak it some (I went along with the change from the original yellow’ish key (borrowed from the pkey button in SSMS and brought to life by my friend Chris Rock) to the current greenish one that includes PASS in it. The latter is nicely done and if not my particular pick of colors I thought it was (and is) serviceable. The new one breaks entirely with the key metaphor and while the franchise won’t crash because of the change, help me understand why this change has to be done?

It’s tough to not react emotionally to the change. Part of that is the lack of community engagement which would have surfaced so many of these concerns. I’m not sure that PASS understands that asking for input doesn’t require you to act on all of it, but it does mean you make decisions with a better understanding of the impact of your decision. Part of it is for me, and many others, is that we’re vested in it – the very thing you dream about when you create a brand. Part is for me a sense that PASS continues to become “more corporate” each year.

I think PASS has always struggled to communicate its impact to all of those outlying members – how many group/chapter/SQLSaturday attendees see beyond the local organizers regardless of how much we talk about PASS? Does a new logo fix that? I don’t know, maybe it does? Is that even the reason? Pure guess on my part.

So, I’ll wait and see. Maybe its not really changing. Maybe there are good reasons. Maybe I’ll admire those reasons when I hear them. We’ll see.