Its just a bit over a week until PASS Summit 2015 will start. If you are a Microsoft Data Platform professional, then there is no other more important event in the universe than this one.

There are some amazing workshops for this year event, and though I still did not decide about Monday’s workshop, I won’t be able to pick any of the Tuesday’s workshops, because of all the PASS User Group & SQLSaturday related meetings.

Like in in the last couple of events, you will be able to find me at the bloggers table during the morning keynotes – I will be writing & twitting about the keynotes and people’s reaction.

I will spend most of the free time somewhere around the Community Zone, hanging out – chilling out and talking to different people.

Like everyone else in the industry – I recommend you to connect to other people. Start conversations with your fellow attendees, speakers, organisers, Microsoft representatives, sponsors, everyone !

PASS Experience is something truly unique, because of the opportunity to immerse yourself into the world of Microsoft Data Platform by simply talking about things.

Go to the PASS Summit breakfasts – every morning you will find a number of sponsors offering some great food and awesome content, for free!

I definitely going to spend some time at the SQL Server Clinic, where besides a number of different specific people I am looking forward to meet :), there are some interesting news about SQL Server Tiger Team, you can read about their announcement there.

Given their activity lately, I am definitely interested in discovering more and I hope to see some fun activities.

Like in 2014, there is another Speaker Idol contest – and if you would love to see some good speakers getting discussed by some other speakers, then this will be a lot of fun & learning for you.

New this year, the Community Session Room, where Kendal van Dyke and Ryan Adams and Kevin Kline will be talking & explaining how you can get the best out of PASS. If you are new to the organisation or if this is your first PASS Summit, then consider attending one of those sessions!

And then … there are Evening Events, and After Hours – and ooh, there are a lot of them!

The most important of them all, for me is the Monday Night Networking Dinner that is being organised by Andy Warren and Steve Jones. I can not miss this one for the world!

Oh, and as for the schedule – here are the sessions that I am looking for to attend

(My plan is not very fixed, and I can change it every minute, even during the day – for example if I caught an interesting conversation with someone):

Wednesday:

– 10:15-11:30 Overview of ColumnStore Index in SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database (You could have guessed this one, didn’t you ? :))

– 13:30 – 14:45 Building Elastic SaaS Applications with Azure SQL Database – Torsten Grabs (Azure SQLDatabase – sounds interesting)

– 15:15 – 16:30 A Few Of My Favourite Plan Operators – Rob Farley (An interesting topic for me, and with Rob … :))

– 16:45 – 18:00 Foundation Session: Developing Modern Applications on Azure & Overview of Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Architecture, Need to choose one of those sessions.

Thursday:

– 10:15 – 11:30 Run, Total, Run! with Itzik Ben-Gan (absolute must for me)

– 13:30 – 14:45 Real-Time Operational Analytics in SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database (You might notice me following Sunil’s sessions on PASS Summit … It might have something to do with the word Columnstore). One of the things that stresses me off is that exactly at the same slot, Denzil Ribeiro will be talking about “SQLCAT: SQL Server 2016 Columnstore Customer Scenarios and Best Practices”…

– 15:15 – 16:30 Inside Wait Types, Latches, and Spinlocks with Bob Ward in order to relax before my session.

– 16:45 – 18:00 My session on Columnstore will require some of my attention …

Friday:

– 08:00 – 09:15 U-SQL Query Execution and Performance Tuning (U-SQL is something I am very curious about)

– 09:30 – 12:15 Power BI Hands-On Mini Workshop with Paul Turley

– 14:00 – 15:15 High-Performance Statistical Queries with Dejan Sarka (500 level relaxing session)

– 15:30 – 16:45 Query optimization and Query Store in SQL Server 2016 and Azure SQL Database with Borko Novakovic (Query Store with its PM)

Pick your sessions, make a plan of making connections, have a good relax and enjoy PASS Summit 2015!