I was fortunate to attend my 4th PASS Summit. For the past 4 years I have flown out to Seattle Washington and attended the largest Microsoft SQL Server convention in the world. My first year was all about attending sessions and learning new things. Year two was about attending technical sessions and hanging out with a few friends I had made on twitter the year before. Year three was as much about hanging out with friends as it was attending technical sessions. This year I only attended two sessions and all day Tuesday meetings regarding volunteer work. Since this year my official company training event was a SQL Skills Immersion event, my trip to Seattle was technically vacation time for me. I spent my days hanging out with friends and making new ones.

I was very fortunate to be able to publish a book “SQL Backup and Recovery” with Joes2Pros. We made it to print just in time for the PASS Summit. I spent some time at the Joes2Pros booth hanging out with Rick Morelan, Tony, Greg and Pinal Dave as well as the Idera booth where I was a featured guest for a question and answer session on Wednesday and Thursday. I was very lucky that the Joes2Pros booth and Idera faced each other.

It was great getting to see the Joes2Pros team in person. Pinal Dave and I were able to spend a good bit of time together in the expo hall meeting people from all over the world, talking about our experiences with SQL server, book ideas, and getting to know one another better. It was a lot of fun having Pinal Dave and Rick attend my book signing Wednesday night at the Idera Happy Hour. Thursday night Pinal and I joined Brian Moran and Joey D’Antoni for some appetizers before Pinal and I walked to the friends of RedGate dinner. From the RedGate dinner we took a cab to the Microsoft appreciation party and ended the night meeting up with Rick, Tony and Greg for drinks. We had a blast. Friday was more meet and greet with people at the expo hall although I did take in a session that morning. I had a book signing at the Joes2Pros booth during lunch and gave out over 100 books. Pinal and I were joined by Rick at Subway for a late lunch and then we helped break down the Joes2Pros booth.

As the Summit was wrapping up Rick, Pinal and I camped out in the Community Zone and discussed upcoming projects. I must say that I am really excited to be working with Pinal and Rick. If things go as planned, there should be several new books in 2013 that I am involved with. Getting to know Pinal as more than a blogger has been a real treat. As most of you know, Pinal runs SQLAuthority.com, but he is also a husband, father, author and all around great guy. He is also someone I can now call a good friend. To the left is a picture from my first book signing in which Pinal was first in line to show support.

Back in August at a SQL Skills Immersion event, I met for the second time another great guy who goes by the name David Klee (blog). I first met David in Chicago after being introduced by Andy Galbraith. During the Immersion event I had asked a couple of questions about SQL on VMWare and boy did I hit the jackpot having David in the room. David and I have kept in touch and was able to spend some time catching up in Seattle. I have been very impressed with how much David has gotten involved in the SQL Community and sharing his deep depth of knowledge about VMWare with the community.

There are countless others that I connected with in Seattle and I am very much looking forward to reconnecting again at the various SQL Saturday’s in 2013 and the SQL PASS 2013 conference! October 15-18 in Charlotte, NC! Use the alumni code ALUMNI3D to get $100 off your early-bird registration!