If you’re at the Charlotte Convention Center,you’re walking around navigating the myriad of sessions you should attend.  Whether you’re a first timer or not, you should check out some ways to get around in my last Highlights Q&A First Timer’s Advice from the Experts.  , you can download the PDF Session Schedule.  By now, you must know what you’re going to do, and have your itinerary all mapped out.

In that regard, we asked our expert panel, what is their SQLPass itinerary and where can attendees find them if they wanted to catch their presentations, introduce themselves, or just plain catch up with some of their SQL Community Colleagues.

Rick Heiges will not be presenting this year, but , as far as his PASS Itinerary goes, “I will definitely be attending the 2 keynotes - especially Dr DeWitt's."  David DeWitt is somewhat of a legend in the SQL Industry. Before joining Microsoft as a Technical Fellow in March 2008, Dr. DeWitt was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served as chair of the Computer Sciences Department at Wisconsin from July 1999 to July 2004. Professor DeWitt is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (1998), a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007), and an ACM Fellow (1995). In 2008, he received the prestigious ACM Software Systems award for his pioneering work on parallel relational database systems. Professor DeWitt has authored over 120 technical publications.  His Keynote happens tomorrow, Thursday October 17, 8:15am - 10:00am, and will likely be carried live on passTV.  Here's an abstract on Dr. DeWitt's keynote:

Hekaton: Why, What, and How
One of the release-defining features of SQL Server 2014 is In-Memory OLTP (formerly known as Project “Hekaton”) – SQL Server’s high performance, OLTP-optimized engine. The goal of this keynote is to provide a deep understanding of how In-Memory OLTP works and how we can deliver significant performance improvements for transactional workloads. 

In addition, Rick further informs us that, "Attendees can find me in the Community Zone and anywhere else MVPs are helping out”  The Community Zone let’s you interact with your peers and talk to volunteers, made up of SQL professionals and experts where you can talk about various other SQL Server community user groups, events and forums.

So, if you are interested in speaking at user groups, Virtual Chapters, and SQLSaturdays but don’t know where to start and you want to stay involved in the SQL Server community year-round? Come chat with those who were in your shoes once. Check out the Community Zone at PASS Summit 2013 and talk with PASS Community Evangelists, Chapter and Virtual Chapter leaders, and SQLSaturday organizers about how you can participate.

Make sure you drop by the Community Zone to say “Hi,” ask questions, discuss exciting plans for the SQL Server community, or just hang out!  Rick and so many more will be there!

Grant Fritchey, who is giving several presentations at the Summit, will also be around interacting with the masses.  At the Summit, look him at his sessions listed here, the Bloggers
Table on Day 2, the WIT Lunch Bloggers Table on Day 2, BOF (Birds of a Feather) lunch on Day 3, and pretty much anywhere there are a lot of people talking. “Oh, and I'll be down in the Red Gate booth some of the time, so look for me there.”  In addition, Grant also tells us, “[Show Quoted Text - 11 lines]And, at some point, I'll be hanging around the SQL Clinic run by the Customer Assistance Team (CAT) of Microsoft, but I don't know when that will be.”  

Whether Grant is hanging out there or not, definitely stop by the SQL Clinic which has been a staple of the PASS Summit for years and is an easy way to get support on SQL and Azure Data Platform from CSS or the CAT team.  Come to the clinic with your technical problems or questions and be matched with a member of the AzureCAT (formerly known as SQLCAT) or CSS team to walk you through a solution. 

Kathi Kellenberger, so where can we find you at PASS?

In addition to her presentation Writing Better Queries with Window Functions (Application & Database Development) ,  “I am going to try to attend more sessions this year than I have in the past and am concentrating on SSIS, high availability and Big Data. I will probably be hanging out at the Pragmatic Works or Joes 2 Pros booths and in the hallways talking. Of course you can find me at the Karaoke events.” Follow the #SQLKaraoke hash tag on twitter!

Jack Corbett, is quite the busy bee with this energetic schedule.  I guess there’s on place where we won’t find him, but then I digress. Some of his itinerary has already occurred, but there’s still time to hook up with Jack.  Tell us, where exactly you will be?

“I'll be all over the place at the Summit.
      1. Monday night I'll be at the networking get together at Buffalo
      Wild Wings hosted by Andy Warren and Steve Jones for part of the evening.
      2. Tuesday I'll be spending the day in PASS meetings for Summit
      Volunteers\RMs\Chapter Leaders\SQLSaturday Organizers.  In the
evening I'll be a the welcome reception and Quiz Bowl and then the Volunteer
      Appreciation Party
      3. Wednesday - Friday I'll be in sessions and at the Community Zone
      throughout the day.  Wednesday for the Chapter lunch I'll be in the New
      England/Northeast region area hoping to connect with people from the area
      that aren't attending chapters/SQLSaturdays and convince them to
go.  Also hoping to connect with people from Vermont and Maine where there have not
      been SQLSatudays yet, to try to get a SQLSaturday helper in each
state.  No concrete evening plans yet, but you can be sure I won't be going back to my hotel before midnight.”  But not everyone is as detailed as Erland Sommarskog, who will be taking it one SQL PASS Day at a time.  If you’re going to find Erland, you’ll have to use GPS, he’ll be “At a convention center in Charlotte” Well at least we know what conference. J