Moving PASS

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Moving PASS

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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January 16, 2010 at 11:58 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Moving PASS

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Michael Osmond SSC Journeyman Points: 88 More actions · Answer 1

It's really nice in Brisbane at this time of year. 😀

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 2

Dubai's good too.

Location doesn't concern me all that much, just as long as the host city as reasonably good public transport.

I'm not sure about the splitting up. At the moment, the PASS US Summit can be called 'The biggest SQL Server conference'. If it gets divided into 2 or 3 smaller regional conferences, I worry that the value of those conferences will be reduced. Most people will only be able to make one of the smaller conferences.

This is why I travel to the US conference rather than the European, even though the European conference is closer and cheaper.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

core-909671 SSC Veteran Points: 220 More actions · Answer 3

I'm not concerned with skiing or great bars. I want content and substance for my money.

hnhaney2 SSC Veteran Points: 210 More actions · Answer 4

What about an East Coast and a West Coast PASS Conference, I don’t know about the West Coast, but Gatlinburg, Tennessee would be idea place on the East Coast. Centrally located, prefect tourist trap (Yes, Skiing too.) with large conference center. At least that’s my two cents on the topic.

OCTom SSChampion Points: 11785 More actions · Answer 5

Being in the U.S. Great Lakes region, I know it would be easier to justify a trip to Minneapolis, Chicago, or Detroit. Chicago has great jazz and blues clubs.

Patrick Cahill SSCertifiable Points: 6477 More actions · Answer 6

I agree with Steve that having all the microsoft people sounds great, but I never took advantage of them being there. I am from the west so I like having it in Seattle. But I would really like it in San Diego, mostly for the nice weather. Having it a couple of months earlier in the year would be nice also.

JJ-251245 SSC Veteran Points: 263 More actions · Answer 7

From our company they only send one a year. There were some really great pre-seminar things during the day, but because of cost, they wouldn't send our SQL DBA to it. It's a must for us, but sometimes companies look at it cost-prohibitive.

What about the idea of having it twice a year, once in spring once in the fall. once on the East Coast for all of us out here (so we can attend all days... which would make us exstatic!) and one on the West Coast.

😛

Dan Guzman - Not the MVP Hall of Fame Points: 3757 More actions · Answer 8

I agree that having the MS people there sounds nice. I, also didn't use them. We are a tiny shop, and things just don't come up that I need to talk to an MS insider to resolve. Now if the MS Office people were there too, then I would slap them around a bit :-D.

On the other hand, I live in Oregon, so Seattle is an easy drive, and I have family there, so I try to stay over the weekend as well. Moving it to some other place? I doubt my company would pay for airfare. It's much easier to sell 'local' event these days, then distance ones.

DG

SQLRNNR SSC Guru Points: 281334 More actions · Answer 9

I wouldn't mind seeing it move around. There are plenty of locations throughout the US that seem like viable options (Orlando, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Dallas).

Splitting up into multiple conferences would only be worthwhile if the same amount of content could be delivered to each of the conferences as they currently do in the single conference.

Having a smaller MS presence may not be such a bad thing. When I attended PASS last, I did take advantage of the resources that MS provided. That happened largely due to standing room only sessions - so I found something equally productive to go do.

Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
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Carlos Bossy SSChasing Mays Points: 643 More actions · Answer 10

The location is not that important to me, and talking to MS people is nice, but not the compelling reason to go. For me, strong sessions that are well presented with a lot of meat to them is the key to a good conference.

Having more than one event a year might help people who have trouble attending because of schedule conflicts, etc. But it seems that tweaking the conference in small ways won't make an impact to overall attendance. There are a lot of conferences and competition and too little time and money. PASS should keep the quality of the conference at a high level and it seems attendance will take care of itself.

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/carlosbossy
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Conan The Canadian Ten Centuries Points: 1335 More actions · Answer 11

There are tons of user groups and other learning events for other technology or programming languages, but not for SQL.

It seems that there are only two, PASS and SQL Connect.

I wish I could find something closer (in the Great Lake region) where several people from our team could go. The cost of attending PASS or SQL Connect is just a bit too high for us to send very many if any people to.

Does anyone know of a place to find smaller events? I'm looking for Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison type areas that we can drive to.

Kev -=Conan The Canadian=-
@ConanTheCdn

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736430 More actions · Answer 12

Conan (great name)

There are a few SQL Saturdays coming near you. One in Philly, one in Chicago.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736430 More actions · Answer 13

I would expect that two conferences a year would still be 2-3 days, and that most of the same speakers would attend and you would have the same content. Maybe a few less people, but likely the same content.

Perhaps each would only have one day of pre/post cons, but that would depend on signups.

Bob Abernethy SSCommitted Points: 1946 More actions · Answer 14

I vote for keeping it as one conference and keeping it in Seattle.

From an exhibitor/sponsor perspective, it's more effective having a larger audience gathered in the same location, rather than split up into two or more conferences. Exhibiting involves a commitment of resources (people, time, money), and having two or more conferences would multiply that commitment significantly, even if the cost for the exhibit space itself was reduced per conference. Being a profitable, privately-held software company, the cost/benefit of decisions like these definitely matter to us. So we'd need to look at how many unique total attendees would be at these multiple events, what the total costs would be for us to exhibit in multiple cities, and compare all that to the opportunity costs of not having those resources available for other purposes.