SQL PASS in Denver was Excellent

In stark contrast to the quality of the trip to/from the US, the PASS conference in Denver was really excellent. This really is *the* world-wide SQL Server related event of the year. It was great to see the support of so many PASS volunteers, Microsoft product group staff and other presenters and attendees.

We had a PASS volunteer meet and greet function on Monday night and I was honoured to get to present sort of a keynote for the PASS volunteer day on Tuesday morning. Paul Nielsen had obtained copies of my technical communities book for all attendees and I got to cover a number of the key points contained in it.

Wednesday morning saw the conference start in earnest and it continued apace through to Friday night. I really have to single out Ed Lehman from Microsoft for thanks in the way that he prepared a number of MVP-only events during lunch on Wednesday and Thursday and most of Friday morning. These were intense and highly useful sessions. Ed and his team also organised a great evening out on Thursday night where the MVPs and Microsoft staff that were attending got to spend some quality time at a bowling alley.

For me, the pick of the conference sessions was the one that Michael Rys delivered on the new spatial data types and libraries.

On Friday, unfortunately I had to both deliver a session at 1pm to 2:15pm and be on a flight at 5pm so I was unable to stay after the session to take questions as I normally would do. As promised, if you have any questions arising from that session, please just email me at greg.low @ readify.net and I'll attempt to sort them out as best I can.

I'd also like to thank all those that voted for me to be on the PASS board for the next two years and to also congratulate the other board members that were elected. I hope I can now live up to your expectations while I'm there.