Saturday, November 22, 2008

Summer Camp for DBA's (#SQLPASS) is over for 2008

I wanted to thank everyone that i met and remet at PASS this past week.
I started sending this over Twitter, but ran out of 140 characters too soon.
Either I know too many people, or all their names are too long. hum...

So, here it goes.

Thanks goes out to :

People that i follow on twitter that i met or remet while attending PASS


@alibro
@AndyLeonard
@blythemorrow
@bradmcgehee
@BrentO
@Bugboi
@DevSQL
@donalddotfarmer
@douglasmcdowell
@drsql
@Grant_Fritchey
@greglow
@jessicammoss
@joewebb
@KevinIC3
@lyndarab
@PaulNielsen
@peschkaj
@Peter_Shire
@robboek
@rushabhmehta
@sqlagentman
@SqlAsylum
@SQLBatman
@SQLDiva
@sqlinsaneo
@stuarta
@wardy
@way0utwest

Thanks goes out to those twits that were not in attendance, yet involved themselves in a positive way and contributed to the PASS summit
@statisticsio
@sh3n3rd


And the folks that i met and remet that have yet to get with twitter, but still provides a valuable social experience at the PASS summit.

Andy Warren
Ben Miller
Bill Graziano
Christoph Stotz
Chuck Heinzelman
Erin Welker
Itzik Ben-Gan
Kalen Delaney
Kevin Kline
Neil Watkins
Rick Heiges
Wayne Snyder

And all the wonderful folks at Red-Gate
Dominic
Andras
Rachael
and more i do not remember names of, i'm sure.


I am sure that i missed some folks, and i will try to add to the list as i remember them.



Twitter

While at PASS, i had the chance to meet and talk with so many different folks. All of which taught me. All of which i learned from. From the presenters, from the organizers, from the board of PASS, from the volunteers, from the attendees (delegates), from the speakers, and from others. If you do not take the time

What an amazing experience PASS was this year. With the advent of the Social Networking toys we all picked up, plus the combination of close proximity to everyone in the Summit, I was able to meet and interact with people in a way i never have before. Le't's talk about a few of the new experiences that i was able to participate in over this new wave of Social Networking that was unleashed with a vengance upon #SQLPass.

Where else, or when else have you
  • been an audience member, and seen the inner thoughts of people about to take stage in front of 3000 people, and seen and read what they were thinking before, and after? and then seen that person later alter their presentation based on feedback from the audience, before taking the stage?
  • been able to get the insights of a dozen individuals if not more that are participating in an educational experience, at the same time you are?
  • been allowed the opportunity to meet up and organize into small groups quickly and efficiently, while those same people are scattered amongst the city in different locations?
  • been keyed into great sessions that others are participating in and be able to decide to jump to that session or stay in yours?
  • been able to wake up or goto bed, and get a slight iternary of peoples actions, even though you are not present?
  • been able to join a group of friends that have all taken off to a destination, and realize its the same destination you intended on going too? Now you are not alone.
  • been able to get someone to save you a seat, as you were late getting into a capacity filling room, and been able to experience the session with them?
  • arrived at an airport and asked to share a ride in the cab with someone, and been able to trust that individual that you had never met before?
  • been in a small group of folks, and had an entire subtext of converstaion and reality occur, and be able to witness it?
  • found someone who had an extra bag to lend you out in your packing needs?
  • met friends you may feel a kinsmanship with, yet never met in person? and find out that they are exactly like the friend you had before meeting them?
  • peek into the minds of bloggers and writers commenting and disecting anothers speech, giving you a unique opportunity of seeing the words in a different light than your own, and understand them in multiple ways, as they are still emerging from the speaker?

All this, and much more was afforded us at PASS by virtue of Twitter, and Social Networking. An amazing experience PASS has been for us all in years past, and the networking advantages we have reaped have been countless. But this PASS, 2008 PASS Summit was incredible to be a part of the upper, lower and middle realities that surrounded it with Social Networking.

An amazing experience, brought to new heights.

5 comments:

Brent Ozar said...

Wow, you did a great job. I get questions all the time from people who say, "Why do you use Twitter?" and this really sums it up. I got more value for my money by using Twitter during the conference: I had a better time, I learned more, and I think it even made the presentations better.

Next year, I bet more presenters will follow Donald Farmer's lead and interact with the audience via Twitter. I can already see myself saying, "Alright, before we take questions, let's see what got said over Twitter while we were talking..."

Unknown said...

Excellent overview! You really hit the nail on the head about how we all collaborate using twitter, especially at a conference.

Twitter really helped out at the conference being able to coordinate sessions, meals, and meeting up with people before and after conference sessions. Without Twitter I definitely would have had a very different and much less rewarding conference experience.

Anonymous said...

Awesome post since you mentioned me. Haha. But for real, DBA's are starting to get it. Might have been as much twitter traffic as #pdc08

Crazy DBA said...

great post TJay. I had forgotten about how twitter helped share some cabs. i think it enhanced the conference for me as well and look forward to the advances we shall see in the next 12 months.

Ian Kirk said...

Your post says it all so well. As a first time participant, the Twitter aspect really opened my eyes to a portion of the conference I didn't realize existed - suddenly I knew about the keynotes and sessions I wasn't attending. I realized that, yes, Twitter really is a tool, not a complete timewaster. (Yeah, it still wastes some time...)

I think it was the Twitter "component" of the conference that really kicked me in the pants and made me want to participate like I never would have before. It took me until the last day to really speak up, but now that I have, it's cool.

I've already dropped a couple of tweets about it, but I think I have an advancement of the Twitter scenario that will help us all. I even went so far to set up a new blog just to post about it. I'd love to hear comments from such a great crew of folks...

http://ilkirk.wordpress.com/