Author: Grant Fritchey

What a day. I'm not going to do justice to the keynote. First off, the room was frigging huge (not Tech-Ed huge, but enormous for PASS). It was pretty full too. The keynote wasn't terribly exciting, but it was terribly interesting. Watching 150tb databases process queries in less than 30 seconds is not something you see every day. Of more interest to me was the info on the new deployment mechanisms across database "fabrics" coming up with the new version of SQL Server (yes, it's at least two years away, but it's only two years away). It pretty clearly incorporates some of VSDB, but it's also a bit different. It includes data for example. This will be something for me to keep an eye on. My first session was with Allen White.…

While it's called training, the PASS volunteer "day" is much more a report on the current status of the organization and planning for the next year. Today we had good start. Pat Wright went over the org chart, something new to PASS volunteers this year. Kevin Kline went over the history of the organization, including a few stories (ask him about escorting an attendee off site because of way too public a display of self-love). Lots of interesting information has come out. PASS is run under international rules as a non-profit which requires it to maintain ~20% of it's operating expenses in the bank. Regional conferences are under consideration (although, as was pointed out, internationally, they're already underway). The C&C management company performs the day-to-day operations above & beyond what…

I am not here to name names. The organization threw a nice party at a local bowling alley. A lot of fun was had by all. I finally got to shake hands with Gail Shaw. She's almost as tall as I am. My bowling game has seriously deteriorated over the years. Today, the conference gets started for real for me. All day sessions with the PASS organization.  I promise, from here on out the posts will get a lot more interesting. From talking to a lot of people, I understand that Brian Knight's presentation on SSIS, which included a Drug Dealers Datawarehouse or something, was the one to miss. Unfortunately, I missed it. I think there'll be a video of it on the PASS web site.