The Best Thing I learned at PASS

And if you think keeping this below 250 words was easy… You try it.

I’ve received a lot from the PASS conference. I’ve attended technical sessions that blew my socks off and made me twitch in my seat, fighting the urge to start writing TSQL code, immediately. I don’t think any of that is the best thing I learned at PASS. No, the best thing I learned at PASS is summed up in a single phrase, You Can.

My first summit, I ventured out of the hotel room and met people volunteering with PASS. They were having fun. I asked if I could join in. You Can, just volunteer. I volunteered and began to meet people online. The next summit, I met more people, names, people I had learned from. I asked them, can I hang out with you? You Can, pull up a chair. I started learning more, directly from the source. I began building a network of people who helped me and who I could help.

I began to use You Can myself. I was asked if I wanted to write a book. You Can. I tried submitting abstracts to speak at PASS. You Can’t was the first answer, but You Can came the following year.

Go to the PASS Summit. You Can meet the people you’ve learned from. You Can build a network of fellow database professionals. You Can learn from technical sessions. You Can volunteer to make PASS an even better communittee. You Can submit an abstract to share knowledge that’s unique to you. You Can.