I have been to conferences in the past, so I didn’t quite feel like a “first timer”. PASS held several things for first timers and I opted not to go to them, I did hear from my co-workers that they enjoyed the activities. I thought I had prepared for everything on this trip but I was wrong. I really had no idea that I would get to hang out with the cool kids and that by doing so I would have to learn to live on a few hours of sleep. I didn’t know that I would need more than a cure for my hang-over. I wasn’t prepared for the kindess of strangers who are now like BFF! It was a conference experience like none other and for the first time in all travels I got sick. Yes I came home with a case of the #NERDFLU. Even had to stop for cold meds Sunday for fear that my head would infact explode on the plane ride home.
COMMUNITY! Yes that was the theme for this year but it felt like so much more than that. All the conference I’ve been to I never felt this “connected”. But twitter wasn’t huge back then and there aren’t local user groups to be with for QA and SSRS was just starting out. I think that being able to connect online and locally with PASS has made a huge difference in the comradary. I LOVE IT! I really did walk away feeling inspired to be a better community member, I want to contribute more and I want to be more involved with PASS. Maybe I should set a long term goal to get on the board 
. I walked away with a nobel since of belonging, believing and feeling like I could make a difference.
Just like anything else some sessions are GREAT and some need some fine tuning. I do feel it is imporant to provide your feedback after every session. How else can people improve if they don’t know what needs improving. If you have any thoughts of presenting you should do your homework, no I don’t mean on the topic but on how to give good presentations/deliver education. And for the love of all things good and holy if you didn’t see the explosion of tweets during #sqlpass go get ZOOMIT!
I tried to pack “light” by only taking 4 pair of jeans total. I figured 8 days wearing them each 2 days would be more than ok. UHH not so. You see during a normal day in my life I would wear my jeans 8-10 hours tops and mostly it would be a car ride to my office then a car ride home with an occasional stop for dinner on the way. While at PASS it is more like a 16-18 hour day with 2-4 cab rides, in and out conference room chairs, in and out of resturants and bars. OMG do your pants get dirty fast. Next year Iwill take enough pants for all the days or pay to have them washed in the middle. I was however smart enough to take the jeans and dump them right into the washer once we got home. Pretty sure that study they did on how clean your jeans are would have to republish their results if they got near a pair of my pants.
Another bright idea, this one I actually passed on to Bill our PASS president is to have a water bottle. Seattle is somewhat of a “green” city and there wasn’t water for drinking easily located. I finally was told there were water coolers with disposible cups in each of the presentation rooms. Next year I will pack some sort of camelbak bottle and of course a sponsor will give us resuable bottle but hey it will be better to be prepared.
Healthy snacks. I noticed that this was the first conference I had ever been to that didn’t provide some afternoon snacks. By mid afternoon I was a tick hungry (mostly due to the picking around my lunch) so I finally grabbed a bag of pretzels. Next year I will just pack some granola bars or something easy to store in a book bag.
If you would like to get out and see the city of Seattle I have 2 recommendations. First is to study the bus system before you get there. They have a free bus zone in downtown Seattle, you can get just about anywhere. We had trouble navigating the bus station and it was further away from our hotel than the front desk’s best guess. For all other trips we took a cab. My second recommendation is to not get the car but get set up to use ZIP car. We rented a car for the weekend and I was pretty thankful, we went to Pike’s Place Market and were able to store goods in the trunk. We went to see the Ballard Locks and even took friends to the airport saving them a good $40 on our way home we were able to stop and get rocks/sand for my mom’s collection. We also pulled our Vegas style departure, drive up to drop off with the rental car unload all checked luggage and check in. Hop back in the car and loop around to the car-drop off. Now all you have to carry is your carry-ons. If we had to haul the 3 lg peices of luggage (we grow a thrid bag of dirty laundry on every trip), box of fish, 2 laptop bags, camera bag, and a carry-on through the airport it would of been ugly. Don’t worry I know that in vegas they have traffic cops standing there screaming at you to get moving, all you have to do is drop one person off and circle around when you pull back up switch and circle around. Easy! And on your way to the Vegas car drop off is an Applebee’s that has a wonderful happy hour.
Pack an extra bag, I mean I knew this but was suprised to see how many folks run into issues. We pack an extra duffle bag with luggage tags in each suitcase. Walmart has a wonderful bag that zips up to about the size of a note book. I would rather have my smelly dirty laundry seperated from all the other stuff and who knows how much shopping you’ll do.
So let’s recap:
- Bring a reusable water bottle, fill it often.
- Bring an extra bag in your checked luggage with a luggage tag just incase.
- Pick up some snacks for the afternoon, that last leg of paying attention really burns the brain.
- If you are doing it right your pants will get very, very dirty be prepared.
- If you are doing a presentation at Summit or anywhere for that matter use ZOOMIT.
