PASS Data Community Summit 2024

I’m deviating from my normal format to try to capture a bit of the feel of PASS Summit more or less right after it happens.

Tuesday: Travel day!

Air travel has become a train wreck since Covid, but this was a surprisingly easy day. Both flights on time, walked pretty much off one plane onto the other. Long flight from Dallas to Seattle allowed me to chill and watch part of a movie. Great Lyft ride – didn’t have to grab the “oh poop” handle even once! Easy check-in at the Sheraton Grand, as always.

Easy 7-10 minute walk to the beautiful new part of the Seattle Convention Center – Summit building. Didn’t see much since we were just doing badge pickup. Stopped off for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at 4:30 pm (6:30 Central/my stomach time).

Wednesday

Mobile order coffee and food from the full-service Starbucks in the lobby and sit with my friends Eugene Meidinger and Daniel Hutmacher…unexpected #SQLFamily reunion!

Cool thing: I got to meet one of my employees face-to-face for the first time! Had a real chat, like real people used to do way back in the before-days.

I always skip the Keynotes…too many warm bodies in too tight of a space. I made my way to the room where Haripriya Naidu was about deliver an outstanding session on tempdb contention in SQL Server 2022. I stopped her in the dining hall during lunch to tell her this was one of the top 5 sessions I ever been to at any Summit.

Next up Joey D’antoni did a session on Azure Infrastructure…some of this I knew, some not. Had to leave early to go have a chat with someone.

I did a quick wander through the Exhibitor Hall to grab some of the good swag before it all disappeared. My attempt to get a “Lego Grant (Fritchey)” from the claw machine in the Red Gate booth only netted me a stuffed Aardvark. More on this side quest later.

Lunch with Jeff and Glen (my team), plus random people we sat with. Summit is the best, as you can pretty much join in anything unless its obviously a private conversation.

Spent the next session slot in the Community Zone, welcoming First-timers and meeting up with people I met my first time back in 2008. I strongly recommend taking at least one “Hallway session” per day to decompress and pretend to be social. Easy in a conference full of awkward introverts!

Next session was Kevin Kline and Jeff Garbus talking about “Database Architecture Antipatterns and Fails”, which could just as easily have been called “war stories from two old guys”. I mean that with the deepest respect…because I am also an old guy with war stories I tell a lot.

Final session of the day was with Monica Rathbun (SQLEspresso) doing a rapid-fire 45 minute session on how she uses Query Store to look like a hero to her clients. Bonus points for Scooby Doo references.

Had dinner at 6pm in the Exhibitor Reception…not formal but hey…free chicken and waffles or any of several other options, and someone handed me a free beer ticket.

Called it a day from there and chilled the rest of the night.

Thursday

Same breakfast, same place, same companions…is this going to be an annual thing?

This morning was largely spent hanging out and getting to know people…none of the morning sessions really matched up with what I do or what my clients need. Had some great conversations with old and new friends in the Community Zone and Lunch table.

Andy Yun did a great job (with Sebastian’s help) going deep into storage issues and all of the many layers that can turn into bottlenecks.

The surprise hit of the day for me was Erik Darling’s “Everything You Know About Isolation Levels Is Wrong” session. Jokes, snark and demo heavy, it was fantastic, top to bottom.

The Bacon-Bacon Cheeseburger for dinner was way too much but awesome nonetheless.

Friday

Breakfast Club at Starbucks with Eugene and Daniel again!

My first session of the day was Reworking Indexes for an Evolving Application by  Courtney Woolum, who I met in the CZ on Thursday. Great 200 level session using the IMDB database. Excellent pacing and demos.

Next up lunch, then off to a MSSQL vs. Postgre SQL comparison talk by Rick Lowe. Sadly, I had to leave to chat with a client.

For the final session of the day, I got to go see one of the best presenters I know (Kendra Little) talk about Perf Tuning in Prod: Plan Forcing, Plan Guides, and Plan Correction. Quite a bit of info but the big takeaway is “Query Store is the best place to start”.

Saturday

Travel day! Long day, but zero issues on either leg, home by 8:30 or so to see my lovely bride!

Brent Ozar makes some of the best training for SQL Server available on the internet.

A LOT of the above information is covered.

Every November, he runs a Black Friday Sale with DEEP discounts. Running now!

My Recent LinkedIn Posts

PASS Summit goodies – Espresso Cheesecake bites

Haripriya Crushed her tempdb session! (see above)

Interesting Stuff I Read This Week

Donald Trump re-elected, in case you missed it :)

SQL tidBITs:

PASS Summit will have 3 regional mini-summits in 2025. Amsterdam, Dallas and New York. I have no other details at this time.

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