I am late writing this…between getting ready to take one week away from work, things to pack and keep the home in a reasonably tidy shape there was no time to blog. But I have been gathering thoughts in my head as I went by doing my chores – on whom to meet and what to do. This is my summit #14 in a row, and have never ever regretted coming back here because of the friends I make and the connections that enrich me in every way.
1 Whom to meet – I am one of those many people who learnt the hard way that the community that matters the most are those in your own neck-of-the-woods – people who work at companies nearest to you, volunteer at your sql Saturdays and user groups and so on. So my very first preference is my breakfast with the team from Louisville – I know several of them already and most do not have a blogging or tweet presence. But I do look forward to meeting Dave Fackler – the user group lead after me who has been doing an awesome job keeping up the meetings, and Chris Yates – whom I met on twitter and is growing to be a good member of our local #sqlfamily. Our group is scheduled to meet on Wednesday morning for breakfast at the summit.
2 The non celebrity friends network – I like to call it that – we are people who are regular attendees of the conference – none of us are celebrities/MCMs/MVPs. Some are ardent PASS volunteers . We like to support and offer grounding to each other as we grow in our lives and careers. My long time friend from St Louis user group Julie Bloominquest, SQLSaturday champion Pam Shaw, Microsoftie friend Karthika Raman, other friends like Meher Malakapalli, Dan Brennan and Adam Belebczuk.
3 New people to add to the network – Some people I have only known via twitter or other people’s blogs – Doug Lane, Nancy Daniels , Theresa Iserman, Andy Galbraith, Joey D Antoni are some of them. I think I have more just not getting names out yet.
The number of people I have known over the years and want to catch up with is simply too long for a blog post…that is what makes the summit worth returning to every single year.
Some posts you may want to read that are similar are from two awesome #sqlgals – Tamera Clark and Mickey Stuewe.
http://mickeystuewe.com/2014/10/29/who-you-gonna-meet/
http://clarkcreations.net/blog/last-minute-thoughts-for-summit-2014
Wishing everyone a happy conference!!
diligentdba 