Our expert team of conference-goers recently returned from PASS, and laughed in the face of jet-lag to fill us in on a varied taste of what went on during these last few non-stop days in Seattle. I’ll open to floor to the lovely Claire, who reminisces about the good times…

The SQL Server Central party, complete with SQL-fuelled, happy website members, buzzing casino tables, purple nachos and a mountain of charcoal gray T-shirts to give away, surely has to be one of my favourite evenings during PASS.

My attempts at blackjack were all too reminiscent of the days when I used to play (and bitterly lose) POGS in the yard at school. The chips may have practically dissolved on the green felt of the table before me, but my spirits were greatly lifted when we all saw Dan McClain, Exceptional DBA of 2008, accept his trophy, awarded by Rodney Landrum and Brad McGehee, two of the Exceptional DBA Awards’ judges. Rodney, Dan and Brad all made great speeches, and, cheesy as it may sound, I really enjoyed seeing Dan’s peers cheer his achievement, particularly as there will probably have been quite a few people at the party who voted for the awards’ finalists. Dan has worked hard in his career, and I’m sure Dan encouraged many DBAs in the audience to enter these new awards in their second year in 2009 too.

Here’s a photo of Dan with his crystal trophy – Dan, if you’re reading this, I hope the baggage handlers at the airports were gentle!

Next up, we’ve got the inestimable Theo, and his rapid-fire round-up of preparing for software demonstrations…

Software folklore dictates that the best way to find bugs in your software is to prepare a thoroughly checked and rehearsed demonstration and then try to reproduce it with a customer watching. Fortunately all Red Gate software is scrutinized by our rather thorough testing department before being released, but even without software bugs there is a lot that can go wrong.

Due to our unshakable faith in Murphey’s Law, the Red Gate PASS team spent the day before PASS sitting on all available surfaces in our apartment with laptops balanced precariously on our laps working on our demonstrations. Questions were raised like “How do you demonstrate SQL Prompt if you haven’t written any SQL in the last 3 years?” (solved with a crash-course SQL refresher) and “How do you demonstrate a server monitoring tool on a single laptop without an internet connection?” (Daniel had set up an appropriate virtual machine before we left for the conference).

Whilst the preparation was somewhat painful, it meant at the conference demonstrating the software went smoothly (most of the time anyway). Careful practice helped, but much of the credit for this must go to Dom for designing interfaces that even guys like me from marketing can learn to use fluently in less than a day.

And last, but by no means the least, I present our very own Tony, and his tale of Seattle Surreality…

Sometimes weird things happen at conferences. After a long day in technical sessions, followed by the vendor reception, I was looking forward to winding down with a burger and a quiet few beers. I really did not expect to find myself, instead, taking photos in a Seattle tattoo parlour at 10PM, as Rodney Landrum got what must surely be the world’s first Red Gate tattoo.

I think this was a “one off” PASS experience 😉

Post by Chris Massey, Claire Brooking, Theo Spears & Tony Davis