You probably have heard this already: PASS has decided that PASS Summit will go virtual this year. Instead of assembling in Dallas, we’ll all stay home. Presenters will present from behind their computers, at home. Attendees will watch on their devices, from their homes. It will sort of be the same, but not the same at all!
I know a lot of you are debating whether to attend or not. I understand that. The live, face to face experience is one of the cornerstones of PASS Summit, of any community event. A virtual event will never capture that the same way. If that is your main reason for attending, should you still attend?
On the other hand, the virtual PASS Summit has benefits too. Not everyone can afford to fly to America and stay there for a week, to attend a conference. The registration fee for the Summit is a hefty chunk of money. Add airfare, hotel, meals, taxis, and you rack up quite a bill. Plus, you miss billables, or you need to take time from work. A lot of people I have met at conferences in Europe have never been to the PASS Summit. They would love to go but it was not realistic. Now, it suddenly is an option for them. No airfare. No hotel. And due to the time zone difference, they might be able to combine it with work.
So who knows? Perhaps this PASS Summit will for many people be a unique opportunity to meet people you otherwise never would have met. Sure, you won’t meet them face to face. But I have heard that PASS is working hard to enable new forms of networking during the PASS Virtual Summit 2020.
I will attend the PASS Virtual Summit. I will present a precon: Execution Plans in Depth. I will also present two regular sessions: Execution Plans … where do I start? and Normalization beyond Third Normal Form. But I will also attend as many of the other sessions as I can. And I will leverage the networking opportunities that PASS will make available.
I hope you will too.
PASS has asked me to record two videos. I do not know what they plan to do with them; I assume they will at one time publish them. But I wanted to give all who read my blog a sneak preview. So here are two videos: one explaining why you should attend the Virtual PASS Summit, and one where I give some more information on what to expect during my precon, to help you assess whether you like it.
Did I convince you to attend the PASS Virtual Summit? I hope so. You can click here to register for the event. And if you do, then why not consider signing up for my precon?
3 Comments. Leave new
Hi Hugo, hope you’re doing well. Your pre con looks really appealing. Are you planning to release the second block of your execution plan training before november? Will the content be similar to your pre con? Thanks!
Hi Francisco!
I’m doing as well as the circumstances permit, thanks. I hope you’re fine too.
The second set of videos, which is actually the advanced part of the first block, is nearing completion. I hope to have it finished and sufficiently polished for release by September. The third set, the basic level of block 2, will almost certainly NOT be ready before PASS Summit. In my current (very tentative and very fluid) planning, that block is expected to be finished by late November.
There will be a lot of overlap between my precon and the video training. But there are also huge differences.
The video training is longer, more in depth. There is after all no need to cram everything in a single day. Once all planned blocks of the video training are online, I expect the total play time of all videos to be more than 30 hours. The video training is also more polished. All my text is scripted, and a lot of thought goes into every sentence. I record it multiple times if needed to cut out imperfections and make sure it is as clear as possible.
The precon is more interactive. I skip on most of the details to try to cover as much as I can in the available time, but there’s always time for questions. My presentation style during live talks is also much more spontaneous. I have the slides and demos prepared so I know what I want to talk about, but nothing is scripted; it’s all spontaneous on the spot. Which also allows me to adapt based on feedback I get. (Of course, in a virtual delivery I cannot see my audience which makes adaptation a bit harder but I do hope there will be questions and discussion).
I also tend to use my hands, and my whole body, a lot during this precon, as a visualization aid to explain how certain operators work. That won’t work in the virtual delivery, so I’ll need to figure out how to replace that. But I still have a few months left to solve that issue.
Because there is indeed a large overlap in content between my precon and what I have planned for the video course, I am considering the option of giving precon attendees a discount on the video course. But this is really limited by what I can and cannot do on the Vimeo platform that hosts my videos and processes subscriptions and payments, so no hard promises on this yet.
I hope this addresses all your questions and concerns!
Cheers,
Hugo
Fully understood!
Thank you so much for your reply and your time.
Stay safe