2005 PASS Community Summit - The Lighter Side
Well, there was life outside the sessions too :-) Each day, post all the sessions, we had interesting get togethers with various MVPs and the SQL Server Development Team. Of particular interest to me was the (re)introduction that I had with a lot of the MVPs that I had met in the last year's summit (like Steve Kass, Tom Moreau, Brian, Sukhdev, Andrew, Erland). Also got some chances to do a bit of volunteering work in the lounges with real-world users of SQL Server by answering a lot of their queries. The best day was on the 3rd day of the summit when all the MVPs got to go to the Circle Ranch in Dallas. With over 60 acres of open ranch, the place was really cool. Got to flex my arms with a few games of table tennis and some football (played over a table top. I do not remember what the game is called). The best part of the night was a horse ride around the ranch with Steve Dybing, Sukhdev, Hayden, Andrew et al. Man, what horses they were! They looked like mini elephants and I learned that they were Belgium ones.
Post the PASS summit, there was an MVP day exclusively for all the MVPs. It was a packed day with bak-to-back technical sessions from the SQL Server development team (got to learn quite a few things). It was also a great networking experience with the MVPs and the SQL Server devlopment team guys and I have quite a few action points on my plate to try back at home :-)
Overall, the PASS summit was a great experience and best of all, a truly exhilirating networking experience with some of the industry gurus and experts.