Considering the whole COVID-19 mess that is happening this year, events being cancelled and re-launched in a virtual form… Is it any wonder that the PASS Summit is joining the trend as well? I’d be quite disappointed if it hadn’t. So, great news!
To be honest, I was quite worried before this announcement, because I knew that had the summit not gone virtual, I would rather not go. I just don’t feel that it’s safe enough just yet. Unsurprisingly, many people felt the same, and so this significant change has been pushed forward.
The first ever PASS Virtual Summit will be taking place this November 10 – 13. If you register before June 19, you can enjoy a $100 discount, which is pretty cool.
Click here to register now
For more details, check out this announcement at PASS News, or this blog post by Wendy Patrick.
There are many advantages to this event going virtual (which is, of course, true of any similar event these days), and it’s a natural step after the PASS Recordings Listing were made public for free.
Speaking of which, a lot of similar decisions were made in many similar events, such as SQL Saturdays, Data Platform Meetups, and so on. Also, many new initiatives were created from scratch with the sole purpose of being virtual events, such as: Data Weekender Europe, SQL Friday, DataPlatformGeeks Virtual Symposium, Data Platform Discovery Day, Madeira Live Webinars, Idera’s Geek Sync, EightKB, and much more.
And obviously I gotta mention the long-running SQL Server and Data Platform events that were made virtual from the start, such as the PASS Virtual Groups, GroupBy.org, and free webinars delivered by SentryOne, Red-Gate, MSSQLtips, SQLServerCentral.com, and others.
In short, even if you’re unable to attend this year’s PASS Summit, despite it going virtual, there are still quite a handful of other options for you to choose from, if you’re looking to boost your professional knowledge.