The past couple of years have been a time of upheaval for communities. Even just the definition of the word community has started to evolve.
Think about how well you know each group of people:
- People on Twitter and FaceBook
- Your coworkers
- Your local computer user group (SQL, .NET, whatever)
- Your neighbors
For me, it breaks down in that exact order: I know some people on Twitter better than I know my coworkers, and I know all of those groups better than I know the people living next door to me. It’s not that I don’t want to know my neighbors – it’s just that we never have time to interact.
The physical meatspace user groups mean less and less to me because I only talk to those folks one day per month, whereas I talk to people on Twitter every single day.
And That Means the PASS Summit Is……
Summit 2009
You might think I’m about to say that physical meetings are irrelevant in the age of social networking. After all, the PASS Summit isn’t cheap – with travel, hotel, and registration costs, you can easily burn through a few thousand dollars. Toss in the time away from work, and you’re talking real money.
Wrong-o.
The PASS Summit is even more relevant because it’s your one chance to meet a ton of people that are more than just small avatars in TweetDeck. These are real, living, breathing, bacon-eating, Jager-drinking human beings who are even more fun in person than they are on the screen.
But the Way We Interact is Changing
In the old days, at big meetings like the PASS Summit, people would walk around and try to meet new friends for the first time with awkward icebreakers like, “So, you come here often?” We stumbled around in a sea of strangers trying to find common ground. Meetings like the Birds of a Feather lunch were our one chance to quickly establish a bond with someone who shared similar work challenges.
More often than not, though, we ended up bonding with people who picked the same bar we picked.
Next week, when I step into the Seattle Convention Center, I’m going to run into dozens, maybe hundreds of people that I’ve never met – yet I already know them really well. I’ve talked to them on Twitter for months, day in and day out. I know their pains, I know their challenges, and I know their favorite breakfast meat. From the moment we clasp hands, it’s going to be a time of excitement and interaction.
It’s Not Too Late – And I’ll Throw In More.
PASS is running a referral promotion. Register for the PASS Summit for $1,595 (or get another $100 off by using promo code SSC3D) by November 1st using this information:
- Answer Yes to the following registration question: “Did you hear about PASS Summit 2009 through our Friend Referral program?”
- Referrer name: Brent Ozar
- Referrer email: BrentO@BrentOzar.com
For every 3 people I refer, I get a free pre-conference or post-conference registration, but I want you to have it. I’ll hold a drawing for everyone who PASS says used my referral code, and I’ll give the winner the pre-conf or post-conf registration. (The contest also includes a netbook, but I’ll be keepin’ that, baby.) If I win multiple pre/post conference registrations from PASS, I’ll draw a winner for each registration. Only one registration per entrant, though.
You can read the full PASS contest rules, and then register for the PASS Summit using the instructions above.
Well I just registered with your friend referral program code. Hope you win a netbook and I win pre/post conf.
Cameron
Woohoo! Thanks!