EDMPASS WANTS BUCK WOODY!!!
When talking to Summit attendees the one name that comes up constantly or the one question that comes up is…
“Did you get a chance to see Buck Woody present?”
I did… and it was my first time. It was the end of the day I believe on the Thursday… I would tell you EXACTLY when but….
Anyways… back to the story… so I go into Buck Woody’s session on Policy Based Management, Data Collector, and Central management Servers and I was pretty tired as it was and the room was cooking but as soon as I walked in the door it was entertainment from start to finish…. and not just entertainment but VERY informative.
I remember back in the days of junior high and high school the teachers that stand out in my mind are the ones that were able to educate the class while adding a bit of fun and their own flavor to the material. This is Buck Woody.
We’re all at the Summit, we’re all there to learn, and we’re all excited about SQL Server BUT if you had the pleasure of seeing a Buck Woody session you should know exactly what I mean when I say this guy takes presentations to the next level.
I heard a rumor on Twitter that if the Summit was NOT in Seattle that there is a chance that Buck Woody might not be able to attend and speak due to the travel costs:
… and this is exactly why I for one DO NOT want to move the Summit out of Seattle. PASS has come right out and said that if we move the Summit from Seattle that we will NOT be able to take advantage of the all the local Microsoft folks (like Buck Woody). Now some might say I’m a little biased in my opinion because Seattle is only an hour and 45 minute flight for me… but I would feel the same way if it was in Chicago, New York, or Boston.
Anyways the goal of this post was 2 things:
1) To spread the good word about a great speaker – Buck Woody
2) To get Buck Woody to speak at EDMPASS
I’ve accomplished #1…. let’s see how I do with #2
Enjoy!!
I’ll certainly second getting Buck. Would I still need a hard hat even though he would be speaking remotely? I some how survived one of his sessions even though I am English, live in Canada and don’t know Powershell!!!
Colin,
I just looked at your picture and Buck’s and you are starting to look like him!!!
Ouch – That is a tough error on a SQL Server community website. Glad they got that one fixed. Full recovery model with no log backups??
Anyway – That session Thursday with you was my first time seeing Buck speak and it definitely was surprisingly motivating for the time of day, jet lag exhaustion and heat in the room. Very informative, enlightening and, well, fun. Made me go see two of his other presentations the next day.
I am with you, Buck is a great speaker. The kids he has in his University of Washington class are incredibly blessed to have a teacher who loves his trade, can give a great presentation and can make a topic fun and exciting. Microsoft is fortunate to have him and I am glad that we can steal him at PASS summits.
That being said, I would still go to the PASS summit if Bucky Woody wasn’t presenting. There are a ton of great presenters. Sure most of them don’t pull of the dunk tank clown insult routine like he does and make everyone feel equally welcome at the same time. Sure some of the presenters are dry but I go because of the wealth of knowledge, meeting others in the community and having opportunities to network.
I had to go through some hoops to get the company pay for the airfare to a west coast conference, even as a PASS volunteer so Summit cost being essentially negated. I know of other folks who would LOVE to go to a PASS conference but can’t do the travel to Seattle for whatever reason.
If we could have every 3rd Summit (for example) in CST or EST it would allow us to have it at a different time (it’s kind of tough for folks who speak at both PASS and Connections and then fall into the holidays) and it would allow more (and different) faces to be in the audience. Sure we may miss some of the extra MS folks but hopefully MS could foot the bill for at least a couple speakers, we have a community of experts to speak (many pay their own airfare being independent consultants) and it would still be a great time of learning and fun had by all.
It would allow more people to get interested in PASS and volunteering. It would get more people hooked (think meth only your teeth don’t rot out) on the Summit experience and the budget would increase because attendance could come from more first time attendees.
As for me, I’ll pay my own airfare and take FTO if I have to but not everyone can make that choice.