PASS Summit Tip: Get the Session Recordings!

calendar Sep 20, 2018 · PASS Summit  ·
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Last week I wrote about SQL Saturday Portland and the SQLTrain. In this week's PASS Summit tip I have another piece of advice for attendees: Get the session recordings.

Yes, I know they cost extra. And no, I am not blindly playing PASS marketing cheerleader here. There's actually some really solid reasons to purchase the session recordings:

  • PASS Summit has many wonderful sessions. Just check out the schedule, there's a ton of great stuff on there. You will encounter time slots where there are multiple sessions you want to attend and you'll have to pick one and miss the other(s). With recordings of every session, this is no longer a problem.
  • Have you ever had one of those "aha!" moments midway through a session, and now wish you could re-watch it all over again from the beginning? You can do that with a recording.
  • Fatigue is a very real problem at conferences. After spending multiple hours in sessions, everyone is bound to hit the point where their brain is full. There is zero shame in this – it happens to me too. When you have session recordings, you can watch or re-watch any session at a time when you are fully awake, aware, and caffeinated.
  • There may be a time where you're better off skipping a session or two. Don't forget, PASS Summit is about more than just sessions, it's about networking and making connections with people. That's why everyone gets together in a convention center instead of this just being an online conference. I've blogged about this before, but there are absolutely times where I go network with people and vendors instead of attending sessions. Having recordings to watch later makes the decision to do this very easy.
  • Perhaps your manager wishes they could send more people to PASS Summit, but there's not enough room in the budget. Explain to them that if they were to purchase a full set of conference recordings just a little bit extra, the entire team would be able to benefit from your attending. (I once was on a team where we ate lunch together while watching conference videos one day per week. It was great for all of us!)

So while I realize that PASS Summit session recordings cost extra, in my opinion they help bring even more value to the conference. I think they're worth it.