Farewell to the PASS Germany e.V.
From one who is going to Redmond …
Dear members of PASS Germany,
Sometimes it happens very fast. In this case, too fast for me to personally say goodbye to you at local user group meetings. That’s why I do this here.
After many years of membership, including 6 years RGV of the local user group Rhineland (Cologne / Duesseldorf), it was time for a bigger change than possible in Germany.
In the last 10 years I’ve performed at exactly 60 conferences worldwide, about 15 of them in Germany. There were also 36 user group meetings, including at least 25 in the German PASS community. Overall, I count 123 sessions and 12 PreCon workshops.
In October, my last conference appearance took place in Germany – unfortunately not in the context of PASS. (The luck in the lottery for the speakers of the SQLSaturday Munich was with a different speaker.)
Although the vast majority of my performances took place naturally elsewhere (the world is big, very big, in fact), my first appearances actually took place within the association of the now German “Microsoft Data Platform Community”.
– Conference locations worldwide, where I have spoken.
I started at the European PASS Conference in 2009, and at the end of the same year I was already in Seattle, where, together with Ralf Dietrich, I took the security of SQL Server apart – so well that our session was asked to run again the year after. And since then I’ve been doing my rounds on PASS evenings, organizationally or just as a spokesman at home and abroad.
– My first conference appearance 2009: Topic: “Reporting Services”. Still quite “green”.
– My last appearance in the context of PASS Germany 02-2018. Together with my future team leader of the SQL Server security team 😉
Now, in 2018, the story is drawing to a close, and I’ll be taking a responsible role in the very same team I’ve been in contact with since then: the SQL Server security team and Azure Databases (see my announcement from September).
I wish the German PASS a lot of success, to offer the members exciting content as the first in the German industry, and to be the contact person of the Microsoft SQL Server Team in Germany. Make sure to use the advantages of our agile industry. (Current German politics are certainly not a good role model in this sense. ;-)) That we are active in this industry in these times, is quite a privilege that should be used. And where, if not in an association can most you likely try things out.
To those who have active themselves publicly for years, but also behind the scenes with their private time for the community: Thank you for everything. I wish you get more reinforcement. Certainly, there is a much higher potential for enthusiasts among the members who have something to say that others are interested in.
I am thinking not only of speakers, but also of the German PASS club structures and event organization, where there is even more potential among the members for good ideas and interest in actively implementing them. – By the way: My current CEO at Microsoft UK, Cindy Rose (I’m still stationed in London for several months before moving on to Redmond.) is not a man – and that’s certainly NOT a bad thing.
Maybe we meet again in Seattle at the big PASS conference. With a little luck again at the German SQLKonferenz. I’m sure you’ve heard that SQL Server 2019 is coming, with a lot of new features in it. With a bit of luck I may even present it in Germany. (Let me ask my boss … ;-))
In this sense…
Have a good trip and don’t be afraid of change
And have fun with lifelong learning (www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-secret-to-lifelong-success-is-lifelong-learning)
Greetings from the “other side” now, symbolically as well as physically 🙂
Andreas Wolter
MCM SQL Server, MCSM Data Platform, MVP Data Platform
Founder Sarpedon Quality Lab®
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