It’s good to point out it’s still only Thursday, as my laptop tells me that it’s already Friday.
Today is the second of only two keynotes this Summit, which means that it’s the opportunity to hear from Microsoft Research Labs about what’s going on with data from their perspective.
It’s also when we get to hear from the PASS VPs – community members that I used to serve with on the PASS Board of Directors – about how PASS is doing from a Financial and Marketing perspective.
One of the interesting things about PASS is that there are reserves of over a million dollars. I mention this because it’s an area that some people is quite “interesting” for a community and non-profit organisation, but I want to point out that these savings help let PASS be more free in what they (we?) do. Having a million dollars in the bank means that PASS can reach out and do things that will serve the community, even if it seems like it could be risky. There is a lot of risk in running the Summit every year, and this is the most obvious area that PASS could need money to cover costs that might not come back if, say, there’s another volcano eruption in Iceland. I saw first-hand the freedom that PASS had because of the reserves (although some risks were still very high and freedom does not mean irresponsibility), and I know this is a good thing.
From the marketing perspective, the celebration of individuals who have gone beyond the norm is a great part of the Summit event, and the PASSion Award winner has been announced as Andrey Korshikov. This guy has done so much for the Russian Data Community, making him the most influential SQL person in the largest country of the world. You can’t go past that…
