One of the biggest events of the year for data professionals is just one week away. The PASS Summit in Seattle, Washington, kicks off on November 6, 2018. Each year the event draws thousands of attendees from around the globe for three days of intensive learning, engaging networking, and embracing camaraderie. If you’ve never been, I highly encourage it. I’ve been to the annual conference 16 times, speaking at a dozen of them. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this year.

What’s that? You can’t go either? There’s always next year. But just because you cannot make it to Seattle this year doesn’t mean you cannot continue growing in knowledge of your craft. Successful IT professionals make continual learning a part of their routine.

So, what are some options for learning SQL Server? Here are a few that we regularly recommend to those we coach and mentor. 

• PASStv.  Although PASS makes many of the sessions from the conference available for purchase on its website, some recordings from the conference, from the 24 Hours of PASS, and virtual chapter meetings are available for free on YouTube. Just search for SQL Server PASStv and you’ll get a long list of available sessions worth watching. For example: 
  • Watch Brent Tune Queries by Brent Ozar
  • SQL Server 2016 Always On Availability Groups Enhancements by Jimmy May
  • 7 Tips to Performance Tuning, Optimization, and Everything by Pinal Dave
  • But It Worked in Development by Brent Ozar
• YouTube Videos. PASS doesn’t have the market cornered on good SQL Server content on YouTube. There are other videos available as well. For example, if you search for SQL Server, you can watch these great sessions: 
  • SQL Server 2017 Deep Dive by Bob Ward
  • SQL Server 2016 Hidden Gems with Adam Machanic
  • Running SQL Server in a Docker Container on a Mac by Kendra Little
  • T-SQL: Bad Habits and Best Practices with Aaron Bertrand 
• Vendor Resources. Many SQL Server tools manufacturers create a lot of educational content to help you not only learn to use their products but to learn SQL Server concepts as well. Some are videos. Others are free ebooks. For example:
  • SentryOne Resources
  • Redgate Hub
  • Microsoft Channel 9
• White Papers. Quite a few companies create white papers and other technical documents that can be helpful as you learn. There are good collections curated by others: 
  • SQL Skills 
  • MSSQLTips
  • PASS 
• Paid Training Sites. Although free training is good, sometimes high-quality training is available from paid sites. These offer some reasonably priced alternatives to in-person conference attendance.  
  • Lynda.com
  • PluralSight.com
  • PASS Summit Recordings

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Rather it’s designed to spark interest and to offer proof that good education is available online, often for free.

These online experiences are no substitute for actually being at the conference where you can meet the speakers, connect with others in your industry, ask questions of the product teams, and immerse your self in the SQL Server goodness that is PASS. But, if you cannot make it to the World’s Largest SQL Family Reunion, these are good opportunities to expand your knowledge. 

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