Note: I'm writing this as part of the "Best Thing I Learned At PASS" contest. Why? Because if I win it's worth a free registration or hotel stay for the 2009 Summit, and I like free!

Let me start by making a small confession: I've never actually been to the PASS summit in person. So how in the world can I write about what I've learned? Because I've been there vicariously through the blogs and Twitter streams of people who were there last year. Thank goodness, because before the rise of blogging\social networking if you had asked me what happens at the PASS summit I would have said…I honestly don’t know what happens at PASS besides a bunch of technical presentations given by people who write books and magazine articles for a living. My ignorance about what PASS is became clear to me last November as I read about the daily keynotes, the community sessions, and the nighttime parties. I came to realize that PASS is about so much more than just sitting in technical presentations. It’s about learning from people just like you who are doing the same things as you do every day. It’s about uniting with your peers and meeting new people who share a common interest. It’s about escaping the daily workload to reenergize and reinvigorate the passion to do our jobs as best as we possibly can when we return. So even though I haven’t been to PASS in person, I’ve learned one important thing: For the sake of my career, I need to go to PASS. If I can figure that out without actually having been to PASS, just imagine what I’ll learn when I do go this year.