The annual PASS Summit is definitely about technology and learning, but if that’s all you get out of it you’re missing out. Networking, also known as meeting people, is hugely valuable and often fun. It’s also a chance to recharge. We all do that in different ways, but I’ll wager that fun in some form is a big part of it. Which brings us to the point of this post, how do we (you) have fun?

There’s a lot to do in Seattle, but it’s hard to know where to start and its somewhat intimidating to just go out solo or try to find a group to join for dinner. There are a few recurring ‘unofficial’ events, things like the networking dinner that Steve Jones & I are hosting, the Photo Walk, and SQL Karaoke, but after that it tends to be ad hoc and unseen, small groups going off to dinner or whatever (and I get that sometimes adhoc works just fine).

We (Steve,Denny Cherry,and I) think we should have a much richer culture as far as those people oriented events and that it doesn’t just have to be after hours. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a list of 100 events across the week, ranging from someone inviting 3 people to join them for sushi to a chess match at the book store to a morning run? We’re not trying to make everyone get out and be social, just trying to offer a wider range of events to appeal to all the different ways we have fun and recharge.

How do we that?

I bet there is something you want to do in Seattle. Dinner at a specific restaurant, breakfast, movie, tour, wine tasting, chess match, snipe hunt, ice skating, bowling, something. Why not publish your idea and invite some as yet to be met friends to join?

I’m going to suggest some guidelines:

• Don’t overlap official PASS events, including the evening events. Those are good events and we should be there.
• Make attending free, everyone pays their own way, no expectation that it will be subsidized
• Keep the logistics simple. It’s a lot easier to get a table for four than a restaurant for 150.
• Don’t worry about overlapping times with other events. It’s not competition, it’s options. For all that remember that you might well join one group for dinner and other for drinks or a movie later in the evening – not everything has to be 6-8 pm.
• It doesn’t have to just be evenings.
• Have a way to announce changes in plans and announce it if plans change! To me the easiest way is to set it up on EventBrite, it’s free for free events, and it has the ability to limit attendance and to email your attendees if things change.
• Publicize it. Get it entered at http://passsummitevents.info/ which is hosted by Denny Cherry and he’ll make sure it gets posted on Twitter and linked over to the After Hours page for the Summit. We’re going to announce the events on Twitter using #sqlpass and #sqlfun.

We’ve already got a few, and I’m adding one more right now, Donuts & Coffee with SQLAndy/Tuesday Morning, come have breakfast with me and we’ll talk about something interesting. What else will get listed by tomorrow night?