My favorite annual user conference, SQLPass is helping sponsor attendees this year by having a contest. Oddly enough, the contest is to blog about "What is the Best Thing I Learned" at the conference. There are so many wonderful things about the conference - the amazing sessions, the super nice staff, Seattle in November, the fun parties, the Exhibition hall with more than just vendors, the hands-on labs, the Women In Technology luncheon - my list can go on and on! (just kidding on the Seattle in November thing - although it IS warmer than Chicago that time of year!)
Really, the most wonderful thing to me at the conference is the people. I have met some of the Rockstars of the SQL community (thanks for the cab ride Kevin Kline!), some of the movers and shakers of the PASS community (Bill Graziano was the first person I talked to at my first conference) and a whole lot of the everyday Joe-DBA's out there who walk the walk and talk the talk. Without the camaraderie of all of the people, we would never find ourselves in groups of 10 or more schlepping off to dinner and discussing our work environments, issues we regularly encounter and solutions discovered after countless hours of research.
Also, with Twitter, we collaborate, we comisserate and we congratulate each other every day. Seeing them at the confernce will be the icing on the cake - and looking forward to adding more to the network!