Jessica M. Moss

One of my favorite times of the year is the PASS Community Summit.  It's five jam-packed days of SQL Server sessions by Microsoft employees, MVPs, and the people that you read about in technical books.  It's pre-conference and post-conference workshops on all different levels of topics of SQL Server.  It's a way to meet new people who love to do what you love to do and connect with old friends who you only see once a year.  It's a way to get a job or sell a job.  It's all of this and so much more that I can't even begin to describe. I'm excited to attend for the third year starting tomorrow.  If you are attending the Summit, I hope you'll come and introduce yourself.  You can find me at one of these locations/times: Monday, November 2, 2009 4:30pm-6:30pm   Networking Pre-Con - I'm really excited to learn about the best ways to meet people and meet other people who are interested in the same thing! Tuesday, November 3, 2009 11:45am...

I have an exciting week coming up! On Wednesday evening, I will be speaking at the Rockville .NET User Group on SSIS Tips & Tricks for both SQL Server 2005 and 2008. If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by. On Friday night, the Northern Virginia Girl Geek Dinner is having their inaugural dinner. Hosting by Viget Labs , sponsorship by Microsoft , and a presentation by Dr. Joanne McGrath Cohoon will make for a great evening! I will be there, helping to ensure everything runs smoothly. The sign up deadline was just extended through Wednesday, so sign up now at http://novagirlgeekdinner.eventbrite.com/ !

I am, with GeekyCyberMom , putting together a Girl Geek Dinner group for the MD/VA/DC area. Girl Geek Dinners started in London by Sarah Blow and have cropped up all over the world. They are a way for women to get together in a welcoming environment to learn and discuss technology. We are looking for sponsors and members. If you are interested in helping with or attending any of the events, catch up with us through here: Blog Wiki Twitter I know I'm looking forward to it!

It's not surprising to anyone working in technology that we work in a male-dominated field. If you've been to a technical conference recently, it's also not surprising that the percentage of female speakers is drastically lower than male speakers. Is this due to the obvious gender imbalance in the field, the difficulty in finding women to speak, or something else? I'm not going to try to venture a guess - I'm just glad to embrace a site that is trying to "even things up a little" by providing a repository of women technical speaker bios for conference organizers to utilize. GeekSpeakr: http://www.geekspeakr.com Disclaimer: You'll see my bio on there too :)