SqlServerKudos

Bill Graziano asked if  . I for one don't see any reason why not.

Firstly I'd ask what the purpose of the conference is. Is it toa) foster the SQL community, b) market the SQL Server Productc) educate people on the use of SQL Server.

Personally I think PASS should be aiming for a and c and to that end I don't see any issue with moving to the east coast.

With regard Bills points.

Travel, Its a conference, whats the difference if its in east or west coast, I am sure there are just as many people working on the east coast that use SQL as there are on the west coast. And coming from Europe I have many more direct flight options than to Seattle (not hard really only 1 direct flight to Seattle from London)

Microsoft Support

Whilst the product team involvement is good I think its a small part in the scheme of things, if MS want PMs doing sessions then they can send them. IMHO sessions by independent experts are generally better than ones by product team PMs.

Using more indepenent people to run sessions I thing would be fine if the Microsoft people can't make it. So I don't think you would have less sessions and definitely not less focus on specific subjects.

The difference is the SQLCAT and CSS guys but as you mention these aren't based in Seattle and so moving to the east coast won't really make much difference.

The side sessions I agree will probably be impacted as will the ability to pop up to campus for a meeting, but that really only affects a small few and personally having MS send these people, who often aren't based in Seattle, over to the east coast isn't a big cost for MS in the scheme of things.

Logistics

My experiences suggest that putting on a good event is more down to the venue being