Convince Your Boss – Senior/Lead Developer/Engineer
“Dear [Insert Manager’s Name],
I’d like to request approval to attend PASS Summit West 2026 in Seattle, running November 9-11.
As a senior developer, I spend a meaningful chunk of my time working with data, writing queries, designing schemas, integrating with databases, and increasingly being the person who gets asked “why is this slow?” when there’s no DBA available to ask. PASS Summit is the one event where I can close those gaps with structured, expert-led content rather than patching things together from Stack Overflow at 11pm.
Specifically, I want to come back with:
- A better mental model for query performance so I stop writing code that works fine in dev and causes incidents in prod
- Practical knowledge of data architecture patterns that I can apply as we scale
- An understanding of where AI and modern data tooling is heading, so I can make better technical decisions now rather than retrofitting later
- One of the biggest perks? Free one-on-one time with some of the industry’s top experts at the Community Experts Clinic. That kind of consultation typically runs $250-$400 an hour outside of PASS Summit West. I could walk away on Thursday with our toughest problem already solved
There are sessions across three days covering SQL Server, Azure, data engineering, and development practices. I’ve already identified a shortlist that maps directly to our current work.
It’s also worth thinking about what it costs when I don’t have this knowledge. Data-related issues I can’t diagnose quickly get escalated, delayed, or worked around in ways that create more technical debt. The longer those gaps stay open, the more expensive they get to close.
91% of 2025 PASS Summit West attendees rated the event 4 or 5 stars. 99% said they gained insights they could apply immediately.
Approximate costs:
Airfare: [insert $ here]
Transportation: [insert $ here]
Hotel (2 nights at ~$250): $500 [adjust as needed]
Dinner (3 days at $50): $150 [adjust as needed]
Conference Ticket: $1990 – $2325
I’m happy to present a summary of what I learn to the wider team afterwards — there’ll be more than enough worth sharing.
Thanks for considering this request.
[Your Name]”