A note from Alison Leightley, Global Events Marketing Manager

Headlines:

• PASS Summit North America will be hosted in Denver Colorado, October 13-15, 2027. PASS Summit Europe will be hosted in London, UK, November 2027. Both events include a training day with more sessions per day and lower ticket prices.
• The changes came after consultation with the newly formed PASS Summit Focus Group (including Matt Gordon, Ben Weissmann, Andy Yun, Peter Shore, Craig Porteous and Emilie Rønning)
• Favourites like the Community Experts Clinic, Community Zone, Hobby Huddles and Games night are staying, the focus group will keep guiding the event, and the best-priced tickets are on sale now.

Redgate acquired PASS Data Community Summit in 2021, and since returning to in-person conferences, we’ve welcomed data professionals from around the world to Seattle each November. Over the last two years, we’ve also experimented with taking PASS on tour, introducing smaller satellite events in different locations. However, over time it became clear that the existing conference model was facing challenges, particularly around attendance and sponsorship. It wasn’t just us seeing this change, after speaking to many community conference organisers globally, we realised this was a change in the whole ecosystem. We recognised that changes were needed to ensure PASS Summit could continue to thrive in the long term, and in summer 2026, we began working with the community to explore what its future could look like.

We formed a community focus group with the intention of asking the question “should PASS Summit continue to operate as an in-person conference, is there space for it?” and the resounding answer was Yes! I heard countless times how PASS Summit fills a niche, especially in the US, for data professionals who want to learn from real experts and go home being able to implement their learnings. They didn’t want an industry conference where every talk is surface level and only focused on selling their solution, they wanted want a place to gather, meet old and new friends, and to learn real technical content. With the answer we needed, we then enlisted this focus group to stay on and be our sounding board, after all, this is a community conference that should be shaped by the community.

We approached Matt Gordon and Ben Weissmann, both very well-known community advocates and speakers, and asked them to assemble the focus group so that the group wouldn’t end up being just Redgate supporters. They invited to the group Andy Yun, Peter Shore, Craig Porteous and Emilie Rønning, a mix of tenured and up and coming speakers, who had intimate knowledge of the conference landscape. Over several months, the group met and we discussed ideas, pipedreams, and what we thought would work and be supported by the community.

Here were our biggest outcomes:

• Pricing needs to be more accessible. Everyone’s learning budgets are being reduced, some completely removed, so we needed to do everything we could to bring the cost down to make this more affordable for people to attend.
• More content. Over the years, the density of the schedule of PASS Summit had reduced and with fewer sessions, it meant that people felt they couldn’t skip any to hit the “hallway track”, which we hear time and time again means so much to people.
• New location. Although the home of PASS Summit has been Seattle for a while now, everyone agreed that it was time for a change and to move it more inland so that it was more easily accessible, and ultimately more affordable (the savings of which could be passed on to attendees via the ticket prices).
• Less complexity. 3-4 PASS Summit events per year was causing confusion.
• More transparency. Changes internally at Redgate have led the community to guess why things were happening, rather than us being upfront and transparent about them. Although our intention was never to hide things, lack of capacity or oversight left the community feeling left out.

The future of PASS Data Community Summit

PASS Data Community Summit will be returning in 2027 as two in-person events, PASS Summit North America and PASS Summit Europe. These events have been created as part of the evolution of PASS Summit, with the aim of building it back up and becoming once again, the event that the community look forward to each year. The feedback reinforced what we’ve always believed: PASS Summit has an important role to play in the data community. We’re committed to building on that legacy, creating a conference experience that reflects what the community values most and can continue to grow in the years ahead. On behalf of the PASS Focus Group and I, we really hope you like what we’ve come up with!

PASS Summit North America – October 13-15, 2027

We know some people will be sad about leaving Seattle, many of you will already have a favourite coffee shop (I look forward to a Rose Oat Latte from Monorail every year!) but it was clear from our discussions that it needed to move. The move creates more accessibility, both geographically, but also financially as we were able to pass the savings along to attendees via lower ticket prices.

In October 2027, PASS Summit will be hosted in Denver, Colorado. With views of the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Convention Centre will be where we are inviting the data professionals of the world to gather with us for 3 days to connect, share and learn.

There will only be one ticket type, a 3-day ticket which includes a Training Day for everyone. The event will start in the evening with the Community Kickoff and First Timers networking session on Tuesday, October 12 and will be followed by two days of community sessions and evening events. The conference will then conclude on the Friday with a full Training Day.

Although the full schedule is still being ironed out, expect more sessions throughout the day, giving you more choice but also more time to experience the Hallway Track. Some exciting new sessions will be brought to life too – stay tuned for more info!

Not everything is changing though, the Community Experts Clinic, offering free consultation for your challenges will be returning, along with the Community Zone, Hobby Huddles, Games night and a host of other community-led events. We want your input too – if you have an idea of an activity you’d like to see at PASS Summit, please tell us!

PASS Summit Europe – November, 2027

PASS Summit Europe will be hosted in London in 2027, bringing the community together one last time before the year ends.

Similarly to the North American conference, PASS Summit Europe will mirror the format of the Denver event but on a slightly smaller scale. There will be days packed full of sessions and lots of opportunities to catch up informally, and hopefully less travel for some, or a good reason to visit the UK for others.

We really wanted PASS Summit to be accessible to all, to give the community a place to come together, and a place to connect, share and learn!

We couldn’t have shaped it without our fantastic Community Focus Group who will stay on and continue to guide and help shape the conference. I am so grateful for their help and support throughout this process.

If you’re interested in registering, the best priced tickets are on sale now.