PASS Summit 2009 “Best Thing I Learned at PASS” Contest Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Sponsor: Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS)

HOW TO ENTER:

No purchase necessary. The contest begins on June 3, 2009, and ends on July 1, 2009 (the “Contest Period”). All entries must be received by July 1, 2009, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time (“Submission Deadline”).

There are two (2) ways to enter: (1) Publish a blog post with your submission content and email the blog post link to contact@sqlpass.org with the subject line “Best Thing I Learned at PASS”, or (2) email your submission to contact@sqlpass.org with the subject line “Best Thing I Learned at PASS”. Your submission must be on the topic of the most valuable technical tip/advice obtained at a past PASS Summit conference that warranted attendance at the conference. Each submission must be no longer than 250 words maximum. Each entrant is limited to three (3) entries. All entries must be received by the Submission Deadline.

ELIGIBILITY:

Contest is open to legal residents of Canada and the U.S., except employees (and those with whom such employees are domiciled) or agents of the Sponsor. No employee, contractor, board member, or elected board member of PASS, the Professional Association for SQL Server, or its affiliated companies, his or her spouse, or immediate family members shall be eligible to win. Additionally, PASS reserves the right to disqualify any other person from participation in a contest where such participation would, in the sole opinion of PASS, compromise or give the appearance of compromising the integrity of the contest.

THE PRIZES AND APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUES:

There are 10 prizes to be won, as follows:

There is one (1) First Prize available to be won of the choice of either one Full Summit registration to PASS Summit 2009 or four nights at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Towers, checking in Monday, November 2, and checking out Friday, November 6, 2009. The approximate retail value of the Full Summit registration is $1,395 USD. The approximate retail value of the Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Towers stay is $920 USD. If the winner has already registered for a Full Summit registration and chooses this prize, he/she may request reimbursement of the registration fee, equal to the amount of the fee paid at the time of registration and refunded in the same method of payment as the original registration payment.

There are three (3) Second Prizes available to be won of one PASS Summit 2009 Pre-Conference or Post-Conference seminar registration. Winner may select from the list of 14 seminars once the seminar sessions have been posted, subject to availability. Each Second Prize has an approximate retail value of $395 USD.

There are six (6) Third Prizes available to be won of a set of PASS Summit 2008 Session Recordings DVDs. Each Third Prize has an approximate retail value of $595 USD.

Prizes must be accepted as awarded and are not convertible to cash. Prize may be transferred upon the approval of both the Winner and the Sponsor. No substitutions except at the Sponsor's discretion. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize or a prize component with one of equal or greater value. Any taxes on the prize are the sole responsibility of the winners.

WINNER SELECTION:

A panel of judges appointed by the Sponsor consisting of members of the PASS Board of Directors and/or PASS Headquarters will judge all submissions on the basis of the return on investment achieved, technical merit, originality, creativity, and relevance to submission topic.

All judging criteria will be weighed equally. In the event of a tie, the submission with the highest score in return on investment will be selected as the winner. Submissions that are illegal or defamatory, all as determined solely by the Sponsor, will be disqualified. Judging will be completed and the winners contacted by July 15, 2009. If you have not been contacted by this date, you may assume that your entry is not a winner.

The submission with the highest score will be entitled to a First Prize; the submissions with the second-, third-, and fourth-highest scores will be entitled to a Second Prize; and the submissions with the fifth- to tenth-highest scores will be entitled to a Third Prize.

Odds of a submission being selected by the contest judges as the winner of a First, Second, or Third Prize depend on the number and caliber of entries received in each category.

By accepting a prize, winner agrees that his/her submission becomes the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. Winner grants the Sponsor the right in perpetuity to publish and use winner’s submission, as is or as may be edited in Sponsor’s sole discretion, accompanied by winner’s full name and city of residence in any advertising and promotion by the Sponsor without further compensation, including but not limited to Sponsor's website, the PASS Summit website, and related marketing and promotional materials. Selected winners agree to assign all intellectual property rights including copyright and to waive all moral rights in and to the submission in favor of the Sponsor.

GENERAL CONDITIONS:

No correspondence will be entered into except with the selected winners. This contest is subject to all applicable federal, provincial, and municipal laws. Void where prohibited by law. The decisions of the contest judges with respect to all aspects of this contest are final and binding on all entrants without right of appeal.

Selected winners will be required to sign and return a standard Declaration, Liability and Publicity Release, releasing the Sponsor, their respective advertising and promotional agencies, and the contest judges from any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from this contest, participation in contest-related activities, the awarding of a prize, and the use or misuse of any prize.

By entering the contest, selected winners agree to comply with these official contest rules and agree to the publication, reproduction, and/or other use of their name, address, company, voice, statements about the contest, and/or personal photograph or other likeness without further compensation, in any publicity or advertisement carried out by the Sponsor in any manner whatsoever, including print, broadcast, or the Internet.

The Sponsor, its advertising and promotion agencies, and the contest judges are not responsible for late, lost, misdirected, postage-due, delayed, or illegible entries. Without limitation, the Sponsor, its advertising and promotion agencies, and the contest judges will not be liable for the failure of any entry to be received.

The Sponsor reserves the right to withdraw or amend this contest in any way, in the event of an error, technical problem, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failure, or any other cause beyond the reasonable control of the Sponsor that interferes with the proper conduct of this contest as contemplated by these Rules. Any attempt to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of this contest is a violation of criminal and civil laws, and should such an attempt be made, the Sponsor reserves the right to seek remedies and damages to the fullest extent permitted by law, including criminal prosecution. The Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or suspend this contest in the event of any accident, printing, administrative, or other error of any kind without prior notice or obligation.

By entering this contest, each entrant expressly consents to the Sponsor, its agents and/or representatives, storing, sharing, and using the personal information submitted with his/her entry only for the purpose of administering the contest and in accordance with Sponsor’s Privacy Policy found at www.sqlpass.org unless the entrant otherwise agrees.

For a list of winners, email contact@sqlpass.org. Requests must be received by October 1, 2009.