As you probably know, I travel quite a bit with my job speaking at local SQL Server user group meetings and visiting with lots of customers of Quest Software. I'm beginning to see a lot of belts get tightened and I'm wondering if you're seeing the same. For example, I know of some very talented DBAs who were given a free pass to the big PASS Summit (www.sqlpass.org). Unfortunately, they weren't able to attend because their company had completely cut the travel and meals budget. The DBAs could go only if they paid their own expenses and used vacation time. Have you seen anything of the same in your experiences? I view this whole situation with some degree of irony. Consider the case of a company that is in pretty good financial position today, but they cut all travel and training budgets simply because they're worried that things won't turn out well. Fast forward one quarter, and all of the caterers, restaurants, and travel companies are having to lay off workers or make other cutbacks to survive. Talk about self-fulfilling prophesy! If you add just a handfull of companies like that together in each major city who are cutting back purely out of F.U.D (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), then you've got a mini-recession on your hands. Best regards, -Kevi
