Disclaimer: I recently attended Dell EMC World 2017. My flights, accommodation and conference pass were paid for by Dell EMC via the Dell EMC Elect program. There is no requirement for me to blog about any of the content presented and I am not compensated in any way for my time at the event. Some materials presented were discussed under NDA and don’t form part of my blog posts, but could influence future discussions.
Here are my notes on gifts, etc, that I received as a conference attendee at Dell EMC World 2017. This is by no stretch an interesting post from a technical perspective, but it’s a way for me to track and publicly disclose what I get and how it looks when I write about various things. I’m going to do this in chronological order, as that was the easiest way for me to take notes during the week. While everyone’s situation is different, I took 5 days of training / work time to be at this event (thanks to my employer for being on board).
Sunday
My employer paid for my taxi to BNE airport. I flew Qantas economy class to LAX and then American Airlines to LAS. The flights were paid for by Dell EMC. Plane food was consumed on the flight. It was a generally good experience, lack of sleep notwithstanding. I stayed at the Palazzo Hotel. This was covered by Dell EMC as well.
Monday
I attended a vExpert / Dell EMC Elect kickoff breakfast held at the Palazzo. I had bacon, sausage and eggs, juice, coffee. Remarkably, the bacon was cooked properly, not burnt to a crisp like the Americans seem to prefer. I also picked up a great VCSA VSAN t-shirt. Thanks a bunch to VMware (and Gina Rosenthal in particular) for organising this.
I then attended press / media / influencer sessions at the conference. I picked up a Dell EMC branded 2500Ma portable battery and a bottle of water. Sarah Vela gave me a New Balance Dell EMC branded backpack and one of those useful water bottles that aren’t made of crappy plastic. For lunch I had steak, chicken and salad and another bottle of water. Dell EMC hosted a “Press, Analyst & Influencer Reception” at the pool at the Palazzo. I had some shrimp and sushi and a couple of Stella Artois beers. I also picked up a black fedora (they were giving them out for some kind of activity that I didn’t get to stay for). If it survives the trip home my eldest daughter will love it. I had dinner at Morel’s Steakhouse courtesy of ActualTech Media. I had a few Firestone PIVO beers, the filet mignon and fancy french fries, and some profiteroles for dessert.
Tuesday
Breakfast for press / media / influencers was held in the Solutions Expo. I had some coffee, fruit, a breakfast burrito and a bottle of water. I had lunch in the press area. This consisted of some potato salad, pasta and short ribs. Good stuff. I had a briefing with some folks from the Dell EMC Midrange team and they kindly gave me an 8GB USB stick. We had an influencer reception organised by Sarah Vela at Velveteen Rabbit and I had a few Sierra Nevada Summerfest lagers and some hors-d’oeuvres. It was a pretty cool place.
I then took a Lyft with Howard Marks and Bob Plankers (paid for by Howard) to Lotus of Siam for dinner with 20 other people. Bob bought me a large bottle of Singha while we waited in the bar for our table to be ready. We then had a variety of Thai dishes (including garlic prawns) and I had a few more Singha beers. This was paid for by a number of people (Andy Banta of NetApp, Gina Rosenthal from VMware, with Hugo Patterson from Datrium contributing the lion’s share). I then caught a Lyft back to my hotel with Howard (courtesy, once again, of Howard) and turned in for the night.
Wednesday
Breakfast was in the media area. It was sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, yoghurt, orange juice and coffee. I had lunch in the media area (sensing a theme here) consisting of chicken and salad. I picked up some stuff in the Solutions Expo, including a Brocade-sponsored NVMe over Fibre Channel for Dummies book, a Cisco | Dell EMC tote bag, a Dell EMC water bottle, a Dell EMC “phone holder” and a Dell EMC World shopping bag. Not a lot of swag this year, but this aligns with my reluctance to seek it out and Dell EMC’s (and other companies’) reluctance to hand it out. Dell EMC ran a customer appreciation reception that I attended from 5 – 7pm. I had a few Shiner Light Blonde beers at this event, some prawns, and some goat’s cheese croquettes.
I was lucky enough to grab dinner at Table 10 with Edward Halteky, Brett Johnson, Alastair Cooke and Michael Davis. I had some calamari, fries (wedges) and two Firestone Walker IPA beers. vBrownBag was kind enough to pick up the tab. By the time we’d finished dinner it was almost time for the Customer Appreciation Party (featuring Gwen Stefani) to get started. We made our way to the venue and listened to Gwen pump out the hits. I had a couple of Stella Artois beers there.
Thursday
I skipped breakfast but did pick up 3 Dell EMC World long sleeve shirts from the lounge. Lunch at was at Public House with Michael Davis, Gina Rosenthal, Brett Johnson and Alastair Cooke. I had a hamburger, french fries and a Las Vegas Lager. We split the bill 5 ways. I then went to the final session of the conference, had a bottle of water, grabbed my bags and made my way to Las Vegas International in a cab. The taxi ride was covered by my employer.