Disclaimer: I recently attended Storage Field Day 12.  My flights, accommodation and other expenses were paid for by Tech Field Day. 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 delegate at Storage Field Day 12. I’d like to point out that I’m not trying to play companies off against each other. I don’t have feelings one way or another about receiving gifts at these events (although I generally prefer small things I can fit in my suitcase). Rather, I’m just trying to make it clear what I received during this event to ensure that we’re all on the same page as far as what I’m being influenced by. Some presenters didn’t provide any gifts as part of their session – which is totally fine. I’m going to do this in chronological order, as that was the easiest way for me to take notes during the week. While every delegate’s situation is different, I’d also like to clarify that I took 5 days of training / work time to be at this event (thanks to my employer for being on board).

Saturday

My employer paid for my taxi to BNE airport. I had a chicken and avocado baguette at SYD airport. It was quite good. I flew Qantas economy class to SFO. The flights were paid for by Tech Field Day. Plane food was consumed on the flight. It was a generally good experience, lack of sleep notwithstanding.

Tuesday

Upon arrival at the hotel Kat gave us each a bag of snacks and various drinks. I offloaded most of these on a friend at the end of the week. Red Bull is not my thing. On Tuesday evening we had dinner at Zeytoun. I had 3 of the house beers and a variety of Persian fare, including Falafel Salad, salmon skewers, Baklava and ice cream and Turkish coffee.

I received a very awesome Bruce Springsteen book and Best of CDs during the Yankee Gift Swap (a Tech Field Day delegate tradition). I then had a house gin and tonic back at the hotel courtesy of Matt Leib.

Wednesday

We had breakfast at the Casino M8trix. This consisted of American-style bacon, scrambled eggs, tater tots, coffee and fruit salad. We also had lunch at M8trix – some roast chicken, caesar salad and vegetables. I had a coffee and a cookie as well. Excelero gave us all a notepad, 2 pens, cap, and a bottle of Trader Joe’s natural mountain spring water.

The social event was held that night at the Loft Bar and Bistro. I had some nice eggplant parmigiana, crumbed calamari, some nice cheese and a few gin and tonics. This was all courtesy of Tech Field Day. Back at the hotel I had another house gin and tonic courtesy of TFD before retiring for the night.

Thursday

Thursday started off early with breakfast at Nimble Storage. I had bacon and eggs and some rockmelon, coffee and water. Nimble Storage also kindly gave us each a Nimble-branded Fujifilm Instax mini 8 instant camera and some film to use.

We had lunch at NetApp. I had flank steak with wild mushroom sauce, salad and blue cheese, chocolate tarts and some bottled water. Datera gave us a Datera-branded notepad, pen, and polo shirt. I also had a few cookies and a Firestone Walker 805 beer.

For dinner we went to Mezcal where I had a few margaritas, some guacamole and beef enmoladas. We were then treated to seats at a San Jose Sharks Game. I picked up a puck and a poster (“It’s puck night!”). There were 17562 people in attendance with the Sharks beating the Capitals 4-2. This was all courtesy of Tech Field Day.

Friday
On Friday morning we had breakfast at the hotel courtesy of Tech Field Day. I had bacon, sausages and eggs and some fruit.

Lunch at Intel consisted of one of those ubiquitous US sandwich box things. I had the house roast beef sandwich, a cookie and a bottle of water. The sandwich was delicious. I gave my crisps to Stephen.

I then made my own way with a friend to SFO.