Disclaimer: I recently attended Storage Field Day 15. 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 15. 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. Whilst every delegate’s situation is different, I took 5 days of unpaid leave to be at this event.
Sunday
My wife drove me to the domestic airport. I recently acquired some status with Qantas so I get the special treatment and lounge access. In Sydney I partook of some very nice blue cheese and a couple of Coopers Original Pale Ales in the lounge.
Tuesday
I caught up with some of the Nutanix folks for a quick coffee (an American version of a flat white) and a choc chip muffin at a Starbucks near their EBC. This was paid for by Nutanix.
When I arrived at the hotel on Tuesday afternoon I was given a snack bag by the Tech Field Day crew filled with various snacks and bottles of water.
We had dinner at The Farmers Union in downtown San Jose. I had foccacia with herb butter, mushroom cigars with porcini aioli, and creamy tomato soup. For the main I had Flat Iron Steak, with dirty fries, Fresno child chimichurri and a fried egg. For desert I had the warm chocolate brownie with ice cream. I washed this down with 3 Firestone Pivo Pilsner beers. It’s a pretty neat place with nice food. As part of the Yankee Gift Swap I received a variety of spicy snack foods from Glenn Dekhayser.
Wednesday
For breakfast at the hotel I had bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, strawberry yoghurt, and coffee. We were all given a Gestalt IT clear bag with a few bits and pieces in it. WekaIO gave each of us a branded notepad, water bottle and sticker.
We had lunch at the hotel. This was tacos, chicken and rice.
Dropbox gave us each a Moleskine notebook and Dropbox sticker. I declined to take the small bag of coffee they had available as well. FYI my eldest daughter will be your best friend if you keep sending home Moleskine notepads.
We had dinner at Faultline. I had some “crispy calamari” for an entree and the Brewhouse Bacon cheeseburger and 3 Faultline Kolsch beers for the main. The burger was really quite good.
Thursday
Breakfast at Hedvig was pancakes, berries and cream, bacon, sausage and coffee. Hedvig also kindly gave each delegate a Kenneth Cole backpack. It’s really a lot flasher than I’d normally use. At NetApp I had some coffee and water during the session. For lunch I had steak, chicken, potato, polenta, salad and some bite-sized eclairs.
We were at Levi’s Stadium for the Western Digital and Datrium sessions, so we all took a self-guided tour of the 49ers Museum before dinner. At the social event I had a few sliders and 3 Anchor Steam beers. This was all covered by Datrium. We then went back to the hotel where I had a gin martini and some clam chowder at the hotel bar. This was paid for by Tech Field Day.
Friday
As we had our first session at the hotel, breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, eggs benedict, potato and coffee. I’m almost used to the way Americans cook bacon. Almost. Mariusz Kaczorek gave each of us a block of Polish chocolate.
Cohesity provided each delegate with a gift box containing a water bottle, fidget spinner, pen, sunglasses, multi-format charging cable, and USB battery. We had lunch at Cohesity. This was felafel, hummus, wraps and one of those zero orange vitamin water things.
After the last session Tech Field Day put me in a car to SFO. Apparently Qantas share lounge space with Air France (thanks to my wife for finding this out), so I spent a few hours there and helped myself to some bread and cheese before travelling home. The only thing paying for this is my waistline.
All in all, it was a great trip. Thanks again to Tech Field Day for having me, thanks to the other delegates for being super nice and smart, and thanks to the presenters for some educational and engaging sessions. Please enjoy this photo of a statue of Joe Montana and Bill Walsh from the 49ers Museum.
