Storage Field Day 19 – (Fairly) Full Disclosure

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Disclaimer: I recently attended Storage Field Day 19.  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 conference attendee at Storage Field Day 19. 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. And I get to show you some photos of nice food. I’m going to do this in chronological order, as that was the easiest way for me to take notes during the week.

 

Saturday

My wife kindly dropped me at the domestic airport so I could make my way from BNE to SFO via SYD. I managed to get into the Qantas Business Club before my flight and had a couple of Heinekens. 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. I stayed at the Plaza Suites Hotel for the event. This was covered by Tech Field Day as well. I made my way to a friend’s house to spend some time before the event, and managed to take in a Warriors game at the new Chase Center. I also managed to swing by El Maguey Taqueria in San Carlos. If you’re into high-quality jumbo shrimp burritos at a reasonable price – this is the place for you.

 

Sunday

On Sunday evening I was fortunate to have dinner at Georgiana Comsa’s house with her and some friends. I’m always appreciative of good food and good conversation, and it was great to spend some time with them (jet lag notwithstanding).

 

Tuesday

On Tuesday I arrived at the hotel in the afternoon and was provided with a bag of various snacks by the Tech Field Day team. I had 3 North Coast Scrimshaw pilsner beers at the hotel bar. We had dinner at the hotel, consisting of:

  • Organic mixed greens, asian pear, mixed nuts, smoke maple vinaigrette
  • Bruschetta – brioche, crescent cheese, mixed mushroom conserva, estero gold reserve,
  • Carpaccio – grass-fed rare eye of round beef, sun choke aioli, pine nuts
  • Chicken – sun farm’s pastured chicken, japonica rice congee, lobster broth, ginger
  • Flat iron – 100% grass-fed beef from Marin Sun Farms, salsa seca de semillas
  • Gelato – some kind of coconut and kale combination that actually worked

I also received a very cool book (“Feck Perfuction”) from Becky Elliot as part of the Yankee gift swap.

 

Wednesday

We had breakfast at the hotel on Wednesday morning, consisting of bacon, scrambled eggs, pork sausage, and pancake. I will say the bacon was pretty good, given that I don’t really like the way they do bacon in the US.

Tiger Technology gave each of us a t-shirt. During the NetApp session, I had a San Pellegrino water, and some coffee. We had lunch at NetApp, consisting of green salad, roasted asparagus with cherry tomatoes, chicken Alfredo with candied bacon, and grilled garlic butter steak. I’ve had the opportunity to eat at NetApp before, and it’s always an excellent experience.

At the Western Digital session I had a bottled water. WD also provided each delegate with a gift bag containing a 500GB USB-C SanDisk Extreme PRO portable SSD, WD-branded water bottle, and notebook. For dinner we headed to Mezcal in San Jose. I had 3 Modelo Especial beers and rice, beans, chicken, salmon, chips, guacamole, and salsa for dinner.

 

Thursday

We had breakfast at the hotel on Thursday morning, and I had the bacon, scrambled eggs, pork sausage, and pancake.

At the Dell EMC session, we were presented with a Dell EMC Gift Bag. This contained a PowerOne branded notepad, sticker, t-shirt, trucker cap as well as Dell EMC Storage branded:

  • Re-useable straws
  • Socks
  • Sticker
  • USB charger
  • WiFi smart plug

We were also given a Dell Technologies Yeti 30 oz tumbler. We had lunch at the Dell EMC office. This was a boxed-sandwich thing. I had the turkey and bacon wrap, a cookie, and bottled water.

On Thursday night a number of us had dinner at the hotel. I had the dry aged burger – an 8oz, 24 day dry-aged grass-fed beef burger with garlic aioli, arugula, crispy shallots, brioche, and tarragon butter. I also had 4 of the Scrimshaw pilsner beers before and during dinner.

 

Friday

We had breakfast at the hotel on Friday morning, and I had (wait for it) the bacon, scrambled eggs, pork sausage, and pancake. Weka gave each delegate a small Weka branded Victorinox Swiss Army knife and travel binoculars.

We had lunch at the hotel. This was an assemble your own burger affair, and I had the:

  • Brioche bun
  • Cheese
  • Tomatoes
  • Pickles
  • Dry aged beef burger

I also had some sweet potato fries with the almond, rosemary and aioli sauce. At the MinIO presentation I had a coffee and small croissant with strawberry and cream. MinIO also gave us a t-shirt and some MinIO stickers. After the MinIO session we headed to Blue Bottle Coffee in Palo Alto. I had an iced mocha courtesy of Tech Field Day. I then caught a ride-sharing service to a friend’s house in Menlo Park, courtesy of Tech Field Day.

On Friday night, I had dinner with my friend Kyle at Camper. I had 4 of the Fort Point Brewery’s KSA “Kolsch” beers. I also had the:

  • Artisanal Cheeses, Charcuterie, and Cured Meats; and
  • Akaushi American Wagyu Bavette Steak, Cluster Mushrooms, Red Garbanzo Beans, Castelfranco, and Miso.

The food was great, as was the venue. It was a great week. Thanks again to the Tech Field Day team for having me, thanks to the other delegates for being super nice and smart, and thanks to the presenters for some really educational and engaging sessions.