This is a really quick post to disclose everything I received as part of my attendance at the recent VMUG UserCon in Sydney. My flights and accommodation were paid for by VMUG. I paid for my own transfers in the main, although Tim Carman kindly covered my taxi to the airport after the event. Alastair Cooke bought me a coffee on Tuesday morning. We both agreed that perhaps the Melbourne UserCon would have better coffee, as they’re into that kind of thing down there. Lunch at the event was really good. I had some caesar salad, a small wrap, some pork belly thing and a chocolate slice.
I didn’t pick up anything from the event sponsors, although my youngest daughter (who happened to be in the area) picked up a couple of Sydney VMUG stickers and one of those shopping / carry bag things. She was also really happy she could attend the session on Getting Started with Python by Grant Orchard and Cody De Arkland. She found it most entertaining.
If you’re interested, here’s the deck I presented on building a brand by starting (and maintaining) a blog.
Thanks again to VMUG for having me, and big thanks to Ryan, and Claire, and the rest of the Sydney VMUG team for putting on such a great event. Thanks also to the presenters for some really educational and engaging sessions, particularly those who travelled a long way to be there. I think it was a big success, with over 300 people turning up on the day.
Disclaimer: I recently attended Storage Field Day 18. 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 18. 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, my employer paid for 4 days and I took 1 day of unpaid leave to be at this event.
Friday
My wife kindly drove me to the domestic airport. I have some status with Qantas so I get a little bit of special treatment and lounge access. In Sydney I had some cheese, sausage and crackers and a Coopers Original Pale Ale in the lounge. I flew BNE – SYD – SFO in economy class, and this was covered by Gestalt IT.
Saturday
Pavilion Data were kind enough to host me at the Warriors – Rockets game. We started at the Westin SFO with a few Lagunitas Pils beers before the game. We then caught a ride sharing service to Oakland Arena for the game. At the game we had a few Firestone 805 beers. After the game we took a car back to the Westin for a few more beers. I also had a Kobe beef burger (with American Kobe burger, caramelized onion, mushroom, cheese, and ginger gastrique sauce) at the hotel bar. I then shared a car back to my accommodation in Menlo Park. This was all covered by Pavilion Data. It was a great night, notwithstanding the Warriors losing the game.
Monday
On Monday morning I met with Pavilion Data at their offices. They kindly fed me some lunch from Chipotle. I had a taco and some rice and beans. I also had a chocolate croissant and a cup of Keurig pod coffee.
Tuesday
I had lunch with Georgiana Comsa of Silicon Valley PR and two of my friends at Refuge in Menlo Park. I had the Western Cheesesteak sandwich (with bacon, fried onions, provolone cheese, BBQ sauce, cilantro, and ranch dressing), and a litre of Radeberger Pils. I paid for Georgiana’s and my meals, and my friends paid for theirs. Georgiana covered the tip.
The Field Day delegates all met at our hotel on Tuesday afternoon. I had one Sam Adams Lager at the bar before dinner. I had two more Sam Adams at dinner, as well as a variety of dishes served “family style”, including:
Brussels with shaved brussel sprouts, pecorino, lemon, almonds, and cracked pepper;
Agnolotti with english peas, heirloom fingerlings, and fennel sofrito;
Bavette with 100% grassfed beef from marin sun farms, unfiltered olive oil, and fleur de sel;
Chicken with pasture raised marin sun farms chicken, green garlic, kamut, pickled mushrooms; and
Gelato – asian pear sorbet, parsnip gelato.
The food was great, and the parsnip gelato tasted surprisingly good. I received a lovely Kuala Lumpur panoramic photo book as part of the Yankee Gift Swap from Chin-Fah Heoh. Stephen also gave us a 3D-printed SFD18 souvenir.
I then had two Sam Adams beers at the bar after dinner.
Wednesday
Breakfast at the hotel was scrambled eggs, super crispy bacon, potato, and coffee. I picked up a ExploreVM sticker, a (now collectible) Greybeards On Storage sticker, and some TechUnplugged Podcast stickers at our pre-event meeting. We were all given a Gestalt IT clear bag with a few bits and pieces in it.
WekaIO gave each delegate a WekaIO-branded Qi charger, WekaIO-branded notepad with built-in 4GB USB drive, and a WekaIO sticker.
For lunch we ate at the hotel. I had a burger with beef, tomato, lettuce, cheese, mayo, pickles, sesame seed bun, and some coffee-flavoured mousse for dessert.
VAST Data gave me a sticker and t-shirt. StorPool gave me a t-shirt, sticker, notebook, screwdriver multi-tool, and carry bag. After the day’s sessions ended, we had a mixer (including dinner) at Olla Cocina in San Jose. I had a Carne Asada slider, some chips and guacamole, empanadas, and prawn skewers. I also had a few tacos (al pastor, carne asada, and chicken) as well as a few Modelo Especial beers. Back at the hotel I had a few more Sam Adams beers.
Thursday
We had breakfast at Western Digital. I had sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, juice, and coffee. WD also kindly provided each delegate with a 1TB WD Black drive SN750. We had lunch at NetApp with Dave Hitz. I had a San Pellegrino sparkling water, herb baked salmon, braised beef short rib stew, creamy mashed potatoes, and salad (Lolla Rossa lettuce & cucumber, balsamic vinaigrette). It was delicious.
We went to dinner at Faultline Brewing. I had a few Kolsch beers, along with:
Chips ‘N’ Onion Dip – House made kettle chips caramelized onion-stout dip;
Crispy Calamari – Fried green beans / fried onion strings / chipotle aioli; and
Smoked Sausage Sandwich – Pale ale beer brat / Swiss cheese / sauerkraut / beer mustard / pretzel-hoagie roll / kettle chips.
Faultline never disappoints. I had a Sam Adams at the hotel bar afterwards and retired early to try and get some decent sleep.
Friday
We had breakfast at the hotel. This was scrambled eggs, super crispy bacon, potato, and coffee. I should have had the fruit, but there you go. Cohesity gave us a nice warm jacket with custom embroidery, and some chocolate.
I had a few coffees during the Cohesity session. We also had lunch at Cohesity. This was a variety of Mediterranean food from Dish and Dash.
After the last session ended on Friday, we all went to Georgiana Comsa’s house for a garden party. I had a few Firestone 805 beers and gotten beaten at H-O-R-S-E. I then took a car to SFO (paid for by Gestalt IT) and flew back to BNE. It was a great week. 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 really educational and engaging sessions.
Disclaimer: I recently attended Storage Field Day 17. 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 17. 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.
Saturday
I took one of those “ride-sharing” services (that seem awfully similar to taxis) to the airport. I have some status with Qantas so I get a little bit of special treatment and lounge access. In Sydney I had some cheese and crackers and a couple of Coopers Original Pale Ales in the lounge. I flew BNE – SYD – SFO, and paid for my own upgrade to Premium Economy for the SYD – SFO leg of the trip. It was very nice to be at the front, rather than the back, of the plane for a change.
Tuesday
I dropped in at Georgiana Comsa‘s house for a coffee, and we then had lunch at Una Mas Mexican Grill prior to meeting with a vendor. I had the Foghead chicken and bacon burrito, with home-made BBQ sauce, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, black beans, rice and Corn Salsa in a tomato tortilla along with an Agua Fresca. This was paid for by Georgiana. After our meeting Georgiana very kindly dropped me off at Mountain View, saving me the hassle of getting a Caltrain there.
I then met up with Craig Waters at the Pure Storage office in Mountain View. I had a few Modelo Especial beers while we caught up. We then went to QBB for dinner. I had a pulled pork sandwich, pickles, potato salad, and a Kölsch beer. It seems like this would be the place to go if you’re into bourbon too. We followed this up with a cheeky brew at Bierhaus. I had a Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier. I then took a ride sharing service back to Menlo Park. This was all covered by Pure Storage. It was great to catch up with Craig again as it had been a while.
Wednesday
While waiting for the other delegates to join us for dinner I had 2 Modelo Negra beers at the hotel bar with Howard Marks. I paid for these myself. When everyone turned up I had another Modelo, paid for by Tech Field Day. We had dinner at Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops at the hotel. I had some prawns and cheese and crackers prior to the main. Howard picked out a nice chianti to accompany the meal. I had a wedge salad with cranberries, blue cheese, candied pecans, bacon, apples and balsamic vinaigrette. For the main I had a 14oz USDA prime boneless ribeye with asparagus and potato mousseline. This was followed up by praline cake for dessert. I was feeling pretty full by this stage, but, hoping to ensure I got a poor night’s sleep, I had one more Modelo in the hotel bar before bed.
I was also lucky enough to score two signed George R. R. Martin books as part of the Yankee gift swap we did. Well, I hunted them down, as Howard had hinted he’d be bringing something like that along as a gift. Ben from Tech Field Day also gave each delegate a gift bag of various snacks, etc. I left most of these in my room when I left, but I did take the bag with me, as it had a Minion riding a unicorn on it, and this seemed like something I’d want to take grocery shopping.
Thursday
We had breakfast at the hotel on Thursday morning. This was buffet-style affair and I had bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit and strawberry yoghurt, along with some orange juice and coffee. We were all given a Gestalt IT clear bag with a few bits and pieces in it. Stephen also gave us a 3D-printed SFD17 souvenir. I’ll leave you to work out what it is.
We had lunch at the hotel. It was Mexican style. I had salmon, lettuce, a chipotle chicken fajita, guacamole, sour cream and whole pinto beans in a flour tortilla, a cheese enchilada, some iced tea, and a Mexican chocolate caramel bite.
For dinner we went to Loft Bar and Bistro. I had some crispy calamari, tomato and fresh mozzarella salad, Chinese chicken salad, pesto salmon and grilled bistro filet. I also had 4 805 beers.
I followed this up with a Modelo at the hotel bar before retiring for the evening.
Friday
We had breakfast at Mikayla’s. I’ve been here before and really like it. I had the supreme breakfast wrap with bacon, freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee. I had some water during the Intel session. Intel also gave each delegate an Intel SPDK carry bag and Optane socks. Lunch at Intel was from Dish n’ Dash. I had a beef shawarma wrap and some water.
NGD Systems gave each of us a USB fan (something like this), a cap, sticker, and webcam cover (I don’t have that many webcams, but maybe one day). I had 3 Modelo Negra beers at the hotel before we headed out to dinner at Mexicali Grill. I decided to play it safe this time and didn’t load up with a jumbo shrimp burrito prior to a 14-hour flight. Instead I had the Camarones Cancun and a Modelo beer, along with some guacamole.
Stephen and Ben dropped me at SFO. I had 2 Heinekens and some crackers and cheese in the Cathay Pacific lounge (yay status!). 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.
Disclaimer: I recently attended Dell Technologies World 2018. My flights, accommodation and conference pass were paid for by Dell Technologies via the Press, Analysts and Influencers 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 Technologies World 2018. 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 unpaid leave to attend this conference.
Saturday
My wife kindly dropped me off at BNE airport. I had some bacon and eggs in the Qantas Club before my flight. I flew Qantas economy class to LAX and then American Airlines to LAS. The flights were paid for by Dell Technologies. 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 Technologies as well. I bumped into an old friend I hadn’t seen for quite a few years and we shared an Uber to the hotel and then went to lunch and dinner to try and fight off the jet lag. This was at our own expense.
Sunday
I mainly kicked around the hotel and had a reasonable burger at PBR Rockbar and Grill on the Strip.
Monday
Breakfast in the Press Lounge consisted of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and small hash browns. They also had tiny bottles of tabasco sauce that went pretty well with the eggs. I also had a mixed berry yoghurt, some cold meat and cheese, and some passable coffee. At the Media, Analysts and Influencers conference we were all given a Dell Technologies World / Intel co-branded d.stil water bottle that looks something like this.
For lunch I had a green salad, tomato and cucumber salad, red wine chicken and beans, NY sear steak and a small bread roll. I also grabbed a coffee and a homemade chocolate “whoopie” pie (yes, it’s apparently a thing). It’s basically some biscuit sized chocolate cake thing filled with ganache.
In the Luminaries Area in the Village, I grabbed a @theCUBE sticker from Stu for my laptop. I picked up a carry bag at the Solutions Expo during the opening reception. I then tailed Jon into a VMware NSX event at AquaKnox and had 2 plates of prawn and crab. They also had bacon which wasn’t burnt to a crisp. I headed up to the Media, Analysts and Influencers party at the Palazzo pool deck and had 2 Stella Artois beers.
We headed to Lotus of Siam for dinner in a taxi – this was covered by Tom Hollingsworth. At dinner I had 2 large Singha beers, some garlic prawns, and fried banana for desert. It was, as usual, delicious. The cost of dinner was covered by people from Rubrik, Datrium and Gestalt IT. After dinner we caught a Lyft back to the hotel. Tom covered this again.
Tuesday
I had a small flat white at Starbucks before breakfast courtesy of Ray Lucchesi. It’s nice to see flat white on the menu at Starbucks in America. It’s not quite like a real flat white though. In any case, it did the trick. The Solutions Expo was opened up to Media, etc for breakfast. I had a ham, egg and cheese croissant, and a yoghurt parfait with nuts and berries. The croissant was terrible, but you live and learn.
I had to skip lunch as a meeting I had ran over by 30 minutes and I didn’t have time to get anything before my next session. In the afternoon I passed by the Toshiba booth in the Solutions Expo and picked up a Toshiba-flavoured Greg Norman polo shirt. I then had a session and grabbed a coffee and a bag of peanut M & Ms from the press lounge.
Tuesday evening I went and found a Philly cheese steak place on the strip and retreated to my hotel room to watch the NBA Playoffs (Go Dubs!).
Wednesday
Breakfast in the press area was scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and small breakfast burritos. I also had some fruit and coffee. Lunch in the press area was lettuce salad and vinaigrette, 5 grain salad, basmati rice, chicken and baked salmon. It was actually pretty good.
I headed to the Solutions Expo after lunch to do a quick whip around of the booths. I picked up a shopping bag, a Cloudera t-shirt and “Data is the new bacon” sticker, an autographed Brocade SAN Automation book, and a Dell OptiPlex notebook. Konnie also very kindly gave me two Luminaries coffee mugs. We’ll see how they stand up to the baggage handlers on the way home. I grabbed a coffee and a small Hershey’s bar before heading in to a session.
I went to the Customer Appreciation Party held in the hall. I had 4 Stella Artois beers. I also had some Ricotta Cavatelli – tossed with lemon scented lobster, parmesan cream, finished with tomato concasse and asparagus tips. It was pasta on a cardboard plate, but I was hungry. I also had a Red Chili Braised Chicken Thigh mini street taco with spicy shredded cabbage and carrot slaw topped with Mexican crema in a flour tortilla. This wasn’t too bad either. I then spent too much time near the table with the artisan cheese platter, crackers, various cold meats, and chipotle chicken skewer with pearl onion and roasted pineapple, topped with creamy salsa verde.
Walk the Moon did a nice cover of Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Sting sounded good, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Thursday
I had breakfast in the hall. This was a ham and cheese Croque-monsieur, mixed berry yoghurt, fruit and water. I grabbed a coffee on my way to my first session. I picked up a light Dell Technologies hoodie in the Village between sessions. Lunch was boxed. I had the roasted turkey club sandwich, with sliced turkey breast, crisp turkey bacon, dijon mayo, tomato and Bibb lettuce on a sourdough loaf. I also had the chocolate fudge brownie but left the apple, potato salad and potato chips. It was actually pretty good, considering it came in a box.
After the last session I headed to the LEGO Store and then grabbed my bags from the hotel and caught a taxi to the airport at my expense.
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.
Disclaimer: I recently attended VMworld 2017 – US. My flights were paid for by ActualTech Media, VMware provided me with a free pass to the conference and various bits of swag, and Tech Field Day picked up my hotel costs. 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 an attendee at VMworld US 2017. Apologies if it’s a bit dry but 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. 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 attendee’s situation is different, I took 3 days of holiday time and 3 days of training time to be at this event.
Friday
My employer paid for my taxi to the airport. I flew Qantas economy class from BNE – LAX – LAS courtesy of ActualTech Media. In LA I had a 4 hour layover so I had a breakfast burger at one of the over-priced eateries in Terminal 4. This was paid for by my employer. My taxi to the hotel was also covered by my employer. I stayed at New York New York. The cost of this was very kindly covered by Tech Field Day. On Friday night I did non-VMworld related things (like going to an awesome Kevin Seconds / The Selecter / Dropkick Murphys / Rancid concert) at my own expense.
Saturday
I had a few meals over the weekend – these were covered by my employer.
Sunday
On Sunday I went to the conference venue and picked up my VMworld backpack (containing a notepad, pen, t-shirt and water bottle). That night there was an attendee welcome reception in the Solutions Exchange. I had 3 Ballast Point beers. I also picked up:
A Veeam stubbie cooler (they call them Koozies in the US) and a carry bag;
A Cohesity vExpert backpack (containing a 6000mAh / 3.7V Giga Charger, h2go arc water bottle, socks, chill copper vacuum 20oz drink container).
Mark Browne very kindly covered my entry to the VMunderground party where I had 3 Lagunitas Aunt Sally beers and some finger food.
Monday
I started the conference with the classic “Continental Breakfast”, which consisted of a range of fruit and some orange juice. For lunch I had a caesar salad and some reasonably tasty salmon.
I did another whip around the Solutions Exchange and picked up:
Most of my Tuesday was spent at Tech Field Day Extra. This was held at the Delano. In the suite I had some coffee, 2 Krispy Kreme donuts and some water. Kingston gave each of us a 64GB USB stick. I had pasta and a bread stick for lunch. Druva gave each of us socks and vTrail map book.
I took an Uber to Lotus of Siam. This was paid for by Tom Hollingsworth. At dinner I had 3 large Singha beers and various dishes, including the garlic prawns and deep-fried banana. It was, as always, very tasty. The meal was paid for by people from Scale Computing, Datrium, Druva, Silicon Valley PR, and Tech Field Day. Transport back to the strip was courtesy of Cody Bunch and his people mover .
Wednesday
I grabbed some fruit (the “classic continental”) for breakfast and some coffee. I picked up a vExpert swag bag (containing an “I heart vSphere” sticker, a VMware-branded Tritan water bottle, VMware-branded 4000mAh battery, a $5 discount off the Host Resources Deep Dive book, a vSAN sticker and a USB-C / Lightning cable) from the VMTN & Community area, along with a VMTN Network Member t-shirt.
I did a whip around the Solutions Exchange and also picked up:
I had briefings and sessions throughout the official lunch period, so I bought a Rocket burger, fries and a chocolate shake from the Johnny Rockets at the conference centre. This was covered by my employer. I did a little time at the VMUG booth and picked up a VMUG stubbie cooler and sticker. I then grabbed an IBM WebCam cover on my way out the door. At the appreciation party I had 3 “hot dogs”, a pretzel, a Shock Top Belgian White beer and 3 Goose IPA beers. The hot dogs are in quotation marks because I’m not sure what they were but given an appropriate amount of mustard and tomato sauce they were close to edible. At the end of the event I retreated to New York New York for 2 Heinekens and a slice of pizza.
Thursday
For breakfast I had the classic continental, consisting of a fruit cup and orange juice. I randomly encountered David Glynn and he gave me a VMworld backpack. For the last lunch of the conference I had some ham and turkey sandwiches, salad and a coffee. Once the conference finished up I shared a Lyft to the airport with a friend and his wife. Please now enjoy this photo of a baseball card with my likeness on it.
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.
Disclaimer: I recently attended Dell EMC World 2016. My flights, transfers, accommodation and conference pass were paid for by Dell EMC via the 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 2016. 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).
Monday
I took a cab to the airport, paid for by my employer. I caught a Qantas flight from BNE -> LAX and then had a 2.5 hour layover before travelling on to AUS. I consumed some plane food on the long flight over. It wasn’t great and the tray tables on the old plane made it hard to eat, so I didn’t really end up eating much. [I also crossed the International Date Line so if it seems like I did a lot on Monday it was because it was a very long day]
In Austin I was transported via a car service to the JW Marriott. This was covered by Dell EMC. Once I’d checked into my hotel, I made my way over to the Austin Convention Center. Registration had opened early for Dell EMC World so I picked up my conference badge.
Before heading out for the evening, I had a few Live Oak HefeWeizen beers in the hotel, courtesy of Mark May and Mark Browne. On Monday night I travelled to the #vBBQ event at the Salt Lick in Driftwood courtesy of the EMC Elect (and Mark Browne in particular). I picked up a Caringo stubbie holder (I think Americans call these things “koozies“), a lot of meat, and some nice beers. Big shoutout to Sarah Vela for organising this, and the event sponsors Caringo Storage, EMC Elect, Winslow Tech Group, and Pivotal.
Tuesday
I had breakfast at the hotel buffet. This consisted of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon (American style – what is wrong with you people?), melon, coffee, and orange juice. This was courtesy of Dell EMC via a voucher. They gave us three vouchers to use for meals in the hotel when we weren’t at the conference – one for breakfast (US $30) and two for dinners (US $50 each). For lunch I had “The Corner Burger” and fries at the Corner Restaurant in the hotel and a couple of Pearl Snap Pils beers. This was also covered by Dell EMC via a voucher.
There was a “Social Influencers” reception held at the Convention Center that evening. I had a few Austin Amber beers. Oh, and this happened.
We then moved on to the main welcome reception. There were three live bands playing:
I had a few more Austin Amber beers and some nachos and ribs from the Bohemian BBQ food truck.
Wednesday
Breakfast was migas, ham and cheese quiche, and fruit salad at the Social Compass Influencer breakfast hosted by Dell EMC at the Old Pecan Street Café. We all received a nice compass in a wooden box as well.
I had lunch at the Convention Center in the Press and Analysts area – this was some kind of buffet.
I picked up various bits and bobs from the Solutions Showcase, including a VxRail bottle opener (all I had to do was send a tweet – yes I’m a shill), a SecureWorks t-shirt with my choice of screen prints on it (out of three or four different types available), a 2GB (!) Dell EMC Data Protection USB stick, and some carry bags from Absolute and Shi.
They were handing out beer at General Session II so I grabbed another Austin Amber. For dinner I had another burger and two Austinite Pils beers at The Corner Restaurant at the hotel. This was covered by my Dell EMC provided voucher. Unfortunately I skipped the Dropbox and Nutanix parties as I’d been badly jet lagged and didn’t sleep well at all the night before. By all accounts they were a lot of fun.
Thursday
For breakfast I had two ham and cheese croissants, some yoghurt, coffee, and a bottle of water. After my morning meeting I did a whip around the Solutions Showcase and picked up a sticker and some mints from Virtustream. I had lunch in the press and analysts room, consisting of a cedar smoked chicken sandwich, water, apple, potato chips, and a cookie. I picked up a couple of bottles of water for the road and headed back to the hotel to wait for my shuttle to the airport. Transport to the airport was covered by Dell EMC.
Disclaimer: I recently attended Dell EMC World 2016. My flights, transfers, accommodation and conference pass were paid for by Dell EMC via the 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 rough notes from the Q & A session with Michael Dell held for Press, Analysts and Social Influencers on Day 1 of Dell EMC World. They’re not comprehensive, but they may be useful to someone. We also heard from Jeff Clarke, David Goulden and Howard Elias, and I’ve included their stuff here as well.
Dell EMC has the capability to do innovation at scale, and it’s now a privately controlled company – giving them enormous flexibility.
Traditional competitors are moving to OpEx models away from CapEx. Do you have the right mix for you, the company, customers, etc?
We have a bunch of flexible payment options, OpenScale architecture, EMC has embraced Dell Financial Services strongly from Day 1.
What do you think are going to be the major challenges for mid-market companies in IoT space and what about security?
Solutions and requirements vary by customer size. Some great tech that’s now being made available to smaller companies. Eg Data Domain. As new tech pops up, a bunch of new companies startup as well. Not all will survive. Dell Technologies Ventures invested in over 150 companies. These are 3-5 years out in terms of product roadmaps. As far as security goes, it’s scary. Sophistication of attacks is increasing. Dell EMC are storing and protecting over half of the mission critical data in the world. The cost of not protecting data is a lot higher than protecting your stuff.
What’s your ideal partner of the future, and how does that impact current partners?
The channel is worth around $40 billion. Channel partners aren’t going to sell “everything” Dell EMC offer. Servers and storage line up ok – nice “logical adjacencies”. One channel program.
Dell and EMC are complimentary. What areas will change, lay the foundation for the next level of growth?
The role of IT is shifting from the back office (making things more efficient). Creation, recreation, reinvention of entire businesses. New things are required. “We’re not two companies anymore, we’re one company”
Modernise, automate, transform approach [from the General Session]. Is there an applied analysis step missing there?
For the purposes of the stage and the presentation – they put it into 3 easy steps. But really, it’s as-is and to be states. What’s required to get there? There’s no one size fits all.
Is there a Dell Open Networking platform update?
Do I know everything? No.
Sidebar comment on the intellectual capital that’s been drawn together with these companies coming together.
Re: Open Networking there’s been some growth and there are some opportunities. There’s an alliance with Cisco via Vblock. NSX as the operating system for the virtual network.
Which business will have the highest growth? How do you see the Chinese companies growing?
Percentage growth? Where will the money come from? Dell leading the consolidation of parts of the industry. In DC, rapidly growing in All-flash (40% share). Boomi doing cloud data integration.
How ambitious are you to be #1 server vendor?
We’re #1 in revenues, but not units. More profitable too.
Do you want to make/sell phones?
Nope. In terms of mobility, we’re heavily focused on Air Watch. For every new smartphone, another server pops up – thanks! :)
With this endpoint solution [mentioned in the General Session] is this a bundle, or a go to market approach?
A Initially a bundle. But building various points of integration leading to a single console.
Is there any technology or engineering that you can leverage from EMC that can impact on what you’re doing from the client device side?
Integration with software and infrastructure and edge is a good end-to-end solution.
Given that you’re now one family. What about the company’s competitors?
We have a broader set of competitors now to go with the broader portfolio. Still HP, Lenovo and Apple from a client devices perspective.
How would you assess your competitive position against Lenovo, HP, etc?
We’ve been leading for 15 quarters. Changed the game with the types of devices being built. None of them have the breadth of products across the portfolio.
3D X-point for memory, cache, etc. How long before it moves out of HPC into servers and down into laptops and compute? Do you see something else?
Our industry doesn’t get rid of things, we add things. It keeps us in business for the most part.
Where are you going with desktop or device as a service?
Folks are re-thinking about how they want to do this stuff. We currently do OptiPlex as service. Being able to virtualise clients helps too.
Is there a profitability framework that you use to determine segment’s attractiveness? Thinking here in terms of IoT.
Well, is it adjacent to existing compute devices? VR and AR as natural extensions of ways to interact.
Howard Elias, President, Services and IT, and David Goulden, President, Infrastructure Solutions Group take the stage
You get value when you focus on people, process and operating model. ProSupport One is Generally Available today (this was announced Day 1 of the merger).
And that’s all I have. A little fluffy, but good to hear it from Dell himself. 4 stars.
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