Much excitement in the Demitasse household, well OK it’s just me excited as the rest of the family don’t get to come along. I’ve been invited to join Stephen Foskett’s band of merry men at Tech Field Day 9 in Austin Texas next month. I’m expecting an experience similar to the HP Tech Day (no Field) I attended in Colorado last year, I even get to see John Obeto and Howard Marks that I met at that event again at this one. The big difference ere is that there will be seven vendors over the three days, including one that is secret as they are still in stealth mode. I’m expecting a whirlwind of vendors and conversations with my fellow attendees.
For those who haven’t come across TFD before it’s when a group of companies (sponsors) get to expose their products to a group of writers and bloggers. The sponsors pony up the cash for the attendees to fly into a city and be presented to for two or three days. The sponsors are told to send their tech people and expect to engage in tech discussion, try to leave the marketing at home. there are TFD events that specialise in storage, networking and wireless as well as the broadly focussed events like the one I’m attending.
Looking at the attendee list for TFD9 I am delighted to know about half of the other delegates, many I have met through the the vExpert program, which suggests that TFD has a strong virtualization focus. Stephen aims to balance the delegates so that each event has some whose core focus is on the event’s focus but also that others have adjacent expertise which can bring a different perspective to the conversation. A great plan to make sure we all learn as much as possible.
I’m stoked that the event is in Austin, ever since I heard the slogan “Keep Austin Weird” I’ve thought that it was a place for me to visit. It goes without saying that my wife and daughters are jealous of the trip and would love to come along but I was surprised that my brother also wants to go to Austin for the live music scene. Hopefully I’ll have some time to get out and see the city and it’s life, I’m planning to arrive a few days ahead to get over the 24 hours and 7 time zones of travel.
Hopefully I’ll be able to dash off some blog posts during the event with some notes about the sponsors. The sponsors list is on the TFD9 page, I have some familiarity with most sponsors but if there are questions or issues that I should ask more about then drop me a line.
© 2013, Alastair. All rights reserved.
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