It didn’t seem so long, but it took nearly two days from home to Texas by car, bus, plane and finally car. Getting to Austin the day before the event started was great plan, I slept from 1am until 11:30 am then hung out as the other delegates emerged or arrived. There were twelve delegates, of whom I already knew half from US trips in the last couple of years. The delegate list is on the even page http://techfieldday.com/event/tfd9/
The afternoon and evening passed very pleasantly with renewing friendships and making new friends. One of the recurring themes in the post about these events is how much value there is in just hanging out and talking over beer with the other delegates., it is really true. It’s easy to find common ground and learn something. After dinner my vBrownBag brother Damian dropped by, another person I like to hang out with and seldom actually do. With all the talking it was again 1am before I headed up to my room.
Wednesday was spent at Dell’s Round Rock HQ, mostly talking about new (or new to Dell) software products. One thing I did learn is that Dell has an active community forum. We also got to see a piece of newly released hardware in the form of the VRTX blade enclosure. On leaving Dell we went for barbeque and Uncle Billy’s
Thursdays was spent at the hotel, four presentations including Infinio’s first public appearance and a while with my friends from Veeam. This was a seriously long day of presentations and a lot of questions. I may have to watch the recordings to refresh my mind on what I saw and heard. After the last session there was just time to drop laptops back to the room before reboarding our Hummer stretch limmo, which had been our transport for Round Rock, to head for town. Stephen had booked out an old fashioned movie theatre with table service and we watched a 1980’s movie complete with audience commentary. The move was Buckaroo Banzai and took around $6 Million when it was released, it is one of those gloriously terrible movies that are fun to make fun of, and we did.
Today is Friday and we again had an early call to be in the limmo, this time checked out and for me with luggage. We spent the morning at SolarWinds offices and finished with Franklin Barbeque for lunch. Now I’m at Austin airport aiming to get this post out before the fatigue overtakes me and I fall asleep standing up.
Thanks to Stephen for inviting me, Claire for organizing and Tom for shepherding. I’ve seen a lot of presentations on some interesting tech over the last three days. Now I need to let it simmer in my brain for a while. Nearly time to board the first of my 3 flights to get home, another 30 hours until I’m home.
© 2013, Alastair. All rights reserved.
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