The week has finally arrived, I will be attending Cloud Field Day 5 in California. This will be my first full Field Day event and I am excited and nervous all at the same time. It is an honour to join a list of such esteemed delegates.
Last year I was in the right place at the right time and managed to get involved with Tech Field Day Extra at NetApp Insight. It was all quite last minute, but I really enjoyed the experience and I got the chance to meet the team behind the events. I was asked if I would like to take part in future events and as such threw my hat in the ring.
We have a really packed week with a wide range of presenting companies, all of whom I have heard of, but some will be my first real interactions with. I think there will be a lot for me to learn from this week. The companies on the line-up are:
- Cohesity – @Cohesity – https://www.cohesity.com
- Datrium – @Datrium – http://www.datrium.com
- Juniper Networks – @JuniperNetworks – http://www.juniper.net
- NGINX – @NGINX – https://www.nginx.com
- Pure Storage – @PureStorage – http://www.purestorage.com
- Rubrik – @RubrikInc – http://www.rubrik.com
- Sysdig – @Sysdig – https://sysdig.com
- Veeam – @Veeam – https://www.veeam.com
- VMware – @VMware – http://www.vmware.com
As you can see, that will be a packed schedule from Wednesday to Friday. However I am ready for the challenge and I hope that I can keep up with some of the more seasoned delegates. You will be able to catch all the presentations live over at the CFD5 page https://techfieldday.com/event/cfd5/.
As a first time delegate I wanted to shout out to the entire team over at Gestalt IT, this event has been one of the most well organised that I have had the pleasure of attending. The team work hard behind the scenes on all manner of things, but what stood out to me the most was the level of care they show the delegates. Nothing is too much trouble, information is provided at multiple stages throughout the process and they make the trip as easy as possible. It really has been a breeze to take part up to this point, all I had to do was show up at the airport for my flight.
Over the week I will be making as many notes as I can, I will also try to get the odd short post out with some quick thoughts where time allows. After the event is finished I’ll put more together and explore a series of posts about what I learned.
Just last week I was asked what benefit I get from these types of events, that is a really interesting question, but one that is easy to answer. The community in this industry is important, having people that provide feedback, opinions or even criticisms helps our industry grow.
Being able to meet with vendors and see what is coming down the line helps my own business objectives and helps me focus on what tecnologies to learn. Building relationships with vendors and also the other delegates and event organises provides a powerful network. That network might help me one day when I need it, be that with finding the right person for supporting me with an issue, or for finding that next contract/job.
In closing I just want to thank the team again for having me and to the community for listening to my ramblings!
