NetApp Accelerate
I love user and customer conferences. With a passion! It's a chance to meet old friends, make new ones and a real opportunity for me to get customer feedback, warts and all. In over 30 years in the IT industry and having attended more of these than I can remember, I still get a big kick out of these events and the people I get to meet.
Socialising is a big part of these events. I have some excellent memories (some a little blurry, for sure :-) of helping customers find blues bars, hunting down burgers at 2.00am in the morning, or just enjoying a beer or two in the conference foyer while chewing the fat.
And of course, the sessions themselves. No point in repeating what's available here, just click on the picture above for all the gory details. One plus; there's a training and education stream right in front of the conference, so you can make best use of the out-of-office time and get NetApp certification while you're there.
Hats Off
I stand in awe of the people that organise these user events, especially when they appear so effortless. I know from personal experience what goes into organising one of these; I was the project manager for a 2 day event in the early 1990s in the UK when I worked for Legent (a company that's long gone, I'm afraid).
It was a near disaster. We lost all power in the conference centre at 7.30am on day 1 and had to relocate 450 attendees, hire buses, move projection gear, reorganise the catering -- you name it, we moved it -- to another conference venue. I think the team managed to run all but one session out of the whole event.
I still get nightmares about it. So hats off to the NetApp people who work on this, and here's to a great event.
See you there
I'll see you there on February 23rd next year. Mine's a whisky, if you're at the bar before me... That's whisky with no E, no ice, and no water. Thanks!
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