I am going to Tech Field Day 20! And I can wholeheartedly say that I am looking forward to it. I you exclude the brief TFDx with VMware NSX last year, this will be my first, full-length, non-storage Field Day. For the last 10-ish years I’ve been focusing on storage, backup, data replication & disaster recovery. But I actually started out in the hypervisor corner of IT. And my entire career I’ve been shoving my nose into other IT fields and product suites. It’s one of the advantages of working for a (back then) smaller VAR, and keeps life interesting. Tech Field Day 20 will be the perfect opportunity to find out how outdated my knowledge is on those non-storage fronts.
I’ve been a bit quiet on this blog, and in fact haven’t attended an industry event since SFD18 back in February. The reason for that is workload related: I’ve been installing new systems throughout Europe in the first half of the year. Queue lots of travel, post-install administration, and other work piling up.
I also missed out on Dell Tech World 2019 due to a stupid scheduling mistake on my side, making it partially overlap with a family trip to Dublin. Trying to do both at the same time would have ruined both trips. So I did the adult thing and spent time in Dublin with my girlfriend and inlaws. Can’t say I regret that decision; dang those Irish can throw a party… sláinte!
The Field Day family
It does mean that I haven’t seen the rest of the Field Day family in … way too long. So Tech Field Day 20 is very welcome in that aspect; and what an event it will be! It marks the 10th anniversary of Tech Field Day, so you will probably see a few clouds of confetti flying on camera. It will surely be good to meet up with existing friends and make new ones that I haven’t met before.
It appears I will not be the only Dutch guy, as Joep is also joining. Fellow Storage Field Day veterans Max, Enrico and Chris will also fly from Europe to the US for this event. Looking at the list of delegates, it appears that there’s predominantly storage and networking field day veterans at TFD20, with Karen having the best mix of events under her belt.
There’s also the GestaltIT folks that make this entire event possible. Stephen and Ben herd us from one presenter to the next, and there’s a bunch of people in Ohio that make sure we’re on the right flights, have a hotel to sleep in and provide us with information beforehand.
Tech Field Day 20 Presenters
So who’s presenting? For now, Aruba, Bluecat, Cisco, Forescout, NetApp, Riverbed, Scale Computing and Veeam are on the list. More could be added, so check in on the event page. I know NetApp, Cisco and Veeam from the field and previous events. I also know a bit about Bluecat and Riverbed in the IPAM/DNS/WAAS corner of IT. The other companies are new for me and add a nice variety of technology to the presentations: HCI and Security.
Expect to see us on camera for two hours with each presenting company. They generally start out with a short company and business case pitch, and then dive deep into the technology. We’ll ask questions throughout the session. It’s a very interactive session and generally speaking, the liveliest presentations are the best. You can tune in on Twitter to the #TFD20. I’ve also created a Twitter list with all the delegates, so you can instantly subscribe to all our Tweets over here.
Happy anniversary, Tech Field Day, and see you soon!
Disclaimer: GestaltIT has invited me to Tech Field Day 20 and will pick up the tab for the flights, hotel and various other expenses like food and drinks. Other expenses will be covered by myself. I will not be compensated for my time and there is no requirement to blog or tweet about any of the presentations. Everything I post on this blog is of my own accord and because I like what I see and hear.
