Today on February the 1st, EMC announced the EMC Elect 2016. I’m happy to again be part of the EMC Elect, now for the 4th year in a row!

Each year the EMC Elect program selects a number of individuals from all over the world that have shared knowledge on or worthwhile news about EMC systems. It does not matter how you do this: either via EMC’s own community network ECN, on Twitter, via blogs, while speaking at events, or other media. As long as you share your knowledge with the rest of the world, you can get nominated. Yes, even if you have an occasional rant about that feature that your VNX still does not support (*cough* removing private RAID groups from a storage pool *cough*), as long as you keep it constructive; whining is too easy.

If you manage to become an EMC Elect you’re entitled to a couple of perks. First of all, you get bragging rights that you’re “one of the 71 EMC social media stars worldwide”. Second, Elect members get briefed on new features or product launches ahead of the actual launch date. Thirdly, if you manage to make it to an EMC event like EMC World, you will get a couple of VIP treatment thingies such as a private EMC Elect lounge to meet up in, several EMC Elect only briefings (last year the vLab team explained to us what they did and what the architecture looked like). And last but not least, you’re part of a cool network of people that know a whole lot on EMC tech: reach out to them and see what happens!

This year there have been 700 nominations that were vetted down to 150 finalists. Of those 150 finalists, 71 members for 2016 were selected. This is a reduction in numbers compared to last year: Mark Browne (program manager for the EMC Elect) explains the rationale behind it over here.

What’s next?

For the content creators: keep sharing! Everyone: follow the people on the EMC Elect 2016 list on Twitter (#EMCElect is a good start) or follow their blogs to stay up to date on the latest happenings with your favorite EMC tech. And stay tuned next Autumn for the nominations for EMC Elect 2017 to open; if you’ve shared some good quality knowledge in 2016 and want to be part of the gang next year, make sure you’re nominated.

I’m looking forward to another year of blogging and tweeting: about EMC products but also about other vendors and changes in the industry. And hopefully meet a couple of fellow Elect at EMC World. Congratulations everyone!