Archives for conferences

Dell Storage Forum – preview reviews, and what’s on deck for Day 1

Posted by gminks on Sunday, June 5th 2011

I’m writing this from the Dell Storage Forum Fluid Blogger’s Lounge. We still have some set up to do – the hotel IT guys are here right now setting up some ethernet drops for us. We should be ready to rock and roll tomorrow morning!

I thought I’d take a minute to share some of the great posts folks have made as they are getting ready to come out to Orlando, and then let y’all know what we’ll be doing today, on the official Day 1 of the Dell Storage Forum.

Preview Reviews

Lance from the Dell Tech Center got ready by looking back at last year’s Dell Storage Forum.
I talked about the social media plans for the Storage Forum, the Tweet of the Day contest, and plans for #SANchat live on Wednesday.
Jonathan Franconi aka @s1xth has a pre-show post, and has a #dellsf11 image gallery started on his blog.
Roger Lund aka @rogerlund helped educate the community pre-show on EqualLogic and Compellent basics…I may need to introduce him to some of the Dell PowerEdge folks who are here this week though!
The @infosmack crew had one of the first pre Dell Storage Forum posts
@stu of Wikibon has a post about their Cube TV appearance

Let me know if I missed your post!

Events on-deck for Day 1 – June 5

If you are here at the Dell Storage Forum today, you are here for training. Tonight from 6 – 9 is the Fluid Fix welcome reception at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney (don’t forget your badge!).

New events and general reminders

Storagebeers is Monday night, not to be confused with the #dsftweetup Tuesday night. No excuse for not getting out and being social – IRL!
The official hashtag is #dellsf11
If you have a blog post, feel free to share on our Facebook Fan page.

category: dellsf11

tags: #storagebeers, compellent, cube tiv, Dell storage, dell storage forum, dellsf11, dsftweetup, equallogic, infosmack, SANchat, silicon angle

Dell Storage Forum Tweet of the Day – we need your help!

Posted by gminks on Sunday, June 5th 2011

If you are in Orlando for the Dell Storage Forum, you are eligible to participate in the Tweet of the Day contest. Just do what you would normally do at a conference – tweet your thoughts, observations, etc. Use the hashtag #dellsf11. If we think your tweet is the best, you will win a $25 gift card. (check out the General Info section of your conference guide).

We need the community’s help to identify the best tweets. If you see a good tweet, please retweet it. Make sure the #dellsf11 hashtag remains intact, and add the hashtag #fav.

We’ll decide on the winner every evening, and let everyone know in our morning round-up posts.

category: dellsf11

tags: dell storage forum, dellsf11, tweet of the day

The Dixie Chicks are Reuniting at the Dell Storage Forum

Posted by gminks on Thursday, June 2nd 2011

One of my big passions is building community. If you know me, or have read this blog for any length of time, you know I tend to wax poetic at times about the size and the importance of the storage community.

When I came to Dell, I didn’t leave that storage community. It did make me sad that there were things I couldn’t talk about anymore with close friends, because we worked for different companies.

One of the people I really missed working with was Christina Weil. She was an Commercial AE from New Orleans. We bonded not only because we are techies in storage who also happen to be women (there aren’t many of us…), but also because we were using social media for our jobs and we are both from the Gulf Coast. Someone started calling us the Dixie Chicks, and the name stuck.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I found out Chris had also moved on to a new role. She’s now the District Director for Centre Technologies. Centre Technologies is the largest Dell Compellent Partner in the South, so we can talk shop again! Chris is thrilled with her new role, and the responsiveness of her prospect base. She is hiring sales and technical staff, opening a new office in Louisiana, building their social media presence, and growing their cloud footprint! *whew* Christina rounds out the leadership team that includes Chris Pace, Kelby Dennard, and Rich Martinez…shall we call them the Dixie Dudes?

Our big reunion will be at the Dell Storage Forum next week in Orlando. I haven’t seen Chris since my wedding, and I’m really looking forward to it! In addition to being there for the partner sessions, Christina is there as a co-host of Infosmack to record a live podcast at the Dell Storage Forum Tweetup. It will be Tuesday night at the Ragland Road Irish Pub in Downtown Disney from 8:00 – 10:00pm. If you are coming to the Forum, there are still a few tickets left! Also, don’t miss Chris Pace, speaking at 2:30 Monday on the partner panel.

I was looking for a good picture of Christina and I, and came across this one from the 2010 EMC World. Chris is the second from the left, then me, then another lady Dell Storage techie Cheryl Koenigsberg. I thought that was pretty interesting!

Anyways, congrats Chris on your new position!! Great to be working together again, long live the Dixie Chicks!!!

category: dellsf11

tags: Centre Technologies, dell, dell compellent, dell storage forum, Dell Storage Forum Tweetup, dixie chicks, infosmack, storage community, women in tech

HOWTO: Convince your boss to send you to the Dell Storage Forum

Posted by gminks on Wednesday, May 18th 2011

Can you believe there are only NINETEEN DAYS until we all meet up in Orlando for the Dell Storage Forum? We’re starting to get things ready. To help get in the spirit, be sure to come vote in the Caption Contest on the Dell Storage Forum Facebook page - you have until this Friday at midnight (central time) to help someone win a free trip to #DellSF11!

Also, we’ll be playing Dell Storage Forum Trivia Tuesday two more times! This gives you two more chances to win a limited edition Dell Storage Forum shirt – details are here.

If you are registered for DSF – make sure to get a ticket to the TweetUp we’ll be having at Downtown Disney. It is going to be a blast!

Maybe you haven’t registered yet because you don’t think you can convince your boss to send you. Well, we’ve got you covered. Download this zipped up word doc, and copy and paste the contents into an email. (If you are a partner, grab this version). Personalize/Customize it as you see fit. Send it to your boss, and we’ll see you in Orlando!

Here’s what the letter says:

Dear Boss,

I’d really like to advance my professional development by attending the upcoming Dell Storage Forum conference. The event takes place June 5-11 in Orlando, Florida, including optional pre- or post-conference training courses. The core conference, which features keynotes, breakouts and hands-on labs, is June 7-9.

At this year’s conference, Dell experts will dive deep into the latest products and solutions integration across the entire Dell Storage portfolio – EqualLogic, Compellent, PowerVault and DX Object Storage. I checked out the agenda and think I’d take away a lot of insight for making the most of our storage investment.

As a conference, Dell Storage Forum is a really good value for all the learning offered. In three days, I’ll have access to:

110+ hours of technical breakouts, many with demos, delivered by Dell experts

4+ hours of executive keynotes from Michael Dell and other high-level executives

36+ hours of networking and sharing best practices with Dell experts and other end users

8+ hours of product demos and one-on-one discussions in the Solutions Expo

21+ hours of optional self-paced, hands-on labs with Dell experts

The price to attend Dell Storage Forum is only US$745, which is very reasonable for a 3-day technical user conference. Or I could take a 2-day technical training course for US$995, which includes a full-conference pass.

Here’s a breakdown of the conference costs, with and without the optional training:

Conference registration                                US$745
Instructor-led training                    US$995 (includes conference registration)
Airfare                                                  US$ (you have to figure this out)
Transportation                                  US$60
Hotel (US$125/night)                     US$375 (conference only)
US$625 (with training course)
Meals                                                    Included

I could easily pass on what I learn to the rest of the team. In fact, I’ll plan on presenting what I learned, including recommendations, once I’m back in the office.

Thanks for your considerideration,

Your name here

category: dellsf11

tags: caption contest, convince your boss, dell storage forum, dellsf11, trivia tuesday

What its really all about – getting social at Interop

Posted by gminks on Monday, May 16th 2011

I think Stephen Foskett said it best in this post: “We are social people, and nothing beats meeting someone face to face.”

Last week, Interop and EMC World were held in Vegas. (You can check out my review of Interop in this post). That meant a lot of storage people where in sin city at the same time – vendors, customers, analysts… all converged in the same meat space at the same time. Part of the anticipation of these events is not just coming to talk to customers in the booth, or to present or listen to interesting sessions. Its knowing we’ll meet our online friends for the first time.

Many of us are already connected via social media. We chat on Twitter, we read and comment on each other’s blogs. I love meeting people face to face that I’ve been interacting with for months or years, because we already know each other. We don’t have to do that awkward dance, we can just talk, interact as storage colleagues.

I can’t wait to meet some of the folks that have been interacting with the Dell Storage, EqualLogic, Compellent, and Dell Storage Forum twitter accounts (and Facebook pages!) at the Dell Storage Forum in Orlando in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS! We have some awesome things in store to help facilitate the strengthening of our community since we’ll all be together in the sunshine state for several days….more on that very very soon. And if you are connected to us – what are you waiting for!?!

Even better is when the small worlds I live in online start to blend with my not online life. For instance, I was able to introduce my new Dell colleagues to my old EMC colleagues in Vegas at #cxiparty and #storagebeers. I found out an old EMC colleague who is at Joyent now is working with people I know from #bitnorth. I can’t even count the connections with folks from other vendors like VMware. Intermingling all these people into one big community of storage practice is seriously amazing.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me share some great photos taken by Stephen Foskett at #storagebeers. You can check out his full Interop Flickr set here.

Looking forward to making more of these connections in Orlando in June — hope to see you there!