It’s finally that time – Virtualization Field Day 4 kicks off this week in Austin, TX! Today’s post will include a primer on both the delegates and the vendors that will be present, and finally a schedule of the events to come. After reading this, you should be prepared to attend (virtually) the event and understand what’s going on!
Wait, Step Back!
If you’re here and you’ve never heard of Tech Field Day (I was that guy a year ago, so no worries!) let me quickly fill you in. In their words:
Field Day events bring together innovative IT product vendors and independent thought leaders to share information and opinions in a presentation and discussion format. Independent bloggers, speakers, freelance writers, and podcasters have a public presence that has immense influence on the ways that products and companies are perceived and by IT practitioners. The world of media has changed, with social media and blogging gaining special importance. Our Field Day is an opportunity for tech companies and independent writers to meet, update and discuss products and form new communications.
We provide a valuable forum for engagement, education, hands-on experience, and feedback for vendors. And the attendees get access to the best information, high quality resources that lead to informed, more nuanced discussion about the marketplace.
So in my own words, what’s going to happen over the course of the next week is that we (the delegates) are going to meet with eight presenting sponsors and have an in-depth, highly technical discussion about the company and their products with insiders at the company. This is one of the best ‘win-win’ events I’ve ever been a part of. The vendors win because thought-leaders in the industry will give honest, thoughtful, expert feedback to folks who have the power to do something with it. And the delegates win because we get an inside peak at some of the coolest, most cutting-edge technology in the market, and we also get to network, and we get social engagement surrounding the event. “Everybody happy!”
#VFD4 Details
Okay – now that we’re all on the same page, below are some important links to all the information you could need to prepare for VFD4. Each link will take you to a more detailed post on the subject at hand.
Live Stream
Every session at VFD4 will be streamed in HD video for your consumption. If you’re unable to watch, all the sessions will also be recorded and available to watch online (usually within a day or two). View the Live Stream here!
Delegates
The VFD4 delegates are a powerful team of bloggers and community members, and I’m honored to be able to be a part of this panel. The delegate panel includes: Amit Panchal, Amy Manley, Christopher Kusek, Emad Younis, Jeff Wilson,Julian Wood, Justin Warren, Larry Smith, Marco Broeken, Matt Simmons, and Mike Preston. See the #VFD4 Delegates post for a summary of the delegates including pictures, Twitter handles, etc.
Sponsors
The VFD4 sponsors are an exciting mix of all things related to virtualization, including (but not limited to) hyperconvergence, private cloud, monitoring/insight, and virtual storage appliances. The sponsor list for this event includes: CommVault, Dell, Platform9, Scale Computing,SimpliVity, SolarWinds, StorMagic, and VMTurbo.
Organizers
None of this would be possible without the awesome team that organizes the event and the media team the streams and records the happenings. Please make sure to give them some love, and recognize all of their efforts in putting this sort of event together time and time again. The event team includes Stephen Foskett (@sfoskett), Tom Hollingsworth (@networkingnerd), and Claire Chaplais (@cchaplais). They also bring in the fine folks from PrimeImage Media (@PrimeImageVideo) to do the broadcast/recording, and other services like a local transportation service, caterers, etc. All these people make the event possible, and we really appreciate them!!
Session Calendar
The presentations will take place according to the following schedule. A link is included to the Tech Field Day website which will show all posts and videos related to the session. Please note that this schedule could change between today and the event, so always reference the official event page for the lastest!
| Wednesday, Jan 14 | 09:30 – 11:30 | SimpliVity Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Wednesday, Jan 14 | 13:00 – 15:00 | Platform9 Systems Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Wednesday, Jan 14 | 15:30 – 17:30 | VMTurbo Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Thursday, Jan 15 | 08:00 – 10:00 | StorMagic Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Thursday, Jan 15 | 10:30 – 12:30 | SolarWinds Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Thursday, Jan 15 | 13:30 – 15:30 | CommVault Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Friday, Jan 16 | 08:00 – 12:00 | Dell Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
| Friday, Jan 16 | 13:00 – 15:00 | Scale Computing Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4 |
