Events - Real and Virtual?

In my last blog entry, I asked for feedback on your experience at the recent HP Technical Forum and Expo (HPTF&E) and I have to say I was pretty pleased to see a couple of comments.

Margo Holen observed that the option to view the greater HP - to see a more complete picture - was a big benefit. This was reinforced for me when one long-standing supporter of ITUG came up to me and said "now I can bring my management! I may even be able to convince our CIO to come - there's now enough content to make it worthwhile for them to come!"

Wil Marhsman's observations interested me as well - going forward, it may not be just bricks and mortar style venues - and that with newer technology, I fully expect to see a growth in essentially virtual events and gatherings. As we all become familiar with new ways to communicate and embrace new products and methodologies, we will see many more options open up where we can get first-hand info from our peers as they roll-out new applications and solutions.

Las Vegas may have it's critics. It's a pretty daunting place for many of us. On the other hand, it is one venue where you can put together any kind of event no matter the size - so, I guess I have to say that it's not an issue for me. As long as I get there a day ahead of an event so I can familiarize myself with the layout.

I have been on the road for most of this week visiting Chicago and the Bay. I was visiting Cupertino to meet with various folks on the NonStop campus in Vallco Parkway. So it's only appropriate that the first picture I use on this blog site is of an early Tandem Computer - a NonStop II I believe. This picture was forwarded to me by a past-Chairman of ITUG and I am very appreciative of him digging this out for me. While in one meeting, in what I still call Building 3, I happened to look out the window, and there was the swimming pool. It's still there, and visible on the bottom was Tandem - complete with the Tandem Chevron - although, today it's blue and not red. Changing the color was something I never did fully understand - but at least this icon wasn't torn up by either Compaq or HP. It's still very visible.

As I looked down on the pool, and on the surrounding grounds, I recalled many Friday beerbusts - those gatherings where ideas were shared. For sure, Jimmy was a pioneer in this area - and the beerbusts are now part of the Tandem folk-lore. I don't believe that they are held anymore - or have they, I suspect for many years. But user events continue to roll on - and for many of us, they are pretty much an extension or outgrowth of the community that first started to develop within those first three buildings.

I only raise this as I begin to look ahead - I sense we are becoming part of a bigger HP, as Margo noted in her comment. We will see new server configurations over the next year or so that will embrace more than NonStop. So knowing more about the whole is going to be very important. In closing - we are now part of a bigger community. The servers of the future will include operating systems other than just NonStop. Is this a bad thing? Is it something we should pull back from. I have to say - I don't think so. Rather, I am pretty excited by the potential of all of this. Rather than asking whether we are diluting the NonStop message as we introduce other technologies alongside it - but rather shouldn't we now be looking at how we capitalize on it?

Our events of the future may take many forms - we will have routine, face-to-face ones, at places like Las Vegas. But we will most likely embrace whole new models including various electronic and virtual formats and I would be very interested to hear back from the community. Let me know what you think!

If it’s June then it’s time for HPE Discover 2021.

For the NonStop community there has always been an annual event that proved hard to resist; with changing times these events are virtual – but can we anticipate change down the road? Just recently Margo and I chose to return home via US Highway 129. It may not ring any bells, but for those who prefer to call it the Tail of the Dragon – 318 curves in 11 miles – it represents the epitome of mountain excitement. For Margo and me, having now driven the tail in both directions, driving hard through all these turns never gets old. Business took us to Florida for an extended week of meetings that were mostly conversations. Not everything went to plan and we didn’t get to see some folks, but just to have an opportunity to hit the road and meet in person certainly made the 4,500 miles excursion worthwhile. The mere fact that we made touring in a roadster work for us and we were comfortable in doing so, well, that was a real trick with a car better suited to day trips. This is all just a p

The folly that was Tandem Computers and the path that led me to NonStop ...

With the arrival of 2018 I am celebrating thirty years of association with NonStop and before that, Tandem Computers. And yes, a lot has changed but the fundamentals are still very much intact! The arrival of 2018 has a lot of meaning for me, but perhaps nothing more significant than my journey with Tandem and later NonStop can be traced all the way back to 1988 – yes, some thirty years ago. But I am getting a little ahead of myself and there is much to tell before that eventful year came around. And a lot was happening well before 1988. For nearly ten years I had really enjoyed working with Nixdorf Computers and before that, with The Computer Software Company (TCSC) out of Richmond Virginia. It was back in 1979 that I first heard about Nixdorf’s interests in acquiring TCSC which they eventually did and in so doing, thrust me headlong into a turbulent period where I was barely at home – flying to meetings after meetings in Europe and the US. All those years ago there was

An era ends!

I have just spent a couple of days back on the old Tandem Computers Cupertino campus. Staying at a nearby hotel, this offered me an opportunity to take an early morning walk around the streets once so densely populated with Tandem Computers buildings – and it was kind of sad to see so many of them empty. It was also a little amusing to see many of them now adorned with Apple tombstone markers and with the Apple logo splashed liberally around. The photo at the top of this posting is of Tandem Way – the exit off Tantau Avenue that leads to what was once Jimmy’s headquarters building. I looked for the Tandem flag flying from the flagpole – but that one has been absent for many years now. When I arrived at Tandem in late ’88 I have just missed the “Billion Dollar Party” but everyone continued to talk about it. There was hardly an employee on the campus not wearing the black sweatshirt given to everyone at the party. And it wasn’t too long before the obelisk, with every employee’s signature

Unknown said…

I too found the recent Tech Forum experience in LV a little overwhelming. But I have to say there was a palpable energy that has been missing from recent ITUGs. I love San Jose, but this was exciting. And you very much got the feeling where HP puts value - in NonStop!!

August 28, 2007 at 8:00 AM

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