It’s that time of the year again.  HP Discover 2013 is happening this weekend in Las Vegas and I’m actually sitting in a hotel room wondering just how hot it’s going to get outside while I write this. 

 

I’ve actually been involved in HP Discover, previous known as TechForum, since 2010 in one way or another, but this is the first year where I’m officially involved as part of the HP Networking Technical Marketing organization.

Without letting any secrets out, it’s going to be a good show for us, but I’m really looking forward to checking out the HP Discover Zone, not to mention the various things that are going on at the HP Innovation Theatre. 

Some of the official blogs have covered a bit on session highlights  as well as the who’s who role call for the Social Media program. 

 

What I love about Discover

Learn about HP

Hewlett Packard is a HUGE company. To put this in context, HP has more employees than the top 26 smallest Countries. Not cities. Countries.  As you can imagine, it’s tough to keep up to date on all the things that are happening across the entire company. HP Discover is a place where we all come together and the curious can learn about what the other parts of the companies are doing, not to mention meet some great people. 

Learn about HP’s Partners 

The fact that the largest IT companies of the world are represented there as well as partner’s is wonderful. We get a up close and personal with VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, Brocade and many others, large and small, who have something to show. Pretty amazing to see all this technology in one place. It’s a phenomenal place to learn about what’s going on in the whole industry for someone who’s willing to brave the show floor and engage with the people who have come out to educate people about their products and services. It truly is a place to Discover. ( <- see what I did there? ).

 

Talking with Customers

The one session I did want to mention is HOL 2809 , HP Intelligent Management Center custom scripting,  I”m co-presenting with Aaron Paxon @neelix and Lindsay Hill @northlandboy.  I’m very excited about this presentation, not just because I’m presenting with some great guys, but because it really represents to me the beauty of the SoMe community. 

Lindsay is an HP partner, Aaron is an HP customer, and I’m an HP employee.

We’ve spent the last few month getting together the session abstract working over email, twitter, google+ and even the phone!  Amazing how technology can bring us all together. I’m hoping that everyone who shows up for our session gets a good show, but also walks away with something they can use. 

 

What I hope to get from the week

 

My goals for this year are, in no order of importance, the following

• Meet as many people as possible
• Visit as many people on the HP Discover Zone as possible
• Learn more about vCloud and Azure
• Blog and Tweet about what’ going on.

As this is the first major event in my new role, it’s going to be great to see the show from an insider’s perspective. I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to deliver on my goals, but at least it’s going to be a great learning experience and that, after all, is the thing I love the most. 

 

Hope to see you all there,

 

@netmanchris