Eight days seems like a long time to be in Vegas. It is. But when you’re working, getting things done, meeting and socializing with members and partners, time flies by and you’re left wishing you had just a wee bit more time. Don’t get me wrong, I boarded the plane exhausted but felt that a lot was accomplished over the week’s time and I’ll try and give you the abbreviated version. 

Connect held its quarterly face to face meeting on the weekend in Las Vegas on Saturday June 13 – Sunday June 14. It was a very productive meeting as we presented our transition plan from a managed services model to a self supported model with a hybrid of 100% dedicated staff of two plus outsourced talent to fulfill our business needs including financial, marketing, legal and IT. Just like most businesses today,  we are creating efficiencies in order to invest in our future and provide more member benefits. In addition, we went through a series of scenario planning exercises so that we are prepared for just about anything that comes our way. This is my favorite activity as a board member. It forces each member to use creativity and skill to try and solve issues with the switch of a light bulb versus the jerk of a knee.   

Connect kicked off the conference with a day of Pre-Conference Seminars. I had the opportunity to introduce Gary McCready for his EVA presentation which is always a hit each year. Gary, I promise you we’ll get you a Connect shirt!  Monday was also filled with various meetings including a NonStop vendor meeting and media interviews.   It made me realize that especially in challenging economic times, the user community has a vital role to play for both members and vendors.  I want to recognize Michael Rossbach of Comforte for his efforts to keep our community thriving and help the NonStop members of our community feel at home. Michael was on the Connect planning committee and on the first Connect Board and thus understands the amount of work that volunteers put into Connect and our desire to serve the community well.  

Connect also celebrated our first year since the consolidation and I felt so proud to share our accomplishments and opportunities with the media. As always, it’s a pleasure chatting with fellow bloggers Dana Gardner (ZDnet)  and Mark Fontecchio (TechTarget) and meeting new Connect friends, Tom Foremski (Silicon Valley Watcher) and Rand Christenson (AFCOM).  We shared the news of our success affiliating chapters around the world…now 33 with six in the pipeline. Our new social network is getting a record number of page views and visitors and we also recognized two outstanding women in technology, Connect members Jill Bourman 2009 Connect Volunteer of the Year and Deb Nelson, HP SVP of Marketing and Alliances,  recipient of the 2009 Connect HP Recognition Award. Both awards were presented at the Connect Member Appreciation Luau on Tuesday evening. Mahalo ladies!! We have a great story to tell, and I love sharing it.  

The opening keynote was notably different this year. The stage was smaller, the front row was filled with tweeters and bloggers (I was in the second row – a back seat tweeter!), and Mark Hurd’s absence was felt by many.  I personally missed the keynote he gave a couple of years ago and this year, I think the audience would have benefitted from his inspiration in the most challenging economic times in our memory.  My favorite presentation was by HP Labs, Prith Banerjee.  Prith’s presentation style was humble, engaging and unintentionally quite humorous. The content and direction of HP Labs gave me a sense that HP is not simply acquiring innovation but creating it. Kudos to Prith.  

Connect Special Interest Groups met throughout the week and each is presenting their ‘Top Three’ list to the Advocacy Committee led by Sam Ayers. Great job to all the SIG chairs and many thanks to our HP Advocacy Liaison, Dave Kreiner. 

Connect and HP recognized Visa and my colleage Joe Ramos with the coveted 2009 NonStop Availability Award! Congrats to Joe and Visa for their model use of the NonStop platform to support Visa's transactional operations.

Our chapter leaders also met to discuss challenges and opportunities, some of which were solved before the week’s end. I love it when that happens!  I heard great reviews about the content from the event…some were so good that there was a line to get in with standing room only. After all, content is king!  I have to give shout outs to Deb Nelson, Calvin Zito, KC Choi, Chet Jacobs, Chris Purcell, Michelle Weiss (my twin who came prepared with an action list!), the BCS team (Brian, Herbert, MJ, Suzanne), The new VMS team – Shoba, Sujatha and Hemamand, The NonStop Team – Randy, Winston, Steve, Neil and Fred all of whom pledged their support of Connect and had terrific ideas on how we can collaborate. You’ll be hearing more about these meetings in the coming weeks. Each deserves special mention and a discussion about follow-up actions. If I were to use this blog, it would begin to look like the US tax code (which now replaces War and Peace as the metaphor for really, really long).  

Congratulations to BITUG on affiliating with Connect. We are thrilled to welcome you to the Connect global family and look forward to working with you and your local members. Neil, Sean, et al…you guys rock!  To our friends at Emulex, thank you so much for being part of our success this week. What a pleasure it was getting to know you better and we really look forward to a long-term friendship with your team.  

Like ice skating, these events should look effortless to the attendee but know that hundreds of man hours of planning and coordination go into making it a meaningful experience for EVERYONE who walks in the door. To the countless volunteers and the HP core team (Elizabeth, Stan, Jim, Stephanie, Roger, et al) who make it all happen year over year, THANK YOU for a successful 5^th HPTF&E!!  

Cheers!!

Nina

PS....If you want to see HPFT&E on video..go to http://sdrnews.com/index.php/hp-tech-forum

PSS...The tweeters are still buzzing and tweeting #HPTF. You can follow me at @ninabuik