For most of Q1’09 I wasn’t sure if I’d be heading to EMC World in Orlando. But the stars aligned correctly and I am going to be one of the ControlCenter representatives. My primary duty will be similar to last year, working the daily ControlCenter Hands-On sessions. I’ll also be spending some time with the ECN folks as well as the bloggers’ lounge. I should be spending some time with the ControlCenter Online Community members on Monday at 6:30 PM. There’s more info on the community site.
I attended my first real prep meeting for the hands-on session Friday and I like the new direction they are taking with the session. Last year we had detailed scenarios and walked users through them. There was a lot of hand-holding. This year it looks like we’re trying to be more exploratory, give the users some guidelines and talk it through with them in the lead. It will be more challenging but it should feel more organic. It will keep all of us on our feet working the crowd though. Last year every session was full, so if history repeats itself I expect to be answering a lot of questions about the three deep-dive use cases we’re using this year. So that means some time spent learning areas of ControlCenter I’m not very fluent in. Nothing wrong with that!
Last year I remember the “EMC Twitter” crowd (made up of employees, analysts, and partners) comfortably fit at one lunch table. I think the times are a wee bit different now. It’ll be fascinating.
I’ll continue to write periodic posts as we prepare for EMC World, and of course the event will take over my blog in May. Sneaking off to find time and space for quick blog posts last year is an enduring memory, but hopefully this year I’ll be better prepared!
