Over the next two days, I will have the opportunity to participate in Gestalt IT’s 3rd Field Day.  Over the next few days, I’ll be stepping outside of my “blades only” discussion and I’ll be blogging about this event.  So that you will appreciate the posts, let me give you some background on this event.

Who is GestaltIT? 
Gestalt IT is a website (www.GestaltIT.com) that is maintained by a group of individuals with differing technical backgrounds but who all share a common focus to enable the best in IT infrastructure solutions. Each member who writes on GestaltIT.com works in end-user consulting, integration services, or in-house IT organizations. 

What is GestaltIT Field Day?
In a quick summary – it’s a two day invitation only event for IT bloggers to get exposed to vendor sponsors with the key goal of getting honest feedback on their products and technology.  The event was created after a few members of GestaltIT attended an HP blogger event and determined the format needed a non-vendor sponsored approach, so 5 weeks later, the first GestaltIT Tech Field Day was held in San Jose.  Founder, Stephen Foskett summarized the event as,

” This unique event brings together innovative IT product vendors and independent thought leaders who have immense influence on the ways that products and companies are perceived and understood by the general public. 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 get to know each other. Ultimately, we hope to provide a forum for engagement, education, hands-on experience, and feedback.”

Which Vendors Will be Participating in GestaltIT Tech Field 2010 in Seattle?
The 2 day event is jammed pack full of meetings.  We will be meeting with Veeam Software , a new start-up storage company (to be disclosed today), Compellent, F5, NEC and possibly Microsoft. 

If you want to follow the vendors on Twitter, I encourage you to use the Tech Field Day 3 Vendor Twitter List:

http://twitter.com/TechFieldDay/lists/tfd3-sponsors

Who was invited to attend?
The list of attendees, also known as “delegates” are a great mixture of virtualization, software, and networking experts.  I encourage you to take a few minutes to vist their websites and blogs as well as add them to your Twitter feeds.

	Ethan Banks	Packet Attack Packet Pushers Podcast	@ECBanks
	Jason Boche	Boche.net	@JasonBoche
	Ilja Coolen	Ilja CoolenStorageMonkeys	@iCoolen
	Rod Haywood	Musings of Rodos	@Rodos
	Kevin Houston (ME)	Blades Made Simple Corus 360	@Kevin_Houston
	Howard Marks	Network ComputingDeep Storage	@DeepStorageNet
	John Obeto	Absolutely Windows	JohnObeto
	Bob Plankers	The Lone Sysadmin	@Plankers
	W. Curtis Preston	Backup Central	@WCPreston
	Derek Schauland	Technically Speaking TechRepublic	@WebJunkie
	Craig Stewart	VirtualPro Gestalt IT	@VirtualProUK

If you want to follow all of the tweets by these delegates, add the Tech Field Day 3 Delegate Twitter List to your account:

http://twitter.com/TechFieldDay/tfd3-delegates

NOW – the details
If you are still reading, then you probably care to know more.  So let me give you some highlights.

We’re stayting at the Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac, WA.  It’s a beautiful lodge (check out the pictures on their site) with a ton of ammenities.  In fact, there’s actually a lobby area on every floor that is filled with bottled waters, candied fruit and pretzels as well as bags of potato chips.  So much for dieting…  The event was kicked off with a group dinner in a private dining room led by Stephen Foskett.  Following the dinner Stephen introduced the “Perilous Foskett Gift Exchange“.  I can’t provide the details of the exchange, as I think I’m sworn to secrecy.  I can tell you that it was like having a “white elephant gift exchange” while blindfolded.  The deal behind the gift exchange is that all gifts are fun and reasonably cool, but only one is Magical and Revolutionary. 

As luck would have it, I walked away with the Magical and Revolutionary gift – an Apple iPad!  It was quite appropriate seeing how I was wearing my “Apple Kills Flash” t-shirt.   Thanks to Stephen and GestaltIT for this awesome gift – I can’t wait to use it while on the Microsoft campus later today.

For more about the GestaltIT Tech Field Day – visit http://gestaltit.com/field-day/faq/

Disclaimer – I am attending the Field Days as a guest of Gestalt IT. Travel, accommodations and the iPad I received is provided as part of the event by GestaltIT Media.  The writings and opinions expressed on my blog are my opinions and not those of Gestalt IT or any of the sponsors of the event.

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