Time for my yearly wrap up from GTC 2017. In my post I want to share the good and not so good highlights from my trip to GTC17. These are provided to give constructive feedback about both what is done right and some of the rough areas attendees (me) experienced.
GTC is fast becoming my favorite conference to attend (it used to be VMworld). The reason for this is that the conference is run by nerd for nerds. That means for the most part it’s nerd friendly. A good thing in this nerds book.
An example of this nerdvana is they don’t have loud bands and music or some other form of noise blasting from every corner of the building. It is possible to have real and valuable conversations without having to yell. I’m pleased to say I still have my voice at the end of the week.
It’s also nice that they keep the DJ in one place during the party on Wednsday evening. Which also brings me to my first set of things I didn’t particularly care for. I really enjoy the Tech Musem, but I think we are outgrowing it quickly. It was a bit cramped this year and this made it difficult to move around.
The basement is always a great place to hang out and meet new friends. But when you came up from the basement you were meet by a big mess. There was a security guard at the escalators going up to the second floor only letting a few go at a time. This created massive congestion in the only place to transition from one space to another.
Upstairs it was also problematic with part of the exhibit space being closed down, space was restricted. I’m sure there was a reason for all of this, it was just a little frustrating as an attendee.
The great thing about the party was the food. The desert forest did not disipoint they were all wonderful. The bartenders were also great and did a good job with the drinks.
Another area where GTC excels is their on site meals. The meals are flavorful and it doesn’t take forever to get them. It does have a bit of a cattle pen feel, especially the first day when it was nothing but a long line of wait staff directing people one way or another. That was remedied by the second day. Kudos for that.
I will say I found it odd that for two days we had sandwiches (Monday and Wednesday). I think there would be other alternatives to repeating almost the same menu. The south hall was cool to be in. It was very spacious. The only problem was getting to it. You had to go down a fairly steep flight of stairs to get to it. I was worried someone might fall going down them.
One of my friends with bad knees also had a problem with getting to and from the meals. There is not an easy way down to the south hall for those with disabilities. If you don’t feel good about going down or up steep steps you get a long walk to get your food and return to the conference.
I loved that beverages were out constantly. This made it easy to get something to drink. It would be nice if the cola choices were a bit broader than Sprit, Coke, and Diet Coke. The sweets wall was great again this year and many enjoyed it.
Inside the show floor, it was great having all the startups and innovators. I always learn so much talking with them and this year I only saw a single booth without anyone in it! It was great!
I do wish they would reconfigure the food/drink stations a bit in the exhibit hall. There placement made moving down the isles a little difficult. It also increased the possibility of wearing the food. I still love the drink ticket system. After having been at a few conferences where someone had a bit too much and needed a security escort out at the end of the night this seems to take care of it.
One of the things that I was miffed about was the conference t-shirts. Up until Wednesday evening, right before the exhibit hall closed, I didn’t think we got a t-shirt this year. In fact I went to the store and bought a shirt. Which it appears many others did as well (they were almost sold out of the exact same ones we got on Wednesday). It would have been nice if there were big signs or even a note in the back pack saying that shirts would be avalible following the keynote on Wednesday. It also would have saved me $10. I do think the shirts are pretty darn cool though, so it’s not horable having two of them. It reminds a lot of a Dr. Who / Futurama cross over shirt I have.
Conference materials. Bag, Drink Tickets, I am AI t-shirt (separate from registration), 6 generation t-shirt (the one that came with registration), papers, and name badge.
Another thing that left me with a similar feeling to the shirts was wrist bands for the Wednesday party. All that was said in the guide was that they would be in the exhibit hall on Wednesday evening. They didn’t say where we could find them.
I would have liked to see them use the apps notification system to push out a notice to all attendees about where to pickup wrist bands. Or it would be even cooler if they could put some of the NVIDIA technology to work. Last year they had a system that did facial recognition and enabled you to get a drink. Wouldn’t it be cool if, when you registered it snagged a picture of you and did recognition of you to let you into the party? I know there are problems with this, so it would require some thinking.
The sessions this year were outstanding. I have a few things I would change on them but they are minor. I would love to see a couple rows of tables put in either the front or the back of the room. Many people at GTC are taking notes or in my case using Twitter to take notes and share tables would make that so much easier than balancing a phone and tablet on your legs. It would also be great to mix up the sessions and bring more interaction. So in my case all the virtualization nerds hung out in room 231 the whole week and rarely ventured to other areas. At the same time it’s nice that all the sessions in your field are in the same general area. So it’s a tough call.
A few people pointed this out to me. It’s becoming imperative to add introductory courses and executive courses to GTC. AI/Deep Learning/Machine Learning are the next wave of business systems. Right now the conference addresses the “detailed how” to do these things. But as this becomes main stream professionals will want to get their feet wet and bring it into their organization. Right now there are very few sessions that speak to the simple how or even more important speak to the business decision makers. Why should executives invest in these ideas and how do they relate to their bottom line?
I think this is an awesome oppertunity for those looking to submit sessions for GTC in the coming years. Simply put make it consumable by executives and those just getting started with GPUs, regardless of application.
I would also like to see something like the vBrownBag Tech Talks at the show. Give people 15 minutes to share what they are working on with out the pressure of a full session.
Registration was simple and easy this year as in years past. The bags they provide are again of great quality and should last a long time. I saw several bags this week from previous GTCs (2014, 15, & 16) that were all still holding up well and looked like they were being used. I don’t know where the GTC events team gets them but other conferences should take note.
As a speaker I got to experience the additional fun of being a speaker. This is a great oppertunity for anyone who want to share their experiences. The speaker resources are phenomenal and they work with you on so many things. The AV teams are also fantastic making sure every thing is ready for you to speak even with only a few minutes between sessions.
The speakers gift this year was very cool. It was a pen slide controller with laser pointer. I am looking forward to using this in presentations to come.
The app had a few more problems this year than last. It seems like on my S7 Edge every time there was an update pushed out I would have to uninstall and reinstall the app.
I wasn’t able to attend a dinner with strangers this year but I’m glad that it was back again this year. I know these dinners generate some of the best conversations of the week.
The posters were exceptional this year. The students who worked on them did a great job in developing their content and have given me so much to think about. Here is an example of one of the posters presented this year.
Social media at GTC is pretty darn good. I’d love to work with the social media team to help improve their overall impact. There are some very simple things that could be done to help increase the conversations on social channels.
Overall GTC17 was an outstanding event and all of the teams who worked so hard to put it on should be commended for their hard work. I think in the next couple of years this will be the next big conferance to attend in the IT industry. NVIDIA is well on its way to making them the best conferance at a insane scale.
All of the above, of course, is my personal opinion and perception. I provided it to help us all improve. If any of the GTC event teams would like clarification or more details on these please let me know. If you are a general reader and would like to add your two cents to the conversation please add it in the comments below.
Thank you to everyone who helped make GTC17 so very memorable.
