GTC 2018 concluded on Thursday afternoon and this post took me a bit longer than planned. It’s time for my now annual GTC wrap up post. In this post I share my thoughts, opinions, and personal experience on this years conference.
This is my 3rd year attending GTC and it’s amazing how much has changed in those 3 years. One thing that hasn’t changed is the venue, the San Jose Convention Center. I love the staff and crew here, all of them are very respectful and attentive to the venue. I wish the facilities staff was like this at every event I attend.
I do think that GTC is rapidly out growing the San Jose Convention Center (I’ve been told they will be returning here next year). As I look around the venue finding room to expand offerings and add new ones. For example below is a picture of a council lunch that happened Thursday during the conference. It was setup in a common area of the first floor of the convention center and separated by just a set of belts and pylons. In my opinion it makes it very difficult to have advisory type conversations when you are sitting out in the open instead of behind closed doors.
My personal opinion is that if GPU technology continues to grow as fast as it has been I don’t know that there is the capacity to hold all the attendees.
The bag and t-shirt are really good quality as usual (see picture at top of post). The design is laid out well and everything seems sturdy. This includes little details like reinforced metal d-rings for shoulder straps and quality clips.
The material pickup to get the bags was still flawed this year, in my opinion. I talked about this in last years wrap up post. When you registered and picked up your conference badge you did not receive your backpack and t-shirt (unless you arrived after the Tuesday keynote). I understand the reasoning for this, to keep announcements under wrap till the keynote. However I am sure many attendees don’t return to pickup their bag just because they aren’t aware that they are available. There either needs to be better signage or a different alternative needs to be devised to distribute bags/materials.
The food was respectable again this year. I didn’t get to try food on all the days as I was working the Dell booth, still the food was better than all the other conferences I attend. Kudos to whoever is in charge of it!
One thing that still concerns me from last year is getting to the lunch venue (the south hall). To get to it you have to go down a steep flight of stairs then go outside into the South Hall. This appeared to be the only way to get there. These steps were impossible for some attendees, I’m sure. I really wish they would address this in a clear way so that everyone is able to easily partake in the dining experience.
The sessions were great this year, all of them that I was able to attend were high quality and the speakers did a fantastic job. They should all be proud of their presentations. I appreciate them sharing with the attendees and the thought provoking ideas they generated.
The one thing that was sort of annoying was the oil and gas (O&G) sessions I attended. They “requested” no one take pictures of the slides (the above is one I captured prior to the request). Having worked with O&G teams in the past I understand the reason behind this request and the need to keep sensitive data out of the public domain. At the same time, this is being presented to conference attendees to expand their knowledge and I didn’t sign an NDA before entering the session. I want to share this with my friends and expand the discussion to drive innovation. I’m also curious if these sessions will be published along with the slides. If they are then the request to not take pictures is sort of a moot point. To that end I wish they would flag in the session description that this is a no photography session.
I will say that the session staff was again outstanding. I always like working with them. They are always so accommodating and make the presentation process so easy.
The presenters gift this year was pretty cool. It has really good sound and an on/off switch. Thank you and good job to the team that selected the item.
Presenters thank you gift unboxing. #GTC18 https://t.co/3lAnbLK3nx
— Tony Foster (@wonder_nerd) March 25, 2018
One thing that I’ve received at other conferences which would be neat to receive as a presenter, is a presenter pin. Then I can put in my bulletin board when I return from GTC. The VMworld presenter pins are my favorite ones thus far.
I do also like the ribbons added to the badge indicating various things such as alumni, speaker, etc. They are very helpful in conversations. I wish they had another ribbon (and maybe they do but I didn’t see it). I’d like to see a press/analyst ribbon. After my session I had an analyst come up to me and ask me about CUDAs future relevance, it would have helped in advance to know there was an analyst in my session.
I’m on the fence about something I talked about last year… That is moving the sessions around so that not all the VDI, O&G, medical, DL, HPC, etc. sessions aren’t always in the same room. It was really nice this year know that room 231 is where the VDI sessions are for the most part.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to attend the keynote as I was working in the booth getting ready for everyone to join us in the solutions exchange. Since I was working in the booth I do wish they would have the audio piped into the solution exchange or maybe even put it up on video boards for us in the exchange to hear/see what is being talked about. This would allow us to be able to have better conversations with attendees.
I liked the solutions exchange this year. The overall layout was pretty good and made it easy to navigate. It’s interesting to watch how this space changes every year. The interesting thing I noticed this year is that they did not carpet the isles, they were just bare concrete. It created an interesting contrast between the booths and the isles. The isolation of the VR Experience was ok however I know several people walked to the back of the VR Experience and found a way into the Exchange and that was a bit annoying. The VR Experience, in terms of what was shown was outstanding and I hope those in attendance had a chance to try it out.
My three favorite things that the GTC team does year after year and I commend them for, are the drink tickets, dinner with strangers, and the posters. Drink tickets (and the quantity [8] they hand out) are brilliant, I’ve been to other conferences where people have gotten way to intoxicated and started causing problems, this system really helps keep that to a minimum. The dinner with strangers is an awesome way to meet new people and share great ideas, I wish I could have attended one this year as I here they conversation were phenomenal. Which brings us to the posters (see an example below). I learn as much from the posters every year as I do the sessions typically. The individuals that put these posters together a do amazing things and I have encouraged other conferences to offer something similar, so far no takers. If you get the chance to attend GTC I strongly recommend you try out each of these 3 things.
The demographics of GTC are changing. I remember 3 years ago it was t-shirts and ponytails. This year suits outnumbered ponytails, I even had a financial analyst come up to me after my session, and my session was technical in nature (I’ll see if I can get a blog created about the questions I was asked). Because of that I really think there will need to be more tracks geared towards business decision makers and investors.
I’m glad they moved the party to the keynote hall this year. The tech museum was just to small to accommodate everyone. The party felt a bit disjointed to me. It was an Alice and Wonderland theme and to me it felt like they tried to hard. The food at the party was good. My favorite was the coconut desert chocolates.
Lastly I’m going to finish up with the area surrounding the venue. I love this area. There are a lot of choices for food in walking distance ranging in price and atmosphere. The hotels don’t get stupid expensive till about a month before GTC. The location is relatively safe, I feel comfortable walking by myself at night in the area and I see several police vehicles patrolling the area at all time of the day and night.
Overall it’s a great experience put on by a fantastic team. Hopefully they can address a few of the points I raise and continue to improve the GTC experience, like they do every year.
If you have feedback or an opinion about my post be sure to share in the comments below.
