2022 has seen me visit my first Vendor event since before COVID. It’s AWESOME to be back in person
This is my first ever visit to Dell Technologies World (DTW), and my first vendor event since before COVID. And, I’m delighted to say, I’ve not been disappointed on either account.
DTW is the company’s flagship annual event and after 2 years of running the event virtually, was this year once again an in-person event, with the anticipated remote attendance option. Hosted at Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Dell sized the venue perfectly for the audience – not a spare seat in the house for the opening Key Note from Michael Dell
Day 1 Key Note Speech
Michael Dell kicked off the 3-day event with a bang, the excitement of having attendees back in person was barely contained – genuine enthusiasm and appreciation.
The very first note I wrote to myself when Michael kicked off was “Data is going to be a key theme?” – a combination of my anticipation to the focus of the presentation, along with a little hesitation, wondering if I picked it correctly.
I was right! Michael spoke about how Data drives our world, using AI/ML to drive insights to enable informed decision making. He spoke about how we live in a Data driven world, and that tapping into this resource is critical to accelerate progress.
There were guest client speakers from CVS Health, USAA, GM (General Motors), and Solar Labs. They spoke of the value of their partnerships with Dell, how Dell helped them in particular during their own response to COVID with tens of thousands of employees switching “overnight” to a work-from-home model. They talk about how they have leveraged Dell solutions to enable and secure their workforce.
There was a great quote I noted from GM, who stated:
Technology, driven by purpose, will change the world
GM, Dell Technologies World, Key Note Presentation, 02/May/2022
Chuck Witten, Dell Co-COO, then joined the stage and talked about how Dell is looking forward to “what next”, “how to tackle unsolved problems”. With this in mind, he talked about 2 “Prime Movers” – Data, and Mass Adoption of multi-cloud architecture.
After a brief reflection on previous announcements, Chuck went on to make a number of key product announcements:
- CyberSense for AWS
- PowerProtect Cyber Recovery for Azure
- Project Alpine
- APEX
- Dell Technologies + snowflake
These were exciting announcements, which I’m looking forward to learning more about in coming days.
Chuck included a client insight from India’s Digital Lifecare program – which is using Dell technologies to transform the way that they bring critical healthcare services to the community, in particular for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and cancer.
Michael’s closing touched on 2 incredibly important topics. firstly he acknowledged the ongoing war in Ukraine. His final message was to thank the Dell employees, for their passion and dedication – brining a large group of Dell employees on stage with him while he then signed off.
Meetings and Whisper Suite
My day actually started 2 hours before the keynote, meeting with our Dell/Kyndryl Partner team. The same team then spent the rest of the day largely together as we had a series of important and very interesting meetings with the Partner team in Dell, and then with one of Dell’s global CTOs.
This was a fantastic opportunity to meet key members of the Partnership and Technical Leadership Teams from both organisations, to discuss common problems, and explore opportunities for us to grow both our business and bring differentiating value to our clients.
The last session of the day was a private meeting for a “Whisper Suite” introduction to new and upcoming Dell Technologies. This was an AMAZING opportunity to get up close and personal with a new generation of well established products. I won’t say more here – other than, I’m excited !
I’ll be honest, THESE are actually the sessions that I love most about vendor events – the opportunity to meet the product teams behind technologies that we solution for our clients, and ultimately, that we use every day! And, I cannot overstate just how important the networking opportunities are.
Reflections on Day 1
Today was an awesome day. It was fascinating to reflect on how Dell is looking at similar problems that I’m working on every day myself. Data Privacy, Security, and Residency are topics that are particularly close to my heard, and it was awesome to see them feature so heavily in Dell’s own roadmap.
I’m excited to further explore and grow the new connections that I’ve made today, and further grow our partnership!
Day 2 … here’s looking at you 🙂
Original Post
This post was originally authored on this blog, you can also see the corresponding LinkedIn Article here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dell-technologies-world-2022-day-1-andrew-barnes/