When we flew over Arizona, I thought we had reached Tatooine. Growing up in the bayous and swamps of
Louisiana, the Virgin Mountains looked much more like an alien planet than an earthly
biome. The strange natural beauty of Arizona and Nevada was mesmerizing and a stark contrast to the explosion of man-made clutter once inside the Las Vegas Valley. Even as a seasoned air traveler, landing in Las Vegas is unsettling—the
heat from the surrounding desert is trapped inside the valley, making for a
turbulent and nauseating landing.
After the initial discomfort of descent into the valley, the
first thing you see upon exiting the plane is an island of slot machines—Welcome
to Vegas. My colleague Evan and I talked
excitedly as we headed towards baggage claim—even seeing a flashing
advertisement for HPE Discover as we descended the escalators. Neither of us had ever been to Vegas or
Discover, and we were both ecstatic for the opportunity.
Upon reaching our hotel, I hit my head on the glass of the
Lyft in shock. The Venetian Hotel and Resort is a meticulously
detailed replica of Venice—complete with the Grand Canal, Doges Palace and Rialto
Bridge. A doorman opened the car door and
told us about the 15 pools on floor 4 and I thought he was kidding—he wasn’t,
and he didn’t mention the others on floor 10. The lobby was breathtaking—marble
floors, a golden fountain and a gondolier playing classical guitar. I couldn’t
help but audibly giggle or sing along to his instrumental rendition of La vie en Rose.
My personal hotel room was enormous. The bathroom was overflowing with marble and
gold, the bed was big enough for 4. I
counted 3 televisions, and the window view was complete with the nearby
volcanic rock mountains. I collapsed on
the couch and had to take a few deep breaths—the lavishness was
overwhelming. Many people don’t know where
their next meal will come from—but here, everything is ornate, rich and flashy.
Perhaps one of the most interesting and peculiar aspects of
my hotel room was the corded landline—with two lines, cause one line wasn't one—mounted on the wall beside
the toilet. I wonder what sort of communication need
you have, beyond emergencies, to direly need to make a phone call, with the ability of
call waiting, while using the toilet. I suppose
business in Vegas never stops—that, or it’s continually the 1980’s.
Downstairs, I met up with my colleague and friend Zack. It was definitely refreshing to see a
familiar face with in such an overwhelming place, and I instantly started to
feel better and excited about the opportunity to represent HPE at Discover. We walked through the hotel
and into a mall where a literal river was running through. I heard this odd sound of opera and realized
the river—or Grand Canal, I should say—was complete with opera singing gondoliers.
Looking up, there’s a false sky imitating daylight to set the romantic mood. The little
shops and restaurants were all made to fall under the Italian architecture and
fit within theme, and I was both impressed and overwhelmed by the amount of
detail.
We had walked so much within the Venetian that I was under the
impression I had been walking the strip—I hadn’t. Vegas hotels are so huge that it gives you
that impression, but the reality is that Vegas is just an over-sized Disneyworld
for adults.
After a bit of ice breakers with the other Young Employee Network (YEN) ambassadors who had already arrived, I was set to meet up with Dr. Tom Bradicich--an important executive and VP of Servers, Converged Edge and IoT Systems--to talk about and film a video on the non-profit he founded and currently runs called SOC. This non-profit is focused on helping the homeless, including sick and needy children, by giving them the number one requested item at shelters--socks.
Despite being in a tech company where we call even our CEO by her first name, it's still a bit intimidating to talk to executives. But, Dr. Tom was completely empathetic and excited to talk to me despite my relative un-importance (professional ranking, at least), and he was incredibly down-to-earth and kind-hearted in person, too.
We filmed an interview to promote his non-profit, complete with a sock scarf and sock puppet, and I can now say I understand a bit about what it's like to work on SNL. There were teleprompters, cameras, lights, and a seemingly unnecessary (but totally necessary) amount of people behind the camera all talking at once, and I was initially a bit terrified. But, Dr. Tom and the crew were all encouraging, so I quickly became comfortable despite the initial awkwardness.
After the interview, I was able to meet back up with my fellow YEN Ambassadors and learn more about all the different roles and booths we'd be stationed at for the rest of the week.
I was assigned the Hybrid IT section; my role was to greet customers, assist with demonstrations, give demonstrations if necessary and help customers better understand HPE products and solutions. This demo was perhaps my favorite--and was most definitely one of the most popular--represents a partnership with PTC who designed the predictive analytic software and Texas Instruments who designed the 100 sensors throughout the demo. This solution shows how data from the manufacturing floor like temperature, vibrations, humidity, motion, etc., can be analysed 'at the edge' with HPE Edgeline server. Edgeline, unlike traditional servers, is engineered to withstand environmental fluctuations, and is able to analyze the enormous amount of data where the data is being generated. This saves time and resources since the data doesn't have to be sent to a data center where the servers ultimately consume much more energy, and any data that signifies possible issues can be identified in real-time through PTC's software. The software monitored the health and functioning of all manufacturing floor parts, alerted you to any possible part failures and gave an educated estimate on when that part would fail--allowing for you to better plan and spent money on fixing parts only when you needed to--and thereby minimizing any downtime from complete failure, and increased the positive yield of the floor.
The PTC guys and I debated what the robot should be named, and I still don't think we came to a consensus. My vote is for Helga, as her precision and drive seemed very stereo-typically German.
