Tech Field Day 20: Everyone we’re psyched to see

Here’s a paradox: the barrier to entry into the IT community is at the same time high (hello, knowledge curve!), and low. We say low because, despite how ridiculously smart everybody in tech is, most are equally welcoming.

We were pleasantly surprised to learn this over the past year, through several different experiences. One was attending Tech Field Day 19, almost exactly a year ago. VMworld was another. The last, which spanned the entire past year, was the fact that so many smart people at work took a lot of time out of their day to help us understand things.

It’s why the BlueCat team couldn’t be more excited to be at Tech Field Day 20 next week, in San Jose. Here’s who we’re psyched to meet (or see again–which is even sweeter) at this year’s field day event.

P.S. Block your calendar for the livestream on November 14 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern/3:30 p.m. Pacific. BlueCat’s Andrew Wertkin, Chief Strategy Officer, and Petrisa Pecnik, VP of Customer Success, will be presenting what we do.

Shots from Tech Field Day 19

Ethan Banks @ecbanks

Ethan has helped some of the world’s largest enterprises with their network architecture; now he uses the PacketPushers platform as a way to teach people around the world about network and infrastructure engineering.

He’s passionate about putting the human back into IT, is a master prioritizer, and once had to abandon his journey to the summit of Utah’s highest mountain because of “a lightning storm.” Sure, Ethan. Sure.

Greg Ferro @etherealmind

Traveling in is Greg, Ethan’s partner in crime, who has spent the past two and a half decades in IT. Greg writes about data networking and co-runs the PacketPushers media network. Does podcasting make him an extrovert? Quite the opposite, he says. It’s the perfect thing for introverts, because he “can spend time in [his] office researching, reading and writing but [he] can still have impact.”

Chris Evans @chrismevans

From across the pond, Chris is an IT consultant, blogger, and podcaster whose particular interests are in storage, cloud, and virtualization. He got his start as an architect and is now helping others figure their way through technology use and deployment. His newest podcast, The Hybrid-Cloud Podcast, can be found here.

Joep Piscaer @jpiscaer

Pronounced Yoop, Joep will be flying in from the Netherlands after having been a vExpert leader at VMworld Barcelona the week before. Busy schedule. He spends his time writing and thinking about virtualization and now it impacts networks.

He’s also one of the world’s last mono-skiiers and spends a good amount of time sailing in good weather. Him and Enrico have a fair bit in common, it turns out.

Enrico Signoretti @esignoretti

Traveling in from Italy, Enrico is an IT consultant with GigaOm. He also writes about technology, sails, kite surfs, and has found the perfect description for what I do, too… He calls it lazy running. Confirmed: he actually has built his own boat. And if I were you, I’d be looking out for a gelato shop run by him sometime in the future.

John Herbert @mrtugs

As a network engineer, John knows a thing or two about networking. To help you know them too, he shares his thoughts on his blog. He’s also an amateur photographer and dabbled in the Canadian school system in his teens. Confirmed: Canadians are nicer than the Brits. It’s not just a cliche.

Jon Klaus @jonklaus

Jon is a senior consultant with OpenLine in the Netherlands, and he writes about storage on his blog. My prediction is that he and Enrico will bond over their love of gelato at #TFD20. And here’s a fun fact: he does a fair bit of woodworking, welding, and snowboarding, and diving.

Jordan Martin @bcjordo

Jordan is one of World Wide Technology’s newest architects, but the longtime staple of the Network Collective podcast. He’s seen how a number of different industries do networking, but he’s also got a penchant for virtualization (and rock bands, as fresh-out-of-high-school Jordan actually spent a couple months on the road nationally touring with a band as a drum understudy). What we have left to get answered is: which band was it?

Karen Lopez @datachick

A fellow Torontonian (that’s rare in tech!), Karen is a data architect and advocates passionately for STEM fields, diversity, space exploration, and – shocker – data. In her spare time, she’s a NASA Datanaut, which means she mentors people learning to code and works with their open data. Once, while running a marathon (!!), Karen even got a shoutout by tweet from an astronaut in the International Space Station.

Max Mortillaro @darkkavenger

Max is an IT analyst and data center consultant with an eye for storage and virtualization. He also writes for his blog, and co-runs the TECHunplugged podcast. He’s an advocate for digital rights and he works with EFF. Fun fact: Max’s career in IT started when he quit studying law at university to teach people computers.

Stephanie Ihezukwu @stephandsec

Stephanie is a cybersecurity enthusiast who also writes and podcasts. She started in IT on the support side, and for the past few years has been making the transition to cybersecurity. (Congrats on your 1-year anniversary as a security analyst!). When she’s not kicking butt professionally, she’s watching gutsy people kick each other’s on trashy reality TV.

Stephen Foskett @sfoskett

Stephen is Gestalt IT’s mastermind co-organizer, and impassioned vSoccer player. He got his start as a system administrator but then realized he’s got a knack for bringing people together and spreading knowledge around.

Ben Gage @BenTGage

Ben’s specialty is managing the connective tissue of real-life, human networks, like that of Tech Field Day. And he can play some sweet music when his head isn’t in tech–something we only wish we could do. He also, as we now know, is a dog person.