Nothing gets me up on a Sunday morning short of an earthquake knocking over the house – my wife says it’s impossible to wake me up. I usually roll out of bed around 10:00, unless it’s a race day, before mulling around the kitchen and slumping down on the couch. Well, this past Sunday couldn't be further from my routine - I woke up at 4:00 AM to head to the airport for an event in San Antonio.
Now this isn't any event, mind you, it goes above and beyond all other events. In fact, I have made it politely clear that I will not travel on a Sunday unless it’s life threatening or *really* important. The last place I want to be is on a plane when I could be at home eating a nice breakfast with my family.
The event is called HP Tech Con, and we're now in our fifth year. Every year HP invites fewer than 700 lucky researchers to join together and collaborate. They showcase their research amongst management, make new relationships, and generate new contacts.
There are around 30,000+ technologists at HP, and in order to get invited to Tech Con you need to write a paper – and it needs to be approved by a committee. It’s no easy feat getting invited – but I was very fortunate to be asked to join the event. The minute I got the invite I cleared my schedule and started the count down.
This event has been quite memorable, there is a session called “the poster session”. This is where one walks around a tightly secured exhibit hall to view countless new and compelling research projects from around the world.
People from all walks of life come to this event, and all of the posters are really compelling – some of which could be retrofitted to gaming.
I believe there were five isles in the Poster Session – and it took me almost one hour to go through one of the isles and learn about what some of the teams are working on. Talk about a humbling experience! I’m embarrassed to say that some of the stuff went over my head, but upon further discussion with the teams they were able to bring it back to earth.
Yes, HP Tech Con 2007 has been a success, and it’s not over yet. There is another few sessions today, a dinner tonight, and it’s back home again tomorrow. After meeting all of the wonderful people and seeing the research there is no doubt in my mind that, as a technologist, HP rocks - as Mark Hurd says, it's one of the few places that actually puts the "R" back in "R&D".
1 blogger comments:
Sounds interesting and exciting. If and when these technologies become public, could you tell us you saw them in 2007 ? I am curious how long does it take HP to get 2007 cool stuff out into the real world.
It is nice for HP to be able to see and focus on some cool technologies instead of the HP boardroom and legal troubles in Sept/Oct 2006.
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