by Donald Wong, CTA, Bay Area CUGC Leader
What is better to start the New Year for 2020 than a recap of a 2019 CUGC event? Well, in actuality, this article sadly sat in my draft folder due to hectic nature of end of year priorities and some holiday R&R. I am going to stick with the “better late than never” adage as my sole excuse.
The Bay Area CUCG team held its Q4 event at the local Citrix Office, here in Santa Clara, CA. In addition, this event included a new co-leader to the team. Yes, it’s yours truly! What an honor to be selected to join such a dedicated group of individuals with such a deep passion to better the CUGC. Being a member and attendee for nearly all the previous local events, I can now swap out the hat and contribute with a different perspective.
Here is the summary of the agenda for the day:
The event kicked off with a lunch and social, so everyone had ample time to mingle and network. As attendees started to trickle in, Garren Guilean, Bay Area co-leader, took to the podium to share some announcements regarding the event.
Since this is my first event as a co-leader, I utilized the lunch and social hour to checking in with as many attendees as possible to ensure everyone got settled comfortably into the large presentation room allocated to us by Citrix. And naturally at these events, we are prone to run into familiar faces. It’s always a joy to run into former coworker, close friend, and Citrix CTP Dane Young, who has contributed significantly through his blogs and other avenues for the Citrix community.
The technical presentations began with ControlUp, where Dennis Geerlings was on stage to explain the awesomeness of the ControlUp product. With tons of diverse questions being asked during the presentation, we can tell the audience was gravitated by the product’s immense capabilities, which include monitoring, reporting, and some slick automation thrown in. The ControlUp presentation was a perfect segway to a ControlUp customer testimonial from the PayPal team, who explained not only why they chose the solution, but how it also helped improve the way they perform their day-to-day work.
Up next was the Citrix team, with Joshua Espinosa to present how Citrix Workspace can help customers deliver a better modern user experience. The PayPal team, with Toan Thai as the presenter, provided a customer reference, expanded on the architectural breakdown of their implementation, and called out some common pitfalls to avoid.
The CUGC event concluded with a happy hour, as attendees got an opportunity to check in with the vendors and other colleagues with Q&A. It always amazes me the comradery that we all share as a community with such willingness to assist others. I truly believe these events are essential in gaining different opinions and perspectives on sometimes common solutions used in our daily professional lives. Let’s continue to advocate the solutions that will benefit others in our CUGC. Lastly, I would like to thank the sponsors ControlUp and Citrix for this great event. To the rest of the Bay Area CUGC, hope to see you soon at the next event.
Donald – Bay Area CUGC Co-Leader
