Dave’s Blogging Tips: Don’t Wait

Posted on 5 February 2016 by GeekFluent

Tech Bloggers' Support GroupThis is the first of what I’m hoping to turn into a series of blogging tips posts.

I’m well aware that I haven’t been blogging anywhere’s near as long as some of the other folks out there have been. I’m also well aware that I haven’t achieved the level of blogging success that some folks have.

But, I have been doing this for three years now, and I’ve managed to become a medium-sized deal in my small corner of the broader community, so while I won’t claim to be a leading authority, I also won’t play the false humility card. I will share what things I have learned. Most of it will be advice I wish I had received, but instead ended up learning the hard way.

Experience: the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
— C. S. Lewis

Knowledge sharing of this type was the main driver behind the creation of the Tech Bloggers’ Support Group.

With all that said, it’s time for me to follow my own first piece of advice: Continue reading →

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EMC Elect 2016 – Just the Facts

Posted on 2 February 2016 by GeekFluent

EMC Elect 2016Yesterday, EMC announced the list of those who had been awarded the EMC Elect designation for 2016.

The EMC Elect is EMC’s community recognition program. Now in its fourth year, the Elect program seeks to recognize those who exhibit engagement with the EMC community, commitment to be “part of the EMC conversation day in and day out, offering thoughtful feedback and staying optimistic in [their] language”, and leadership.

This year there are 72 EMC Elect designees. This number is the lowest of any of the years of the program. You can see the official list of the 2016 EMC Elect here.

Last year, I posted my “by the numbers” breakdown of the 2105 EMC Elect membership. In the space below, I’ll do the same for 2016. Continue reading →

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Cisco Announces Champions for 2016

Posted on 1 February 2016 by GeekFluent

ciscochampion2016On Friday last week, Cisco started sending out email welcoming those people who have been selected to receive the Cisco Champion designation for 2016.

For those of you not familiar with it, Cisco Champion is Cisco’s community recognition program. Its main goal is to encourage and recognize knowledge-sharing efforts. To quote from the welcome email:

Cisco Champions are a group of highly-influential IT technical experts who enjoy sharing their knowledge, expertise, and thoughts across the social web and with Cisco. The Cisco Champion program encompasses a diverse set of areas such as Data Center, Internet of Things, Enterprise Networks, Collaboration, and Security.

I am simultaneously pleased, honored, and humbled to have been named a Cisco Champion for Data Center for the third year in a row. I look forward to meeting and working with the other Cisco Champions, which, this year includes three of my co-workers at Accunet Solutions.

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Tech Bloggers’ Support Group – Beta Test

Posted on 28 January 2016 by GeekFluent

Tech Bloggers' Support GroupThis is an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while. I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to be doing more with this blog: posting more often, creating series of posts, improving my writing skills, increasing my readership, etc.

Obviously, the easiest of these for me to affect is the “posting more often”. I’m often well-intentioned about this, but between work, family, and other obligations, writing for my own blog often takes a back seat. Continue reading →

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Headed to Pure//Accelerate 2016

Posted on 26 January 2016 by GeekFluent

Pure Storage logo[Disclaimer: Pure Storage is sponsoring my attendance at this event, and paying for my hotel and airfare. There was no requirement that I write about the event at all. Any thoughts or views expressed here are entirely my own.]

I’ve just received my travel confirmation to Pure Storage‘s Pure//Accelerate 2016 event coming up on 14-15 March. I’m looking forward to this event for a number of reasons. Continue reading →

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For Your Listening Pleasure: Cisco Champion Radio Season 3, Ep 2 is Live

Posted on 22 January 2016 by GeekFluent

Cisco Champion 2015Earlier this week, I got to play the role of a guest-host/panelist on the Cisco Champion Radio podcast, talking about tech predictions for 2016. It was a very lively conversation and a lot of fun.

If you’re interested in hearing it, you can find it:

Or, you could listen to it right here:

If you have any thoughts to add to the conversation, feel free to do so in the comments below.

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Confirmed for Storage Day 9 (#SFD9)

Posted on 22 January 2016 by GeekFluent

Storage Field DayYou may remember that I made my Tech Field Day debut last year at Storage Field Day 7. If you followed any of the video stream during, or any of the recordings afterwards, you’ll have some sense of how much fun it was and just how much information we received over the course of the event.

What you may not know is that I was invited to return as a delegate for Storage Field Day 8, but, due to scheduling conflicts, was unable to attend.

What you most likely didn’t know (before you read the title of this post) was that I’ll be returning as a delegate for Storage Field Day 9. The event will be in Silicon Valley 16-18 March.

So far, the publicly-announced vendors who’ll be presenting include:

  • Cloudian
  • Exablox
  • Intel
  • Primary Data

I’ll post more about this event when it gets closer and more of the presenters are public. For now, I’ll just say that I’m honored and excited to have been invited back.

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Mixed Message Monday: Domino’s Wants You to Pay to Train Their Employees

Posted on 18 January 2016 by GeekFluent

PizzaSince some of what I do for a living can be classified as Technical Marketing, every now and then I like to do a post that is more about the marketing than the tech. Mixed Message Monday is my series on Marketing campaigns that have gone wrong — you can see what message the advertiser was hoping you’d take way, but the message they actually delivered is a different one.

Today, I take a look at a Domino’s Pizza ad that’s been playing on TV here in the States recently. Continue reading →

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Guest-Hosting Cisco Champion Radio Next Week

Posted on 15 January 2016 by GeekFluent

Cisco Champion 2015I’ve written before about the various community programs I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in and how I’ve benefited from them. I’ve just been given another unexpected benefit that should be a lot of fun.

The Cisco Champion community records a weekly podcast titled Cisco Champion Radio. Over the past two years, they’ve covered a broad variety of topics — you can see the full list of previous episodes here.

On Tuesday 19 January, I will be helping to guest-host Season Three, Episode 2 of Cisco Champion Radio. We’ll be talking about IT predictions for 2016. Apparently, I unconsciously predicted this topic, so naturally I accepted the invitation to guest-host.

If you’re a Cisco Champion, please join us to share your thoughts on what’s coming. If you’re not, don’t worries — I’ll post a link to the episode as soon as it’s available.

Posted in Cisco, Podcasts | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

State of the Blog Report: 2015

Posted on 1 January 2016 by GeekFluent

2015 is over and 2016 has arrived. It’s a time to reflect on what’s gone before and to plan for the year ahead. In doing so, here’s a look back at GeekFluent’s year in 2015.

2015 was the year that the blog received its first-ever official sponsor. Pages views in 2015 (34,495) were down about 7% from 2014 which was the blog’s best year yet (36,900). More details stats below. Continue reading →

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