If you follow the storage industry at all, you know that today EMC is holding their “Speed 2 Lead” event. To some, this event is also known as “Mega-Launch III”. During the event, EMC is making several storage product announcements at once. (“Several” is what separates a “Mega-Launch” from a simple product launch.)

If you follow me at all, you know that I have the privilege of being one of the members of the EMC Elect 2013 community.

Today, those two things have come together very beautifully for me. I was one of four members of the EMC Elect 2013 community invited to join EMC at the Speed 2 Lead event live in Milan, Italy and receive the same level of access at the event that industry press and analysts receive. While I’ve received advance briefings on product announcements from vendors in the past, this is the first time I’ve been flown to a launch event like this.

So far, it’s been a whirlwind of activity leading up to the event. The buy-in to the EMC Elect program at EMC’s executive level has been nothing short of impressive. I believe this to be a dual testament, first to the hard work put in by the EMC team that created and curates (shepherds? feeds? I’m really not sure what the right word to use here is…) the EMC Elect program, and second to EMC’s commitment to social media engagement.

I said above that the EMC Elect here in Milan are being given the same level of access that press and analysts receive, but — quite frankly — I think we’re actually getting more access. On the day before the event, we were invited to take a behind-the-scenes walk-through of the event site — while the stage and sets were still being constructed. I got to have my picture taken while I was sitting on a Team Lotus F1 racecar. I got to sit in on some of the “dress rehearsal” that the EMC presenters were doing to ensure they were fully prepared for the event. How often does a guy like me get to do all that?

At some point after I’m home and rested up, I’ll do a full write-up on what the whole experience was like.

Until then, if you’re interested in what EMC actually announced at the event, you can read my thoughts about it here:

• EMC Announces Next-Generation VNX – Takes It Full Multicore
• EMC Announces XtremSW Cache 2.0
• EMC Announces Appsync 1.5
• EMC Expands VSPEX Offerings

As a member of the EMC Elect, I’m grateful to have gotten to be a part of this. As an EMC partner, I’m looking forward to getting to bring these products to my customers.