Thursday and Friday of this week, I had the honor of attending Gestalt IT Field Day. This was one of the first social media events for technologists that I know of, and I had a great time. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I apologize for the bombardment of Tweets –but there was a lot going on! I posted a number of blog posts here and on my commercial sites summarizing what we did and what my take was on the event.
In case anyone is curious on what Field Day is all about, here are some questions and answers about the event:
Q: Is Field Day loaded with freebies to make you Tweet and Blog favorably about products?
A: No. I did get a collection of free stuff from the sites we visited. This stuff includes a T-Shirt, pens, a paper pad, an ocarina (it is a whistle), a 512 MB USB flash drive and other similar items. There was a contest at Data Robotics where I could have scored a Drobo unit, but my team didn’t get the quiz questions right. I am glad I didn’t win it anyways, because I want a Drobo Pro.
Q: Was there money exchanged at Field Day?
A: No money was exchanged other than the reimbursement of airfare. Each of us sought lowest fares through a fare aggregation tool (Kayak.com) to get the best fare. Other items such as hotel and meals were all centrally billed.
Q: Is this the reality TV of commercials?
A: No. A blogger has no obligation, official or implied, to go a certain way with their content.
Q: Is this industrial tourism?
A: To an extent, but it is not a vacation. Our day on Thursday started at 7:00 AM and went until 9:00 PM. Friday started at 7:30 AM and we didn’t get back from dinner until around 8:30 PM. Yes, we had fun – but we were busy giving the sponsors our full attention.
Do you have any other questions on what Field Day was? Let me know, I’ll be happy to answer them in the comments below.
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