I spent last Tuesday in Bern attending the SIGS DC Day Event, and came back home extremely pleasantly surprised. The conference was nice and cozy, giving everyone plenty of opportunities to chat about data center technical challenges (thanks for all the wonderful conversations we had – you know who you are!).

Having the opportunity to meet fellow networking engineers and compare notes is great, but it’s even better to combine that with new knowledge, and that’s where the event really excelled.

Almost all the speakers were working for networking vendors, and yet all the presentations I attended had none of the usual vendor drivel (starting with Nascar slide and product positioning, and ending with favorable Gartner/IDC/whoever quotes). Even though some of the speakers would benefit from the exposure to the tough Networking Field Day crowd (hint: NFD presenter guidelines by Tom Hollingsworth are great – you might consider following them regardless of where you’re presenting), I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations I attended.

Was it worth attending the event? You bet. Will I come back? Sure (assuming they’ll invite me). Should you? Definitely.

Last, but definitely not least, the event wouldn’t have been as good as it was without Gabi Gerber, the soul and mastermind of the event. Thank you, Gabi, you did a fantastic job!