HPE RUG events worldwide, 2019 – January Update

Having lived through some of the worst of winters thanks to the arrival of that dreaded Polar Vortex, it’s good to be able to write about something that warms our hearts. In this case, it will be warming a lot more than our hearts as many members of the NonStop community across North America’s eastern seaboard make plans to head south to Tampa, Florida. Once again, it will be the Hilton Doubletree playing host to all those in attendance and while Thursday March 1, 2019, will be when all the business and technical heavy lifting will take place, on Friday March 2, 2019, it will be more a case of taking in the sunshine unfettered, as yet again, it will be the Heritage Harbor Golf and Country Club hosting a social round of golf that many of the attendees view as perhaps the best networking opportunity afforded all year!

There have been announcements coming from BITUG that have been hard to miss. The upcoming pan-European event to be held in Edinburgh May 14 -15, 2019, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel has been renamed. According to the organizers, calling this event eBITUG didn’t truly convey the importance of the event and given how North America threw an annual NonStop technical Boot Camp, it seemed only appropriate given the scope of the event and the number of attendees this event attracts annually, to rebrand this event the European Technical Boot Camp (ETBC). Following consultation with other RUG groups, according to the BITUG committee chair in an email to the NonStop community, “from now on the two largest NonStop Technical Conferences each year will be: Connect’s TBC in California and ETBC held in Europe (currently hosted semi-annually between BITUG and GTUG).”

RUG events no matter where they are held around the world are still the premier vehicle for the NonStop community to see what’s happening at the sites of their peers. It’s an opportunity to hear who is using which new NonStop features as well as talking to those vendors working closely with HPE to ensure the best mix of products possible can be reviewed. It is no secret that many product decisions are made at RUG events and they have become one of the best supported marketing outreach programs by the NonStop vendor community which looks forward to talking to each and every attendee at every opportunity. Take advantage of what this can mean for your business and support this user-focused activity! When next you read about an upcoming RUG event that is being held close to your location, make sure you “educate” all and sundry in your organization about the benefits RUG events provides – and yes, looking forward to seeing you sometime in 2019.

Of course, HPE is still very much engaged in organizing HPE Discover, 2019, to be held in Las Vegas and if the thought of warm weather is enough to attract members of the NonStop community to Tampa, it is typically a different ballgame entirely when it comes to describing the heat that can be expected in Las Vegas in June. And yet, this event never fails to draw a huge and quite passionate crowd and if you have as yet not had the pleasure of seeing HPE at its best then this is one event you shouldn’t miss!

More work is being done to schedule additional RUG meetings in 2019 and as dates firm up they will be covered here. However, just to summarize, here is a reminder about the events already referenced:

• March 1-2, 2019 – SunTUG – 2019 Sunshine Summit, The Double Tree by Hilton, Tampa, FL
• May 14-15, 2019 – eBITUG, Sheraton Grand Hotel, Edinburgh
• June 18-20, 2019 – HP Enterprise (HPE) Discover 2019, Las Vegas, NV