HPE RUGs – 2020 “season” is changing even as we respond to “stay-at-home” directives!

It is hard to ignore the headlines. Events are being cancelled all around the world. The Olympics have been moved to 2021 and even the Indy 500 has been moved out to Sunday, August 23. Sporting events worldwide that began playing to empty stadiums are simply not happening at all now and when it came time for March Madness and The Big Dance, it simple went away. The NonStop community hasn’t been immune to what’s been taking place all around us as one by one, events have been cancelled.

We have heard that eGTUG European NonStop HotSpot / IT-Symposium 2020 (Berlin) has been officially postponed ceasing to be a Spring event and instead, planned for the Fall – look for updates as it is planned to be held in the same hotel. As for the date, there will be a further update from the team giving us the “new exact date asap!” According to the eGTUG organizers –

“We hope that the spread of the corona virus will have been arrested by that date and that people will be able to plan normal business travel at that time. The current plan is to still hold the event at the Radisson Blu Hotel which can accommodate us at that time.

“We expect to be able to provide the latest strategic and and technical developments on HPE NonStop from HPE and NonStop partners at the event as previously planned.”

As for N2TUG it too has been postponed and will not be held in June after all. For all those planning a swing through Texas on the Way to Las Vegas for HPE Discover 2020, your plans will need to be redone. According to the N2TUG organizers –

“As you might imagine, we will be postponing our June N2TUG meeting.  It is unclear when travel will resume, and when it will be appropriate to have our face to face event.  I will keep you updated and make sure that our plans work well (for the community).”

As for late breaking news, the upcoming BITUG BIG SIG (London) planned for June has been cancelled outright –

“In these extraordinary times, due to the Covid-19 virus travel restrictions with half of the world in a lock-down state and social distancing, the BITUG Committee have had to take the only decision possible and cancel the BIG SIG event for this year.

“We will still have a Little SIG in London in December – if all goes to plan.”

And what about HPE Discover 2020 in Las Vegas planned for late June? The word coming out of HPE is still upbeat with regard to this major big-tent event –

HPE RESPONDS TO COVID-19

“We deeply care about the safety and health of our employees and customers. To that end, we have cancelled or postponed most HPE hosted, co-hosted, or sponsored events through April 2020 worldwide. At this time, HPE Discover 2020 is taking place as planned in Las Vegas, June 23 – 25, 2020.”

Empty venues and dashed travel plans highlight opportunities to revisit how events are conducted. Today, there are posts and tweets promoting “Meeting Digitally” and yes, “Virtual Meetings.” Not to be outdone, Indy Cars are running events virtually that are being televised – drivers racing from their homes on simulators. With all the technology at our disposal, it begs the question – how long before the NonStop community begins to hold similar events. Discussions with both the HPE NonStop team and NonStop vendors suggests that we may see a sizable uptick in webinars and the like, so it will be worth watching our inboxes to see how this develops and weather it attracts as big an audience as has done the real thing!

What follows here will need to be carefully tracked and organizers directly approached before any participation is planned. The likelihood of further postponements and cancellations is high in the near term –

June, 2020

• HPE Discover 2020 (Las Vegas)                        6/23 – 6/25, 2020

September, 2020

(Dates for all Fall events need to be confirmed with respective leaders as there remains a heightened state of flux as local conditions are monitored.)

• VNUG (Stockholm)                                       9/8 – 9/9
• ATUG (Atlanta)                                             9/9
• NYTUG (Nth NJ)                                           9/15
• MATUG (Reston VA)                                    9/17
• eGTUG European NonStop HotSpot / IT-Symposium 2020 – TBA
• CTUG (Mississauga, Ontario)                         9/23, 2020

November, 2020    

• Partner Symposium (Proposed) / San Jose          11/13. 2020
• NonStop TBC 2020 (Burlingame, CA)     11/15 – 11/18, 2020

December, 2020

• BITUG Little SIG (London) – TBA