This year, I have been fortunate enough to work in some of the most amazing cities in the world. London, San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, Basel, Zurich, Amsterdam, Seoul, Las Vegas, Boston, DC, New York, Paris, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Barcelona, Sydney and Los Angeles. Going to The Hague next week, followed by another stint in sunny Sydney, with a return to Chicago by way of LA. My friends and I communicate our travels using airport codes, which is something to either be proud of, or cringe to.
Along my travels, I have met some of the smartest people in this industry. People who are not just one-dimensional geeks, people who apply psychology and the arts in technical discussions, people who can see beyond the technology in any given situation and apply common sense in the Cloud-y industry that is ours.
All that being said, it is time for me to stop floating homeless and choose a long(ish) term location in which to rest (that is not part of the Hilton or Marriott group) so I can finally be. Q4 is usually viewed as the end of the year, for me, it is my Staging for the new year.
As Director of Strategic Alliances at ServiceMesh, my primary focus is enabling and operationalizing the EMC Select Partnership that I worked on whilst I was an EMCer. ServiceMesh is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, with Engineering in Austin, TX, and offices in NYC, and Sydney, Australia. Being a g33k and having my roots in Engineering, I am naturally drawn to SMFY!s in Austin. The vibe in the company is amazing, however, the vibe in the Austin office, is a whole different galaxy. The excitement of new release of code, the buzz when a customer upgrade succeeds after weeks and weeks of preparation, breakfast taco Fridays, Sprints, I could go on and on. Plus, being surrounded by the Arboretum, and 11 miles from Lake Travis, I am struggling to see any downsides to this plan that is forming.
I shall continue to research and, of course, it is not enough to have only one city in my list – LAX, RDU, CLT are being considered also (see what I did there?), though AUS is winning. To be continued,…
Perceptions & Unicorns 