RSAC - Golden Gate Goodness

Late April saw me and about 40,000 others in San Francisco, CA for RSA Conference. It was both my first time in San Francisco AND my first time experiencing RSAC. It was a time of great conversations, good food, and fun with the booth crew. 

Unfortunately, we couldn’t capture that much excellence in one picture, so there are two. One from the first full day of the conference and one from the last. And, yes, we did give away that Yeti while we were there. The booth crew had representation from many departments here at SolarWinds – including the not pictured Tim Brown, who was quite busy as I’m sure you can imagine. Pictured below (not in order) are Eren Terkes and Elizabeth Fanning from the Sales team, Arun Annavarapu aannavar from Product Management, Ashley Adams ashleyadams57 and Anand Iyer from Product Marketing, Cheryl Nomanson cheryl1 from Academy, and myself. Also not pictured, but integral to everything at the event, was Candice Ramirez – who handled everything from organization to setup. 

The Conference 

Most of our time was spent in the Expo Hall, and wow there was a lot to see. The only booth swag I made the effort to obtain – because I didn’t want to make room to fly it home – were s’mores (promptly eaten) and a lightsaber. The absolute loveliest thing that I saw was a booth that made arrangements with a local pet shelter and had puppies on the show floor! 

They also had an entire Germany section, which made me think of my favorite German friend, saschg.

There was a Security Operations Center (SOC) on-site which was fun to check out. 

And, of course, the many lovely people that stopped by to chat with us. We had a great time visiting with some existing customers, a few former Solarians (AKA employees), some new-to-SolarWinds folk, and some incredibly lovely people who stopped just to compliment my pink hair and mask combination on Wednesday. I’ll take every bit of that nice energy.  

We spent time answering questions, giving demos, and showing off features existing customers didn’t know they already have. Every conversation was time well spent. 

After the Conference 

Every day after the Expo Hall closed, as many of us as were able got together for dinner and sometimes drinks. A few times, customers joined us for a fun time. We were even able to do a little sightseeing. The weather was lovely enough that a few of us took a long walk through part of beautiful Golden Gate Park and walked to Pier 39. I encourage you – when traveling to events – to take a little time to sightsee as well.  

We loved visiting with you there and look forward to the next opportunity to visit with you. To close out, I want to share a few photos from our walkabouts. 

Pier 39 Sea Lions 

Golden Gate Bridge in the Distance 

The Bay Bridge 

Great Dinner at Osso’s (A Perfectly Cooked Steak – signed a Texan) 

Golden State Park