In 2013 I was awarded status as Dell TechCenter Rockstar and for that I am very thankful!

As a part of this program Dell invited me to participate in Dell World 2013 in Austin Texas.

I travelled with fellow Rockstar Andreas Erson from Sweden.

This was my first time attending Dell World 2013 and I was VERY excited to meet many of the other Rockstars.

There are a wealth of great things going on at the same time during the conference.

However looking at the program, unfortunately not all of these are shown.

I think that is a shame, because when you put on such a fantastic conference you want attendees to be aware of what is going on.

So a few examples on some of that great stuff going on not on the program you ask?

• NDA sessions
• Usergroup Meetings
• Think Tanks
• See more of the stuff below

There was many great sessions in the program though.

With my schedule I was able to attend a few among one by Samsung – great content!

I loved to see the many Dell partners in the solutions showcase.

Almost infinite time could be spent talking to them all about their great solutions!

Before travelling  i ordered a  US T-Mobile sim card from eBay.

Just the plain sim card – not activated. I had looked trough a ton of plans from various providers when my wingman Frank Brix Pedersen suggested that I go with the so called “Walmart plan” which is $30 USD per month including 120 minutes, unlimited text messages and 5 GB data.

After the entire week I had used just above 1 GB of mobile data.

Opening keynote highlights

Closing keynote (Please note the shoutout at 54:42)

Some of the activities I participated in

Seightseeing around Austin

Peter Tsai, former Dell employee who now works for Spiceworks (check them out!), was kind enough to take some of the Rockstars on a private tour around Austin.

Greetings from Austin mural

The Texas Capitol

Dinner at Ramen Tatsu-Ya

Rockstar Road Trip

I went on a road trip with fellow Rockstars Andreas Erson and Didier Van Hoye.
We rented a Dodge Charger and drove it to Premium Outlets in Round Rock.
The outlet shops there had some amazing deals!
I learned a lesson regarding car rental in US – verify price including insurance in advance.
The insurance cost us more than the car per day!

Dodge Charger we rented.

Once again it pays off to check-in with Foursquare. 20% off outlet sales prices!

vBBQ at Salt Lick BBQ

This event was put together by Scott Hanson and was a great way to meet new people!
Gina Minks and the Dell Data Protection was kind enough to sponsor bus transportation to/from the event.

Great food at The Salt Lick!

Media Mix & Mingle
You never know who might show up – and just as we hoped Michael Dell suddenly arrived!

Michael Dell and I

Twitter contest at Dell Social Media Command Center

I suggested that fellow Rockstars Luigi Danakos (@nerdblurt), Andreas Erson (@ersontech) and I (@haslund) did some serious “damage” to the Dell Social Media Command Center twitter lists.

It took some serious tweeting but we managed to get to the top 3 🙂

Dell TechCenter Usergroup meeting

This was a great usergroup meeting. The turnout could have been better, but with so many activities going on at the same time during the conference I guess it will always be difficult. Dell gave out some SonicWall TZ105W firewalls to a few selected winners (YAY I WON ONE!). We also enjoyed a few presentations by fellow members of the user group. I really enjoyed the live demos by Didier Van Hoye and the presentation by Kirk Jantzer about his production environment.

Here a a few pictures from the event I took:

Andreas Erson

Gerry Forde & Didier Van Hoye

Jeff Sullivan & Dennis Smith

Didier Van Hoye presenting

Good contact sheet (click for full size)

Youtube recording with the Rockstars (I am on from 1:57)

Interview on “Strengthen Customer Connections through Online Communities”

Intel had a Skeetball contest
Intel gave away a Dell Venue 7 tablet to the top 10 best scores.
I was lucky enough to score 17.000 points!

K1 Racing (only for Dell TechCenter Rockstars)

Dell invited all the Rockstars to a K1 racing event.
Great idea and this was super fun! I have tried gocarting before in Denmark, but the tracks have always been so narrow it was almost impossible to pass anyone.
This track was different – very good!
Samsung was kind enough to sponsor the event and for the winner was a brand new Samsung 840 EVO SSD drive – 250 GB!

Here I am just after winning the final 🙂

 
Group photo of everyone

I managed to beat out everyone else – good fun!

All in all this was a fantastic event!

I really hope to come back for Dell World 2014!

Disclaimer:
Dell invited me as part of their Dell TechCenter Rockstar program to Dell World.
This means they paid for my travel and hotel expenses plus the conference pass.
I am not obligated to do anything specific for Dell.
This review is purely my experience of Dell World 2013.