There’s a first time for everything: Why I’m looking forward to NetApp INSIGHT
César Cernuda
It’s never too late to do something for the first time. As the entire NetApp team gears up for NetApp INSIGHT, I am realizing that my first INSIGHT experience is special for me in ways that may also ring true for others.
NetApp INSIGHT is our biggest event for customers, partners, and our NetApp community. It brings our specialists together with the people who use our portfolio to solve real-world problems and seize new opportunities. As a relative newcomer to NetApp, I have no preconceived ideas about INSIGHT. That’s a good thing, because even though the event has a long history, everything about this year is different. As we all adjust to living and working in a new reality, INSIGHT has also transformed.
As someone who takes great joy in learning from others, I especially encourage anyone who has never attended INSIGHT before to join us and learn more about NetApp, our solutions, and how to make the most of your data. Here are three specific outcomes we can all look forward to.
Re-energize and extend the shelf life of your learning
After immersing myself in NetApp’s business over the past several months, I am excited that INSIGHT will elevate everything I’ve learned with focused content and the energy of the NetApp community. If you’ve ever been in a room full of people who are all passionate about the same topic, you know this feeling well. The first conference I ever went to was a meeting of European ISVs that wanted to do business with the company I worked for. My friends outside the technology industry thought it sounded dull, but I was excited about the opportunity to connect with people who were concerned about the same things I thought about every single day. I learned more at that event about the challenges of our partners, their expectations, and what they appreciated about us than I would normally process in two months, and it reinvigorated my passion for my work in ways I didn’t know were possible.The buzz was contagious—overwhelming even. That excitement can be hard to recreate virtually, but digital events give you something that in-person events can’t—time to absorb everything. How many times have you returned home after an engaging event and thought, “Wow, there was just so much going on, I can’t even remember it all”?
With hundreds of sessions available on-demand, NetApp INSIGHT has a shelf-life that extends beyond our active event days. You can attend keynotes and bookmark content to watch at your own pace, solving the problem of having to choose some sessions over others, and making your learning last.
Evolve your network with a new group of specialists
This will be the biggest INSIGHT event that NetApp has ever hosted, which provides an incredible opportunity for all of us to expand and evolve our networks.Even though I worked for the same company for more than 20 years before coming to NetApp, my network extended far beyond the company walls. A huge part of that came from meeting people at conferences and events. That’s how opportunities germinate, whether you’re a NetApp customer, partner, or employee.
Virtual events like INSIGHT remove the barriers of a physical event, where we had limits on the number of people who could attend. One-on-one virtual meetings are easier to organize, with access to executives and subject matter experts that haven’t been available before. I’m excited that we can embrace all of our partners and customers at this event in a way that wasn’t previously possible.
The more complicated technology becomes, the more important is to know people with different skills and specialties. Learning about what they do today will help you respond with more agility tomorrow, when you need a solution that matches their expertise. NetApp INSIGHT is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in what being a specialist means at NetApp, and how our growing portfolio reflects that expertise.
Expand your perspective
Innovation and problem-solving is all about perspective. I am energized by hearing new viewpoints on how to address shared problems. Even better—I love learning about challenges that I had never even contemplated, and exploring new ways solve them.The collective enthusiasm for finding solutions creates a multiplier effect that generates bolder and better ideas, where each contribution is like a new piece of a jigsaw puzzle. We just need to collaborate with each other to put the pieces together.
That matters because today’s puzzle pieces are a lot smaller and more specialized than ever. We need fresh perspectives to really get to the heart of our customers’ challenges. Whether you’re a partner helping customers optimize their cloud spend or a new customer building your data fabric, INSIGHT will show you how our new products and acquisitions integrate with our cloud-led portfolio to bring you a richer experience.
Join me at NetApp INSIGHT
We’re living in a different world, and this will be different than anything NetApp has done before. Whether you attend INSIGHT every year or this is your first event, I invite everyone to go into it with the same perspective that I’m lucky to have as a first time attendee—with an open mind, lots of questions, and a sincere willingness to find new ways to brighten our future.I hope you’ll experience it with me. You can learn more here: https://insight.netapp.com/
