A Techy Evening with SpiceCorps Silicon Valley
A few weeks back, Egnyte hosted the local Silicon Valley SpiceCorps chapter at our office. For those of you unfamiliar with the entire “spice” stuff in the IT community, Spiceworks is one of the largest IT social networks in the world with more than a million IT professionals who use the community to learn about different IT solutions, get advice on solving pain points at their companies, and to socially connect with IT pros around the world. Egnyte is a vendor sponsor for Spiceworks, so we have the opportunity to answer technical questions and share how Egnyte can help address their different use cases throughout the community.
SpiceCorps events are focused on geographic areas where local SpiceHeads can meet in-person, swap IT ideas and, in general, have a fun time together over food and drinks. Being based in Silicon Valley, we got to host one of the most active chapters at our office.We were happy to see the great turnout (despite competing with the Warriors’ game - which we also streamed). As the Green Guy for Egnyte in the community, I presented an overview of Egnyte and how our solution can benefit these IT folks and their end users, and then hosted a lively Q&A session before breaking out for networking. The warm California Summer evening and the aroma of BBQ cooked outside the building added to the sporty/techy atmosphere.One of my favorite parts of the evening, besides the awesome food and drinks, was networking face-to-face with the SpiceHeads that I interact with in the community every day. I know many of them by their community names, but it was great to finally put a face with a name. Another entertaining part of the evening was the raffle prizes and giveaways. We had custom t-shirts with witty logos that appealed to IT pros’ sensibilities and swag that anybody would love to keep on their desks (I was part of this shopping process, and trust me - I haven’t spent so much time on deciding on a gift, even for my wife’s birthday).Spiceworks holds a special place for Egnyte, and me, as it deeply connects us with the community and also gives us an honest IT perspective with very interesting use cases. It is gratifying to see this community grow and gain the deserved recognition from almost every big-name tech vendor in the market. Today’s celebration was a testament to the voice of IT and our way of saying thank you to all the IT pros who keep plugging away and providing their valued opinions on Spiceworks. Special thanks to Shane Fender and Jarrod Coombes, our SpiceCorps’ chapter leads, for allowing us to host this recent event. I can’t wait to attend the next one and also meet the larger community at SpiceWorld Austin in September.