Wow! What a day! I can't believe day 1 is already over!
If people don't know, I'm a roving reporter for Element 14 and I'm at ESC Silicon Valley 2011. It's been a furious pace to get to as many booths as possible and to see as much as possible.
So why have I been going non-stop? Why was I up with my mind racing into the night last night?
Was it the products? No, but those have been quite great! There have been lots of new product announcements and showcasing of new products from the show floor.
Was it the give aways? No, but those are great too. There have been SWAG bags just about everywhere you look, with some legitimately useful items in them, from a range of vendors.
No, it was the people. The people I have met so far have kept my mind reeling and my heart pumping more than any cup of coffee. And I've never experienced something like this before. I've been around a lot of interesting and creative people in my life. I appreciate all of them. But I've never been around a crowd that has been so awesomely nerdy and well versed in electronics, at least not in these numbers.
Where else can you walk around and hear people arguing the merits of different board design packages? Or how best to lay out a board? Or whether someone is using the right programming language to do a particular task (and then hear about why the "wrong" had failed in the past). This whole experience has been like the water cooler at an engineering company, only times 1000. It's been amazing and I can't wait until I get to experience more of it.
Another interesting facet of being out in silicon valley and especially at ESC, is the people I have met who have started their own company or run their own venture, even for part of the time. I've always known that embedded systems designers are well versed as contractors, but I didn't realize just how enterprising this group is. I've thought of starting my own company some day (what engineer hasn't?) and to be around a group of people that do it as second nature is really inspiring.
So that's all for the first day! I can't wait to post more videos and write more about all the great things I experience here at ESC Silicon Valley 2011!
