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Partners win big at Discover Las Vegas with Partner Ready Certification and Learning!


342691-pic-2000y2000.jpgThe Partner Ready Certification and Learning team were excited to greet our community with free training, exams, access to executivies, celebrities, HPE technologies, and a number of VIP activities. Many of our partners achieved new certifications and 100 individuals became the โ€œSynergy First 100โ€ earning their certification on the Synergy Platform solution. 

Keynote Sessions

We continue to provide front row VIP seating to our Master ASE community. This year we added our Synergy 100 partners.

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Pre-event Training and Exams

Over 500 partners flew into Las Vegas early to attend 22 free technical training classes saving them up to  $4,000 in training costs. From Sunday morning to Thursday afternoon, we delivered training on Synergy, OneView and across the Cloud, Storage and Server portfolios.

Starting Sunday our partners took over our 35,000 square feet of training, exam, and lounge space.

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The exam center was busy the entire week, delivering over 650 exams.

Many in our community achieved more than one certification. Dominic Santo (pictured below) achieved two new Master ASE certifications as well as joining the Synergy 100 club.

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Private HPE Partner Ready Certification and Learning Lounge

Members of our community were able to talk with HPE engineers and technologists, meet peers, and build their personal networks in our private lounge. It was a great place to network, get Partner Ready Certification and Learning program information, access VIPs, technical gurus. relax, connect with old friends, and have some fun! Our theme this year was Accelerating Next and we reinforced this with a huge backdrop of the DS Virgin Racing Formula E race cars and a Forza Motorsport 6 race challenge.

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Sam Bird driving innovation

Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing driver and one of Formula Eโ€™s most successful and popular drivers,  joined us in the lounge during Tuesdayโ€™s lunch to talk about what it takes to drive Formula E race cars.. The most interesting question was โ€œWho is The Stig?โ€ Sam grinned and talked around the subject. Our Master ASEs appreciated the insight into racing an electric race car and how they compare to driving regular aspirated cars. Samโ€™s comment โ€œThey are harder to drive due to all the additional telemetry and race strategy involved with electric race cars.โ€

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Synergy First 100 Reception

In appreciation of the enthusiasm and leadership our group of Synergy students showed by joining us in the first HPE Synergy certification training, we celebrated with an exclusive VIP reception. Attendees enjoyed wine, beer and appetizers while challenging their classmates to see who could claim top spot on our leader board driving the race car of their dreams in the Forza Motorsport 6 Xboxยฎ One racing game.

Sam Bird, with DS Virgin Racing returned to the lounge for the reception to sign autographs and give us a glimpse of what it's like to be behind the wheel, ripping up the road and claiming victory. Our Synergy First 100 group heard from HPE Synergy General Manager Neil MacDonald, and VP of Global Sales and Partner Enablement Steven Hagler who thanked them for their leadership. A number of other Synergy technical leaders from HPE were on hand to answer questions and collect feedback.

Each student received a personalized Synergy First 100 appreciation certificate, signed by HPE Converged Data Center Infrastructure General Manager Ric Lewis  as well as a Synergy First 100 special edition exclude cap.

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โ€œI'd like to say thanks very much to the HPE PRCL team and the HPE Synergy product management team for all their efforts on Synergy Frontrunner. You really made it an experience to become one of the first 100 certified on the HPE Synergy Solution. The access to engineers and product management at the reception you hosted for us was greatly appreciated. The hats are pretty nice too. I'd have to say that this was the highlight of HPE Discover 2016 for me.โ€

                          ~Markus Gruber, Solution Architect at Comport Consulting

Master ASE VIP Reception

Day 2 saw HPE unveil the HPE Edgeline IoT Systems, the industryโ€™s first converged systems for IoT and we celebrated the achievements of our Master ASE community. KC Choi joined our Master ASE VIP Reception, hosted by our Vice President of Global Sales and Partner Enablement, Steven Hagler, along with 90+ Master ASEโ€™s for a deep dive Q&A session. Everyone appreciated the exclusive access to KC and the opportunity to ask in-depth IoT questions and where KC sees IoT in 5-10 years. Along with KC, Sylvain Filippi, CTO of DS Virgin Racing joined us for a round-table discussion, presenting a fascinating story on his journey to electric car racing and how fast the battery technology is changing. Within three years, DS Virgin racing expects to have a car that can run the entire race instead of the current two cars.

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Microsoft Xboxยฎ One Raffle

This year we had a race car challenge in the lounge featuring a Microsoft Xboxยฎ One and the Forza Motorsport 6 racing game. Sam Bird drove one lap on his favorite track with his car on the Microsoft Xboxยฎ One. This turned into a mini โ€œTop Gearโ€ challenge. No one was able to beat Samโ€™s lap time even though this was his first time playing on a Microsoft Xboxยฎ One. His only comment was he has to buy one to play during his downtime at the track.

Thursday afternoon, Adam Mailloux with Arrow ESC Canada, won the Microsoft Xboxยฎ One video game system and Forza Motorsport 6 racing game.

Here Rebecca O'Brien, (Americas Partner Enablement) is presenting Adam with his new Microsoft Xboxยฎ One gaming system.

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Attendees earned Knowledge Credits!

To add the icing to the cake, specialist partners earned 42 Knowledge Credits, per qualified attendee, towards FY16 Partner Ready Specialization compliance for their full participation in HPE Discover. It was a great way to help meet compliance requirements while having some fun!

Read our daily recap blog posts here:

Monday recap

Tuesday recap

Wednesday recap

If you were at HPE Discover, thank you for attending. If you missed HPE Discover, we hope to see you next year.

What was your favorite moment(s) from HPE Discover?

 


Thank you,

Karl Kovacs
About the Author

karlkovacs

20+ years in IT, including data center architect, pre-sales engineer, certification development, and management. Currently working as a Product Marketing Manager with HPE Storage Networking. Passion for technology, gadgets, and the outdoors. Always looking for ways to blend them together in one big adventure.