Twenty eight Intel® Black Belt Software Developers journeyed to San Francisco for IDF2014 and to attend the sixth annual Black Belt Summit Networking/Dinner Event. As Black Belt Program manager I had the pleasure of greeting them and spending time with them during the week. Here I am driving down to the big city. Even though I live in the Bay Area I am nevertheless thrilled every time I cross this amazing bridge!
From the moment they arrived at the airport to when they departed, Intel had a number of surprises for attendees this year!
To begin with, Black Belts were picked up by a judogi-clad driver who met them with a gift and drove them to their hotel.
At the hotel another gift was in their rooms and they settled in to get ready for the opening of IDF at Moscone the next day.
These VIPs were on hand for BK’s Keynote and then proceeded to enjoy the sights, sounds and learning that is the Intel Developer Forum. Marketing Manager Russ Beutler interviewed about nine of our Black Belts on videos that will shortly show on Intel® Developer Zone. I heard many compliments for the Ultimate Make Space! They attended various parties also and on Wednesday they prepared to attend their special event.
This year’s Black Belt Developers were delighted when the bus pulled up to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. They were met with refreshments and the opportunity to mingle with their peers and Intel Staff. Their names were up in lights!
After a tour of the facility, including a stop at the Living Roof, guests were escorted to the Planetarium lobby where Morris Beton welcomed and awarded our newest Black Belts – Christopher Price, our first Android Black Belt lives in the Bay Area; Gregor Biswanger, hailing from Germany is our a Windows/HTML Black Belt. Taylor Kidd and Ron Green, both come from DPD and were nominated for long-time work in HPC and parallel computing, and Gergana Slavova for her contributions in Cluster and MPI software development. We were then treated to a couple of Speed Talks given by Black Belts (Clay Breshears and Gregor Biswanger) followed by a gourmet sit-down dinner.
Then special guest speaker Genevieve Bell, Vice President, Intel Labs Director, User Experience Research Intel Fellow took the podium and presented “A prehistory of robots & why it still matters for today’s technologists.” Genevieve’s talk was both informative and entertaining and certainly the highlight of the evening.
Lastly, all were treated to a special showing of Dark Universe and chocolates!
Comments on the Summit and IDF week:
“Off the charts!”
“Kathy, I felt like a Rock Star last week.”
“I enjoyed IDF of course, but really appreciated the opportunity to talk with [fellow Black Belts].”
I think it’s safe to say a good time was had by all. Many thanks to my Summit Planning Partner, Black Belt Program Marketing Manager Russ Beutler. Now, the question is, what shall we do next year?
In the meantime, might you be one of the elite group at Summit time next year? For more info check out http://software.intel.com/blackbelt.
