Meet The IT Rock Stars

IT events and user group meetings offer a wealth of benefits, from technical training opportunities to the ability to see the newest products and technology in action. But the best part about live events, I'm sure we can all agree, is the people. And we're making it easy and fun to meet them.

At next week's Interop Las Vegas, technology professionals from around the world will gather to learn, share and socialize, giving attendees the chance to get to know some of the most experienced and innovative IT practitioners on the planet. These folks will deliver in-depth sessions and workshops on topics like networking, virtualization, storage, mobility, security and cloud infrastructure, but they'll also be walking the show floor and attending sessions just like you.

Below we present a selection of the most popular and social Interop speakers – 2015's Interop Rock Stars. They're waiting to meet you in person at the show or on Twitter, where they are all very active. Download and print our handy Interop Rock Star Bingo card if you're attending the conference. Meet five Rock Stars in a row (in any direction) and have them initial their pictures. Then bring your Bingo card to the Interop HQ and spin our Wheel of Prizes to claim your reward.

Or click on the speakers' Twitter handles (you'll see them in the list below the image) to meet them in the virtual sense.

To make the game extra fun (and easy), we'll also be hosting a Tweetup on Wednesday, April 29, from 6:00 to 7:30. Interop General Manager Jennifer Jessup (@jjessup44) and I (@SusanFogarty) will be at Rí Rá Irish Pub in Mandalay Place. Stop by with your Bingo card, and get ready to meet some stellar IT leaders.

The Rock Star lineup includes:

Figure 1:

Use the links below to follow our speakers on Twitter and to find out where they will be presenting -- and what they are speaking about -- at Interop next week.

David Adler   @adlerlaw
Attorney & Founder, Adler Law Group
Presenting Privacy Implications of Mobile Advertising Location Data

Ethan Banks   @ecbanks
CoFounder, Packet Pushers Interactive
Presenting Infrastructure track sessions

Jeff Carrell   @jeffcarrell_v6
Network Consultant, Network Conversions
Presenting Build Your Own IPv6 Lab

Ivan Pepelnjak   @ioshints
Network Architect, ipSpace.net AG
Presenting Workshops, Infrastructure, Cloud Connect & SDN sessions

Denish Fishburne   @DeniseFishburne
Team Lead, Cisco Proof of Concept Lab
Presenting Techniques of a Network Detective

Eric Wright   @discoposse
Principal Solutions Engineer and Technology Evangelist, VMTurbo
Presenting OpenStack Boot Camp & Virtual Design Master

Barbara Horne   @BarbaraHorne
Consultant, The Business Channels
Presenting Let BI Drive

Greg Ferro   @etherealmind
Freelance Network Architect; Co-Founder, Packet Pushers Interactive
Presenting Workshops & Infrastructure sessions

Howard Marks   @DeepStorageNet
Founder & Chief Scientist, DeepStorage LLC
Presenting Workshops, Infrastructure & Storage sessions

Scott S. Lowe   @scott_lowe
Engineering Architect, VMware
Presenting Container Challenges: Know Before You Deploy

Keith Townsend   @virtualizedgeek
Technologist & Writer, Virtualizedgeek.com
Presenting The Virtualization Home Lab: Secret to Success

Stuart Miniman   @stu
Principal Research Contributor, Wikibon
Presenting Hyperconvergence & the Death of the Storage Array

Andrew Conry-Murray   @Interop_Andrew
Director of Content & Community, Interop
Presenting Startup Hot Seat & Best of Interop Awards

Jason Nash   @TheJasonNash
CTO, Varrow
Presenting Virtualization & SDN sessions

Jonathan Feldman   @_jfeldman
CIO, City of Asheville
Presenting Leadership & Cloud Connect sessions

Andrew Clay Shafer   @littleidea
Senior Director of Technology, Pivotal
Speaking at Container Crash Course

Jason Edelman   @jedelman8
Founder, Network To Code
Presenting A Practical Look at Network Automation

Michele Chubirka   @MrsYisWhy
Senior Security Architect, Postmodern Security
Presenting Mobility & Security sessions

Tom Hollingsworth   @networkingnerd
Architect, The Networking Nerd
Presenting SDN in Education: Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders

John Pironti   @jpironti
President, IP Architects LLC
Presenting Workshops & Security sessions

Greg Schulz   @storageIO
Founder & Senior Analyst, StorageIO
Presenting Smart Shopping for Your Storage Strategy

Chris Wahl   @ChrisWahl
President, Wahl Network, LLC
Presenting Virtualization, Storage & Infrastructure sessions

Nicholas Weaver   @lynxbat
Principal Platform Architect, Intel
Presenting The Post-Cloud: Where Google, DevOps & Docker Converge

Jill Dyché   @jilldyche
Vice President of Best Practice, SAS; Author
Presenting The New IT: How Ready Are You?

Bernard Golden   @bernardgolden
Author; Vice President Strategy, ActiveState Software
Presenting Workshops & Cloud Connect sessions