Table of Contents:
Talking about a technology conference ad nausea's without some color on the events before, during and after the sessions and Exhibits as company employees let their hair down a little at bars and dinners attended by the press. This is one reason I covered the party at Gordon Biersch in my last article. I thought I’d cover a little about the night life in San Jose.
After leaving Gordon Biersch’s we went to Tanq’s Bar, a joint under the Marriott hotel where I was staying. Paul, Nate, Fudo from the Inquirer and several members of NVIDIA’s team spent the rest of the night drinking and continuing to shoot the breeze. Ujesh Desai, NVIDIA’s Senior VP of products played beer pong with two members of the opposite sex and members of the press. At the end of the night when Last Call was called, we staggered up to our hotel rooms. Antonio Reyes, the Public Relations Director for South America, beat everyone in drinking a “few” shots of Patron Vodka that night.
It is worth noting that part of these people’s job is to woo the press. Influential members of the press can make or break the perception of what a graphics company’s fortunes are when a new card is released. AMD does the same thing, Intel did the same thing after IDF. Hell, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo host big parties after E3 where the point is to have fun. I am not pointing out NVIDIA people getting drunk as a good or bad thing, but letting one’s hair down when you spend the whole day working is good and meeting other people at a conference like GTC is important.
