Small Shows

My company ran a small devops show this past week, Thursday, in San Jose. We've got another this coming week, in Austin. I'm presenting a 2.5 hour, hands-on workshop at each.

The show in San Jose went okay. After meeting colleagues for a surprisingly low-key dinner the night before it wasn't hard to get up early Thursday morning and drive down there. The formal agenda didn't start 'til 9 but I was there at 8 for sound check. There were only 3 other company employees there when I arrived. The venue's A/V guy was still setting things up. I checked out the connections and the mic when he got them ready.

The show was small. We had just over 70 registrations. I'm not sure if that included company and partner staff; I'll check next week.

"I expect 55 to attend," our even coordinator told us, citing her expected turnout rate of 80%. I politely disagreed with her, noting that for events in Silicon Valley, 50% turnout is common. ...And even 50% was pre-Covid. Likely it would be lower now.

I counted 32 heads 10 minutes into the opening speaker's presentation. Of that about half were company and partner staff. (Partner, because we invited another devops company of similar size to co-sponsor it and give a presentation.) So my caution about low turnout ratio was on point. Our turnout was 25%. I take almost no satisfaction in that, though, because it was tiny compared to what my company planned when it budgeted this event.

My workshop went okay. We had some attrition by the afternoon slot I was presenting in. I expected that because not everyone who comes to a technical conference wants to join a hands-on workshop, even just to watch. With the small audience I was able to make it interactive. While there were about 15 people in the room following along to the conversation, only 4 acknowledged they were doing the hands-on exercises with me. (We use cloud-based servers for this, so all anybody needed was a laptop computer, a browser, and a willingness to do stuff in our app and GitHub.) 

A month earlier I was concerned about our workshop material being too bulky for the 2.5 hour allotment at this event. Usually it was taking me 3 hours when we presented it online, and taking others 3.5-4. My team took my suggestions to pare it down; the slimmed down version fit perfectly in our 2.5 hour allotment at this show. Unfortunately one of our services got wedged 15 minutes before the end, so nobody was able to complete the last of the 6 or so hands-on exercises.

My workshop wrapped up at 3:45. Surprisingly several people wanted to stay in the room and chat about our solution with me... instead of go outside where free food and drinks were being provided! That's how you know you've done a good job in IT; you're more interesting than free food. 🤣

Most of the customers left by 4:30. Two stayed around to chat with us. That was cool for me because they're both with accounts of mine where we've got active projects to cross-sell new software. One guy is a champion I know well; the other is a new stakeholder I just met. I introduced both of them to our VP Product Management, who'd flown out from the East Coast for the event. They both had good conversations with him about how our product could support/better support their needs.

After 5 the crowd whittled down to just 4 of us employees. Two had evening flights back east, one had a Friday morning flight, and I was local. We discussed product challenges and ideas for a bit.

By 5:40 we decided to go our separate ways. I gave one colleague a lift to the airport as I was driving right past it anyway, and got home at 6:20. That was well earlier than I expected but not entirely too surprising after seeing how everyone wanted to stay low-key the night before.

I was glad for wrapping the day up early, as something I'd eaten seemed to disagree with me. I went to bed early with what might have been a mild case of food poisoning. 😨 Thankfully I was better by Friday morning.

Beer Tasting 10: Estrella Reserva and Hofbräu Dunkel

It's hard to believe it's Round 10 of my beer tasting 2022 project, but here we are. Round 10. For this round I decided to continue branching out a bit. After tasting lagers in rounds 8 and 9— Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy and ShaKa Brewing's Sunnyvale Pale Lager I decided it's worth going a bit deeper into the category.

I tend to prefer ales over lagers. The two categories are very broad, though, so there are ample variations to consider. As I was shopping online through my favorite liquor store I homed in on the bock sub-categoy of lagers. I remember enjoying bocks when I found them (rarely) in my early 20s so I figured I taste them again to see if I still like them. ...Especially now, when it's easy to find many different styles and brands of bock.

Bock is a style of lager created in Germany, like, 700 years ago. It tends to be dark and with a rich taste, though that's not totally a rule across the sub-varieties. For Round 10's tasting I grabbed two bocks that are in slightly different styles. So it's not exactly a head to head test, but it is... a bock to bock comparison. 😂🍺🍺



For this round I started with Hofbräu Dunkel (on the right), a classic dark lager. Hofbräu has been brewing beer in Bavaria, Germany for 400 years and is a well recognized brand there. I wanted to taste it against another German beer of the same style, but the two I'd put on my list were both sold out. Alas, while imported bocks are much easier to find in 2022 than 1992 they're still not that popular in the US. So I went to the next bock on my list, Estrella Galicia Reserva Especial 1906, from Galicia in the northwest of Spain. Estrella Reserva (above left) is a maibock, a paler variety of bock brewed with slightly more hops.

Going into this tasting round I expected I'd prefer Hofbräu Dunkel. It's dark, toasty, and very slightly sweet... not just in taste but also practically in its color. The taste is strong but balanced and doesn't linger. It's a great example of its variety. And yet....

When I tasted the Estrella Reserva, which I sorta poo-poohed while pouring it into the glass because of its lighter color, I was blown away. It is not a light beer. Not only is it high-ish alcohol content with 6.5% ABV but it's got a rich, toasty malt flavor. It's just not as strong with the dark flavors as Hofbräu Dunkel. It more than makes up for that, though, with just enough hops bitterness to really balance out the sweet, toasty flavors. The hops give it a nice, clean finish that makes it complement food really well.

After my first taste of these beers with food I came back around and tried them solo. Solo, they're a bit more neck-and-neck. As with other strongly flavored beers I've tried, you've got to be in the mood of "I really want a dark beer right now" to enjoy Hofbräu Dunkel. Estrella Reserve is more... beer flavored. The Hofbräu Dunkel does go surprisingly well with chocolate, though.

Language & History Lesson in a Beer Stein

By the way, bock is German for goat. "What's this beer got to do with goats?" you may wonder. Remember how I remarked above that bock has been around for 700 years? It was created in the city of Einbeck, in Germany's northwest. When Bavarians came they pronounced it Einbock with their accents. "A goat?" the northerner taunted them. "Goat," the Bavarians agreed, taking the taunt and making it a mark of pride. That's why bock beers often incorporate a goat into the label!