Thursday, January 10, 2008

Austin, TX: Dell

Tuesday, January 8th

We all woke up, packed, checked out of the hotel and boarded the bus to start our amazingly long day that lay ahead of us. We made our way to one of the many Dell facilities in Austin and were greeted with a nice breakfast snack as the tour guides arrived and took small groups out on the floor in one of the two facilities at that location. We then had lunch and took a tour of the other of the two facilities. These two facilities built all types of Dell desktops that are available as well as Dell servers. It was very interesting to see the many differences between the two facilities that are located only a hundred yards apart, but unfortunately we didn’t gain too much insight into the reasons for these variations. After a talk with some Dell LFM alumni, we were very privileged to meet and talk with Michael Dell. What a treat that was! We spent roughly 45 minutes asking a barrage of questions and enjoying meeting this amazing CEO. A great memory for all!

When our visit at Dell concluded, we headed to the airport for our flight to Reno via Las Vegas. Our flight left Austin at 7:30 CST and we arrived in Reno at 11:30 PST. Although very tired and ready for some sleep we made our way out to the Harrah’s Casino (where we were staying) floor to experience some of the gambling and other activities that Reno can provide. Such a long day, but what an amazing experience we are all being treated to!

2 comments:

Venancio said...

Glad to know your Dell trip went well, and that you had the opportunity to meet with Michael.

If memory serves me correctly, LFM students who traveled here last year met with Michael via audio teleconference as we had bad weather conditions, e.g., ice storm, that kept everyone stranded.

Venancio Figueroa III
Dell Inc.

Drew said...

I believe that you are correct, Venancio. An ice storm hit the city and work was cancelled for the day. We had pretty nice weather - a little overcast for the day but it cleared up nicely. It was a great treat to meet with Michael Dell too. Definitely would like to hear him speak again.
Take care and thanks for posting!