IDF Gets Stranger And Stranger

So what did you do Thursday night? I spent my evening playing drums with Journey guitarist Neal Schon.

Just when you thought computer conferences couldn’t get any stranger, Intel Developer Forum comes along and raises the bar. Last August they had William Shatner as a guest, talking about his new tech book. This year’s odd finish is courtesy of Gibson Guitars.

IDF tends to attract companies like Rambus, Tyan, SiS and nVIDIA. Names like Gibson aren’t usually associated with the technology world. Bug Gibson is promoting a new musical instrument interface, one that would make my life running sound and recording at home a whole lot easier. This new technology puts them at trade shows like CES & IDF.

So how does one draw attention to themselves at an Intel trade show? Simple … get one of your sponsored guitarists to play a jam session at the conference party. That’s how Neal Schon ended up at the Tech Museum in San Jose. I got to play a few songs with Neal, mostly blues standards like Crossroads so the guitar players have plenty of time to play solos. After his 90 minutes, the jam session continued with Gibson employees and conference attendees.

I think a lot of people were surprised at the musical talent in the room … I’m not talking about Neal, who is world famous as a damn fine guitar, but the engineers. The bass player I spent most of the evening playing with is an Intel design engineer. We both took similar paths, choosing between music and a computer career at the end of grad school. Since our respective bands didn’t have a medical/dental or 401K plans, the choice was pretty easy.

I’ve been going to IDF for about three years, mostly as a guest speaker. Most of the Intel engineers I work with were very surprised to see me behind a drumset. The Gibson employees were pretty happy, especially the woman that was originally drafted as the session drummer. Her boss told her she was playing (not asked, told), and she hadn’t played in over eight years. I thought she did a good job, but I think she was

I don’t think Neal Schon had any idea what he was getting into. Some of the session players weren’t that good, which didn’t make him happy. Some of them were quite good, which came to him as a shock. He didn’t even know what kind of convention he was at until a few minuted before hitting the first chord. But Neal looked like he was having fun, and stuck around for a while to talk with fans (there were a lot of Journey fans, including the happy man who won a signed Gibson guitar).

By the end of the night I had played well over an hour. The last song was a cover of ‘Gin and Juice’ performed with a cadre of Gibson employees. The guitar player felt a little weird using the f-word in a museum, but I assured there wasn’t much of a standard for how many times one can say such things in a museum setting.

It was a good feeling to play again. I felt comfortable, kept up with the other musicians and only really screwed up once (the guitar player and I improperly negotiated the ending of ‘Little Wing’). I’m sure Intel’s PR has a picture of me playing drums in my company-logo polo shirt, which will be an odd way to promote a technology event.

I have no idea how weird the IDF Fall party will be, but they have six months to figure it out. I wonder if William Shatner plays guitar …