.conf21 Virtual Splunk4U Track: The Best From Community, DEI, Splunk for Good, and Splunk on Splunk

Last year at .conf20, we launched our Splunk4U track, which shined a light on four key areas: Splunk Community, Diversity & Inclusion, Splunk for Good, and Splunk on Splunk. This year, I am so excited to share that this track is back and better than ever, and you can view all of the Splunk4U breakout sessions in our newly released Session Catalog. Our company, products and community continue to impress and excite me, and this year’s speaker lineup for our Splunk4U track will impress and excite you, too!

This year, customers, partners, and Splunkers have prepared nearly 20 sessions that will engage you no matter your role and how you use Splunk. 

• Our Splunk Community sessions feature the most passionate, engaging, and innovative community members  sharing their technical know-how, experiences, successes, and even their vision with Splunk using Splunk, and the absolute coolest and nerdiest of use cases.
• Our Diversity & Inclusion sessions will continue to shine a light on how organizations  can get started, grow and accelerate their efforts to make and keep their companies positive and inclusive places to work while also driving business success. 
• Our Splunk for Good sessions will bring social impact to the forefront, illustrating how things like technology, education, training, volunteering, giving programs, and sustainability can combine in whole or in part to make our communities and our world better and help organizations cross the data divide. 
• Our Splunk on Splunk sessions will showcase the depth and passion Splunk has for using our products in addition to providing them. You might even say we sip our own champagne, and I gotta say… tastes mighty fine, y’all. 
  
  

Selecting sessions is always challenging, considering we receive so many wonderful and well-qualified submissions. I wish we could have accepted them all! This year, we had lots of help, so I want to thank all of the Splunkers and Splunk Community members who volunteered their time to review and provide feedback on all of this year’s Call for Speakers submissions. Your feedback was invaluable to this year’s selection committee! Truly, every session selected is a “must-see,” in my humble opinion. And I want to call out just a few stand-outs as well!

S4U1525C - Mobilizing Technology Assets for Social Impact, featuring Kriss Deiglmeier (Splunk), Mark Reading (Atlassian), Erin Baudo Felter (Okta), and Christine Lopez (Splunk)
For the first time, the 2021 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks report includes the concentration of digital power and digital inequality among the top global risks. Income inequality, climate change, racial and gender inequity and the pandemic all intersect with and compound one another — and all these issues must make smart use of technology to make meaningful change in the world. Learn how technology companies leverage their product, charitable investments, employee talent and impact investments to be part of the solution. Learn from Splunk and key technology companies the importance of bringing all company assets to help solve social and environmental challenges.

S4U1422B - Splunk Community Super Session: Ride the Next Wave of Learning, Giving Back, & Having Fun, featuring Bryan Jennewein (Splunk)
​​No matter your role, the products you use, or the organization you support... the Splunk Community is here to help you succeed. In this session, we'll preview the future of our fabulous Splunk Community and Splunk Answers, User Groups, Trust/MVP, Ideas, and so much more! Our new and longstanding community members will share their best tips and tactics for how you can make the most of these programs and spaces and share their own real success stories.

S4U1535C - Why D&I Is So Much More Than the “New Kid On the Block" featuring Neil Gow (Splunk)
The market for capturing and harnessing the next generation of Tech Talent is hot and getting hotter where competition is fierce to capture and foster our thought leaders of tomorrow, so a Diverse and Inclusive mindset has never been more important. Why? Three simple reasons; this demographic is the most diverse in history, 67% of job seekers see D&I as key and organizations with above-average diversity levels outperform other less diverse companies. Join this session to learn how the Splunk ANZ team took this challenge, which many Tech companies face, head-on. They will share how they built out a program founded on D&I principles that resonate to deliver huge value to employers and employees.

S4U1169C - Splunk Cloud Platform Lessons Learned from Splunk@Splunk, featuring Clara Merriman (Splunk) and Micah Kemp (Splunk)
The Splunk@Splunk team runs one of the largest Splunk Cloud Platform environments in the industry, and with that, at times, come many challenges. We're here to share what we’ve learned on how to scale and maintain a large environment with high availability. You’ll hear about some of the problems that we've faced and how we've overcome them. This is a session you wouldn’t want to miss.

I hope this small preview leaves you as eager and excited for .conf21 Virtual as I am. In its second year, our Splunk4U track is guaranteed to leave you inspired and ignite your passion as our speakers share their experiences. Together, we can continue to reach beyond great products and solutions and take up the charge to drive even greater innovation, extend help and support through communities, promote diversity and inclusion at all levels, and to be among our own best users. And may your experience with .conf21 Virtual embolden your work, accelerate your careers, and usher in ever-greater success for your organizations.

Visit our Session Catalog to learn more about our .conf21 Virtual breakouts, and register now!

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Thanks!
Bryan Jennewein