Stephen Foskett saw an opportunity from attending an event in 2009, developed his idea, and voilà, Gestalt IT Tech Field Day was born.

From then on, it has gone from strength to strength. Even as I write this, Tech Field Day 6 is in the works for June 2011.

I had the pretty cool privilege to have been part of the attendees – delegates, in Foskett-speak – at the inaugural Gestalt IT Tech Field Day and a couple of other Tech Field Days, and they were absolutely worth my while.

Information on Stephen, Gestalt IT, and the Tech Field Days can be found below.

Stephen Foskett is an independent consultant focusing on enterprise storage and cloud and cloud computing. A long-time voice in the storage industry, Foskett has authored numerous articles for industry publications, and is a popular presenter at industry events. His contributions to the enterprise IT community have earned him recognition as both a Microsoft MVP and VMware vExpert. He can be found online at GestaltIT.com, FoskettS.net, and on Twitter at @SFoskett.

Gestalt IT is a cooperative of independent voices in the IT infrastructure space. We have organized ourselves in response to the changing role of analysts and press in the new media world of the Internet, blogs, and real-time communication. Gestalt IT is not a profit-motivated company but a way to help each other gain the access and credibility we need to write and speak with authority. Our web site, GestaltIT.com, features commentary from our individual blogs as well as unique pieces written just for it, and we also organize live events like the Tech Field Day series.

Tech Field Day is a series of on-site briefings featuring a select group of delegates - independent, knowledgeable, and influential writers, bloggers, and thought leaders. It's not a trade show or conference but a real in-depth discussion where presenting companies are 100% in focus. Marketing and PR pros for HP, Cisco, Juniper, Data Robotics, Symantec, and more have professed that our events are "cost-effective" and "catalysts for interaction with the community". We are very careful to pick just the right group of delegates for each event, and they feel honored to be selected by their peers! Repeat delegates agree that the event "gives them insight" and "contacts they would struggle to achieve on their own".

Disclosure: I do like Stephen.