Monday Night Beowulf Bash is the Big Easy at SC10

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Ask anyone. Every year at SC10, there is one big party to attend after the Monday night exhibit opener–the Beowulf Bash on November 15. I caught up with the organizer of the event, Lara Kisielewska, President of Xand Marketing, to get the scoop on how this year’s entertainment is scaling to a whole new level.

insideHPC: What is the event about?

Lara Kisielewska: In a word; community. Cluster HPC is as much about technology as it is about the community of vendors, customers, developers, users, and pioneers who all share in the rewards of open cooperation. The bash is a celebration of the community.

insideHPC: How did it get started?

Lara Kisielewska: Back in 1999 Doug Eadline and Don Becker wanted beer money, so the handful of Beowulf cluster users/developers attending SC99 could hang out and talk — and drink beer. Naturally, they hit up the few vendors who were selling in this space. And then there was the LECCIBG thing that is perhaps best left unspoken (google it).

insideHPC: How did you pick the venue for this year?

Lara Kisielewska: We always look for an interesting venue, with the goal of topping last year’s shin-dig. What gets better than beer on a boat?

insideHPC: Who sponsors the event?

Lara Kisielewska: This year we are excited to have more community support than ever before: Penguin Computing, AMD, Adaptive Computing, Aeon Computing, ClusterMonkey.net, Econnectix, insideHPC, Intersect360 Research, Numascale, QLogic, SICORP, Terascala, Versant, and Xand Marketing.

insideHPC: How do I get invited?

Lara Kisielewska: Just show up (see the invite).

insideHPC: When does the boat leave?

Lara Kisielewska: The big wheel keeps on turning, don’t be late.