 We are in Las Vegas, Nevada for HP Discover 2013. This is the CUBE, Silicon Angles exclusive coverage of HP Discover that's a flagship program. We go out to the events, extract the signal from the noise. This is day three of three days of wall-to-wall live coverage of HP Discover, their transformation. People are pumping. I'm John Furrier, founder of Silicon Angle. I'm joined by co-host. Hi, everybody. I'm Dave Vellante of Wikibon.org and our good friend Nina Bjorkis here. She's the CMO of Connect. Nina, great to see you again. Great to see you. I'm glad to be here. That's another Discover. We were talking a little bit. It's a little bit different this year in a lot of respects. What's your take? As always, it's a great event. It's a great event to be at. It's a little different because it was restructured and it seems to be a little shorter than it has been in years past. Right. But it still has been. I think there's over 500 sessions. There's a lot concentrated for people to attend. This year is different for us from a Connect perspective because we usually celebrate our members at this event and we weren't able to do it this year. But I think we'll be able to make that back into the program in the future. The numbers are good, right? It's a packed house and a lot of partners here and Santa Ana last night, so people are excited. Tell us what's new with Connect. What have you guys been up to? Lots. We have. We've been so busy. You know, HP Networking is probably the hot topic around HP. They're doing well. They're making money, which is always a good thing. But we are building community around HP Networking, so we've been going around the world doing a road show around BYOD, software-defined networking. We've got two special interest group meetings here at Discover. And what's really exciting is it's not just HP Networking customers that are coming to these events. They're Cisco customers that are coming to learn more and hear from other customers about how they like the product. So we love that, right? We love it when new people come and they see the community and the ecosystem around them. So what's your role at an event like that? What's Connect's objective? That's a great question. Facilitate, right? So we want to make sure, at a special interest group meeting, what you want to do is turn the keys over to the customers, the participants. We kind of guide them, give them things to talk about. We capture and we advocate on behalf of them and feed that information back to HP. Many times, you know, there might be representatives from HP in the room, and they'll be capturing as well. But it also helps them to really hear applications, right? How people are using the technology. So as they go and talk to other customers, they can say, you know what? Yeah, so now, so you're saying you're doing these regionally or globally? Right. We started in the U.S. and they've been wildly successful. So now we're taking the show on the road and around the world. So where are you going next? Next, we're going to Seattle, Washington on August the 27th, and Pact House already. Really? So how many people attend these things? Well, we have room right now for 50, but I think we're going to be going over flow. So we want to keep them small enough to where we can keep the interactivity going. So it's intimate? It's very intimate. And the attendees, I'm sure, feel comfortable sharing at that point. They do, absolutely. Oh, yeah. And it's pretty exclusive, right? I mean, it's not a selling event, right? That's the first thing to say. We're not here, you know, in our job, we don't have anything to sell except for membership. NHP's job is not to sell. It's just it's a feel-good thing when people meet new friends, right? They grow their professional networks. They increase their awareness about products and solutions that are out there. But most importantly, they get to hear from other customers on how they're utilizing different products and solutions in their environments. Nina, I want to ask you about just the vibe here at HP Discover because you've been on the Cube multiple times and when HP was having the hardest time in the marketplace during a lot of the Leo transitional things, even when he was CEO, there was always the controversy. And we said on the Cube, you know, HP has a ton of assets. You said, I think, you know, paraphrasing here, I don't remember the direct quote, but it was slow lines of this company has a lot of assets. A lot of people want to work hard. There's a lot of energy. And I want to just point out that a lot's changed. This show is, people are excited. There's really not a lot of negative news. I mean, at all. Some of the press are kind of going after, you know, I saw all things D mentioned, you know, declining piece, at least you've got business. It's really not declining. I talked to Pradeep Jagwani in the hallways. It's actually not declining. So they still see people kind of go in there and, you know, other blogs had like, oh, the POMOS people are still harping on some of the old stuff. But Meg is clearly looking forward. And what's your take outside of the executives underneath the covers of the company and the community? What is the vibe today? What is the current situation? I can absolutely answer that because I have been going around the world with a video crew talking to their stories. And one of the questions I always ask them is with all the changes at the top of late, you know, with an HP, has it changed the way you work with HP? Has it changed your buying decisions? And, you know, what's really crazy is they've responded almost verbatim. All of them. And these are customers who are around the world, which is it didn't matter. What mattered most was how the people were serving them in the trenches, right? The dedication, the loyalty, the knowledge that the people have that work, the teams that work with the customer directly, some of them said they almost pitched a tent in my office to make sure that we had everything we needed to be successful. And that has been consistent and that is amazing news. That's great news for HP. Yeah, I mean the HP brand has a real meaning to a lot of customers. And at the same time, I think, you know, we've been observing what Meg's been doing. It seems to be happy. It stocks up, but there's a lot of work to be done. You know, we've specifically looked at, you know, her priorities. In fact, I was talking to her in Boston at the analyst event. We had a side conversation about what some of the priorities are. I said, we're paying down the debt. You can see that happening now. I get excited because once that debt's paid down, HP can become an acquired, aggressive acquired companies again. And they're a little gun-shy right now, but there's so much innovation going on out there. And HP's been sort of sitting on the sidelines, not been a buyer, not trying to work through the autonomy stuff. But I'm saying, you know, once, let's say next year comes around, that debt is largely paid down, HP's going to start picking, in my view, picking up some assets that are really going to excite the user base. You bet. You know, one of the things also that I'm saying, you're right. I think it's great, but the organic growth that's going on, right? They have the labs that, there's four labs now dedicated to HP networking, right? So you've got mobility is really important. I went to a networking innovation event. And what's coming out of the labs is unbelievable, very, very exciting. And that's what people like to see. I think when they think of HP, right? I mean, of course, you know, HP's going to always look at companies that they can bring in as assets. But when you can organically produce something, that really makes you a leader in the industry. Yeah, and I think it's got to be a balance, right? I mean, I think the best companies have a balance of organic, and they do, you know, deep R&D, and they can also demonstrate that they can acquire companies where they need to and they can do so quickly. And that's somewhat hamstrung HP in the last several years, but that's going to change actually pretty quickly here. And when it does, I think HP's going to do some serious damage in the marketplace to some of the competitors, and I think customers are going to get increased value out of it. I think that from what I'm hearing from the customers that I'm talking to and our members, they really like and respect Meg's leadership. And when she speaks to the community and speaks to the customer, she speaks to them as she's sitting side-by-side and not dictating. And that is very powerful, very powerful. It makes very humble for an individual to so accomplished as she is. And I think, again, I've said, John and I have talked about this a lot, HP is a company that's got a shrink to grow, and that's okay. You're comfortable with that because they're throwing off a lot of cash. And I think that underscores the stability of the organization. So that's all good. Well, Nina, it's always great to have you on the Cube. I mean, your perspective is from the communities. As we say, we like to extract the signal from the noise, and we want to go deep, not just cover the high-flying, hit-and-run kind of reporting and news. We want to be editorial independent at the same time, get the right data and share that with our communities. Thank you so much for coming on the Cube. Always great to see you. Happy to be here. Thank you again for inviting me. And you're becoming a legend on the Cube because you've been here every single HP Discover. We really appreciate you sharing information, your data, and your perspective. Thanks so much. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay, this is the Cube. We'll be right back with our next guest after this short break. This is SiliconANGLE and Wikibon. This is the Cube live at HP Discover in Las Vegas. Day three of three days of live coverage. We'll be right back.