 theCUBE presents Dell Technologies World, brought to you by Dell. You guys. Hey, welcome back everyone live here on the floor in Las Vegas with Dell Tech World 2022, CUBE coverage, I'm John Furrier with Dave Vellante, Allison Ducey, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Dell Technologies. Welcome back to theCUBE. Thanks for coming back on. Hey Allison. Hi guys, it's so good to see you. I am just so delighted to be on theCUBE and so delighted to see you both live in person. So three years ago was the last physical event, a lot of virtual, a lot of probably some scar tissue to share there, but give us the quick highlights here, the show format, what's new, what's different? So I think one of the things I talk to my team about a lot is we've learned so much over the past couple of years. It's really important as we go forward to carry the best of what we've learned over the last two years combined with the best of in-person experiences that I know we all missed. So things that really people want to do in-person, training, connection, the birds of the feather sessions and taking the technology and communications skills that we've developed over the last two years and making the event better as well. So Dave, you and I were talking about how do you extend the reach of the event beyond just three days? How do you engage with the global audience? Not all of whom are back to traveling all of the time. And so we think the impact of this event is the biggest and best that it's ever been and it's not about going back to 2019. It's about the best of the last couple of years and the human connection I think we've all been missing. So I remember last time you were here, we were coming up to stay with Ashton Kutcher and I told you about my man crush and now you bring on Matthew, which was an amazing interview. I mean, I love his work, but wow, what a thoughtful and intelligent individual. And you obviously did a great job carrying that interview. So tremendous. I mean, you know him, right? He's like in your world. He's an Austin guy. He's really committed to Austin. He's really committed to the University of Texas. We've done a number of things with him together. So we do know him and still that was probably the most in-depth conversation that we'd ever had with him and it was so much fun. Let me wait, so okay, so I got to make it laugh. So after you were done, you said, okay, let's open it up for audience questions. Now I was really intimidated, even though I love to get up in front of the audience and ask questions, but I didn't know what to ask him. And I figured there'd be a long line of people asking the question. There was not. So I saw that and I'm like, I don't know what to ask him. So I texted my wife and my daughter who love him. They're like, all right, all right. And so my wife texted me a question, but it was too late, the session had ended. So I'm going to ask you her question and ask you how you think he would have responded. We can find it. Okay, I'll give it a whirl. Her question was, he's a big proponent of quote, showing up. Okay, I didn't know this. You could ask him about if the definition for him of showing up has changed over time and how does he stay motivated to always show up? I was like, wow, what a great question. That is a great question. And I will tell you, as the interviewer, I think lots of people were sort of intimidated. One woman even said, this is making me nervous, but here's my question. So as the interviewer, I was looking out at the sea of nobody asking questions, doing this scrambling in my head, trying to come up with some more questions, because I had already asked all my questions. So I wish you'd been able to get to the stage, get to the mic and ask that question, but here's what I think he would have said. Who knows, maybe he'll send me a note if I get it wrong. I think he would have said something along the lines of, it's always about being intentional about what's happening in your life at that moment. And so as he thought about some, there's an example he uses in his book, I don't remember the name of the movie, where he kind of, very early in his career, where he kind of just winged it and he got to the set and he realized, because he thought he was getting over rehearsed. And so he thought, I need to go back to the natural moment. And he realized the script was in Spanish. And he said, I need six minutes. How is he going to memorize the script in six minutes in Spanish? And I think that was just an interesting example of when he realized that there's a synchronicity between being your natural self and being intentional and being really thoughtful about where you are and what you're doing at that moment. So I think that that intentionality spans his career. It's the moment of introspection about where you are in your life and doing brave things like leaving behind a safe but no longer fulfilling romantic comedy career. So that's what I think he would have said. Bringing that to the moment is where he gets his inspiration. I think so, yeah. Yeah, so he's a very impressive guy. I didn't read the book yet. It's Greenlight, is the name of the book. I recommend it and I didn't listen to it. I read it, I'm a reader, but I've had many, many, many people tell me that they listen to it. He narrates the book himself. So I think there's some benefit there because you get it truly in his voice. Yeah, that's always fun. Speaking of the moment, this event has got two things going on, the format you mentioned, but also the content is right on point and a lot of the execs came in, Michael and the COOs were both on theCUBE. Interesting poll position you guys have for this. Now, you've got the marketing angle going on. Hey, how do you throttle this next? What's next? How does it evolve? You've got the content, you've got the new format, Dell TechWorld plus digital now combined. What's next? I think, I mean, so obviously we are clearly at an inflection point in the technology industry and we've talked a lot about separating the hype from the reality of the day to day of what our customers are doing in their businesses and the problems they're trying to solve. But if you look at what makes us really, I think special and unique is the last number of years we've continued to show up and deliver for our customers. We were there with them over the course of the pandemic. We helped them get their remote workforce up and running and now we're helping them lean into their data center challenges. And I think, for example, the snowflake announcement from earlier this week, this ability to have the best of both worlds and to have your data on-premises whilst also benefiting from snowflakes capabilities. I think that's just a good example of the kind of thing you'll see us do more of and this intentionality that we're trying to bring to an incredibly complex and fragmented world. So that's what we're doing from a business and then from a marketing perspective, I think it's just about this steady drumbeat. It's no longer one moment in time. It is all the moments in time whilst also keeping people's attention, not boring them to death with four-hour keynotes. It's interesting. We've been watching you guys for a long time, as you know. And it's interesting. You have such a big story now. You have the story at the industry, positioning of where it is for growth. You also got product innovation. Balancing the product innovation, which is still evolving, you got edge exploding, the snowflake deal with the new product use cases. There's still the need for the nerds, right? And then you got the industry leadership, which is happening. So you've got balancing that. How do you thread that needle? How do you tie it all together? How do you think about that? What's your thoughts? One of the things I think, at its simplest, it's not just about what we do, it's also about who we are as a company. And you have to do both, right? We have to talk about where we're innovating in our products and our solutions. And it's also really important for us to tell the world who we are and how we show up in the world. And if you think about another one of the announcements from this week that I'm really proud of are our solar hubs. And that's a build off of these solar learning labs, working with 25 communities around the world, underserved in terms of access to technology. And so you have to do both. Sometimes I think in the past, we've been just talking about our products because we're engineers at heart and we're proud of that and not talking enough about who we are. I think some companies talk too much about who they are and you're like, well, what do you do exactly? So the question always is, how do you do that? And so there's a believability gap. What we're always striving for is that combination of what we do, who we are. So now that what we do is really important and there's obviously a lot of very difficult and contentious social issues. Yes. And kind of a follow up there is, what's your philosophy on how to handle those? It's presumably what you do, not what you say. I mean, you got to say things as well and they're going to be more, we're hearing about it, reading about it, others that are going to be down the road. What's your philosophy on how to handle those? The first thing is, we try to be really thoughtful about what conversations are actually relevant to us. One of the things I watch many companies do is comment on anything, anything and everything. They sort of run into the fray of the moment and they over comment and frankly, then I think they don't stand for anything because they're constantly chasing a press cycle which is pretty vicious and pretty short lived. So we don't think that that serves us. What we do is we look at almost every issue you can imagine and ahead of time, ahead of time, have the conversation about where are we going to engage, what are the issues that we stand for and we've got much more intentional even on our ESG and CSR front around taking our moonshot goals and making them more practical so that we can be really thoughtful and intentional because as you know, at the moment of time when a crisis hits, if you haven't done that work ahead of time, you're probably responding and you can see that sometimes without naming any names because everybody knows some of these players are without my even having to say it, someone responding or flip-flopping, it's because they haven't thought about it ahead of time. Yeah, and a lot of that comes from the top and the CEO won't stop on Twitter. But so that to me ties in, yeah. So it ties into the concept of trust and I'm going back to some of the keynote messages that we heard from Michael. You've earned trust in a lot of ways you were there during the pandemic, you know, your products, work, et cetera, et cetera. But the way in which you act builds trust, doesn't it? And that weaved in, I think came across in the keynotes. Why such a big theme on trust? I mean, you see Apple with privacy doing certain things, really doubling down on trust. Can you talk about that? I mean, I think it's because it is core to who we are. And if you look at the hype cycle around technology, the hype cycle around companies who can have kind of a moment in the sun and then you find out actually that their business practices weren't very good or they weren't really delivering on the innovation that they were claiming so they were probably over-claiming at times. It has always been core to who we are. What I think we're doing now is just being much more intentional about how important it is to show up that way. That's why I come back to, it's not just what we do, it's who we are. And that's why customers choose us. And you hear some of the customer case studies like USAA, like CVS that we use a lot. At the moment in time where they needed help managing through the pandemic, we delivered with a consistency that not everybody could provide. And I think that provides us the room and the space to really lean into this trust conversation. I love the high-level flag you guys are flying at ESG stores, you're getting immersed in issues that you're solving for yourselves so you can understand them and have good positions. But also on digital now, you have other ways to drive the business. We just started a Discord server a week before Dell Tech World. It's already got 8,000 members. And the only thing they really care about about Dell Tech World here is what's the monitors, where's the speeds and fees? They want the speeds and fees, they're gamers. So there's omnichannels everywhere. You have, that's hard. So is it a top-down? Let things fly? Is there intentionality around execution to drive business value? I think that, I mean, one of the things that I would say for the company and for its leadership, for me personally, is we're generally pretty intentional about most things that we do. I always have an expression that I don't like to reward arsonist firemen. If the building is on fire, I'm going to ask you, why is the building on fire? Not, you know, I'll say, are you okay? But then I'll say, why is the building on fire? So the reason I use that analogy is we're pretty intentional about most things that we do. And then you also have to leave room for innovation because it is a completely different product experience to build an alienware than it is to build a server. And yet there's certain standards around how we think about our commitment to environmental goals and sustainability that's consistent. So that's the balance that we're always looking for. You know, in the isolation economy, we learned that we didn't know what was coming next. And now in the post-isolation economy, we learned, you referenced this, we're not going back to 2019, a rinse and repeat of 2019 is not going to work. So I know it's early, you haven't really had much time to think about it, but what have you learned from this event? We were surprised by how many people showed up. What else? I was a little surprised by how many people showed up in the final, and we got a lot of people show up in the final register in the final week or so. I mean, one of the things, I think we knew this, but I think we had to learn it a little bit the hard way, maybe you don't need four days of two-hour keynotes. You know, maybe people can't absorb that much information. And so I think we've gotten a lot tighter on our messaging and delivering of the keynotes and then allowing people the space to engage in other things that are really important to them, like their own training. A lot of people come to this event for their own professional development. We should be proud of that and celebrated. And one of the expressions I use a lot is, let's get our energy back and provide people the opportunity to do that. And even with our own employees, one of the things that we've seen is just how happy they are to see each other. So leave space for that. The face-to-face matters. It's really valuable. Some say it's the scarce resource now. And the digital is an augmentation. What have you learned as the standards are emerging? There's no standards, they're emerging in real time. What's popping out as go to, that's going to evolve as de facto standard, digital event, kind of hybrid. I think the short and easy answer is that hybrid evolves as the standard. I don't think anybody, sort of like the cloud. I don't think anybody is questioning that. You can have the best of both. I think, taking it out of the realm of events, we are very committed to a hybrid work environment, just as an example. And this conversation about many companies say, you can have flexibility, as long as you're here on Tuesday. Well, that's not actually flexibility, that's just pretend flexibility. And so being intentional about, you obviously have to have the conversation with your leader, but we are saying figure out what works for you and work that way. And the reason I went, I took it from events to that example is because that's just one of the many examples of how we're all trying to figure it out and its intentionality, its honesty, its trust. You know, maybe your job is something that needs to be in person. Great, then go do it in person. Maybe it's not, then don't, but have the conversation. So that's have the conversation is sort of my simplest answer. Maybe it was event native, which is the old model. Hybrid events, is there a multi-event? Dave's kind of in the club. Super man, super man. Multi-hybrid events. And actually we do take this show on the road with the Dell Tech Forum, so it is multi-hybrid events. By the way, you mentioned the team, how excited the team was. I thought it was a great touch at the end of the day, one keynote to bring all the team members out. That was a really powerful moment. You know, to be honest, I loved it. When I saw it on paper, I thought this could either be great or so cheesy. I'll be like climbing under my chair, and I loved it. But even that was a risk where I thought, that's fine, try it, and if it doesn't work, it's fine. Go big or go home, as they say. Exactly, so I think you see us trying to lean into those moments a little bit more and be willing to take that risk and see what happens. Also, it's always great to have you on theCUBE. I love your insight, I love your perspective. Final question for you, what are you into these days? What are you watching personally in the industry or in your life as we evolve into this next chapter of the generational shift, the cultural shift? I mean, the biggest thing that I'm really thinking about is this question of hybrid work and what does it mean to build connection with our employees, with our customers, with our partners, with our broader ecosystem, whilst also having the freedom and flexibility that the last two years have brought us. I mean, I think you guys know, I have an odd personal life, I kind of trap a little bit of a digital nomad myself. And you know, I- Let's extend the segment, let's go now. Yeah, and in years for the past, I would not have been able to maintain my life and my job. And that's the power of technology. You just have to look for the downside, which is maybe people need more connection too. So that's an unanswered question. I knew fabrics emerging in my mind, it's very clear. Allison, great to have you on again. Pleasure, congratulations. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for having us here at theCUBE, we really appreciate it. We always love having you at Dell Tech World and it's great to see you personally. Thanks so much. Allison is the second Vice President, CMO of Dell Technologies, here in theCUBE. I'm John Furrier, Dave Vellante. We'll be right back with more after this break.