NI-TC 2006

Every year at NI, we have an internal conference for all the employees in the Technical Communications department. This conference, conveniently enough called NI-TC (for NI-Tech Comm) is in late October and lasts for two days. It's a time for us to bring everyone up to speed on what's going on the department. We have multiple presentations/seminars, a demo fair that showcases the neat products we work on, and (of course) a deck party with food, drink, and music. This year we had some cameras floating around, so I wanted to share the event with you...

Breakfast on Day 1 consisted of bagels, cream cheese, and a big fruit tray. Oh, and coffee of course! Breakfast on Day 2 was a plethora of breakfast tacos. Mmmm.



A group of us getting ready for the first presentation in the morning.

This year, we all voted on superlative awards, like "Most Likely to Build a VI for Home Use" and "Most Likely to Out-Nerd an Engineer." Yeah, it's dorky, but it's fun :-) Here we see Nick distributing a prize pinwheel to Kyle while Kip looks on.



Another group of us between presentations.



Colin (r) and me about to give our presentation. Colin's in marketing, so he's no stranger to a suit. But me being in R&D, well, let's just say I wear suits for only family occasions :-) But when you're presenting to a team of co-workers, it never hurts to look snappy, right? I thought it would be funny, given that I dress so casually all the time. Some people got the joke, but some didn't. In R&D, you wear a suit only when you interview!



Some of us watching a presentation on how Windows Vista's online help is different from XP's.



This is the demo fair, and we have Mark demonstrating the NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection.



Again at the demo fair. Bradley gives us a hands-on sneak peek at Windows Vista.



Okay, the learning is over and it's time for the deck party!



One of our tech writers (Robert, on the left with the bass) plays in a local band called The Hackles. They graced our deck party and played some good ol' country music for us.