<span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/photo-8.jpg"><span style="color: #000000;"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7535" title="eGroup Booth" src="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/photo-8-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></span></a></span>

<span style="color: #000000;">Welcome to the Carolina Technology Conference. Come visit the eGroup booth, can't miss us as you enter the exhibit hall.</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">We'll be live blogging throughout the morning into the early afternoon so check back often. (most recent updates at the top).</span>

<span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Twitter Hashtag #CTC12</strong></span>

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Awaiting <a href="http://www.jimstickley.com/" target="_blank">Jim Stickley's</a> keynote on security and identity theft. Should be a good one. You can find him on Twitter @jimstickley (you can find us @eGroup_Inc).

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John Flisher kicking off the first lab of the day - Hands on with vSphere 5.1. If you want to learn more about VMware from Flisher himself, check out his <a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/author/jflisher" target="_blank">past posts</a>.

<a href="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/photo-7.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-7551" title="photo (7)" src="http://egroup.jasonmangone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/photo-7-300x224.jpg" alt="vSphere 5.1" width="300" height="224" /></a>

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<span style="color: #000000;">Coffee break!</span>

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<span style="color: #000000;">Steven Dryden, CEO, of the <a href="http://themarinergroup.net/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000000;">Mariner Group</span></a> kicks things off with the presentation portion of the conference.</span>
<ul>
	<li><span style="color: #000000;">Mariner Group software, <a href="http://themarinergroup.net/commandbridge/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000000;">CommandBridge</span></a>, helped aid in 1,432 search and rescues.</span></li>
	<li><span style="color: #000000;">Dryden discusses the concept of Situational Awareness (SA) and how it's becoming mainstream.
</span></li>
	<li><span style="color: #000000;">CommandBridge in action was very cool. Zoom into a port (in this case, Dryden used port of Miami), click on an outline of a vessel and learn more about that particular vessel.</span></li>
	<li><span style="color: #000000;">Dryden's final thoughts: 1) Simple is Hard, 2) Innovation comes in many forms, 3) The status quo rarely change from the inside
</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #000000;">eGroup has a full day of labs, sign up at registration:</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">9:30-10:10: vSphere 5.1</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">10:20-11:00: ThinApp Factory</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">11:10-11:50: vSphere 5.1</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">12:00-12:40: SharePoint 2013</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">12:45-1:25: vSphere 5.1</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">1:30-2:10: SharePoint 2013</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">2:15-2:55: vSphere 5.1</span>

<span style="color: #000000;">3:10-4:15: Cisco Nexus 1000v</span>