It’s been a mild winter in the update New York area, and I’m profoundly grateful. Bad weather tends to complicate the workday, even for those of us with home offices. There’s still snow to shovel, for instance, and cars to ready for the road, and a driveway to clear. My father’s plan was to send his son. I’ve been blessed with daughters. They’re great, but they don’t move much snow.

Still with all these blessings, I’m restless. So it’s with much anticipation that I have packed for next week’s Technology Convergence Conference (February 2 in Santa Clara). Organized by Teladata and supported by the Critical Facilities Round Table, the TCC is a tremendous event and a good way to see my friends on the west coast.

Over 530 end-users attended Teladata’s 2011 Technology Convergence Conference. Full-day discussions covered cloud computing, data center efficiency and other IT issues with case studies from some of today’s leading technology companies including Microsoft, Cisco Systems, eBay, Zynga, Equinix, Intel and Yahoo! This year’s event will likely surpass last year’s.

New York’s winter’s famously make mincemeat out of travel schedules, especially for flights west that must connect through Chicago, so I am also grateful for the little travel break that I get in December and January. Yet, it is at the end of this little respite that I come to realize that comfort isn’t everything. Personal contact is important too. So, if I’m a bit overexcited about getting west, forgive me. Speakers at events like Teladata are the lifeblood of the industry.

I also find myself getting excited about my March trips to New York City and Las Vegas, for a DatacenterDynamics event and Data Center World, respectively. If you see me at any of these events, please say hello. I’m happy to see you.

Electronic communication has its place, but I have cabin fever.