AMD Mom Blogger Summit: A True Techy Mom’s Nerd Paradise

Yes, I am a geek. I will tell you this over and over. I am proud of it! Back in May I was asked to participate in a unique event and opportunity with AMD. It was kind of last minute and we were going to hop a plane to France to hang out at the Cannes Film Festival. During the event, AMD had some cool stuff planned for us. Well guess what?? Just days before we were to leave it was canceled!!! I was bummed. So, they made it up to us by having us down to beautiful Austin, TX for a couple of days of relaxing, eating, bonding, and tech talk!

Who is AMD?

AMD is Advanced Micro Devices. They are the #1, ok… really the only competitor of Intel. These 2 companies are the folks that make your computers run. I have always been a fan of AMD. I used to built systems for $$. I still do occasionally built a system, but usually just to kick around in the house. I have always used AMD processors. They are fast and affordable. A while ago, AMD purchased ATI. ATI has been a top competitor the the video card market for quite some time. These two merging together makes for one heck of a tech company. And this begins the well vision… behind AMD Vision.

What is Vision?

The idea behind Vision is to help non-techy folks that might not care about all the numbered specs and acronyms behind purchasing a computer. They just want to know what it will do. Will it play my music? Will it play HD movies? Can I edit video? These questions are answered clearly, so there is no doubt  in what you are getting.

Computers will only get the AMD Vision stamp if they meet certain specs. For starters, they need an AMD Processor, and ATI Video card. As you can see on the chart, computers are available in Basic, Premium, Ultimate, and Black. Looking for a new machine? You can visit the Vision helper to choose a computer.

The Event

So let’s talk about all the fun we had! The mom’s involved in the event were a nice small mixed bunch. There were 6 of us, some techy, some not. Included in the group were:

• Leticia Barr, Tech Savvy Mama
• Kris Cain, Little Tech Girl
• Tiffany Dockery, Living as Mom
• Danelle Ice, Home Ever After
• Michele McGraw, Scraps of My Geek Life
• Meredith Sinclair, Hoo-Dee-Hoo

We all arrived at varying times on a Sunday. I checked in and checked out my room. It was NICE. The view was spectacular. The view from my room was of endless trees with some mansions nestled between.

Some of us hit the spa right away. AMD generously gave us each a credit to use in the Barton Creek Resort spa. Boy did I need it! I got a full body Lavender and Salt Exfoliation with a massage and foot massage. It was heaven! I could have laid there all day.

We had great dinners, took a tour of the city, relaxed, but most of all we learned a ton. Our day on Monday was spent at the super pretty, super geeky AMD Offices tucked in the hills of Austin. We took a tour of some of the massive campus. And boy was it HOT. It was 105 degrees each day we were there WITHOUT the heat index. We heard more about Vision and what AMD hopes to accomplish. We got data on stats like the fact that 66% of all PCs are purchased by women. That is quite a number. Women make a lot of the decisions on household purchases and AMD knows it. I won’t rehash absolutely everything! And yes, some of it was top secret. 🙂 But I will say that I am excited to see what all they have in store.

I am typing to you right now on the lovely, packed Toshiba Satellite T235 that was waiting for us in goody bags at the hotel desk upon check-in. So far I really like this machine. It has the Vision Premium stamp. I’ll be sure to do a review of it at some point.

Along with the laptop, we got a cool laptop case designed by Chloe Dao, winner of 2006 Project Runway. And if that was not treat enough, she actually came to meet us and show us some of the other Nuo bag designs that she has been working on.

It was a great experience.  I was very happy to be included. I love my tech stuff!! And I do love AMD. 🙂

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Disclosure: AMD invited me down to Austin, TX and covered all expenses including the awesome swag and services mentioned in this post. All opinions are 100% mine as I really HAVE been an AMD and ATI user for several years.