I’m on the flight back from Las Vegas and trying to record some sense of what VMworld was for me. I went to be part of a community event, as much as a technical event. I certainly found a community in the vExperts, every one I met was friendly and welcoming, all there to help out other community members. I met way too many cool people to name, apart from the biggest names, I enjoyed meeting some contributors like Cody Bunch, Calvin Zito, Greg Shulz and Sean Crookston who were all very modest about their contribution. I also got to meet back up with people like Andre Leibovici and Geoff O’Connor that I know from past vForums and a few Kiwi’s from vBeers and past courses, Paul, David, Chithirin, Jamie and the rest.
Of course there was a day long workshop for VMware Certified Instructors where I met more instructors in five minutes than I have met in five years of teaching. And then there were the random people in lines or at parties. I tried to talk to people around me whenever there was a queue and had a lot of good chats to people from all over, Roy from Texas was a standout as a great guy.
Parties, there are a few at VMworld, ranging from a few hundred people to thousands. I like to meet people and talk at a party, so the main party and another I went to in a noisy nightclub weren’t my favorites. I really likes @CXI’s party, no music and lots of interesting people. I also had the fortune of going to the VMware CTO party, where Stephen Herrod knew my blog! And of course there was the unforgettable VMUnderground party, thanks to Stephen Foskett for getting me into that and sorry to the Kiwi’s I didn’t see at vOdgeball.
I hear there were a heap of technical sessions, I only made a few and didn’t always choose the right ones. There we also a lot of labs, both the awesome VMware labs and the EMC labs were busy. I made the mistake of trying to do a vShield lab after a few beers at the nightclub party, not a wise choice.
Finally there was the location, Las Vegas, not my kind of place. I realized just how much I like peace and quiet. The strip is exactly as it appears on TV only ten times more so, bright lights and huge buildings. What you don’t realize from TV is that the casinos are huge. The Cosmopolitan, where I stayed, is 45 floors high. That’s taller than the largest office building in Auckland, and it doesn’t tower above the other casinos. I wanted to go to Las Vegas once in my life & now I have. I don’t expect to go back to the strip again but there is plenty more to Nevada if I happen to be passing with some time to spare.
VMworld was awesome, I’m already thinking about how to get to 2012, which will be back in San Francisco. I think I’ll like San Fran better, not least because good coffee is easier to find there.
Finally a huge thanks to John Troyer for helping make it possible for me to be at VMworld, for creating the whole vExpert community and for fostering the wider VMware Community. The community is a fabulous thing and all who are involved appreciate the hard work you and the team put in.
© 2011, Alastair. All rights reserved.
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