Category : VMworld
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 12, 2017 .
This year I decided not to sit in the General Session but watch it from the hang space to see what that was like. I think I prefer the General Session Room as it is more of an immersive experience. However, the ability to use a table/desk to take notes does help lots!
General Session
The General Session, with Pat Gelsinger, was very similar to the one in Las Vegas - it was only 2 weeks ago after all . There we obvious changes for the European community, especially with the reference customers. The key message was consistent from the previous years at VMworld and continued to be around Any Cloud, Any Application, Any Device.
Written by Christopher Lewis on September 10, 2017 .
This is the first in a series of posts covering my time at VMworld 2017 in Barcelona.
Flights
I decided to fly in earlier this year, so after a 0700 start I got to London Heathrow and got on the 10:45 BA flight to Barcelona! The flight was relatively smooth but as I don’t fly as much anymore, I forgot those in cattle class don’t get fed for free anymore!
Written by Christopher Lewis on July 13, 2017 .
VMworld 2017 Barcelona is just under 2 months away. I’m lucky enough to be going for my 2nd year in a row. Thank you to Xtravirt for sponsoring my attendance this year (along with 3 other consultants).
Why am I going?
Everyone has a different reason for going (or wanting to go). Whether that is learning, networking, promoting yourself or promoting your company.
In my first VMworld last year in Barcelona, my eyes were opened to the possibilities that VMworld affords attendees. Within a given year, I don’t think there is another conference where you get all of the titans of VMware in one place.
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 25, 2016 .
The last day of VMworld came along sooner than I expected.
I decided to drop most of my sessions and just chill out in the hang space. Why did I drop the last few sessions? because I’d finally realised I’d been doing VMworld all wrong…
It dawned on me that whilst over the last 3 days the sessions I had attended re-enforced by knowledge, it didn’t (on the whole) enhance it. I’d chosen the wrong path. On the whole, I had chosen sessions on topics I already had in-depth knowledge on in the hope that some new information/wisdom would be imparted during the sessions. It suddenly dawned on me that actually, the majority of the sessions were not really geared towards the #vExperts or Consultants who do this for there job day in and day out, but for the VMware customers who wanted to know more but didn’t know where to look. In an average 1 hour session, I found maybe 5-10 minutes of useful information. Which wasn’t a great return on my time investment. The sessions I had attended were (on the whole) great, but the vast majority of the sessions I could watch on playback either from VMworld US or VMworld EMEA after the event.
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 24, 2016 .
Wednesday night (like most other nights) at VMworld is PARTY night!
However this night was the VMware Customer Appreciation Party night, where customers, vendors and partners can come together to enjoy free food, free wacky sunglasses and free entertainment (and most importantly feel appreciated).
It definitely had an old-school american theme/vibe with Hot Dogs, Burgers and Ice cream stand littered around the General Session hall.
A chance for those with hair to let it down and bond with our newly found friends in the spirit of the VMware Community!
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 23, 2016 .
To round of the off the first evening at VMworld Barcelona, I attended the very first VMworld Hackathon - Barcelona (#HackVMW) run by Alan Renouf ( @alanrenouf ).
Seven teams of disparate (or is that desparate?) individuals came together with one goal in mind: to complete (well nearly) 7 different projects.
I was lucky enough to be in Team 7 (AKA Team Anger Management), with Team Captain Mike Foley ( @mikefoley ), sub-team captain Duncan Epping ( @DuncanYB ) ,Myles Gray ( @mylesagray ),Cormac Hogan ( @CormacJHogan ), Paudie O’Reilly( @oriorp ), Dario Dörflinger.
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 23, 2016 .
The day started with the General Session where the pre-show artist was #awesome.
This was followed by Jean-Pierre Bruard SVP & GM EMEA ( @vmwarebrulard ) with the obligatory thank you to all attendees and sponsors and also introduced the vminclusion initiative.
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 23, 2016 .
VMware 2016 kicked off on Sunday evening with vRockstar 2016 - a social gathering at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to this event as tickets sold out very quickly when they were released. The event was jam packed with people i’d spoken to but never met face to face. Not to mention, the food and drinks were flowing though out the night. #goodtime
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 21, 2016 .
Day 2 of VMworld 2016 was kicked off with the another General Session.
The opening act was a Blues Band, which were very cool and happened to have** Sanjay Poonen** ( @spoonen ) as the piano player. Totally unexpected surprise, but what an awesome way to start a keynote!
The EUC focused keynote started off with Sanjay Poonen providing an overview of the VMware Vision for Digital Transformation. In essence, the Any Device, Any Application part of the VMware One Cloud Vision which has been a focal point for the last few years. Which Sanjay suggested that Digital Transformation would be the fourth industrial revolution.
Written by Christopher Lewis on October 21, 2016 .
After the first day of full conferencing, it was time to head out to the vExpert party which was held at L’Eggs ( http://www.leggs.es/en) .
Unfortunately, I arrived fashionably late as I had to go back to my hotel to drop off my bags, and then get across town, which meant I missed the brief appearance of Pat Gelsinger.
The evening was enjoyable enough, the food (scrambled eggs, risotto and creme cataluna) and drinks kept flowing. I spent a lot of time getting to talk to all those vExperts that I communicate with via different social media platforms all the time but have never met in real life (which is a sign of the world we live in).
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