VMworld 2015 Europe (Barcelona) – Wrap up, the things that got imprinted on me!

Before you continue, I’d like to point out that this is a semi-non-technical blog related to the subject of VMworld, if you’re looking for the technical aspect/summary of the conference please do check out this VMworld 2015 Europe Bloggers and you will find what you’re looking for and more.

This blog post is dedicated to bring you closer to how it feels being part of VMworld and (from my humble point of view) what drives the community to support such an event.

First thing first, this post is because I am a VMware fanatic and not because I was generously provided with a blogger pass to VMworld.

That said, this is my second VMworld as my first was on 2013 in Barcelona as well but back then I was a community freshman sort of and the event itself was overwhelming where at the end of the event I was like “What happened?“.

So, its 2015 and at this point my community connections and involvement increased and each day I got the chance to participate and take part of various activities and got the chance to interact with a lot of the community members.

Prior to heading to VMworld there was a community scale pre-VMworld preparation, Twitter was going crazy with events and invitations.

In terms of break out sessions, to be honest I did schedule a couple of sessions that from my point of view are preffered to be attended and not just downloaded/watched at a later stage because simply living it is not like watching it :-).

On the other hand, I didn’t fill up the schedule with just sessions, my main target was two things:

1. The Hang Space (interacting with the community).
2. Solutions Exchange (finding the latest, how it works and what could be of benefit for adoption for our customers).

If you look at it from a session-less point of view, these are the real gems of VMworld, where the real treasure hunt begins as you’d never know who announces what and what leads you to where (if that makes sense at all ;-)), every moment you spend in the hang space is a chance to get to know a new person, each moment could bring a new acquaintance which adds to one’s mind and experience.

The solutions exchange, this is where I spent a good share of VMworld time. Why? Simply because it is not right to judge a solution by just looking into what SWAG they offer, nor if they had prepared their booth well for it. For sure marketing is important but sometimes the stuff which you really need but you don’t know might not be marketed as well as it should be.

As such I went into _almost_ all booths and gave the booth presenter his/her time to show me what do they have, some I have requested additional demos and others I frankly gave them my criticism (not that it might be of the asset there) but from my point of view this is being honest with one’s self and with the vendor, conference booths are areas where you can directly get a hands on experience and provide feedback on the spot.

Remember those events that I mentioned earlier being advertised on Twitter, these are also hidden gems that one must keep a keen eye on to be able to follow up and get the chance to participate in them, before each VMworld you can sure find a blog post or two summarizing these events that will be taking place so that you wouldn’t feel the loss if an event comes to pass :-).

The up-above lines were intentionally kept generic and I was keen on not mentioning specifics because it would really reflect a biased point of view and not that which I want to relay.

NOW FOR THE BIASED STUFF ;-)

So here goes:

1. The VCDX workshop offered before VMworld by Chris Colotti (@ccolotti) and lead by Aidan Dalgleish (@AidersD) and Joe Silvagi (@VMPrime), this was absolutely amazing and afterwards the energy I had made me feel like I am ready to defend in the next 5 minutes.
2. vBreakfast driven by my friend Fred Hofer (@Fred_vBrain) where I met a lot of cool and respectable fellow community fanatics.
3. I meet a vDM (Virtual Design Master) contender and VDM003 Steven Viljoen (@StevenViljoen) and he introduced me to the rest of his team whom are spectacular and every energetic and we have decided to form a VCDX study group to help each other become a better designer/defender.

VMworld has imprinted its effect on me, 1 week passed and it went so quickly and so fast, this is something so beautiful; one would really want it to be an on-going practice in his life, the quality of the people sharing their experiences, the respect these people have towards each other and most of all their dedication to helping each other. Also to be honest and biased again :-D I have never ever seen a company so dedicated to its community as VMware is.

I have a lot to say but to reflect how I really feel about VMworld I would simply say: “VMworld is like the gathering at one’s grandmother, its a family reunion with all the glory of bonding and breaking the ice between its members“.

Hopefully this would get you closer to how it was there and how it will be, see you next year hopefully in Barcelona and until then I will miss you all, live long and prosper :-).

(Abdullah)^2