So, VMworld is now behind and it's time to summarize my feelings right after the event.
Was it worth it?
As a whole, absolutely. But I have to open this a little bit.
I'm 100% technical guy, so I'm quite bad target for a marketing propaganda. And on a conference like that, there is lot's of propaganda for you to watch and hear. For example partner day did not give me much, BUT, as a first timer, it was not total waste either (I'll explain this later)
Some of the brake-out sessions were awesome (example: VAPP2979 - Advanced SQL Server on vSphere Techniques and Best Practices), but some were not that great. Even some deepdive sessions feel more like a marketing sessions than technical sessions. But mostly those sessions that I attended, were good.
In Solutions Exchange there were lots of vendors marketing their own products and solutions. I had some good discussions with different vendors over there. But did I really get much out from it? To be honest, maybe not us much us I could have.
There was also place where to do Hands-On-Labs, aka. HOL's. Of course, you can do those anytime, anywhere, if you just have internet connection. But do you have time to do those at work? Or do you want to spend your evenings doing these at home? Most of us don't have that time. So, VMworld was good place to to those also.
And of course, certification center. This year it was possible to do with tests with 50% discount.
How it felt for a first timer?
First of all, this was first big IT-congress for me, so in that way, everything was new and exciting. And for being there for the first time, that partner day was not that waste. It was a good day to walk around and find out where everything is. And to do HOL's, because even in VMworld, you don't have time to do those because there is so many interesting sessions.
Schedule building was challenge, but I think that I did it quite well. One sad thing was, that it was only two weeks before conference that I had possibility to register to event, and start scheduling break-out sessions. So, some of the most interesting sessions were already full. So, book early, get to the best sessions.
Schedule was also challenge from different angle. Congress center was huge, and it took time to walk from one place to another. For example, if you had 30 minutes time between sessions, it didn't make sense to walk to Solutions Exchange because you would need to go back to sessions hall almost immediately. For that reason I skipped some sessions to crawl around Solutions Exchange. And on one day, I actually missed warm meal because I had built myself too tight schedule.
Some days were also quite long, on Wednesday last session ended at 18:30 (and after that, there was VMworld party :) )
Again on next year?
I missed some very interesting session because they were fully booked, so why not. Tt's hard to say at this point if is it possible for me to go there next year. But one thing is sure, if I'm going, I have to be able to get my conference registration done way earlier than this year.
This years event was great for me, I learned some new things and got lot's of small tips. And, I also made some new friends and got new contacts, things that are often underestimated, but are something that money cannot buy.
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