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Over 12,500 people descended on San Francisco’s Moscone Center at the end of August for VMworld 2009.  Out of those masses, twelve took me up on my Portrait Project offer.  This diverse group included VMware vExperts, IT Strategists, and VMware Administrators from around the world.  Below, listed in alphabetic order, is one of the portraits from each of those individuals with a bit of information about them.  Most have an online presence focused on virtualization, so make sure you click through on their photo to visit their site (most provided one).

Thanks to everyone who participated!  What’s amazing, is that if you look at this set of photos you would never guess that they were all take within the same two block area of Moscone Center in San Francisco.  In retrospect, not sure if I would be able to do more than twelve of these during something as hectic VMworld.  We’ll have to see what next year brings…

Jason Boche, Lakeville, Minnesota

Peter van den Bosch, Gouda, the Netherlands

Dave Convery, Philadelphia Area

Jim Jones, St. Marys, Kansas

Ken Jorgensen, Ontario, Canada

Shawn Logan, Alberta, Canada

Vlad Nagornyi, Tucsan, Arizona

Stan Novinsky, Laurel, Maryland

Ron Porter

Bill Morton, Des Moines, Iowa

Seun Solanke, Houston, Texas

Andrew Storrs, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Update: As an added bonus, I even got a portrait of myself thanks to one of the participants!

Your Host: Greg A. Lato, San Francisco Bay Area, Califronia

With the holiday weekend quickly following last week’s VMworld it seems like the show was longer than just a few days ago.  I wanted to thank all 12 of the participants in my VMworld 2009 Portrait Project for their eagerness to participate.  I also want to thank everyone for their patience with the timing of getting their photos.  With the holiday weekend also being my Anniversary I had to dedicate most of the weekend to the Mrs!

Participants can expect an email within the next day or two with a link to their private galleries of photos.

Those who missed the fun, stay tuned for next year and we’ll see if my schedule will allow for this again.

Anyone who puts on a conference has been been concerned over attendance numbers this year.  With a global recession, travel restrictions, and spending cut backs the concern is always “will people show up”.  This was the concern for Cisco Live 2009 and has also been the concern around VMworld.  I have heard that Cisco Live had a better than expected attendance.  With just over 6,000 people registering they ended up with over 10,000 people attending in person.  With VMworld happening in a little under two months at the same location I’m hoping that it too will have record attendance.  After all what better way to save IT Capital than through virtualization?  And success virtualization projects need teams with education and the invaluable networking contacts.

So, who’s planning on attending VMworld 2009 in San Francisco?  I’ll be there.  And I’m looking forward to meeting not only my clients but also some of my readers.    I’m thinking a tweetup or two will be in order!

Now that VMworld 2009 Europe is complete (see previous post to get to a list of summary links), the call is out for Papers and Presentations for VMworld 2009 in San Francisco.  The following solution tracks are currently being planned:

• Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
• Desktop Virtualization
• Enterprise Applications
• Technology & Architecture
• Virtualization 101
• Virtualization Management

Anyone who is interested in presenting can submit their abstract on the VMworld 2009 Call For Papers site.  But you better get crackin’ as key dates are just around the corner:

• June 1st: Notification of Acceptance
• June 19th: First Draft of Presentations due
• July 17: Second Draft of Presentations due
• August 10: FINAL Presentations due
• August 31: DAY ONE of VMworld

I’m looking forward to lots of great stuff again this year at VMworld in San Francisco!

Not all of us were lucky enough to fly to France to attend VMworld Europe.  If you were like me and didn’t get to make it check out Duncan Epping’s post VMworld 2009 Europe Linkage, he has a collage of 76 links to all the key blogger coverage of the event.

And Don’t forget that VMworld 2009 in San Francisco is just 6 months away…here before you know it!  Talk to your boss and start your planning now.  Even with all belt tightening that the current economy is forcing everyone to do this year, missing VMworld can be a penny wise but pound foolish decision.   (and I’m hoping to have one of my customers present this year…)