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Getting Ready for VMworld 2010 (Are You?)

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VMworld 2010 San Francisco is set to start in just four weeks (August 30th – September 2nd).  This year’s VMworld is already shaping up to be a killer event.  Compared to last year’s VMworld, I personally am seeing a 500+% increase in the number of clients of mine who are signed up to attend.  The reasons for this are multiple:

  • Increased demand for virtualization within my clients
  • Expansion from core virtualization (server consolidation) to virtualization to drive business efficiency
  • Planning and deployment of internal private clouds
  • Increased activity in desktop virtualization to help reign in desktop costs and provide a more dynamic and managable desktop environment

If you’re planning on attending VMworld this year, here are a few bits of advice:

  • Browse through the VMworld FAQ soon as possible
  • Use the Schedule Builder early to get into the sessions you want (ever year I hear from clients that the couldn’t get into the sessions they wanted, plan ahead and book early!)
  • The breakout sessions and labs this year are all Self Paced, no need to preregister for anything.  Just show up, pick a technical session from the menu and the environment will be dynamically provisioned for you in the VMworld Cloud.  This is similar to the environment that was used for the VMware Internal Technical Summit earlier this year and I think all VMworld attendees will be amazed by it…  (I’m hoping the Lab Team has the same real time lab cloud portal which shows how many labs are running at any give time, it was mesmerizing to watch.)
  • Make sure you reach out to your VMware account team or TAM (if you have one) and let them know you’re going.  There are lots of opportunities for more direct 1-on-1 conversations that we can arrange, but only if we have time in advance to do it.
  • Bring with some snack bars…there is so much to do and see, I am sure you’ll completely forget about lunch at least one day if not more…

I’ve also been asked by a number of people if I was going to do another VMworld Portrait Project again this year.  Sadly, I won’t be able to.  This year I will be on stand by during all of VMworld as my wife and I are expecting our first born and his due date is right around VMworld.  I’m also planning on taking a few weeks off once he arrives to help adjust to family life, which will make it impossible to quickly turn around photos for people.  What this all means is no portrait project this year…we’ll see what next year looks like.  (I may be walking the halls with camera in tow, so smile if you see me pointing it in your direction!)

Announcing the VMworld 2009 Portrait Project

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Recently I have been wondering if there may be more ways to cross the streams between my day job and my photographic passion. This originally started with me photographing the vSphere launch event back in April.  Recently I come upon a way to extend this to VMworld 2009 while also engaging more directly with my readers.

On Friday I was walking from the San Francisco VMware office to the the garage where I parked my car and ended up walking past the Moscone Center.  As I walked by my mind was in a photography mode and I started noticing how many great locations there are at Moscone for taking portrait photos (something I have been working on lately with my photography, including location lighting techniques).  And guess what, there will be thousands of people coming here for VMworld 2009.  Perhaps there might be a few people who either need or would like to have a new portrait photo taken in this great location?  Like some virtualization  bloggers who haven’t put a photo up on their sites yet to better connect with their readers.  Or some of the social media users who would like to update their online avatar.  Maybe just some attendees who are just looking for a different kind of memorabilia from VMworld.

Bam! My VMworld 2009 Portrait Project was born.

The goal of the project: to provide 15 different VMworld attendees (can also include spouses/significant others) each with two on location portrait photos taken around Moscone Center.

There will be no charge for these portrait shoots, only cost will be your time.  Each participant in the project will be granted fully rights usage to their photographs and will be able to download a high resolution copies of their portraits shortly after VMworld from my photography website.   In exchange, I ask that you give me credit if you use it on a blog and that I retain the right to use these images for an portfolio of portraits (I would like to do a blog post after VMworld with all the portrait taken during this project.

Here is how it will work:

  • Working around the show schedule and my VMworld schedule, I have identified a window of availability each day for doing the portrait photo session (see schedule below, I will cross off slots as they are reserved.)
  • Each window will be 30 minutes and the actual portrait session shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes.
  • We can meet up at the designated spot each day at the start of your session and do the portrait session at one or two different locations of your choosing on the Moscone Center grounds.
  • Reserve you’re spot by posting a comment on this post stating your preferred time slot.  Slots will get assigned in order of comments posted and I will followup with an email confirming you slot.  If you’re a blogger or social media users, please include a link to you site for reference.

Portrait Session Scheduled Start Times

  • Meet at Front Entrance of Thirsty Bear, location of the Sunday Night Extravaganza.
    • Sunday, August 30th, 5:30pm
    • Sunday, August 30th, 6:00 pm
    • Sunday, August 30th, 6:30 pm
    • Sunday, August 30th, 7:00 pm
    • Sunday, August 30th, 7:30 pm

    (Update: Since the SNE is so popular and likely to be overbooked, anyone wanting more slots on Sunday let me know…)

  • Meet at the Moscone Center entrance near the Show Registration booths.
    • Monday, August 31th, 3:00 pm
    • Monday, August 31th, 3:30 pm
    • Monday, August 31th, 4:00 pm
    • Monday, August 31th, 4:30 pm
    • Tuesday, September 1st, 5:30 pm
    • Tuesday, September 1st, 6:00 pm
    • Tuesday, September 1st, 6:30 pm
    • Wednesday, September 2nd, 5:30 pm
    • Wednesday, September 2nd, 6:00 pm
    • Thursday, September 3rd, 2:00pm
    • Thursday, September 3rd, 2:30pm
    • Thursday, September 3rd, 3:00pm
    • Thursday, September 3rd, 3:30pm

Yes, there are more than 15 slots listed above to provide some flexibility.

I’m excited about this stream crossing project and look forward to providing those who participate with a unique VMworld 2009 memento.

Please Note:  After the photo shoot, time is required to process the photos to achieve maximum quality.  Due to my VMworld Schedule and commuting needs during the show, I won’t be able to provide photos until after the show.  Most likely this won’t be until after September 8th as Labor Day weekend is my anniversary (you’ll have to be patient or else my wife might prevent you from ever getting your photos!  JK  🙂  )

The reservation window is open….please help me meet my project goals by spreading the word about this project!  Even if you don’t participate, I’ll see you around the show…I’ll be the one lugging the orange and tan backpack around with my camera out…