Hello hello :)

As the biggest party in my calendar year is upon us, I wanted to make a “100% true to everything I want to do” public google calendar, but I also feel like there’s some things I’d like to write in a blog post and point out that may help anyone reading this.

My public calendar has about everything I have planned and can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/arielsanchezmora/home/calendar

We fly in Saturday. This is my first time travelling to VMworld with my wife being with me the whole week - glad she was able to sign up for some Spousetivities! I’ll want to get to our hotel immediately and then I’ll want to find the truest of gentlemen, Alastair. I’m part of the vBrownBag filming crew this year along with Wesley, Tarsio and Ricardo. Alastair is my lead for all things vBB and Opening Acts. Keeping in touch with Al is a pleasure even when we’re not working together, and I hope my wife gets to meet him and his lovely wife.

Saturday doesn’t have any particular plan. I’ll try to get settled and pickup my badge. It’s no secret that #vCommunity starts Saturday, so hopefully I’ll get to see my friends from NYC, PGH and all over the world for drinks, #vRamen, and most likely EyeCandy at night. If you’re in town, feel free to ask me on twitter where we are or where we’re headed, and if you’re a vExpert, check the #vmworld Slack channel.

My guide for most of the events if Fred Hofer’s excellent blog post. I find it to be the most complete of public repositories, and even though there’s a lot more private things, I’m mostly sticking to things that are there. http://www.vbrain.info/2018/07/02/vmworld-us-2018-parties-gatherings-events-and-more/

Sunday

Things I wish I could attend but won’t:

There’s a vBreakfast I’ve never been to - now in it’s 7th iteration! Organized by Shane Williford @coolsport00. Although the Evenbrite says it’s full, I’ll still show up kinda late with my wife, and if House of Blues can’t take us, we’ll find something else, but at least we’ll have tried :) So this is the first hard entry on my calendar - vBreakfast at 9:30am.

This year I was fortunate to help the amazing VMUnderground crew in whittling down Opening Acts panel topics and in gathering speakers, and I will also help with the A/V side while they are happening. I really hope lots of vCommunity people come, as we’ve tried to keep the topics relevant and fresh and the speakers have a great mix of experience. This is really a “power of the vCommunity” type event, just some guys who decided to put in the hours and find sponsorship for something that ultimately helps everyone. Second entry - Opening Acts, preparation since 11:30 or so, up to 4:30, giving me a little time to pickup and get ready for the night.

Right after it finishes I’m taking a lyft to spend some time with my TAM customers, Carl and Wesley, who will be having fun in TAM day, getting exclusive VMware Executive sessions and 2 solid hours of SME tables. I should be back in time for the TAM Customer reception, which runs from 5 to 6.

But wait, doesn’t the Solution Exchange open at 5pm as well? Yes, yes it does. When Carl and Wes have had enough we’ll head down and take a look at the amazing vendor spaces for the first time. The Welcome Reception finishes at 7:30.

As much as I just love VMUG, I know it’s totally impossible to host 20K people in a party. I didn’t request a VMUG party ticket, as I know it gets full fast - wait line is available and allowed in at 8:30pm. Having said that, I like the quieter, calmer VMunderground party, and I’ve bought tickets every year I’ve been to VMworld. That’s where I’m heading, with my wife. A lot of people give grief about paying for this; if you don’t want to pay $15 for unlimited food and drink, or if you can’t afford the ticket, you can ask a sponsor for one during the Welcome Reception! Those tickets given by sponsors actually get into the party since 7pm, so they’re pretty sweet :) Sponsors are Veeam, VMware vSAN, Datrium, iland, Cohesity, Druva, VTUG and Nexenta, big kudos to them!

Ok, after that, I’ll try catching up with folks at EyeCandy, and going to sleep.

Monday

Monday is pretty chill for me - watch the keynote from the VM village to be ready with the AV setup, see friends who appear nearby, and get some vBrownBag videos recorded! I do stop for two things:

After that, if we still have stamina and time, I may try to go to the amazing parties Rubrik and Cohesity are throwing; but most likely I’ll head to EyeCandy with my wife for some last interaction before crashing in bed with a big smile :)

Tuesday

I’ll start with the vBB crew but I will help with the TAM Customer Central staffing - inside a room this time - from 10:15 to 1:15pm. The only problem time is noon, when the official #vBeards parade and photo will happen. I’ve been growing a beard for 3 weeks for this, so I have got to coordinate a little coverage for that.

I’ll mostly be doing vBB the rest of the day. If I can, I’ll attend the Hall Crawl at 16:30 - 18:00, but that’s optional. If needed I’ll keep recording until we end. I signed up for the Rolta AdvizeX happy hour 18:00 to 20:00 in EyeCandy, and I’ll try to attend even if it’s only a short time, because I have some friends there. After that, the two big featured events are:

Two additional events which I may not be able to participate in, but I’ll keep an eye out:

I doubt we will still have steam for EyeCandy, but that’s probably the last place I’ll check before going to bed.

Wednesday

Latinos @VMworld breakfast - this is very important for me. There’s but a handful of latinos in the vCommunity, and the subset that comes to VMworld is really small, so we’re real friendly and helpful to each other. Invite is available here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XpGhd7KyleiU_yI5xm3jMagj82bOnCJa/view?usp=sharing

I should be able to vBB until the VMUG Leader Lunch - I’m no longer a VMUG leader, but I’m accepting an award! I won’t say much until it actually happens, but being able to help VMUG is one of the things that gives me most satisfaction and an important perk of me working for VMware.

Here’s where my calendar starts getting complicated. I scheduled an IOT / LIOTA Raspberry Pi session, but it conflicts with the vExpertNSX and FutureNet reception. I’ll do as much as I can, because I really want to get familiarized with VMware’s IOT products! Of course doing a vExpert fantasy football draft at the same time doesn’t help at all.

At night, the VMworld Party will be the main focus, but there’s also a fun alternate event which I’ll probably hit right after - if you feel like you would like to go to a LAN Party instead, take a look at this twitter thread https://twitter.com/jhoughes/status/1033159190343294977. I’ll def come to play some #vStreetFighter with my friend Wesley from Brasil.

Thursday

Most of the day I’ll be at FutureNet, an event that I’ve always wanted to do, with one very important exception: the traditional vBrownBag LATAM Panel at 12:15 - 12:30pm on the vBB stage. This is really just an introduction to all the latin VMworld attendees, but it’s important to record it so that others in the future know they can reach out.

VMworld tends to die off on Thursday afternoon, and I have something with my wife planned for the evening, but I’ll likely look for people to have one last good chat with. Typically somewhere we can all sit down and rest :)

Totally happening at random/best effort

Final thoughts

Please, please, if you see me, say hi! I’d love to take a selfie to put together faces and twitter handles. Give me the best advice you have got, or just tell me something cool :)

I leave Friday early. Lastest chance to meet up with someone, maybe for breakfast - but it’s probable that my wife just wants peace and quiet by then! Yeah, I don’t think she knows what she’s signing up for, either, she’ll need a vacation from this vacation :)

Wishing you good things and lots of fun and learning in VMworld 2018!

Ariel