- Book as early as possible! I realize post is coming too late for this year, but there is always next year. Early booking will get you better ticket prices at VMworld. It also gets you better options for accommodation, usually cheaper and closer to the venue - or both. I found a great place back in May when I booked my accommodation, about 5 minutes walk from the Moscone Center. I found it through AIrbnb.com. I recommend using Airbnb.com, especially in San Francisco, as this is the city from which Airbnb originated and the range and value for money is so much better. Hotels in SF are mostly small and expensive. With Airbnb.com, you get to meet the locals, live like a local and in my experience you can find an awesome loft space all to yourself, as opposed to a tiny hotel room for significantly less money. And of course the money you save from booking early can be used for more important things, like drinks!
- If you can, get to San Francisco on Saturday. You will be able to register on Saturday instead of doing it on Sunday with most of the crowd. That way you can spend more of your time on Sunday diving into the Hands-On-Labs. That leaves the remainder of VMWorld for you to attend more sessions or use the time for the Hall Crawl and Hangout Space and meeting people.
- Bring an easily carried bag to supplement the backpack you get during registration. This is especially helpful for Hall Crawl. If you are anything like me, the swag and information you’ll be collecting along the way will get unwieldy. And it’s good for keeping your notebook for questions and notepaper, pens, iPads and other gadgetry. Also great for keeping a few snacks and a bottle of water that you might need on the go between sessions to keep you fueled.
- Dress comfortably and wear comfortable shoes. This is all probably redundant for nerds but just in case you’re not thinking about it, you will be sitting around in sessions and then on your feet and doing a lot of walking as well so you might as well be nice to the dogs. This brings me to the other clothing issues for SF…
- Pack a warm sweater and a light winter jacket or bring your VMUG windbreaker and you won’t be sorry you did! San Francisco is not like everywhere else in the US during August. Mark Twain is often incorrectly credited with the line “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” While the progeny of the saying may be wrong, the quip is accurate. This unpredictable micro-climate has fog rolling in during summer afternoons that can drop the temp 20 degrees in an hour and bring some major chill factor.
- Bring business cards with you – preferably your own. With the estimated 22,000 people attending this year (not including vendors and staff) you are likely to meet a ton of people - the card will come in handy so you can stay in touch and email that person you met later on and so they can get a hold of you. If you don’t have business cards, order some cheapies for $10 bucks for 200 before you go from somewhere like Vista Print and include your name, what your title is (or what you think it should be) your email, your phone number, twitter account, and anything else that you think is vital. Despite being nerds on the very cutting edge of tech, it's still the easiest just to hand someone a business card.
- Attend the special events by vendors. Vendor parties give you the chance to have your say and to ask the vendor questions you may have either from your work or from one of the sessions at VMworld. Here is where you can get real answers as the vendor’s engineers are attending as part of the team. And perhaps more importantly, the drinks are free!
- Spend some time planning your sessions before they happen so you don’t get caught in the “Damn I missed that session I really wanted to attend” situation and so you can time your exit from one session and make the next one you want to be part of.
- Presenters will be answering questions after sessions so if you have a question, write it down so you know it makes sense and keep it brief and to the point. This is just polite so everyone gets their questions answered and you look like you have your shit together.
- Plan on having a great time! Come expecting to learn a lot. Be safe, be social, be polite, be open and be kind! After all, it is San Francisco. And if you see me there among the throngs, please come and say “Hi” to me. Thanks for reading my BLOG!
You can follow my “Adventures at VMWorld2014” on twitter, @VirtualNoob, for the instant play-by-play and game highlights and witty comments almost as they happen!
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| Yep, that's me, John Mendoza |
For more information about VMWorld, click here.
For more information about VMUG, click here.
For more information about VMWare, click here.
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