This post is for you are going to VMworld and you're a blogger (or even if you don't think of yourself as a "blogger", but have some sort of website that you'll be updating). Whether you're just taking notes of the breakout sessions for yourself, documenting your trip with snapshots, sharing some choice bon mots on Facebook or Twitter, or revealing your grand unified thesis of the future of virtualization — I want to help you do your thing.
Add your name to the list here: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10597
[I was going to make everybody sign up on a wiki document, but there's a bug with editing vmworld.com documents, so we'll try plan B. If we haven't spoken, just drop me a line at [email protected]. If we have, I know you're coming already.]
By listing your blog, you're alerting me (and the VMworld staff) where you'll be blogging, so we'll make sure we don't miss you. Highlights of interesting and useful blog posts will show up on vmworld.com and this blog. (I can't reproduce your photos on the VMTN Blog without your permission unless you tag them with a Creative Commons license or shoot me an email ([email protected]) telling me I can.) You can (and should) also link/embed videos at the VMworld Video Spot and photos at the VMworld Photo Wall for others to enjoy.
I'll do another post on Twitter tomorrow, but if you're wondering, the hashtag for the conference will be #vmworld, so set up your Twitter search on whatever gadget or laptop you'll be carrying.
At the conference, feel free to drop by the Communities Lounge, meet the community team, including yours truly, and sit for a while. We will have a table with power and Internet connectivity for your on-site blogging needs. I'll also be conducting interviews with various people — customers, partners, VMware employees in the Podcasting Booth. I'd love to have you come in the booth and tell me how VMworld is going for you, and what you're getting out of the conference. If your blogging takes a journalistic bent, there should be plenty of interesting people hanging out in the lounge to interview for your blog as well.
If you are interested in liveblogging the General Sessions (aka Keynotes), we will also have tables with power and Internet – and usually with a great view of the stage. We do have limited seating for these (30 seats), so if you haven't liveblogged before, let me know ([email protected]), so I can judge availability.
And I'm not announcing it here, because a few details remain to be worked out, but there's a very good chance we'll have a little bloggng contest this year, with prizes for the best posts and multimedia, so watch this space.
Above all, whether you're a blgoger or not, have fun, meet as many of your peers at the conference as you can, ask lots of questions, don't be shy around VMware engineers (that's why they are there), don't drink so much you can't make the General Sessions, and we'll see you in San Francisco next week!
–John
