By Brad Tompkins
Professional Development and continuing education are top of mind for VMUG members. According to the annual VMUG Member Survey, professional development was ranked #1 most important reason for being involved with VMUG over the past two years. One way to keep your technical skills sharp is by attending VMware’s vForum Online on April 24th. This half-day event is from 11:30 am – 4:30 pm CT.
Pat Gelsinger will be the keynote speaker of this event and he always does a fantastic job of sharing his knowledge of VMware and the industry. I always enjoy hearing Pat speak and that’s one of the reasons I recommend you attend.
Following the keynote, there will be multiple breakout sessions. These are tagged so you can find the content you need. Cloud and data center, network and security, and digital workspace are different tracks you can choose, or mix and match based on the sessions you find most beneficial.
There will also be “Chat with Experts” sessions. These sessions are round table discussion with experts to answer your questions. They follow the vForum Online tracks, but the experts are also available for any other questions you may want to bring to the table, including environment-specific questions.
The third main content track includes Hands-On Labs. There is no better way to get experience than hands-on. If you have not participated in a Hands-On Lab, this is where you get to test drive the software in an environment that gives you the experience of a production environment. Make sure to try it out if you have not done so yet!
I enjoy vForum Online because it is free and web-based. You can participate at your office or home, or anywhere there is good internet. The online format also allows you to chat with other attendees. This is especially good during sessions so you can ask your questions without interrupting the speaker. Many times, the speaker is also answering the question live for you. It really is neat to get to see the presentation and speak to the presenter at the same time. Sessions are recorded so you can watch what you missed or review a session.
The exhibit hall is a good resource. Here you can find VMUG, of course, and visit with other members. You can also purchase VMUG Advantage, our premium subscription. You will find partners and VMware booths as well. The technology allows you to chat with partners just as you would in person. I encourage you to speak to a partner you have not heard of or done business with. You may learn something even if it is just confirming your incumbent vendor.
Finally, you can find me closing Sai Gopalan and Jeremiah Megie’s session, Creating a Flexible Cloud Architecture with VMC on AWS. I’ll be giving a brief overview of VMUG and giving a discount code for VMUG Advantage. A nice ending to an informative session.
To register or to find out the agenda and more details, visit https://bit.ly/2VWUXBQ.
Be sure to find me during the event. I’ll look forward to vSeeing you there!
Brad Tompkins
Executive Director, VMUG
Twitter: @BradTompkins_
