I will be listing the parties I am attending and will add links to others at the same time if I find them. The list might/will also change maybe even during the week of VMworld. Have blast out there but be aware: I tend to go to a BYOW(allet) parties. If you are out there not to spend a dime and to abuse the goodness of the vendors you probably won’t find a friend in me!
(my) Shedule
- Tuesday …
- Wednesday 20:00 – #StorageBeers – Storage people always have room for a decent beer. Come join me and Georgiana Comsa if you are already in the Valley. RSVP here.
- Thursday …
- Friday …
- Saturday 19:00 #vBeers – for a lot of people amongst us that first official/unofficial meeting each other again or for the first time. Here is the #vBeers landing page and RSVP here.
- Sunday 08:00 – 11:00 #vBreakfast – for the ones that didn’t have their first VMWorld meetup this is your second chance. It’s that time where nothing has to be done yet next to registering and maybe getting ready for #vOdgeball. RSVP here.
- Sunday 14:00 – 16:00 #v0dgeball – The annual “v0dgeball” tournament was one of VMworld 2012’s most popular events and helped raise over $12,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project. vOdgeball is back for 2013, and there are plenty of rivalries to be rekindled and scores to be settled – organised by EMC – RSVP Here.
- Sunday 16:00 – 19:00 – Official VMworld Welcome Reception. I don’t really know yet if you’ll find me here but there are no better alternatives yet available.
- Sunday 20:00 – 23:00 – #VMunderground. The party by the community for the community. Sponsored by many (Infinio, Nexenta, Tom’s IT Pro, Veeam, VMUG, Nutanix, TrainSignal, …), attended by EVERYONE (that gets in). You definitely want to make sure you have reserved this party on time! More details on this landing page.
- Monday 19:00 – 20:30 – #vFlipCup – if you thought v0dgeball can be competitive, wait till we add booze to the party/challenge! Sponsored by Actifio this is definitely a party to attend! Here are the details
- Monday 21:00 – 00:00 – #CXIparty sponsored by Infinio – just the place to be that night. Lots of community guru’s to be expected. RSVP Here.
- Tuesday 20:00 – 23:00 – #VeeamParty – at VMworld there is only 1 party really worth the name and it’s this one. I haven’t found any official news yet but it is quit safe to assume it will be at the same slot as last year. I don’t know yet if I will be attending personally but you should be!
- Tuesday 22:00 – 00:00 – #vBacon – no comment necessary – expect Bacon, Beer & Unicorns, not specifically in that order. RSVP Here. Sponsored by Cisco
- Wednesday 19:00 – … – #UNparty – yeah, I never go to conference parties. The beer sucks, the food is horrible (if there is food) and sometimes the band’s not really worth going. This time the venue is awesome but the group is crap. So I will stick to my principles and have RSVP’d here.
- Wednesday 23:00 – … – #vStogies – A must for everyone that love a good smoke. Even if you don’t, this is a meetup of some of the finest people in the community! RSVP Here.
- Thursday 17:00 – … – #BeerTweetup – some of you might be leaving already, others might have crashed. But I can’t leave town without a decent Beer Tweetup. There are 2 venues on my mind of which 1 a lot of you remember from last years UNparty. Details to be disclosed later. Definitely going to be BYOW(allet) but I’ll make sure we can start/stop early and that there will be food involved.
Other Parties
There will be a list available at the VMworld website for all social activities but I’ll summarize the ones I would find interesting but probably won’t make it due to above schedule. You have a party I should mention? Give me a link on twitter.
Work Hard – Party Hard – BE SMART
There simply is no conference like VMworld. The amount of content (sessions, vBrownBags, Solutions Exchange, …) together with the huge level of personal networking is unseen (by me). I stopped counting after having met 30.000 people last year (kidding). With that I want to say: you can’t get it all! Be smart and choice what you want to get from VMworld. As you have seen in the fun part of the post parties come in all flavors and with all kinds of people. Choose wisely where and how much! Don’t forget that 8 hours on the show floor and 8 hours of party are not even short when going party hard! I’ll add a few of my personal tips how I get through a week like this:
Shoes: you don’t care about etiquette at a conference like VMworld. The only thing that counts is being comfortable. If you want to wear sandals with white socks, this is the only place I will allow you to do that, if it is the most comfortable way for you make it through. So for shoes; whatever fits best but take a few pair.
Socks: goes together with the shoes actually. Change socks and shoes anytime you can. I try to change socks/shoes at least once a day, preferably after the convention hours and before partying.
Shower: this is a big winner; take an extra shower while you are going to your hotel to change shoes/socks. It will not only fresh you up, you will also not be the one people remember of being at that invitation only party with smelly armpits.
Drinks: let’s focus for once on the healthy part of liquids here. I don’t care what you drink during the parties but please drink WATER any other time. WATER is probably the most important part of getting through this week alive. While I travel I only live on water (has to do wth jetlag control) but at the conferences as well. There are multiple reasons for this:
- Never get thirsty. A golden rule all sports people know is that by the time you feel thirsty you are already performing at over 20% less of your capacity. This is especially so for endurance. A conference is all about endurance!
- Drinking soda’s will burn your stomach. Plain and simple. You wouldn’t be the first complaining after 3 days diet of diet Pepsi (pun intended).
- Drink water (at least a pint) before going to sleep, whatever the condition you ae in at the time or what hour that is. Nothing beats a hangover better than drinking water before you fall face down next to your bed.
- Sometimes overlooked: drinking lots of water drains a lot of the bad substances in that horrible conference food.
Sleep and rest: I don’t sleep, I don’t rest and I drink beers like a horse. This is very unhealthy and after VMworld or any conference that length I almost crash at the end. Whether or not you are also like me there is one wild card I always keep in the deck: crash halfway on purpose. Others could call this recharging the batteries. Either sleep till midday or leave everyone around 4PM and take the second part of the day off. Enjoy a good meal on your own, disconnect devices, take a very long relaxing bath, … indulge yourself! And lay down for hours. It doesn’t really have to be sleeping but lay down until you really kick yourself out from boredom. This way you might make it to that last Beer Tweetup on Thursday 😉
Time-Out: being away for a week thousands of miles away from home makes you want to go back as fast as possible which results in never really seeing the cities you visit. If you do have the time for an extra day, take it AFTER the conference. You have 2 great advantages: you can get relaxed before getting home because that’s where all the chores have been waiting for a week already. Secondly you had a whole week planning that extra day. You really know what to visit, how the get there, what it will cost and you probably have an alternative as well. Doing this before the conference is asking for disappointment.