[Update 8/26/2019: No vBrownBag live stream this year, there is, however, a delayed stream going, so you can still catch content, just not in real time. See the vBrownBag YouTube page for the stream and individual recordings.]
While the lead up to VMworld can be an exciting time as email boxes fill with activity invites and social channels fill with travel and meetup arrangements, for those not attending it can trigger feelings of missing out. Be it a lack of travel funds, underway projects, or commitments to family not everyone in the virtualization community will be walking the halls of the Moscone Center this week for the 2019 US edition of VMworld. However, there are many ways to take in the happenings in and around VMworld remotely.
Live Opportunities
There are several opportunities to catch VMworld activities live as they happen. Each of these are usually available in recorded form post-show as well, providing an opportunity for time-shifted consumption.
Monday and Tuesday General Sessions The VMworld general sessions with VMware’s leaders Pat Gelsinger (@pgelsinger), Sanjay Poonen (@spoonen), and Ray O’Farrell (@ray_ofarrell) can be found in livestream and recorded form on the VMworld website.
SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE theCUBE provides live coverage and interviews from many industry events, including VMworld. Guests include industry leadership and prominent community members. As theCUBE is produced on the show floor, special guests are known to make unscheduled appearances.
Opening Acts Opening Acts is a set of community drive panel sessions on Sunday afternoon. These are often streamed lived, this year’s website notes attendance options of “In person or (hopefully) live streamed on YouTube” so hopefully steamed attendance will be possible.
vBrownBag Tech Talks The vBrownBag Tech Talks occur throughout VMworld. These are short (12 or 27 minutes) talks from members of the community. You can find the schedule in the VMworld Content Catalog. Among these sessions is vExpert Daily at 11am on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. For each of these sessions host Michael Letschin (@mletschin) is joined by a panel of vExperts for daily recaps of the event and that morning’s announcements.
In addition to these sources of live content, there are also a variety of activities streamed from the vendor and community spaces. This might be content from VMUG, companies, or individual community members.
Social media, particularly twitter, provides another great way to keep up with VMworld in real time. Following general conference tags such as #VMworld, as well as organizations with a larger presence at VMworld (for example VMUG or a favored vendor) can help in both keeping up with the conference as well as finding other opportunities (such as livestreams) to consume conference content.
Individual sessions can be followed by their session id from the content catalog. These session tags provide a way to focus in on content of interest. For example #DW3459KU for Showcase Keynote: Becoming a Champion of Digital Employee Experience with Shawn Bass (@shawnbass), Shankar Iyer, and members of VMware’s EUC team or #VMTN5026U for Chris Hildebrant’s (@childebrandt42) Automating VDI Tasks, the story of the life of a VDI admin. While some sessions may not generate much activity on social media, for the ones that do, you’ll be able to find announcements, content, and pointers to other online resources.
Recorded and Post-Show Content
Following streams and tweets online can also highlight breakout sessions to view in full as recordings become available, especially those that might be overlooked in the session catalog. Another resource for finding sessions of interest are the VMware company blogs. Many of the business units and subject mater experts within VMware produce pre-conference posts highlighting particular sessions. For example, the Security & Compliance blog has VMworld 2019: Top 10 Security Sessions (and 2 Keynotes) You Must Watch, End User Computing has Interested in EUC? Schedule these VMworld Workspace ONE sessions! and Sign Up Today for VMworld’s Most Actionable Horizon Sessions, and the Cloud Native Apps blog features Kubernetes is Set to Take Over VMworld US 2019: Here’s What to See and Do.
While session content generally records well, some activates at VMworld are much less camera friendly. Two popular non-session activities at VMworld are the Design Studio Sessions and Hands on Labs. Design Studio Sessions allow participants to provide feedback to the product design teams at VMware. In addition to finding these sessions at VMworld, online sessions are held though out the year. Sign for these online sessions can be found on VMware Design’s Research Page. Hands on Labs provide an opportunity to try out new products and releases outside of daily production environments. New labs are released first at VMworld followed by post show availability online at hol.vmware.com.
Finally, much of the product announcements, content, and peer interaction is available to you without plane travel via local VMUG events. Some groups have specific post-VMworld events, such as Anchorage VMUG’s VMworld 2019 Recap or Central Pennsylvania VMUG’s September Harrisburg Meeting – VMworld Wrap Up. Others may include it as part of a larger event, such as Tampa VMUG’s TAMPA VMUG September 2019 Meeting which includes “VMworld 2019 recap!” as part of their afternoon agenda. Additionally, VMUG is promoting #VMUGSimpleSeptember providing an opportunity to chat with fellow community members.
Hopefully these resources help to connect remotely with the activities, news, and people that make up the VMworld event. Look for additional content pointers on my twitter account during the week.
