VMware – VMworld 2017 – (Fairly) Full Disclosure

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Disclaimer: I recently attended VMworld 2017 – US.  My flights were paid for by ActualTech Media, VMware provided me with a free pass to the conference and various bits of swag, and Tech Field Day picked up my hotel costs. There is no requirement for me to blog about any of the content presented and I am not compensated in any way for my time at the event.  Some materials presented were discussed under NDA and don’t form part of my blog posts, but could influence future discussions.

Here are my notes on gifts, etc, that I received as an attendee at VMworld US 2017. Apologies if it’s a bit dry but I’m just trying to make it clear what I received during this event to ensure that we’re all on the same page as far as what I’m being influenced by. I’m going to do this in chronological order, as that was the easiest way for me to take notes during the week. While every attendee’s situation is different, I took 3 days of holiday time and 3 days of training time to be at this event.

Friday

My employer paid for my taxi to the airport. I flew Qantas economy class from BNE – LAX – LAS courtesy of ActualTech Media. In LA I had a 4 hour layover so I had a breakfast burger at one of the over-priced eateries in Terminal 4. This was paid for by my employer. My taxi to the hotel was also covered by my employer. I stayed at New York New York. The cost of this was very kindly covered by Tech Field Day. On Friday night I did non-VMworld related things (like going to an awesome Kevin Seconds / The Selecter / Dropkick Murphys / Rancid concert) at my own expense.

 

Saturday

I had a few meals over the weekend – these were covered by my employer.

 

Sunday

On Sunday I went to the conference venue and picked up my VMworld backpack (containing a notepad, pen, t-shirt and water bottle). That night there was an attendee welcome reception in the Solutions Exchange. I had 3 Ballast Point beers. I also picked up:

  • A Veeam stubbie cooler (they call them Koozies in the US) and a carry bag;
  • Rubrik socks;
  • ScienceLogic, QNAP and Zerto t-shirts;
  • A Pivot3 cap;
  • A Datrium trucker cap; and
  • A Cohesity vExpert backpack (containing a 6000mAh / 3.7V Giga Charger, h2go arc water bottle, socks, chill copper vacuum 20oz drink container).

Mark Browne very kindly covered my entry to the VMunderground party where I had 3 Lagunitas Aunt Sally beers and some finger food.

 

Monday

I started the conference with the classic “Continental Breakfast”, which consisted of a range of fruit and some orange juice. For lunch I had a caesar salad and some reasonably tasty salmon.

I did another whip around the Solutions Exchange and picked up:

It was Mark Browne‘s birthday, so I met up with him for 3 pints of Guinness at Rí Rá Las Vegas. One of these was paid for by Duke Urch. We had dinner at Hussong’s Cantina. I had the chimichanga and a Modelo Especial. This was kindly paid for by J Metz  and Jason Collier.

 

Tuesday

Most of my Tuesday was spent at Tech Field Day Extra. This was held at the Delano. In the suite I had some coffee, 2 Krispy Kreme donuts and some water. Kingston gave each of us a 64GB USB stick. I had pasta and a bread stick for lunch. Druva gave each of us socks and vTrail map book.

I took an Uber to Lotus of Siam. This was paid for by Tom Hollingsworth. At dinner I had 3 large Singha beers and various dishes, including the garlic prawns and deep-fried banana. It was, as always, very tasty. The meal was paid for by people from Scale Computing, Datrium, Druva, Silicon Valley PR, and Tech Field Day. Transport back to the strip was courtesy of Cody Bunch and his people mover .

 

Wednesday

I grabbed some fruit (the “classic continental”) for breakfast and some coffee. I picked up a vExpert swag bag (containing an “I heart vSphere” sticker, a VMware-branded Tritan water bottle, VMware-branded 4000mAh battery, a $5 discount off the Host Resources Deep Dive book, a vSAN sticker and a USB-C / Lightning cable) from the VMTN & Community area, along with a VMTN Network Member t-shirt.

I did a whip around the Solutions Exchange and also picked up:

  • A Veeam T-shirt and $5 Starbucks gift card;
  • StarWind, ScienceLogic and Zerto t-shirts;
  • A Skytap bottle opener;
  • A Red Hat cap; and
  • A Turbonomic fidget spinner.

I had briefings and sessions throughout the official lunch period, so I bought a Rocket burger, fries and a chocolate shake from the Johnny Rockets at the conference centre. This was covered by my employer. I did a little time at the VMUG booth and picked up a VMUG stubbie cooler and sticker. I then grabbed an IBM WebCam cover on my way out the door. At the appreciation party I had 3 “hot dogs”, a pretzel, a Shock Top Belgian White beer and 3 Goose IPA beers. The hot dogs are in quotation marks because I’m not sure what they were but given an appropriate amount of mustard and tomato sauce they were close to edible. At the end of the event I retreated to New York New York for 2 Heinekens and a slice of pizza.

 

Thursday

For breakfast I had the classic continental, consisting of a fruit cup and orange juice. I randomly encountered David Glynn and he gave me a VMworld backpack. For the last lunch of the conference I had some ham and turkey sandwiches, salad and a coffee. Once the conference finished up I shared a Lyft to the airport with a friend and his wife. Please now enjoy this photo of a baseball card with my likeness on it.