NEVMUG Summer Slam

I'm super excited to be at the NEVMUG summer slam today in Freeport Maine. It's a great place to be in the summer, and it's not 100 degrees like last year. Plus the dinner after the event is great. Some people have accused me of coming to this every year just for the free lobster. I cannot tell a lie, i like lobster and that doesn't hurt but that's not the only reason to come to this event.

It's the biggest IT event in this area. Generally 1200-1400 people come to this event to learn more about virtualization. The great thing though is it really is a user driven event. Though many of the speakers are from vmware, most of the presentations seem to start with "Hey this is me speaking as me, not representing VMware" I think that makes a big difference. Clearly they all believe in vmware or they wouldn't be there but it's good that they get to share their personal views as well.

Its also a great event to meet friends and reconnect, and to network with new people. For example I've got to see Royce Stegman from Brocade who I haven't seen since the last event. My friends from Actifio who have been coming since they started as a company 3 years ago, and I got to meet @nikwik613 in person. We've been following each other on twitter for a while and it was great to put a name to a face or twitter handle I guess. Of course Tim Antonowicz @timantz from Mosaic is here. Matt Stoller who I worked with 10 years ago is presenting and I'll make sure to catch up with him today too. Veeam and I have presented at other conferences and it is always great to see them. Broadleaf, Focus Technology and Dell are regulars as well.

Somewhere around here is the #nerdherd. They are the most social group at these vmug events. We've talked on twitter for a long time but actually never met. Meeting  in person with these guys is on my list as well.

It's a little weird to not be speaking this year. The last 3 years I've either been on a user panel, breakout session or part of the keynote. The good thing is I have more time to tweet and blog and share what I've learned. So far the big takeway is how much I miss these events and wish we had them more often.