Every year since Greg has been doing this, I’ve been telling you about it, and hoping that one of you will win! I mean, ONE of you will win, certainly.. and I want to make sure that as many people get their opportunity for their free pass and all the rest to get there and experience VMworld for themselves!
I’m in the process of writing the 2013 Guide to VMworld as I write this, but you have –10- days to enter and win this contest, so I wasn’t going to let it wait any longer! Get over to vDestination.com and ENTER and hopefully WIN!
Some of you might be asking, “Is anyone else running a contest like this?” Well… a FEW companies were, but they aren’t running it anymore. As in, it’s over. This may be your last chance. But also, let it be known… if you’re buying passes for VMworld, Early-Bird discounts are still available and good until June 10th. So you have 6 days to get $500 off… so if you work for a not-so-cheap-ass company who can send you, get them a discount! :)
From 2001 until 2006 I would regularly do presentations on OMG THERE’S FREE TRAINING OUT THERE WHY AREN’T YOU USING IT. Which even culminated in the release of a Technical Offerings training deck as noted in this blog post I published in 2006 (Yes, Seriously, in 2006) Well, guess what. A lot of that data is STILL highly relevant even today! So… Let’s get started! :)
Training Videos
Microsoft
Kicking off the realm of training videos I’d like to highlight our good friends at Microsoft with their release of the Microsoft Virtual Academy!
The MVA has a LOAD and I mean a serious LOAD of information, from Training Videos, Courses, Tutorials, Walkthroughs, even Tests and points and contests to increase not only the ‘fun factor’ but provide additional context in your education. For those of you VMwarriors out there who will discard this and say BLAH, SHOW ME THE VMware STUFF. I even did a little search for VMware in the “Quick Search” button and lo and behold lookie at the results!
So whether you are a rockstar, a seasoned professional or someone looking to get started and want to know where to get some good and valuable information without spending hours and $$$ in a classroom, this is definitely an excellent way to get started, so jump on in!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE FROM MICROSOFT?!?!
I know some of you are fighting the constant battle of “Damnit, can I attend Microsoft TechEd or not…” And with TechEd 2013 going to be in New Orleans I cannot blame you in the LEAST! But for those of you who just truly cannot find the time, the ability and are able to get away… something you should know.
ALL MICROSOFT TECHED CONTENT IS AVAILABLE FREE WHETHER YOU ATTEND OR NOT.
Yea. Seriously. It is. It actually has been for like the last… Oh I don’t know… since 2004 I believe? And all of that past-content since they started posting and making it available online has been posted online. For some reason I’m only able to find the 2012 content and the 2011 Archive but who really needs access to material on product versions which may not even exist or are supported anymore, if you truly need that let me know and I’ll find the link!
TrainSignal
A lot of you are familiar with TrainSignal and the loads of great content they create, produce and respectively sell out there (You can get access to their paid training video series and content on their website, Trainsignal.com) But when I reached out to their President asking, “Hey, you have any freeeeeee stuff!?!?!?” He pointed me over by here! So here is a whole bunch of videos freeeeeeeeeeeee of charge! And of course, don’t hesitate to check out the amazing content produced by the likes of Scott Lowe and David Davis and others!
Ya know… as an example here! :)
That should get you going on quite a load of stuff from Microsoft, to VMware, to Citrix and Cisco and beyond! But let’s drill down a bit into VMware now…
VMware
When it comes to VMware there are loads and loads (and loads) of information in the world, and often we never really know where to start… Well, here is a place to start and it’s home is in YouTube!
Yea, that’s lame right? I mean on YouTube there’s like a dozen channels?!?! Well, there are. Just go and use them. BAM, and BOOYAH.
VMworld Presentations are FREE TOO LIKE TECHED?!?!?
Well, no. Not exactly. Sorry! Although this last year VMUG Advantage did have a brief offer for free access to the VMworld content if you signed up for that… I’m unable to find any data on it at the moment, so that may have expired, but it’s still worth checking out!
SHOW ME THE LABS BABY!
You asked for Labs and here they are! More labs than you can shake a stick at!
Err, okay, maybe that was a little too literal! Let’s get on with our labs though!
FREE Hands On Labs from Microsoft!
The thing about Microsoft is… for 8+ years they’ve had FREE access to all of their products in a Try-Before-You-Buy model where you can DOWNLOAD any Product and play with it (okay, seriously that’s been around for going on 20 years) but they also instituted the Hands On Labs where the lab environments would BUILD themselves, provide you with a Lab guide to follow (or ignore) and learn and play with it that way. Not to mention all of the content they’d have in the Hands on Labs at TechEd would be POSTED and made available for you to go in and learn, explore and beyond!
This isn’t something new, it’s been around FOREVER, Here are links to where you can access it (as it’s actually available in several places).
Disclaimer: When I wanted to test something out, I’d spin up a lab which was designed to ‘best practice’ and go in and do whatever I wanted, I mean it was a lab environment available in minutes. Why not?
Interesting Fact, some of the types of labs and solutions available out there which you can play and learn from:
How to setup a product from scratch, like Sharepoint, Microsoft Exchange, SQL
How to MIGRATE a product from one version to another (like those products mentioned above and more)
How to Develop in a language like C#, Visual Studio, Azure, PowerShell and more
How to do other advanced types of things
Alllllllllllll the labs that were available at TechEd, so you know what that means… and if not, check it out!
You can find TechEd Labs in the Additional Content section here with this flask icon next to it!
Here at the MSEvents site there are a number of Virtual Labs on the “Virtual Labs” tab to choose and play from!
At the TechNet Virtual Labs site you can dive a little deeper on more Microsoft Technologies…
Looking to dive even deeper, the MSDN Virtual Labs site will take you there.
So if for a minute you thought this was going to be easy, or a single click site with all the answers. HAH.
FREE HANDS ON LABS FROM VMware?!??!
Well, not exactly.. I mean, sort of, kind of… but, well, let me explain. VMware recently announced “Project Nee” my dear friend Simon Seagrave talks about about it here at his blog. But ultimately, what Project Nee is intended to be is… VMware Hands On Labs publicly available online. However it is still in Beta at the moment. You can follow details of the VMware Hands On Labs by going here to the VMware Hands On Labs community!
Some additional places not even mentioned but you should check out, and all of the cited links for easy access and consumption:
So hopefully those of you out there who are looking to stay relevant, continue educating yourselves, maybe even heading down the certification track and whatnot will find this of benefit. I won’t lie to you, I’ve used these resources countless times over the years and I encourage others to. If you have any other sites to suggest, toss em into the comment section… This is an epic resources to reference from here until well.. until I write another one ;)
I know what you’re saying, “Hey, Christopher isn’t asking us to take time from our schedule to go vote for some sessions, right” Yes. Yes I am. I don’t think you could have possibly understood any clearer exactly what my intentions were so wholly in one single breath! Seriously though, Voting is ENDING I know that a lot of you still haven’t voted, waiting for the last minute potentially. Guess what. We’re at the last minute! Let’s take the opportunity to vote for some sessions, several of which are near and dear to my heart. This won’t be an overwhelming list. Just a few sessions which will be epic, presented by people I care about who are also rock stars in their own right, so who wouldn’t want to listen to them ‘blah blah blah’ about virtualization, right?
CLICK HERE TO VOTE!!! <- Just incase you’re unable to see the image above, now votevotevote!
VOTE FOR MY SESSION! – Shameless Plug!
The following session is my own. Please vote for it. Thanks! :)
Session: 2318 – Title: “Platform as a Service with VMware vCloud Director: As Seen from the Trenches and Ivory Towers”
Description: Come hear Industry Experts and VMware vExperts, Damian Karlson (@sixfootdad) and Christopher Kusek (@CXI) discuss IT Transformation and Platform as a Service enabled by VMware Cloud Director. This session will address the hard and fast facts encountered. Real world scenarios and challenges experienced by REAL VMware Cloud Director deployments. Drive Platform as a Service from Proof of Concept to Production with insightful tips and tricks., Hard and fast considerations to remove roadblocks to success. What role does Platform As A Service play in an overall IT As A Service transformational effort? Architecting PaaS with VMware vCloud Director and EMC VSPEX reference architectures. Technology is easy, but what about the people and processes?
Vote for these sessions ! ! ! ! !
Session: 1968 – Title: “Beyond Cloud Readiness: Is Your Organization Ready for vCloud Director?”
Description: Come hear Cloud Rangers JP Morgenthal (@jpmorgenthal) and Damian Karlson (@sixfootdad) discusses assessing your organization’s readiness for vCloud Director. The vCloud Director product is designed to help organizations deliver ITaaS and implies a certain organizational state. Understand the foundation of delivering IT-as-a-Service, A framework and tools to return back to the office and perform a self-assessment for vCloud Director Readiness, An understanding of the impact of IT transformational activities on successfully implementation. A Healthcare example will be included. IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) requires coherence across systems, policies, processes, organizational structure and business alignment. vCloud Director enables customers to build secure, multitenant hybrid clouds. However, the tool is only as good as the operator.
Session: 2116 – Title: “Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server Has Gone Mainstream – Best Practices For Success”
Description: 2012 is quickly becoming the year that virtualization of Microsoft SQL Server has gone mainstream. Many organizations are pushing to not only virtualize their existing SQL Server platform but also migrate to the new release of SQL Server 2012. How an organization can benefit by virtualizing their SQL Server environment, The proper upfront work and best practices for successful virtualization, What the new SQL Server release does to improve availability over physical deployments. Why is 2012 the year of mainstream Microsoft SQL Server virtualization? What are the benefits of virtualizing SQL. How does Microsoft SQL Server 2012 help drive mainstream SQL virtualization? What are some best practices when virtualizing SQL Server? – Presenter: Matt Liebowitz
Session: 1222 – Title: “Design, Deploy, and Optimize SharePoint 2010 on vSphere”
Description: SharePoint Server is a perfect candidate for virtualization. Physical implementations suffer from many limitations, including time wasted waiting for servers to arrive, waiting for software to load and testing complex HA and DR designs. Application Virtualization, Business Continuity, VMware Site Recovery Manager, Backup, Microsoft SharePoint Virtualization, Healthcare customer example. Introduction and Benefits, Performance, Capacity Planning, Workload Modeling and Architectural Design, SQL Server Capacity and Performance, Deploying to ESX/ESXi, Availability and Recovery – Presenter: Itzik Reich
Session: 2483– Title: “Enterprise Adoption of Private Clouds – What’s the Holdup?
Enterprise private clouds are here. VBlock is real. Clouds provide a vastly improved means for business users to receive the computing power they need, when it’s needed. So why hasn’t traditional IT provisioning been replaced by internal clouds already? What’s the holdup? This panel will take a look at the compute management and IT provisioning problems faced by large enterprise customers today, how private clouds will solve those problems, and barriers to adoption. – Presenter: Ted Newman, Michael Ryan
That’s right, I am asking you *point blank* to vote for sessions: 2318, 1968, 2116, 1222 and 2483. These are many guys you know and love such as. @cxi @sixfootdad, @vCTO, @mattliebowitz and @Itzikr – So, suck it up, take a few minutes go vote vote vote and let’s rock it out like rockstars. Does voting guarantee you a place at my #CXIParty at VMworld? Sure. Why not. Let’s say that. :) Let’s just say, that’s still in the planning stages (SF is a horrible place to throw a large party!)
Look forward to your votes! Get out there, vote early and vote often! :)
This is specifically written for those attending VMworld, it doesn’t HAVE to be exclusive to there, but it’s next week and I want to lay out some things between now and then, maybe start a hiring revolution! :)
Let’s be realistic and practical. Not everyone in the world is GREAT at finding out who is hiring, and on the same sense of it, it can be a great challenge to identify the right resources to transform your organization, or even to find people with the right skills you’re looking for because lets face it, I’ve only met a handful of recruiters who know WTF they’re doing. A HANDFUL. If you disagree; yea lets be serious, you DON’T disagree :)
That said, lets skip the BS and go right to the hiring managers and the candidates, get down to brass tacks; or AKA: Lets CHEAT!
The hiring managers way to cheat in recruiting – Tips for #CXIParty
I had this idea WHOA, WOULDN’T IT BE COOL IF
People put an “H” on their name badge if they’re a hiring manager
Put an “H+” if they’re a hiring manager and have REQs open
Put an “H-“ if they’re hiring but do not have REQs open yet?
Whoa, I didn’t just oversimplify and CHEAT THE SYSTEM. Yea that’s right bitches! It doesn’t have to be complicated. But you might ask “Why go through this form of parlance? Why not simply let people engage in conversation” Oh, I encourage that, but please allow the following scenario to play out.
You are attending VMworld with your CompanyX you may be traveling with co-workers, your management, whatever. You’re officially or unofficially looking to change careers, companies, whatever. Do you walk up to people and go OMG I LOVE YOUR COMPANY I WANT TO WORK HERE. Yea, you’re talking to a guy who will never have a REQ in the history of REQs. Seriously. You pass your resume to him, and he hands it off to some clueless recruiter who ignores all of the good candidates and sends them to a heaping pile of crap. Oh do please stop me if I’m wrong. But the difference between a GOOD recruiter and a BAD recruiter is the ability to pick up the phone and send an email. Bad Recruiter… I think they’re busy trying to find their next job. #grin
Okay, taking a step back from the little Recruiter tirade (it’s true, and it’s honestly frustrating :)) Imagine how much easier that would be! What I’d typically ask people who DO have REQs are where they are in the chain, how serious they are, and what kind of skills they’re looking to fill (also what travel is involved) not because *I* am looking but because I know a lot of you (okay, most of you) and I talk with you regularly about your careers; it’d be nice to help out the two of you [hence this blog post as well ;)]
So I encourage you hiring managers attending VMworld and attending #CXIParty to put a H and/or H+ on your badge… you might just find yourself filling reqs like mad y0! :)
The hiring managers way to cheat in vetting a candidate!
Now that you’re being hit up by various people noticing the H on your badge, what next? You find a nice guy or girl who seems to have some passion, some drive, some interest; they expressed an interest in talking to you about your company that’s encouraging right? Sure it’s a good start. But let the vetting begin! One thing you’ll find is the case at someplace like #CXIParty is.. a lot of us KNOW each other. And if we don’t know each other it’s a good way to hit it off. So lets say you find a candidate you’re interested in; you can get LIVE REFERENCES [omg, right!?] but what if they’re not someone who is known by everyone, don’t fret! One thing you’ll also find is… OMG WE’RE GEEKS. Okay, not all of us are, but a lot of us are, and if put into a situation to show off our mad street cred around something like virtualization it’s a good way to determine how one would respond and react to the situation. Sure you can ask them HOW MUCH RAM AND HOW MANY vCPUS CAN YOU SUPPORT. Wow, I couldn’t figure that out from a Google search, but force them into a deep heated conversation around architectural considerations of an obscure environment and how they’d go about deploying and designing a self service provisioning architecture driven by a portal… or something…. And you’ll see JUST what kind of candidate you’re getting. It’s not WHAT they know, but how they react and think on their feet. If you’re looking for your rockstars, your architects, your OM-vG That’s a good way to work it out.
Yes that was a long paragraph (hah, more like novel! :)) but the added point is, after you get the ‘candidate’ to engage in that conversation with various vetted or unvetted members of the community… you’ll all have made some great friends and it’s a chalk full of win! :)
OMG I TOTALLY WANT TO WORK AT COMPANY ‘X’
Screw the damn man, am I right?! Err, wait what?! :) Yea.. this is for you the non-hiring manager, the guy who works for the public sector looking to go private, or the admin who wants to get into more of an architectural role. The partner looking to go Vendor; the vendor looking to change vendors. Factually it does not matter so much why you’re looking for a new opportunity, just that you’re prepared when that time comes! Here are some tips!
Be a rockstar. Yea, that totally means throwing a TV out a window, err.. no. It means be yourself. Be confident in WHO you are, even if WHO you are is not confident the least you can do is be you. :) I mean you’re looking to change roles right? You should have an idea of who you are and what you want to do/be [It’s okay if you don’t…. a lot of people don’t, let me know and we can work on that! ;)}
Get to know other people. You don’t have to be a social butterfly. But you also need not be a social outcast or do something to make a fool of yourself (unless that works for you, I’m cool with that. Side tip; wearing cat ears is not a fools game ;)
BRING BUSINESS CARDS. This will delve into some sub-topics because I’ve discussed this extensively with some folks.
“Should I have business cards made up with my own name and not my companies”
Lets say you work for a major company, like ACME. ACME carries with it a well known brand and image of making great weaponry, traps and explosives which are almost certain to work [with some roadrunner based exceptions] You’re doing yourself a disservice with disassociating yourself with the company. Having a business card says “Hey, look I’m employed! but please contact me at my personal email address” It also says “Hah! I got some fool to hire me, so you can’t do MUCH worse right!?!” ;)
“What about making up my own cards not-associated with my company”
Absolutely, it has its place. Some examples;
Free-lancers who have/currently working the Consulting gig land and that’s how you get your business; Respect.
People with a brand who may or may not work for a major label company
People who are unemployed and thus do not have company business cards. Nothing wrong there, but it’s important they know the difference. I can usually tell these ones because the business cards are made on paper stock; thin as flash paper!
Oh and did I mention to Bring Business cards? (Yea, you should totally do that ;)) Also good to enter contests like at #CXIParty
Show your Passion. Why are you passionate about your job? Are you? Are you passionate about another job but not so much what you’re currently doing? Please don’t let the jaded bits leak into things. You’re in the craziest city on earth for the show… surrounded by the top minds in virtualization and the best businesses transforming the future of IT. Show your passion. BE that Guy/Girl!
Be honest. Be honest about who you are, about who you want to be if you’re not there yet. You’re not a VCP because the class is too expensive? Totally understand that. But don’t be this guy; “I’m not going to learn anything new unless my company invests in me to do that” Yea. I don’t want you, and neither will a lot of hiring managers because you become the guy who gets a LITTLE bit of training and jumps ship. There is value in being opportunistic but invest in yourself and it will pay in loads.
Don’t lie / Tell the truth. These are tips I’d usually provide to people going through the interview process when I do my career counseling. They do sound SO similar, but they’re so different. Here are some examples:
Don’t Lie:
Oh yea I totally invented the internet. GO AHEAD AND SEARCH FOR MY PATENT.
I interviewed that guy. (No it was something else, and NO we couldn’t find his damn patent!)
I designed and architected environment x and was the project lead.
I remember that interview well. And then one of our interviewers asked him details about WHY he named the environment they way he did and specifics about it. He couldn’t answer those questions. Why… Why can’t you remember some simple details about an environment you designed and architected? It couldn’t possibly be because the INTERVIEWER had actually been the one who designed and architected the environment before leaving the company and joining us. Yea, so seriously? Seriously, don’t be THAT guy who’ll lie about the work you did :)
Click my link to learn how to get a zillion twitter followers!
Okay, that’s not very specific but it’s intended to focus on a broad assessment of accounts. Basically saying most of these people who share these links tend to have 0 or fewer followers. So don’t just make any blatant lies, the truth is a lot easier to remember (unless it’s wikipedia… then we can just turn it into the truth! :))
Tell the Truth:
“Have you worked with vCloud Director before?”
Hey, tell the truth. “No, WTF is vCD?” or “I was a lab manager guy but our ELA blah blah blah, we never got to play with vCD” “I wanted to play with it in the lab but couldn’t get the code” “I hate vCD and all it stands for, TIDAL AND NEW SCALE FOR THE WIN!” err, whoa, we’re getting ahead of ourselves but seriously :) This can apply to almost any/all technologies and scopes. Tell the truth and be honest with yourself. Here is the WRONG answer to most questions: “No”.
To provide some color on that. Answering with a simple Yes/No gives no recourse, it doesn’t let either of you know if you’re capable of willing to learn a new technology or coming back to the previous points of investing in yourself.
“Always… I mean never, forget to check your references” – Special prize for anyone who can give me the source of the quote ;)
You know what I hate on peoples resumes? “References available upon request” Use that space you’re wasting to put something else useless… Preferably funny. maybe “References are for wimps” or something like “I know Chmod” but please don’t waste our time on your resume!
A verbal reference will win hands down every time.
If you have someone who can vouch for you, and they’re within an ear-shot, you’re on your way to winning. If you don’t. Get to know those people, make friends, grow, learn, enhance, blah blah etc :)
Please know what you want, or why you want it.
Get to know who you are, what you want and what you’ll get out or changing companies or roles. If I could ask you to come up with answers to the following questions you’ll be FAR better off. Hopefully you can come up with answers on any/all of these.
Do you want to travel / Are you okay with travel / How much travel (20%, 50%, 80%, 100%)
FYI: Figure out what EACH of those mean. 80% travel usually means you’re traveling Mon-Thurs with Friday to catch up.
What motivates you
Is it money? Is it a challenging environment? Is it doing the same shit every day at a different place? Is it the people you work with? Figure out some of that. What happens if you lose your motivation? How do you get your mojo back?
How much money do you feel you’re worth?
While some companies have a ‘range’ they’re willing to pay. What are you worth? What do you REQUIRE to survive and what will allow you to be comfortable. Etc figure those things out, base pay, bonus, what matters to you
“What do you do”
This is a question I would ask of people. It’s not what you do day in and day out, it is more akin to who you are. Example: Regardless of what my JOB is, I’m solving problems, sharing knowledge and innovation and helping others to advance while trying to automate things so we don’t have jobs; freeing us up to do other jobs. Figure out what you do, what you’re most passionate about, and what drives you and you’ll be WELL on your way to winning!
Have you ever fought a bear?
I mean, a small bear is still a bear, so you should be able to talk to this point. What size of a bear are you willing to go toe to toe with give the circumstance. Would you require it to be a fair fight? You prefer the two of you wear gloves in an open ring? Trained bear v wild? You have a particular species of bear, I mean Polar bears are nice but they tend to carry bottles of coke around with them and if you’ve ever had a bottle of coke broken on you it’s PAINFUL, OMG. I have scars still.
Err, WTF was that bear question?
… I didn’t say anything about a bear.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Celebrating the 5 year anniversary of you asking me this question! (Is how I HAVE answered that question, thanks to the late Mitch Hedberg) but seriously. Do you have any kind of a plan? Where do you want to be, what do you want to do? (I’m 3 years into my current 5 year plan, and after my next blog post you’ll see just WHY I’m WELL on target! :))
What is your “Objective”
“Seeking a position in blah blah blah in a challenging environment” While all of that may be true. Getting an idea of what your actual objective is. Allow some further colour on this. I’ve talked with people who simply say “I want to be challenged” WTF does THAT mean. Without something tangible around that I can challenge you by making you deal with a crazy political environment which will leave you in tears daily trying to figure out how to navigate change management requests. But is that what you REALLY want to do? :) Sure if you make it too specific you can lock yourself out of opportunity (likely to be opportunity you REALLY didn’t want in the first place ;) but I digress)
Be specific. If this is an objective you’re interested in “Advancing a career in virtualization by transforming an IT organization through efficiencies, cost effective strategies and learning new skills; ultimately to advance me from an individual contributor to providing leadership to evolve and transcend the business” … I just came up with that off the cuff, I’m sure some of you will say YES EXACTLY THAT. Sweet. But try to come up with something tangible. Be your future, don’t just HOPE for it.
Buy a lottery ticket.
There is this old tale of a man who would pray every day asking to win the lotto. “Oh please let me win the lotto, oh please let me win the lotto” And there he lay on his deathbed, moments before his death, his creator appeared before him to take him away; with his frail and weakened breath he says “Oh being my creator, why were my prayers not answered” and in his infinite wisdom, his creator said “Buy a damn ticket already!”
Maybe that story resonates with you, it may insult some of you? (hey it’s from a joke! ;)) but the point is. You’ve heard of the secret right? “Put it out to the universe and it will return to you?” Yea, I have a little secret for you. INVEST IN YOURSELF. You’re likely to get a greater outcome. Don’t assume someone is going to send you to training and don’t assume you’re going to know things you didn’t invest in yourself to learn. You know one of the best ways to FIND a job too? Is to say “Hey, are you hiring?” Step up, get serious and put things into your own hands. If you want to ‘put it out there for the universe’ I’ll be honest.. that server isn’t going to P2V itself, so hop to it and start P2Ving yourself to the next level. :)
Hopefully you found some of these various tips useful, not too offensive and valuable/useful. If you’re looking for a new role comment in the post; if you’re hiring, let it be known! Virtualization is still very strong and shows like #VMworld show that to be so true. Hopefully some of you adopt the H and H+ model. Good luck and see you at #VMworld and #CXIParty :)
Here is a mockup I made ORIGINALLY. It is important you READ THE WORDS I’m about to say and not just focus on the text in the picture. Because words are important! :)
Yea worst photoshop ever! So.. I laid this out a loooooong time ago, when I only had a total of 4 suites and there were only around 200-300 attendees. However in my infinite wisdom, I decided to make sure Fire Code wouldn’t be an issue and support the ability to basically accommodate the majority if not ALL of you at the party; so what does/did that mean? We’re not looking at 4800SQ Feet, sorry! No, we’re looking at over 11,000 Square Feet. Instead of 2 of those suites you see on the right. No… there are 6 of them, for a total of 8 suites. Yea I’ll figure out how I ‘break things up’ because it’s my party and I can cry if I want to. Logistics dictates I’ll likely have the ‘dedicated’ bartender in the master suite (as seen above :))
I’m still waiting to hear back from my guy at the hotel on the EXACT location of the suites (which I’ll basically be traversing between them, and I support you doing the same to see a different ‘scene’ and what have you) ultimately it’s going to rock in ways like no other. There are special things going on I cannot publicly share yet but for those who have an idea *Hint: It involves your ability to manipulate paper* you’re going to have an AMAZING time :)
OMG CONTESTS?! I ENCOURAGE you to bring a business card to enter in to drawings. I know some of my sponsors will have some types of prizes for you to win! But on the same token, *I* Also will have some prizes for you to win! I know I know.. You rock, and yea I have to dip into my own personal budget for these things, but that’s because I love and care for each and every one of you! you know… and stuff. :)
Some ground rules: For the prizes I control, I also control the rules on how one goes about winning; whether it is by drawing a card or some type of skills based challenge (see above re: paper ;)) That said, this contest is FREE GAME to ALL Contenders to win. There is no purchase required blah blah blah or any of that other legalese. Just come, enjoy and most importantly, MAKE SURE YOU’RE PART OF THE GAME TO WIN! So… with no further adieu what can you win?!
I believe it was @lynxbat who introduced me to these bad boys. Anyone who uses bluetooth headphones will find themselves drooling over this going OMG WANT. So you have that going for you! :)
After massively popular demand, because apparently we’re a bunch of geeks? I’ll ALSO have this for use.. Why yes.. I will OPEN one of them to field-test at the party, and one of you will win the used version (and the non-used version also ;)) Caveat: I just put the order in for this, so it better damn show up before I leave or you’ll all be disappointed! :)
Whoa! WTF? WHAT IS GOING ON @CXI THATS NOT AN IPAD! Yes. Yes it is an iPad2. 16g Wifi because I’m not insane, nor rich!
Like I said, you’ll find out how you can win, but the only way to win is to play the game. SO PLAY THE DAMN GAME! Err.. or something :)
I know some of you asked about Ears, and especially with all the talk about high-heeled cheetah crocs we’ve had as of late, I provide some of the following options for you to wear! (This is how they might look being worn! :)) I’ll probably be in my professional cat ears (a simple black/white) but those might by my street cat ears for other parts of the show! :) These will be on a first come – first justified basis since what you see is my entire collection :)
So look forward to your mail for the final update on logistics (and even if you don’t see/hear it until the day OF – Just know you’ll be looking for a rockstar (possibly wearing ears ;)) in the lobby of the Cosmo and you’ll get well on your way up to the party suites, for some of the most rockingest sights, sounds, conversations and more that you’ll encounter in Vegas and at VMworld! Also at this point, I am STILL accepting small sponsorships if you’re looking to help out pay for even more alcohol (I should have enough drink for ~1000 people or ~500 heavy drinkers.. ;)) I did mention before there will be minor snack-type foods, so I encourage you to eat as much as you can/want at the vendor events prior to showing up because well… they have a much larger budget for food! (their budgets are typically 20-50x larger than mine, but they lack this thing called… you ;))
Please do your bit to thank the sponsors and if they offer something you’re interested in, get in touch with them (or I can introduce you) These people help make this a lot more consumable and possible! Look forward to my next blog post as well on a very important subject for VMworld… :) oh and my OTHER blog post well delayed on my new role (Yea, lots of excitement going on around here! :))
OMG ITS NEXT WEEK! See you in Vegas :) [For those of you who have offered to help out – I’m fully game for you to help out, feel free to tweet, email or txt me ;)]
flask icon next to it!
