Welcome to bonus episode 06 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two VMware Solution Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we have a contemporaneous discussion of our experiences at VMworld 2019 in San Francisco.
Original Recording Date: 08-29-2019
John mentions the post-VMworld interview he did with Ramzi Marjaba of We the Sales Engineers YouTube video or audio.
Topics – Sharing Experiences at VMworld US 2019
4:20 Opening Banter

* John comments on this being our second take on recording.

5:55 How has the show been?

* Nick didn’t go to many evening events, especially those where it is too loud to have a conversation.
* Nick and John were at the vExpert party on one of the events (a quieter event) and had some great conversations.

* Neither of us has reached Al Rasheed‘s level of professional networking capabilities.
* We met Brian Trainor and Chris Schott and had some great conversations.

* Most of the people we met at the conference were there to…

* Attend keynotes, some sessions, and check out the solutions exchange
* The people in the vCommunity / vBrownBag area placed a much higher priority on networking than the average attendee. This kind of priority is a career accelerator.
* Nick thinks many people come to conferences to look for jobs (even though you may not know it).

* Once you have career advancement on your mind, it never really leaves your mind. John makes it a point to visit with other people inside his own company he might not otherwise meet.

* 11:43 Vendor Expo

* Nick spent the better part of an afternoon walking around the solutions exchange. He enjoys learning about new vendors, the markets in which they play, and the problems they solve.

* If you are part of a VMUG, point your local VMUG leaders to interesting vendors for potential meeting sponsorship.
* Nick’s pitch to new, interesting vendors is to sell them on SpiceCorps sponsorship.

* Nick ran into Ian Eyberg, CEO of NanoVMs. Nick had heard him on Datanauts Podcast # 54 discussing Unikernels.
* Are you talking with vendors when attending a conference? If not, you may handicapping yourself at a later time.
* John doesn’t take much vendor swag at trade shows these days.
* Nick carried his full laptop around the show but would set it down on the ground when talking with someone in the solutions exchange. Many people go tablet or with just their phone to lighten the load on their back.

17:26 Sessions

* Nick and John were only able to attend 2 sessions each on the final day. When you work for the vendor putting on the conference, your time is not your own.
* The recorder battery ran out.