The Netherlands has always had a very large and active VMware community and this clearly reflects on the UserCon. With over 15 vExperts, this is the perfect event for ITQ to meet up with the Dutch community, share our knowledge, our passion for VMware technology and hopefully learn exciting new things ourselves.
The Dutch VMUG leaders have gone all out on this year’s edition, which is returning to the 1931 Congrescentrum venue in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. There is – of course – the main event on March 20th – with an amazing agenda but there also is a very exciting Pre-Con day planned on March 19th but more on that later. About the main event:
None other than VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger himself will open the event with a keynote session. The UserCon has had some impressive keynote speakers in the recent years, such as Joe Baguley (CTO VMware EMEA) and Kit Kolbert (at that moment CTO VMware Cloud Native Apps) but getting Pat Gelsinger on stage at a UserCon is an impressive achievement. Of course, kudos to Pat Gelsinger for freeing up time in an undoubtedly packed. This says a lot about VMware’s commitment to the community! It does make you wonder who they are going to ask for the opening keynote next year though. Perhaps Michael Dell should block a couple of days in March 2019?
Besides the amazing opening keynote, there is a second keynote session just after lunch we are really excited about: Pivotal Field CTO Joshua McKenty. This is a great opportunity for VMware enthusiasts to learn more about Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) and Pivotal Container Service (PKS) and the amazing use cases these solutions enable.
The agenda packs over 60 breakout sessions spread over four parallel streams. There will be breakout presentations, group discussions, lightning talks, workshops and sponsor theater mini-sessions. This is the perfect learning opportunity for anyone even remotely interested in VMware technology! The Call for Papers closes on January 26th so there is still time to submit a session if you want to present at the UserCon yourself.
The Pre-Con on March 19th is new this year. There will be three different tracks to choose from: a VCDX Workshop, a Hackathon and an R&D Track.
The VCDX Workshop is all about the VCDX certification, the application, and defense process. The workshop will be delivered by Dutch VCDXes. It will be an interactive session aiming to deliver a deep dive providing tips and success strategies for selecting and developing your solution design, completing the application, delivering your design overview and preparing for the design scenario. The workshop is also worth attending if you are aiming for a VCAP Design certification and even if you, as an IT architect, have to deal with VMware technology in your daily work.
The Hackathon track comes straight out of VMworld. After the enormous success in Las Vegas and Barcelona, the Hackathon is coming to the Pre-Con. The idea of a VMware hackathon is to design and build “anything” using technology in the VMware ecosystem. Anyone with a passion for technology can form or join a team. You DON’T have to be a software developer. The most important requirement is that you are looking to have a lot of fun building stuff!
The third track is the R&D Track. You will learn all there is to learn about new developments and the roadmaps of key VMware solutions directly from VMware product- and engineering team members.
We are really excited about the UserCon 2018 and we can’t wait until March. ITQ will be massively represented. Make sure to register and anyone interested to meet up for a friendly chat: just look out for the Dutch Orange Glasses! See you there…
