Why you should attend your local VMUG User Conference

The local VMUG User Conference is fast approaching (March 21, save the date!), preparation’s in full swing and the VMUG leaders are working hard to make the event a success.

While I can’t tell you the agenda just yet because it’s being finalized, what’s public information is the fact people of the likes of Brian Madden, Chris Wolf and Cody de Arkland will be there to present keynotes and a session or two. That’s reason enough to be there! The event’s free too in case you didn’t know. So head on over to the registration page here for the Melbourne chapter of the conference.

Now why else should you attend the conference?

1. Learn something outside your daily job. Maybe you’ve been a vSphere administrator keen on learning about container services (PKS), software networking (NSX) or cloud services (VMConAWS). Well the User Con is the place to jumpstart your learning at. With numerous, very knowledgeable people presenting sessions and available to answer business oriented or tech deep dive questions, there’re immense learning opportunities in every shape or form. It’s all good to read up blog posts at your desk, you accelerate your learning from talking to someone who’s already been there and done that. Besides you get to learn from the questions other people ask or the scenarios they present.
2. Community sessions. The VMUGs are all about the community and how we can contribute to each other’s successes. There are a number of community sessions throughout the day with numerous customers presenting on how they solved their unique business problems with a VMware product. What’s more – there still may be a spot or two up for grabs for you to present in. Do you get stage fright? Fear not, I do too. So do a lot of people. Even experienced presenters have some degree of fright before they start presenting. I can help you present, so can the other VMUG committee members, so can some of the sales engineers, all you gotta do is just ask! I for one will the first to say I’ll help ya out. Did you know most people don’t have what it takes to present and just getting up to that stage is 75% of the battle?!
3. Networking opportunities. With the number of hiring managers, influencers very likely to present at the session, make sure you say hi and engage in conversation. You never know where such an opportunity make take you! As of today, there are 30 jobs on the VMware career portal, head over here and check them out for yourself and see which one you see make a killing from! Additionally, it isn’t just about jobs at VMware, there’d be hundreds of potential jobs just waiting for the right person to get in touch with the right guy, all you gotta do is start the conversation. Maybe just a general chat with someone you didn’t know. Maybe it’d help you break out from your shell and spur you to present in a session of your own at the VMUGs or the next User Con. Speaking at VMworld 2016 in two sessions was life changing for me. I’ve lost most of my stage fright from those two sessions.
4. Blog about the event. Blogging has taken me places and given me opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible without my blog articles. Tweet about the event, hashtag #mvmug and you might even win a prize or two.
5. Learning in a different zone. There have a lot of studies and all that sorta prove the brain’s stimulated by learning things in a different way or in a different setting. Can’t get much different than learning at at conference! Keep your eyes peeled and ears wide open and soak it in!
6. Content and takeaways. No, not the prizes, though they’d be great takeaways too! Packed full of information, there’ll be several smaller vendors hawking their gear at the event. Last year, there were players like Runecast, Seagate talking to potential customers about how their products can help solve some of your business problems and/or technical challenges. This year too there’d be vendors like that presenting their ware. Some of them bring real live devices to the event for people like us to ogle at! Some interesting discussions to be had that’s for sure.

I’m sure I’ve given you enough reasons to attend the event. It’s free too like I said before. Spread the word and attend!