Who’s Who at VMworld

VMworld 2012 is right around the corner, only a week away. I’m landing at SFO Sunday around 12 noon local time. This week is going to be fast and furious for most of us that are getting ready to head to San Francisco. For some of us VMworld veterans we know who’s who, who to meet up with, how to network, etc. There are some that will be experiencing VMworld for the first time though, and that is who this blog post is targeted to. This year there should be somewhere close to 25,000 attendees, which is a lot of people crammed into what seems like a big place until everyone shows up. I look back on my first time at VMworld and the thing that was the most difficult was trying to figure out who to meet and network with. On top of that, I spent the 6 months prior to attending VMworld chatting with people on Twitter, and only got used to their avatars. The first day of VMworld I went straight to the bloggers lounge looking to network with the heavy hitters in the virtualization blogging world and quickly discovered that trying to put a face with a Twitter handle just wasn’t working out. Here’s my list of who’s who at VMworld, and who you should find and chat with. I can’t name everyone unfortunately, so hopefully if I’ve missed you or left someone off the list, please don’t take offense. There are so many talented and super smart people, you could literally network with just about anyone you bump into and gain some useful knowledge to take back with you. At any rate, here’s my list of who’s who along with a picture so you can easily spot them:

Find These People and Get To Know Them

DUNCAN EPPING – #1 voted virtualization blogger, http://yellow-bricks.com, @duncanyb on Twitter

SCOTT LOWE
http://blog.scottlowe.org, @scott_lowe on Twitter

JASON BOCHE
Top 25 virtulization blogger, http://boche.net, @jasonboche on Twitter

ERIC SIEBERT
http://vsphere-land.com, @ericsiebert on Twitter

MIKE LAVERICK
Top 25 virtualization blogger, https://mikelaverick.com, “vElvis”, @mike_laverick on Twitter

CHRISTOPHER KUSEK
Blogger extroardinaire, Global Virtualization Lead at EMC, http://pkguild.com, @cxi on Twitter

KENDRICK COLEMAN
Sr. Corporate Architect kendrickcoleman.com, @kendrickcoleman

DAVID DAVIS
Director of Infrastructure at TrainSignal.com, http://vmwarevideos.com, @davidmdavis on Twitter

MAISH SAIDEL-KEESING
http://technodrone.com, @maishsk on Twitter

JOHN TROYER
VMware social media king, “vWookie”, @jtroyer on Twitter

Don’t Be Shy!
Once again, I’ve listed only a small group of people who are cool to meet, there are so many more than this list, and please don’t take offense if I left you off the list. This list just represents the people who I first met and have helped my career in blogging and experience the most. I want to thank all the people I listed and encourage you to take time to meet these people, shake hands and get to know them. Don’t be shy, these people are all very easy to approach and will stop whatever it is their doing to say hello and talk to you. VMworld is a really unique experience and will definitely help you to advance your career experience and may even give you the opportunity to find a new opportunity. Good luck, and I hope you have a great experience meeting and networking with people at VMworld 2012!