Disclosure: VMworld 2017

This is one of my regular disclosure posts. You can read more of them here.

The main keynote stage at the start of VMworld 2017. (Photo: Justin Warren)

The main keynote stage at the start of VMworld 2017. (Photo: Justin Warren)

Flights and Accommodation

PivotNine paid for me to attend VMworld as part of my job. I travelled economy on Qantas because my boss is a cheapskate who wouldn’t spring for at least premium economy.

PivotNine also paid for me to stay at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, just down the strip from the Mandalay Bay.

I had a press pass to VMworld courtesy of VMware, for which I am grateful.

Food and Drink

Sunday 27 August

The usual stocking up on decent coffee in Qantas club at Melbourne airport for breakfast before getting on the plane. A couple of pieces of toast.

Airline food en route to LAX before swapping to a domestic flight on American Airlines from LAX to LAS.

American has a fancy new lounge in LAX terminal 5 now, which opened this very day! I was one of very few people in it, and the showers weren’t working yet (a pity, sorry fellow passengers on my next flight), and nor was the bar (which I didn’t care about). I had some pretzel snacks and a machine made coffee that wasn’t that bad, really.

Qantas club has a more substantial range of food in comparison, but it’s a full service airline so you pay for it in the ticket prices.

I caught up on some work at the hotel after a shower, and then went to the VM community meetup at New York New York and had a hotdog and a beer that made me realize how much I wanted some sleep.

I bailed for an early bedtime about 9:30pm, which was totally the right call. Sleep is great.

Monday 28 August

Breakfast was hotel coffee and some fruit and a pastry in the press lounge buffer at Mandalay Bay before the keynote.

Lunch was a boxed lunch sandwich from the press room (roast turkey, it was really tasty!) before running off to be on The Cube for the first time ever. Woo!

Datrium bought me a Starbucks coffee during our briefing mid-afternoon.

Dinner was some hastily scoffed nibbles at the Pure Storage party at Top Golf during a chat with Pure CTO Chadd Kenney. I also indulged in a gin and tonic, but it was really warm outside so I kept up the water intake.

After the Pure party I walked over to the Cosmopolitan for Christopher’s CXI Party, which took a little longer than I expected, but it was nice to be outside for a bit and to do a bit of people watching. I had some tonic water because plain water gets boring after a while. Tonic and lime is quite refreshing.

I was well behaved and in bed by about 11:30pm.

Tuesday 29 August

Breakfast was in the press room again.

I cannot remember what I did for lunch on Tuesday, which probably means I didn’t really have any as I had pretty much back-to-back briefings all day.

Pre-dinner was the Influencer Marketing Council reception at Border Grill for some finger food. Very tasty, but I had real dinner coming up at Lotus of Siam, so didn’t want to overdo it.

Dinner was Howard Mark’s Influencer Dinner at Lotus of Siam and the glory that is garlic prawns. Thanks to the folk from Datrium for picking up the tab.

Wednesday 30 August

Wednesday breakfast was the press lounge again, and this time there were some really quite good danish pastries that I couldn’t keep away from.

Wednesday lunch was the conference lunch buffet. The chicken salad in a box was tasty and refreshing, and the tofu curry was fine.

Wednesday dinner was at Milos in Cosmopolitan with a few industry friends to kind of wind down after the conference. PivotNine covered my portion of the bill. We had some wonderful tsaziki, freshly cooked fish that we picked out from the market stand thing they have, and the best grilled octopus I have ever had. I am completely ruined now and will be comparing all octopus dishes to this one. It was cooked perfectly. I am salivating right now as I type.

I had a glass of an obscure red wine that Laz Verakides from ClearSky Data picked out, that I seem to recall was a Greek style that isn’t commonly available. It was pleasant enough, but not the sort of thing I’d rush to get a hold of.

I then met up with Jason Collier from Scale Computing to talk world domination over a scotch and a cigar, and then chatted with a bunch of other people from the conference at the Mandalay Bay circle bar until around 1am when I headed to bed.

Thursday 31 August

I had a bit of a sleep-in before attending to email backlog and packing for checkout by 11am, and then headed to the airport. There’s no lounge at LAS, so I just sat in the concourse for the couple of hours before my plane attending to various work things on my laptop, Skyping with my family, and that sort of thing.

I had a burger and fries from Ruby’s Diner at the Las Vegas airport for lunch, paired with a root beer. Lots of people don’t like root beer or Dr Pepper, but I apparently do.

Dinner was water and some nibbles at the Qantas lounge at LAX since I knew they’d feed me again on the plane and I wasn’t that hungry after the burger and fries for lunch.

Plane food for the rest of the trip home.

Swag Etc.

  • The conference bag this year converts to a briefcase style carry bag as well as being a backpack. The backpack straps pack away, so it’s fairly compact and quite useful.
  • VMworld 2017 branded shirt.
  • VMworld 2017 branded water bottle.
  • A RedHat baseball cap.
  • A Datrium baseball cap.
  • A vSAN “Powered by VMware” sticker.
  • An I *heart* vSphere sticker, which is waaaay too big to use on anything. Maybe it’s a bumper sticker for your car.
  • An I *heart* NSX sticker. I think all these came from the vExpert swag bag from VMUG.
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