Only yesterday I briefly mentioned that I have recently joined the Italian Chapter of the VMUG, aka the VMware User Group, as part of the “leadership team”, aka “The Board”.
For those who don’t know yet, the VMware User Group (VMUG) is an independent, global, customer-led organization, created to maximize members’ use of VMware and partner solutions through knowledge sharing, training, collaboration, and events. A chapter, i.e. a local sub-group can be created wherever there are VMware Users willing to share their experiences, meet up and organize events. Usually there is one chapter in each country (like we have in Italy), but there are also regional or city-centric local VMUGs (wherever the number of attendees is big enough to justify such a thing).
After following VMUG activities from a distance for about one year, I have been asked by the VMUG Italy Board to join them: the lucky event happened during last October’s VMworld in Barcelona.
First of all, I am very thankful to the members of The Board for the opportunity, as these people are probably the best Virtualization Professionals in the whole country, so for me it is an honor to sit besides them and learn from the Pros.
Said that, my role in the board is to act as the Media Officer (well, sort of) and help spread the word about our activities… I look after “all things social” starting from our Twitter account @vmugit, and so on.
Which brings me to the topic of this post…
We usually organize a few events throughout the year, like User Meetings or Hands On Day with vendors… but this time we are going big as we are organizing our first ever User Conference, which will take place next April 3rd, 2013 in Milan.
VMUG user conference can be considered as one-day-only mini-VMworlds. The attendance is normally between 300 to 800 people (but given this is our first attempt we’d be happy to achieve any number in between!), there is an exhibition area where you can meet the vendors and learn about their technology and products, there’s General Sessions in a main hall and multiple simultaneous BreakOut Sessions in smaller rooms. Generally speaking is a great opportunity to mingle with peers and do some “networking”.
We’ll have international speakers from VMware US and EMEA coming over to present as special guests, with some BreakOut sessions also presented by sponsors and… some even by you! Yes, we opened a Call Of Papers so that any user willing to present a session on a VMware related topic can submit an abstract. We’ll choose the best ones and reserve a spot for you in the event agenda. We accept also presentations in English, if this is your concern.
The registration page is open on the VMUG website:
http://www.vmug.com/e/in/eid=747
Be sure to keep checking the above page as it will be updated with the Agenda and other details very soon.
If you are willing to present a session, then, please submit your abstract through the page we set up on VMUG Italy website:
http://www.vmug.it/eventi/user-conference-2013/user-conference-2013-call-for-papers/
We hope to see you in Milan, and please check also this space for updates.
Hint: first special guest to be announced soon!