We are only 2 months away from VMware Explore and I am pumped! Go register before the price goes up again. Looks like many people are excited the event is back in Las Vegas. Details about the event have been trickling in and I am sure more details will be released about the event very soon.

I will be arriving on Sunday to get settled down before the bulk of the event kicks off and pick up my badge. The broad agenda is the same from last year. With Monday having some smaller activities and the welcome reception. Then the general session on Tuesday kicks off the first full day. In other years, the event was one day longer. The hall crawl on Tuesday night and VMware’s big party on Wednesday. It will be exciting to see what they have in store for that one. The event ends on Thursday with a half day.

I always came away with a tremendous amount of new knowledge every time I went to VMworld or Explore. Yes, you can watch some of the sessions at home. However, there’s something electric in the air when you are there in person interacting with everyone. Also, there’s exclusive TAM sessions that are not recorded, meet the expert sessions, and networking in person is unmatched to any other media.

I came across a few parties so far. On the Monday, the Elevate Technology User Group (formerly named the CONVERGED User Group) is having a party at Yardbird. All are welcome to register and attend. I went to their party last year and it was great. The VMUG party is on Tuesday at the Pinball Hall of Fame. I cannot yet find a website for registration for this event. Rubrik is having an event Tuesday night at the Wakuda Lounge. I will make another post later when I come across more parties and other details related to the event.

The Content Catalog currently has over 600 sessions. You can favorite them, but you cannot yet add them to your schedule or see when a session is occurring. Scheduling will open on July 11th. Make sure you do your homework ahead of time to be ready to schedule the sessions you’re interested in. Some sessions fill up quickly. Also, only a fraction of the stand by line could be accommodated during one of the sessions I was trying to get into last year so no guarantee if it’s not on your schedule.

I took a preliminarily look and added the following sessions to my favorites. I am sure more sessions will be added so I will update my list later or create another article on the topic. I am looking forward to see what VMware code sessions are being planned. They always have cool, interactive sessions, such as with Raspberry Pis or NUC like devices.

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EDIT:
Here are a couple great sources that have a lot of parties listed.
Russell Hamker Explore party list
VMblog’s Explore party list