VMware Explore 2023 Las Vegas is only a couple of days away and I am excited! I will be arriving on Sunday night and staying a couple extra days for fun. I have put a lot of time into preparing for this trip and have some tips to share.

Most of the parties are fully booked. Though, I did hear yesterday that the Elevate Technology User Group meeting still has room. Check out Russell Hamker’s Explore party list for the most extensive list that I have found.

There’s a lot of giveaways. VMware has a long list of their prizes. Rubrik and Oracle are both doing headshots. ControlUp will have a daily raffle at 11:45a. Rackspace will be giving a way a prize for people that go through a VR tour of one of their data centers. There’s many more giveaways from other companies, but these stuck out the most to me.

I received some inside details about food during the event. The food was lame in 2019, but much better in 2022. This year looks even better. For breakfast there will be a continental option, quinoa oatmeal, and sandwiches. Lunch will have a hot buffet that includes chicken cacciatore, beef tenderloin, salads, and desserts. I am glad to see a buffet option back at an event and makes sense being Vegas. There’s also a boxed lunch option with a sandwich. Gluten free, vegetarian, kosher, and halal meals are available if you selected them during your registration.

I will be posting a couple of articles on some of VMware’s latest announcements during the event next week so please check back. I will also dust off my Twitter account and will tweet throughout the event.