VMworld 2011 – Top 10 Countdown – NUMBER 1

This one is really, really easy.  The number one thing about VMworld are the people.   Not only is this about friends and fun, it’s about community.   Speaking for myself (but I think this applies generally) – these are the people I lean on.  They are the people I count on.  They are EMCers, VMware folks, VCE, Cisco, our partners, our customers, heck even our competitors. 

They are the people you see at VMUGs.  They are the people contributing on VMTN.   They are the tweeps.  They are the bloggers.

Literally, there’s insane value in our collective knowledge, our collective willpower.   We move the world together.

I hope they feel like they can lean on me, count on me in the same way I do about them.

Plus, we have a lot of ridiculous fun (see the v0dgeball pic below, and read on past the break for lots of examples)

Read on for some more examples:

Yesterday was the Sunday before VMworld.  Every year, my team uses Saturday and Sunday before the show start to do a couple things:

• deal with all the last minute show crises (and yes, they always happen).
• Saturday: start planning for the following year – 2012 in this case.
• Sunday: get together as the whole team, discuss the year, celebrate successes and awesome failures, give awards, share the technology roadmap, then get everyone laser focused to support VMworld fully and completely.

So – here on sunday – here are pictures of that meeting, which has:

• the EMC global team focused on VMware (our “VMware affinity team” – vSpecialists but also engineering, marketing, alliance, etc)
• the VCE team
• the core VMware team that supports/interacts with EMC (thanks so much folks!)
• the core Cisco team that supports/interacts with EMC (thanks so much folks!)

Matt Conway and Keith Coughlin gave the most awesome inspirational speech it was awesome.

Also – we award the coveted vOscar awards go to exceptional work in that year.

While the meeting is not open (lots of confidential information), I wanted to call out the winners publicly:

• David Hanacek – for building and leading.
• Omar Yakar – for always stepping up.
• Jonas Jansson – for going the extra mile – in this case 10,000 miles.
• Kyle Keller – for being a leading hybrid
• Simon Robinson – for proving that a newb can kill it.
• Toshitaka (“Toshi”) Ishibashi – for bursting out of the gates
• Richard Swakla – for doing the partner tango best
• David Lloyd – for being a mega-deal renaissance man
• Clint Kitson – for being a rock star
• James Zheng – for breaking down barriers
• Rodrigo “Gazza” Gazzaneo – for proving that being a vSpecialist is about your heart and mind, not an org chart
• Chris Birdwell – for being the “idealized” field technical vSpecialist
• Moshe Shaham – for being the international man in the middle
• Kara Banosian – for juggling a superhuman number of balls
• ESG Partner Integration Team – for unifying all of EMC

…And – it closes with the Heroes of 2011 award.

This year, the winners are… the vSpecialist Tech Enablement Team: Chris Horn, Tee Glasgow, Simon Seagrave, Nick Weaver.  The whole team (and EMC as a whole) depends on these guys to build tools, demos, test, integrate, engineer, support the hands-on-labs – and more.   I depend on them.  Guys – THANK YOU.

Here is the award ceremony (gives you a sense of the team too – which is really cool – this is the EMC team that supports our VMware partnership and go-to-market):

The best way to call out the Heroes of 2011 team – the vSpecialist Tech Enablement Team - is to share this behind-the-scenes effort at EMC World (and the same is going on right now for VMworld 2011).  It’s fun, and captures not only the work, but the sense of team and the fun – after all, you’ve got to love what you do.

I’m proud to be part of this team, and glad to be at your side on our mission.   And… with the team meeting done, let the v0dgeball games be enjoyed by all..

…and as excited attendee just like everyone else - I declare VMworld 2011 open!