VMworld Copenhagen this year will be the my second VMworld working for a vendor (EMC) who is one of the main sponsors of the event.  Up until earlier this year and joining EMC all previous conferences, VMworld and other, that I had the good fortune of attending was as an independent without any affiliations to any major vendor or event sponsor.

Unlike VMworld San Francisco which started on the Monday, the European version kicks off on a Tuesday (12th October) meaning that vendors gain access to the Solutions Exchange floor to set things up and weave their magic at the Bella Center a day and half (Sunday afternoon) before the event starts.

Now that may sound like a lot of time though one thing I now appreciate as being part of this booth setup side of things (vSpecialist Tech Marketing) is the extent of the planning and effort that vendors put into participating at events such as VMworld. Hardware is shipped in from all over the world with things such as differences in power, connectors and other such non-trivial things needing to be taken into consideration.

So after a hearty late breakfast on Sunday, myself and three other colleagues ventured off to the Bella Center through a blanket of fog, which also engulfed the venue, to get started with unpacking, setting up and configuring the EMC Corporate and hands on labs (HOL) ahead of the go-live on Tuesday morning.  Throughout the day we were joined by other members of the vSpecialist team.

Those of you that attended or have seen photos from the recent VMworld San Francisco event will recognise the familiar looking ‘Cloud’ theme of the VMworld signage.  The scale of VMworld Copenhagen compared to that of San Francisco is noticeably smaller though this should be expected with the US VMworld always attracting more than 2.5 times more attendees.

The registration desks through the front doors were primed and all ready to go for the first enthusiastic attendees that afternoon. It was clear that the VMworld events teams had already been busy in ensuring the core registration infrastructure was in place.

Venturing towards the VMworld Solutions Exchange large cardboard boxes full to the brim with VMworld conference backpacks were close at hand behind the registration area.  Entering the Solutions Exchange area the bare shells of vendor booths were to be seen where ever we looked with all the usual suspects able to be found, eg:  Cisco, HP, IBM, Veeam, Quest, Intel.

The Solutions Exchange was a hive of activity with trades people scurrying around like ants going about their business.  Upon tracking down the EMC booth it was nothing more than an empty shell with  furniture and walls still being installed.  A busy day of unpacking and installing the hardware from VMworld San Francisco and Oracle Open World lay ahead…

There was some fun looking machinery such as this bright green cherry picker to be seen around the show floor along with plenty of forklifts.  We had three large crates to unpack containing storage (Symmetrix VMAX, iomega IX12), network (Cisco 5010, MDS) and compute (Cisco UCS, Dell R610’s), all of which provides the infrastructure for the EMC hands on labs and EMC product VDI workstations.

There were plenty of boxes, crates and packaging everywhere for ourselves and neighboring vendors.  The costs behind shifting all of the server and storage kit to these events must be massive!

Of course all of this setting up wouldn’t be possible without having a decent team to work along side you, those fellow like-minded individuals who also don’t mind working hard against tight deadlines.  Getting a booth up and running in time involves a real mixture of physical and technical skills.  When dealing with large storage and compute appliances such as those found at the EMC booth there is a very heavy on reliance on the electrical and cabling show staff who fortunately for us have been really good.  This can make all the difference between things getting set up smoothly and things going horribly wrong.

Below Left: vSpecialist, part-time palette shifter and all round nice guy Scott Baker moves the VPod crate into place ready for unpacking.  As Scott proves this job definitely only suits those who don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty from time to time.

Below Right:  Chris Horn lets the VMAX, flown in from the recent Oracle Open World event in San Francisco, out of it’s container whilst Scott Lowe tells it who’s boss!

Trying to find the relevant box which contains the exact cable or part you need can be a challenge, at least initially whilst everything is being unpacked and is in a state of organised chaos.  Of course not everything goes according to plan for example the VMAX which decides it would like to knock down one of the walls of our booth whilst being rolled off of the palate..

So after a full and busy day on Sunday things are 75% complete on the booth with all storage and systems online. On Monday we focus on tweaks and ensuring that all the finer points of the EMC hands on labs and VDI environments in the Corporate booth are running ok and the relevant content is all loaded ahead of the opening of the Solutions Exchange on Tuesday.

Below: A panoramic shot of the EMC boothes during the first day of setup.

If attending VMworld Copenhagen come and swing past the EMC hands on lab booth to say “Hi” as I’ll be around all week.  The buzz of VMworld is definitely building with no doubt many more people visiting the Bella Center today to register and pick up their VMworld back packs and information packs.  To those of you attending have fun and for those of you unable to make it keep checking back for more photos and updates from the event.