As many of you may be aware the European edition of VMworld for 2009 is due to kick off in Cannes, France on 24th February.

This three day event will contain the usual various break-out sessions around the range of VMware and associated products along with providing an opportunity to meet and mingle with VMware staff, vendors and peers.

It is too good an opportunity to pass up and despite the current economic downturn, for me travelling to Cannes in France (from the UK) is considerably cheaper than San Francisco for the the US based sister event later in the year.

So with 4 days annual leave, a £70 EasyJet return flight and 2* accommodation booked I’m all set to see if VMworld Europe can be done on a  shoe-string.  I was hoping to maybe obtain/liberate/steal a VMware Bloggers pass to the event though despite numerous attempts in contacting VMware to see if this was even a remote possibility and not even getting a single response I am taking that as a “No”. Worth a try.

This’ll be my first VMworld so am looking forward to seeing how it stacks up against other IT events such as Microsoft TechEd, etc.  I have heard very good things from colleagues and friends about the quality of sessions and atmosphere around past VMworld’s so am looking forward to finally being able to attend one.

Can’t make it to VMworld Cannes 2009?

Never fear, for if sign up to a VMworld.com annual subscription you will get online access to all the keynotes, sessions and labs from Cannes 2009 and Las Vegas 2008.  As would be expected there is a cost involved (US$699.00) though this is obviously a much cheaper option that attending in person.

A much more cost effective option still is to bookmark or subscribe via RSS feed to this site (www.techhead.co.uk) as I will be blogging and posting regular articles on the event (sessions and social events).  You will also be able to follow me on Twitter. What not using Twitter yet? Why not go and create an account now.

Heading Over?

If you’re attending the event and would like to meet up then drop me a line or leave a comment at the bottom of this posting.  It’d be great to meet some of my fellow VMware users. 

There will be plenty of social events happening in the evenings with the site, VMWorldUnderground being a good source of information in finding out about these.

VMworld Europe (Cannes) 2009 Links:

Main VMworld site

Sessions listing

A brief VMworld Cannes 2009 sessions overview video from Douglas Phillips (VMware Marketing):

More links to follow as we get closer to the event.