Virtualization, Cloud, Infrastructure and all that stuff in-between

I’m in the middle of planning my VMworld trip(s) this year, now I’m no longer working for a vendor or a consultancy I have to fund my trip myself, I’m happy to do this as I view it as an excellent training & networking opportunity.

I already have a good foundation in infrastructure and virtualization technologies so I find normal training courses a bit slow, and very narrowly focused – VMworld gives you the flexibility to pick and choose your own agenda and allows you to go much deeper if you choose.

Based on a previous presentation I did for the London VMware, I still maintain that even for us Europeans, VMworld US is better value, this post represents my logic

If you want to get the lowest cost, you should

• Book early and take advantage of early-bird discounts
• Book a cheap, non-official conference hotel – often I also find the cheapest hotels have free WiFi –it might be a short walk
• You don’t need to stay in the best hotel in town, there are so many after-hours events and parties you can take advantage of you’ll just be sleeping there.
• Don’t bother booking a rate with breakfast, you can usually get it at the conference

My pricing is all in GBP where I have only been able to obtain USD$ pricing (as I live in the UK) I have converted to GBP at the current exchange rate, pricing has been taken from the Expedia.co.uk website, which is quite useful for this sort of what-if work.

VMworld Admission Price(early bird-discount)

VMworld US £990 ($1595 (early bird pricing has now expired))

There are 124 Breakout Sessions, 8 Panel Sessions & 24 Hands-on Labs.

VMworld EMEA £683 ($1100 early bird pricing still available)

There are 116 Breakout Sessions, 3 Panel Sessions & 23 Hands-on Labs.

The US conference is 1 day longer.

Hotel & Airfare

I usually try to fly out the day before the conference as it gives you a full day to get over jetlag and have a bit of time to have a look around and do some quick tourist stuff.

I then try to fly back the day after the conference has finished, this avoids the last-day rush and means you can hang around until the end and wind-down properly.

The other main reason I do this is that I had a nightmare journey once returning from Microsoft Tech-Ed in Amsterdam on the final day of the conference – 10,000+ geeks with laptops + questionable souvenirs to scan all descending on the nearest airport isn’t a fun experience.

Travelling a day before/after also means you can usually take advantage of cheaper flights – even if it costs you an extra night of hotel.

Book a Saturday in most places and you’ll find your flights and hotel are significantly cheaper.

VMworld US

It’s not a direct flight, you can get a direct flight for approx £300 more on this package – but we’re doing this on a budget – when flying UK to west-coast US sometimes it’s also better to do a 2-leg journey so you can get off a plane for a bit

This hotel looks to be a 30min walk (or short, cheap cab-ride) from the Venetian where the conference is being held

VMworld EMEA

I’ve not stayed at this hotel, but looks pretty close, and Copenhagen has an excellent metro system, cheapest I found for flight + hotel was about £200 but it included the word hostel 🙂

Total Costs

I based my expenses on previous years in SF and CPH, as you’ll see there is obviously a difference, it’s about 30% more expensive to go to Las Vegas, this doesn’t factor in lost revenue/time from not being able to be at work, but the VMworld US trip involves travel over a weekend/Friday to compensate.

If you consider that VMworld US is a 4-day event compared to a 3-day event for VMworld EMEA the gap gets even closer.

Food, drink and taxis are significantly more expensive in Copenhagen than in the US