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This European edition was the second time at Copenhagen, so we can make some comparison with the previous edition:

• General organization: seems better (one year of experience can help to improve).
• Transport: similar as last year (bus from the airport and free pass for metro/s-tog), but this time the main entrance was near the metro station.
• Bella Center: this time seems that was used an extended area, the resul was good and better than last year… more free space, relax area, lot of place to eat or simple sit, bigger reception… maybe the only flaw was the longer corridor at the entrance.
• General sessions: I’m not convinced with the choice to put the first general session in the afternoon… maybe was for people that arrive late morning? About the contents they were good… maybe the Ducati case study in the first sessions was (IMHO) a better option.
• Hands-on Labs: really nice the lab area, but I don’t know if was bigger or smaller than last year… for sure was most of time completely full… but the waiting queue, to be honest, was not so longer.
• Blogger Lounge: bigger that last year and (IMHO) in a better place… but last year there were more people in it.
• Alumni Lounge: was empty on most of the time… maybe was too close to the labs and the Blogger Lounge? Anyway… the Alumni cap was nice.
• Partner Lounge: nice, large and welcoming… but too isolated. Good idea to put a Partner University point for questions and feedback.
• Solutions Exchange: this year was really good and well designed… was greater, with more space also for the corridors and between booths… I’m not sure (maybe was just an impression due to the more space), but seems that there was more exhibitors.
• Community TV: a new entry of this year (I don’t remember at all in the last European edition)… was a pity that there were several free slots (especially in the first days).
• VMworld TV: last year was almost fixed (in the blogger lounge), this year was almost “on the road”.
• Certifications: as the last year, there wasn’t a VUE center (so not exams at VMworld)… but there were some prep courses both for VCP and VCAPs, with a discount (50%) voucher included… Unfortunately there wan’t any official announce about the new VCAP5 and VCDX5 certifications (last year was announce the new VCAP4 series).
• Party: better that last year, but still not comparable with US parties.
• Event duration: officially the European event is a 3 days length (plus Monday for the partner), in my opinion 3 days are not enough (and maybe 1 partner day is too much)… why not make a 4 days event (like the US edition) and find a way to handle the partner’s sessions?
• Weater:  good enough… but (to be related to the event) cloudy on some days…

Andrea Mauro

Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.