For the last two years, my wife has accompanied me on my trips to VMworld. I’m lucky that she’s willing to travel with me and put up with long days (and sometimes long nights) during what is a very busy time for me, particularly in light of the fact that there traditionally have not been any activities designed to include spouses. This, by the way, is not a knock against VMware specifically; it seems to be a little bit of a trend in the industry. I’m not a huge conference-goer, so if anyone has any experience to the contrary I’d love to hear it.
John Troyer’s activities are an exception; his VMware Communities receptions, both in 2006 and 2007, were very inclusive of spouses or significant others. My wife enjoyed attending both of those events.
Aside from that, however, there aren’t a lot of reasons why spouses would want to attend. (This is aside from the obvious reason of wanting to be together.) This year, as my wife and I look ahead to VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas, she’s decided that she’d like to try to arrange some activities for spouses during the event. Perhaps a trip to a day spa, or a quick jaunt out to the Grand Canyon, or maybe just lunch near or at the Venetian. There would be some costs involved, of course, but at least they could all meet, have something to do while we’re at the conference, and have a good time.
So, if you are planning on attending VMworld 2008 and are thinking of bringing along your spouse—I’m primarily thinking of guys bringing their wives—I’d love to know. Shoot me an e-mail or post in the comments and let me know if your spouse would be interested in participating in some of these activities. Thanks!
Tags: Travel, Virtualization, VMware, VMworld2008
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Sunday, August 3, 2008 at 9:23 pm
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Friday, June 6, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Fari Jin
This excludes women accompanied by their husbands, I take it?
Friday, June 6, 2008 at 3:36 pm
William Bishop
If I end up stuck attending this year, the wife has already said she wants to go. She likes Vegas, while I find it gaudy and tedious.
Friday, June 6, 2008 at 5:45 pm
slowe
Fari,
No, husbands accompanying their wives to VMworld are also welcome–although I can’t promise that the activities will be equally tailored to both sides. It’s funny; I started to put something in the post about husbands being welcome as well but decided against it. I guess I should have included it after all!
William,
You sound like going to VMworld is a horrible thing!
My wife and I have never been to Vegas, but I suspect that we will end up feeling much the same as you.
Saturday, June 7, 2008 at 8:43 am
Rich
Scott,
My wife is planning on coming this year too and she would definitely be interested in planning / participating in some activities. Besides, I’d rather she spend the $ by seeing the Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam as opposed to filling up the nearest slot machines!
Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 7:41 pm
william bishop
I don’t even like to leave my work for the time it takes to do a class(I usually have to do a class or two a year out of necessity–never do I look forward to it, and don’t like it while I’m gone). I’m a home body, and I like to stay around my kids and wife when not at work. Besides, who’s going to babysit my storage and vm gear?
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Chris Crow
My wife will be coming to VMWorld this year. She would be very interested in having a few activities to attend while I am in some of the breakout sessions.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Justin
I’m planning on bringing my wife of 2 weeks (as of the date of VMworld!) to Vegas too, I’m sure she’d love some kind of activities. I’ll be sure to keep watch here, and thanks very much to your wife for organizing this!
Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Matt Brown
I’m brining my wife… hopefully she can hook up and do something beside walk around the mall and pull the handle things.
… if you need somebody to babysit your VMs and SAN you really need this conference…
Monday, August 11, 2008 at 2:35 am
Chris Bennett
I’m travelling from Adelaide, Australia to VMWorld for the first time, and my wife is coming with me. It’d be great to hear from you, Scott, if there are other spouses interested in a lunch/shopping/day spa.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 9:52 am
Esther
I am travelling with my husband (Eric Sloof) to VMWorld for the second time. Last year San Francisco was great. I spent my days during the convention with shopping, shopping, some more shopping and reading.
In the evening there were lots of parties (including VMWorld party which you can attend with a partner pass) to go to together.
Las Vegas Power Pass for one or two day looks like fun.
Love to hear more what the possibilties will be.