It’s been a few days since my return from VMUG Leader Summit 2020 in Palo Alto, CA and I’m still processing all the information and impressions. So, why not write a blog post about it, right? This was my first Summit to attend, and I can honestly say what a packed 72 hours it’s been. It started with an 8:15 am flight leaving Washington Dulles (lucky me the middle seat was empty) and landed in San Francisco around 11:20 am local time.
After a provided shuttle bus right to the hotel in Palo Alto and already talking and meeting other leaders, it was time for some lunch and freshen up before the first event started, a reception at the hotel. Steve Athanas and Brad Tompkins opened the reception and welcomed all leaders. The motto of the Summit was to Expand your Sphere. After some excellent food, leaders were broken up in teams to come up with a group name and add all the years of VMUG Leader experiences resembled in the group. This was a fun activity and you got to know your fellow leaders a bit more.
After a lot more talking it was time to call it a night and get some sleep. I knew the next day would be packed! I finally got to see the VMware campus! It was really cool to pull up and see the beautiful landscape with the mountains in the back. We started with a much-appreciated hearty breakfast and then went to find a seat in the Elastic room. I’ve seen this room a bunch of times on webcasts, but to sit in there was just awesome. Steve (aka Scott) welcomed us again, and we just started right away. The summit focuses not so much on technical topics, but more on personal development and how to make your chapter a better member experience. In line with this, we talked about Pat Gelsinger’s 5 Ls of Leadership
- Listen
- Leaders listen to those around them and those that they lead. Actively listens to respond. Listen for the answers
- Learns
- Maintain a growth mindset. Always learning and building new skills
- Lifts
- Relentless pursuit to self-improvement. Positive encouraging outlook and providing people with opportunities to succeed
- Links
- Connect people to others.
- Love
- Love what you do. Being passionate will motivate others as well
Pat is about to release a book his 5Ls of Leadership later this summer. I’m going to get a copy I see a lot of good information in there.
We had a lot of good presentations that day. It started with Rebecca Ruhlman, VMUG on accountability Spheres, followed by The Noble API, Duffie Cooley VMware, speaking on the power of APIs. This was an interesting presentation with a live demo, deploying Kubernetes inside Docker using Kind. I do love Live Demos, and this a great showcase of the agility and speed of deploying simple web apps with containers.
After a short break, Designing Intrinsic Security for the Multi-Cloud Enterprise – Chris McCain, VMware was up. I have never seen Chris speak, but his energy and wit were mesmerizing. Plus, he is one of the very few double VCDX, so that’s just plain cool! It was also fun to learn about the biggest hack in the Universe…(the rebel forces getting the blueprints for the Death Star and blowing it up!)
After a good lunch, we got to tour the campus. I’ve really been looking forward to this. Jeff Goodall Took all the leaders and we learned a lot of interesting facts about VMware in Palo Alto. For example, VMware bought the campus from Roche and modernized it.
Of course, we had to go to see the turtles! I had talked to Jeff before on Twitter and he already told me they are all hibernating off-campus, but promised there would be a surprise. And there was one! We all just busted out laughing when one of the “Turtles” decided to jump into the water and take a shower!
Next it was time for round-table discussions. Various rooms were available and you talked and topics centered around local chapters and how to make our meetings more successful. There was some good information flow and definitely some take-home points.
After a quick break we returned to the Elastic room to listen to Kyle Ruddy (and his beard) speak on Effective communication. Following his talk was Amanda Blevins on really finding your happy place. Her talk really resonated with me and I’m still processing some points she made.
The day ended with a reception at VMware, which of course included food (loved the Poke Bowls) and beverages. As a special feature, VMware had demo stations set up, where different technologies were showcased. I’m talking Tanzu, Skyline and much more. Everyone was wearing T-Shirts with a heart, saying I love VMUG Leaders, which definitely was a nice touch.
After some good conversations with fellow leaders back at the hotel, and learning that Brad runs a Pi-hole at home (bet you didn’t know that!), this intense day came to an end.
Friday was already check out day, so we all took our suitcases to the bus and back on campus we went.
After breakfast, Pat came to speak to us and the entire room gave him standing ovations. It was inspiring to see the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company take time to talk to us and taking questions from the community! A good time was had with the introduction of “Steve” Athanas as well. You should follow him at Twitter @AthanasScott
Right after VMUG had a community event organized by Turning Wheels for Kids. This was a great event, we got to build bikes that will be given to children in California who lost everything in the recent wildfires. It just made you feel good to give back.
The last presentation was by Sanjay Poonen on 10 Ways to cultivate customer centricity. One of my favorite quotes of his talk is “In God We Trust, everyone else brings data”. Indeed!
And then it was already over! We all got a grab and go lunch and went onto the buses on our way to the airport. I had about 3 hours or so to kill and a bunch of us went to a local bar to talk about the event. Vince Wood did an impromptu podcast, which can be found here. Flying back, I had an empty middle seat again (That usually never happens) and made it back home around 2:00 am on Saturday.
So, in conclusion, I can honestly say this was one of the best events I have attended. The chance to talk to so many other leaders to exchange thoughts and build connections is my biggest takeaway. Seeing that VMware and myVMUG truly believe in the vCommunity is inspiring. I truly enjoyed the hospitality on campus and one can feel the company culture is not just a PowerPoint slide but lived from the c-suite down to the “Turtles”.
Some more impressions from the Summit:
On Campus 
Jeff and I 
Steve and the gang 
Mammo, DC CO-leader 
Brad and Matt 
Elastic Room 
Pat 
Building Bikes
