So you liked trekking to Cannes for VMworld? Pony up for autumn in the U.K. to attend the vendor-independent "Virtualization Congress."
The congress is run by virtualization.info and currently has sponsorship deals with Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware. I'm hoping it also has a vendor-rep cage fight in the works to keep things really interesting. I'm planning to attend, cage fight or no, if I can swing my schedule for Oct. 14-16.
Do formal sponsors equate to true vendor independence? I prefer to think of this as a 'no dominant vendor' Virtualization Congress 2008. Sponsorship guarantees participation in strength from the big vendors and an opportunity for third-party players to show off cross-platform capabilities.
The first day of the show is specifically targeted at European channel partners and distributors, with the second and third days of the congress set up as a wide-open ticket of open forums, expert talking heads, product demos, and the usual trade show goodness.
I suspect the show will have a nice competitive edge going as the leading virt platform vendors and assorted hangers-on tout their wares and trash-talk the competition.
Quest Software (providers of desktop and app virtualization solutions), ManageIQ, and others also are on board as sponsors. I expect the list will grow thanks to the efforts of virtualization.info's sale team.