Leaving Las Vegas

Time to head back to Boston and digest a ton of input from this very busy show. It's been a few years since I've been to Vegas and the city has clearly changed. Looking out from my hotel window to the cityscape the other day, I was reminded a bit of Dubai -- new construction booming, a regenerated city rising out of the desert. It's unfortunate, however, that the entire city is still so pedestrian-unfriendly. (Of course, who would want to walk a Vegas city block anyway?)

The VMworld press and analyst reception on Wednesday was held at the Ghostbar atop the Palms Hotel, with an impressive view of the city as you stepped out into the open air deck. As we were talking with several VMware folks including the company's CIO, a rainbow appeared spanning the city and Keith came up with a great line asking "How much did VMware have to pay to get that arranged?"

Embedded within the floor of the Ghostbar's outdoor patio was a large pane of glass that you could stand on with an unobstructed view of the street some 55 stories below. It was a great conversation piece as people gathered around it with one attendee deciding to perform a stress test by jumping vigorously up and down on it, no doubt having something to do with the magic of imbibing. He's still with us fortunately but only because of the fine local construction work that was done on the outdoor deck.

I've lost count of how many conferences and trade shows I've been to over the years. Notches on the belt. But, by and large, this has been one of the more interesting ones I've been to in many respects. It certainly offered a buzz that was a nice counterpoint to the dismal economic news that now pervades the media. I'll credit VMware with putting on a well-run show and definitely making the trip worthwhile.

Posted by Tom Valovic on 09/18/2008 at 12:49 PM