I recently returned from PubForum 09 that ran from June 5-7 in Dublin, Ireland. What an incredible event it turned out to be, further strengthening PubForum's excellent seven-year track record as one of the most well respected IT industry conferences in the world. All seats were filled prior to the event, and the speakers and attendees seemed to enjoy every minute of this content- and discussion-rich conference!

Event Highlights

As I described in a recent blog post, we ran a Geek Speak Live! track at PubForum this year that proved to be a fantastic addition to the event. Some highlights of Geek Speak Live! at PubForum included a Geek Speak room on Saturday, and the following individual sessions:

• Shawn Bass's thought-provoking "XenDesktop 3.0 and Its Impact on the VDI Landscape" session that was a follow-on to his Geek Speak Tonight! session at Synergy in May

• Radoslaw Smigielski's "XenServer Deep Dive" session, the informative opening session in the Geek Speak room on Saturday

• Rene Vester's provocative "Essentials for... Virtualization" session that turned into an active Q&A and sparked several related follow-on discussions

• Rich Crusco's discussion on "What's New in Provisioning Server," a great session that resulted in a very interesting Q&A

• The Geek Speakeasy Discussion Club...two hours of ongoing discussions covering a variety of technical topics from the Value of Today's Hottest Technologies to What Does Citrix Need to Do to Stay in Business?
  
  

Event Photos

I've posted a collection of photographs "hot off the presses" of the speakers and attendees at the PubForum keynote and Geek Speak Live! track sessions, as well as some great Dublin scenery that was within walking distance from the conference. If you didn't have the chance to attend PubForum this year, these photographs will give you insight into the good times that were had.

Click here to view the collection of event photos.

I'd love to hear your feedback, so please feel free to send me an email. For more information about the Geek Speak program, click here.

Laura Whalen
Citrix Systems, Inc.

Get ready for the next Geek Speak Local! event...this time in Iowa City, IA. There's an excellent line-up of speakers and sessions, including:

• Dan Feller kicking off the event with "VDI Design Considerations"
• Matt Lesak leading a demo session on how to build a successful VDI solution using XenDesktop and XenServer
• Jason Conger delivering a follow-on to his "Workflow Studio Orchestration" session at the Geek Speakeasy at Synergy 09
• Michael Thomason delivering a follow-on to his 2008 BriForum session on "Provisioning Services in the Real World"
• Michael Keen on "Using the Citrix Delivery Center to Enhance Your Enterprise Architecture"
  
  

Event Details

Date: Thursday, June 25th
Geek Speak Session Times: 1:00 - 4:00pm Central Time
Geek Speak Happy Hour: Drinks and Hors D'oeuvres, 4:00 - 5:00pm Central Time
Location: Holiday Inn Conference Center, 220 First Ave., Coralville, IA 52241

If you're located in or near Iowa, or you would be interested in traveling there to attend this fantastic event, registration is still open, so please visit the Alliance Technologies Web site for more information and to register.

Event Resources

Get a better idea of what this event is all about! Click here to view photos and click here to view details from last year's Geek Speak Local! Des Moines, Iowa event that included notable speakers: Rick Dehlinger, Doug Brown, Charles Aunger, Rich Crusco, and more.

For more information about the Geek Speak program, click here.

Laura Whalen
Citrix Systems, Inc.

The last seat has been filled for PubForum 09! With a rich 7-year history of events taking place in Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, and many other key locations in Europe, PubForum has made its mark as one of the top IT industry events in the world.

This year, we are excited to announce that we're running Geek Speak Live! as part of this longstanding industry event. The Geek Speak Live! agenda is as follows.

FRIDAY, JUNE 5:

4:30pm - Geek Speak session

Title: XenDesktop 3.0 and Its Impact on the VDI Landscape
Speaker: Shawn Bass, Citrix CTP
Description: Now that XenDesktop 3.0 has come out, Shawn will provide information on what specific things that XenDesktop 3.0 brings to the table and where it still falls short. In addition, other VDI vendor products will be discussed in comparison to XenDesktop. A follow-on from Shawn's Geek Speak Live! at Synergy 09 session.

SATURDAY, JUNE 6:

CITRIX GEEK SPEAK ROOM 2:15 - 7:00pm

(NOTE: FREE ACCESS FOR CITRIX USER GROUP IRELAND MEMBERS)

2:15pm - Geek Speak Overview

Speaker: Laura Whalen

2:30pm - Geek Speak session

Title: Citrix Essentials for... Virtualization
Speaker: Rene Vester
Description: In this session, Rene will talk about the added value that is part of the Citrix Essentials product line that Citrix offers for both Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer. Rene will also discuss the three major virtualization platforms and his views on the three from a "European" perspective.

3:15pm - Geek Speak session

Title: XenServer Round

Speaker: Citrix EMEA XenServer expert

4:00pm - Geek Speak session

Title: What's New in the Latest Provisioning Server Release
Speaker: Rich Crusco

4:45pm - Geek Speak session

Title: Remote Desktop Services Internals - System Components an Expert Should Know
Speaker: Bernhard Tritsch, Citrix CTP
Description: In depth follow-on discussion and Q&A from Benny's 3:15pm session. As an IT professional responsible for terminal servers and remote application delivery you need to dig beneath the 
surface if you really want to understand how the technology works. So let's go on a journey right down to the core. 
In his session, Benny introduces you to advanced Windows Server 2008 Remote Desktop Services concepts. 
This includes details about the system processes needed for remote sessions, the graphical user shell supporting 
RemoteApp programs, and the user logon sequence. Get in-depth information on terminal server installation and 
execution modes and their impact on file system and registry. Discover how to modify related system settings in 
order to fine-tune your terminal servers.

5:15pm - Geek Speak session

Title: Achieving Zero-Install Footprint with the Latest Microsoft and Citrix Clients
Speaker: Alex Danilychev, Citrix CTP
Description: In depth follow-on discussion and Q&A from Alex's 9:00am session

6:00pm - Geek Speakeasy Discussion Club

Facilitators: Alex Yushchenko, Laura Whalen
Description: Open dialogue on any topic! Suggested topics include:

• Citrix, Synergy, and the Geek Speak Program
• What Citrix Needs to Do to Stay in Business
• What Industry Trends Do You Like, What Don't You Like? For example, client-side hypervisors and the cloud. Virtual desktops and virtual servers. What new trends or technologies do you think should exist?
• Got Access? What is the Future for Accessing Citrix from Consumer Electronic Devices
• As We Are Moving to Virtual Desktops, Is There a Need for Virtualizing the WiFi Adapter? There may be an issue with wireless NICs not cooperating with multiple VMs; i.e., wireless cards able to use only one VM. Are companies looking into this issue?
• And many more!

If you are attending PubForum this year and would like to lead an informal topic in the Geek Speak room on Saturday, please email me or look for me at the event.

Related Resources

• To view the event homepage, click here.
• To view the online agenda, click here.
• To view photos and content from previous PubForum events, click here.

For those of you who are joining us for Geek Speak Live! at PubForum this year, I look forward to seeing you in Dublin!

Laura Whalen
Citrix Systems, Inc.