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It's been amazing to watch the flurry of blogs and press articles flying around the Internet about the upcoming VMworld conference next week. There's been rampant speculation about a huge blowout fight that reportedly erupted between Citrix and Microsoft on one side... and show sponsor VMware on the other. Articles have referred to "dustups", "swords drawn" and my personal favorite... a "flaming handbags at dawn fight." Wow... sounds like a scene right out of Pirates of the Caribbean, Part IV!
I love a good story as much as anyone, but the reality in this case is actually far less dramatic. Not only have there been no fireworks or fisticuffs between Citrix and VMware, there haven't even been any sharp words exchanged. While Citrix obviously competes aggressively with VMware in the marketplace, no customer wants to see their strategic vendors resort to the kind of childish catfights or event boycotts that some stories have reported. While these speculations make for an entertaining read, it's important to set the record straight.
Despite reports to the contrary, Citrix did not pull out of VMworld this year. Far from it. When VMware announced the availability of sponsorships for their San Francisco show earlier this year, Citrix promptly returned the paperwork requesting a Gold Sponsorship, just as we've done in previous years. VMware's event management firm responded quickly (and very politely, I might add), informing us that due to "new guidelines", Citrix was no longer allowed to sponsor the event. When we expressed our surprise at this change (again, very politely) we were informed that the most we could do this year is set up a small 10x10 booth. They also politely pointed out new guidelines for "non VMware partners" suggesting the appropriate use of product demos and activity in and around our booth to be sure we were aware of them. Apparently we weren't the only ones singled out, as several other bloggers noted at the time.
In parallel, a couple of Citrix employees outside of corporate marketing inquired at a nearby hotel about the possibility of renting conference rooms to hold customer and user meetings, something we frequently do at large industry trade shows. With so many customers already in the area, we find events like this make a convenient venue to hold a variety of get-togethers with folks we normally see only over email or GoToMeeting. After hearing that we were from Citrix, however, the hotel informed us (also very politely) that Citrix was on a "do not rent to" list supplied to them by VMworld, so they could not support our request.
While we were admittedly a bit surprised by these changes and wish we had an opportunity to participate more broadly, I can assure you there were no swords, dustups or angry rants. And certainly no flaming handbags. We understand that VMworld is a proprietary event run by one vendor and agree they have every right to change the rules in any way they wish. Citrix respects that right and will comply with the terms of our show contract. At the end of the day, if customers want a more open event, they will have to give that feedback directly to VMware.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to confirm that Citrix WILL be exhibiting at VMworld. Attendees can find us in booth #1938 (a cute little 10x10 tucked in between Emulex and Netuitive... you can't miss it). And while we may not be able to fit many people in our booth this year, I can assure you we have plenty of exciting things to talk about and would love to see each and every attendee stop by. We'll even show you how to use our products with VMware if you like!
Most of all, I want to assure you that we're not mad at anyone, including our friends at VMware. Life is too short for that. This is an exciting and vibrant industry with more than enough room for both of us. And there are an abundance of venues outside of VMworld to talk with customers and share our vision of a simpler, more open way of delivering IT as an on-demand service.
I'd also like to be the first to personally extend an offer to VMware (or any other virtualization, networking or cloud vendor, for that matter) to sign up now to sponsor our upcoming Synergy 2010 conferences next year. We'd be delighted to have you as a silver, gold or even platinum sponsor... whatever your budget allows! If you sign up to sponsor both Synergy San Francisco in May and Synergy Berlin in October, in fact, I'll even give you a great package deal! I'd also like to invite any of the smart folks at VMware, or anywhere else out there, to submit session topics for next year's Synergy events. An open Call for Papers will be publicized broadly starting on September 8th with presenters chosen by a selection panel that includes folks from Citrix as well as independent industry analysts, publishers, bloggers and other thought leaders in the industry. Call us crazy, but we actually WANT competitors presenting at Synergy. It makes for a far richer and more interesting event for everyone. After all, we're all working side-by-side at the same customers anyway, right?
And while I don't mind poking a little fun at our friends at VMware for their overly sensitive guidelines this year (c'mon guys...what are you afraid of?), I'll be the first to admit that Citrix has made our share of silly paranoid moves in the past as well. It's easy to do when you're in a highly competitive industry and passionate about your products, as both of us undoubtedly are. But I can promise you that we're doing our best here at Citrix to be more open, more transparent and more inclusive. Thanks to all 230,000 of our customers for their business. We'll see you all next week at VMworld in booth #1938... just please don't all try to come at the same time!
Kim Woodward
VP of Corporate Marketing (and proud exhibitor at VMworld 2009)
Citrix Systems, Inc
Citrix was planning on having a Citrix Technology Professionals (CTP) Summit meeting this month to announce new Virtualization experts to the CTP program. For reasons that I am still a little shocked about, the CTP summit is going to be rescheduled, due to some very interesting clauses in the contract that every vendor has to agree to before being a sponsor of the upcoming VMworld event. It appears that VMware has come up with some very interesting event tactics. Below is a quote from the contract that Citrix has to sign and agree to for having a booth at VMworld.
"Exhibitor agrees that it may not use any Organizer event to leverage or promote any other event in which Exhibitor is a sponsor or participant, and therefore agrees that it may not, during the period from two days before until two days after the Event, conduct, promote, endorse, or sponsor any functions, classes, seminars, exhibits, or similar marketing activities within 50 miles of any event similar to the Event that is the subject of this agreement, other than Exhibitor's participation in the Event under this Agreement."
Citrix is a big enough of a company that, that not everyone is aware of everything that is going on all the time. We had been planning the upcoming CTP summit for some time now, and just found out about the VMware clause, what a shame we have to reschedule it, as I think participants that would have gone, would have capitalized on going to both events.
There are a lot of things to do in Vegas, such as seeing a show, riding a roller coaster and of course, becoming a high roller; however, none of them come with a guarantee that you will go home with something more valuable than you arrived with. At Citrix Synergy, not only will you leave with new and/or renewed connections with other professionals in the industry and at Citrix, but you will leave with knowledge that will deliver more value to your company and to you as an individual.
Sure, there are multiple valuable conferences within a conference at Synergy (iForum, Network World Live! and Virtualization Congress) but my personal favorite is GeekSpeak Live! If you haven't seen or attended a GeekSpeak session (examples Shawn at Synergy and Michael with GeekSpeak Roadtrip!) , you need to check this out. These sessions are where true unfiltered technical interactive discussions occur, many sessions are led by Citrix CTPs such as Charles Aunger , Ruben Spruijt & Jeroen van de Camp, and Brian Madden and many more, but you also have the ability to lead and/or change a discussion topic on the fly.
This year we have expanded GeekSpeak Live to not only include our traditional evening sessions, but we also have the GeekSpeak SpeakEasy sessions on the exhibit floor and we have woven GeekSpeak session through the traditional conference tracks as well.
As we get closer and closer to Citrix Synergy, I will be posting more information about our GeekSpeak sessions and presenters. Please feel free to leave a comment on this blog, check out the GeekSpeak forum or drop me an email if you are interested in a topic or being a GeekSpeak session lead.
Before I go, I wanted to share a discussion I had with a Citrix Synergy attendee. The discussion started regarding the GeekSpeak session, but quickly transitioned to "I am planning to attend, but my boss/finance team is really leery of spending on technology conferences (especially in Vegas), given the negative press that AIG and others in the industry have gotten regarding conferences. Do you have any advice for me?"
We at Citrix are completely aware budget constraints and have pulled together some information on the topic for you. The fact is that from a cost perspective, Vegas is a value compared to other cities hosting technology events Vegas is 20%-60% cheaper from an attendee perspective. With the data we provided, she was able to assure her management that Citrix Synergy was not a boondoggle!
I look forward to seeing you at Citrix Synergy and Geekspeak Live! , perhaps the one time that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" isn't true! 
Simon Crosby, CTO of the Citrix VMD Division, did an interview with Brian Ducharme of Virtual Strategy Magazine
during VMWorld to review the Citrix announcements during the event.
Here are the Citrix press releases from the event -
Citrix Unveils Cloud Computing Strategy and Product Line
Citrix and Marathon Partner to Bring World Class High Availability and Fault Tolerance to Citrix XenServer
XenServer 5 Changes the Game in Server Virtualization with Unprecedented Reliability, Openness and Ease-of-Use
(click the link to play - there is a current issue with embedding videos)