In my two previous post about Citrix TechEdge 2009 in Munich, Germany, I gave you a quick overview of some of my thoughts on the event and geek speak

An Overview of Citrix TechEdge 2009 Munich, Germany
An Overview of Geek Speak at Citrix TechEdge 2009 Munich

Now it's time for some pictures from the event, enjoy!

Please click to below link to view the photo album from TechEdge 2009 Munich:
http://cid-7cee7fc8f528290a.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/TechEdge%202009%20Munich?ref=1

I have posted a bunch of pictures into a photo album from this years PubForum 2009 in Dublin, Ireland.
My two previous posts about the event were on my thoughts about PubForum and Geek Speak
This time I will let the pictures do the talking =)

An Overview of PubForum 2009 Dublin, Ireland
An Overview of Geek Speak at PubForum 2009 Dublin

Please click to below link to view the photo album from PubForum 2009 Dublin
http://cid-7cee7fc8f528290a.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/PubForum%202009%20Dublin?ref=1

This year's first bi-annual PubForum 2009 event in Dublin, Ireland was yet another sold out event, which is a testament to the ever growing popularity of its return attendees and this year's first time attendees. This is a truly international event in which people from many different countries come to take part in Europe's finest premier and truly independent community focused event and industry conference.

Attendees from the following countries traveled to Dublin, Ireland to attend PubForum:

• Belgium
• Croatia
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Scotland
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
  

In a previous post about the event I mostly focused on an overview of the Geek Speak part of the event, But this post is meant to be more of an overview about the PubForum conference.

An Overview of Geek Speak at PubForum 2009 Dublin

This was the 12th PubForum since it started back in 2003. The first PubForum was held in Amsterdam and was born from some very ambitious members of user groups and forums who were looking to create a non-commercial event where people from around the world could come and attend a conference that was focused on community, knowledge, professionalism, and expertise in the application delivery and virtualization industry. Most you reading this have been to conferences yourself, and while there is nothing wrong with going to a corporate event, as I think they are very much needed, But I also believe we need the independent conferences also, as they add an element of community or a dynamic of conversation that is just not possible ( with exception of course, wink wink, think Geek Speak ) at many corporate events. With that said, it's kind of an interesting dilemma when one thinks about trying to grow an event but yet keep it personable. I think this why the PubForum event, which could grow by leaps and bounds if it wanted to, keeps the event on a smaller scale, and usually has it twice a year to compensate, with the added benefit of delivering content on topics relevant to current timeframes. Another side benefit of an event like this, is that because it is not as large or as commercial as other events, it is able to keep cost to a minimum, which in today's economic climate is a huge plus. I have a suspicion that there may be another PubForum this year, but it's just a guess/wish, but in any case I hope you can find the time to attend a future PubForum event, as it is one of the highest caliber community events you could attend.

For more information about PubForum past, present, and future click below:
http://www.pubforum.info/welcome/

Also, please stay tuned for more, as I still have some pictures and other thoughts about the event to post.

I have been to past TechEdge events, formally known as CSEIT, but this was my first one in Europe, and what better one to go to other than TechEdge 2009 in Munich, Germany.

In my previous post about the event, I mostly focused on the Geek Speek part of the event, This time I will be focusing on the TechEdge event.
An Overview of Geek Speak at Citrix TechEdge 2009 Munich

There were a whopping 40 presentations given over a two day period, 30 on the first day, 10 on the second, and there were the 4 Geek Speak sessions on the second day also.
The list of speakers for the event was just as impressive as the amount of technical content presented at the event. The speakers were Citrix Experts from Citrix and Independent Experts from around the world.

Below is the list of speakers from Citrix that presented at TechEdge:

• Andrew Innes
• Christian Ferber
• Frank Kohler
• Gary Barton
• Hans Schermer
• Jason Maynard
• Jens Brunsen
• Jurgen Ibisch
• Martin Maierhofer
• Martin Rohde
• Markus Klein
• Michael Elsner
• Mikael Lindholm
• Paul Murray
• Prakash Sinha
• Ramzy Mansour
• Rene Otto
• Ronald Grass
• Stefan Wilfinger
• Thomas Berger
• Thomas Zell
• Walter Hofstetter
  
  

Below is the list of Independent Experts that presented at TechEdge:

• Alexander Yushchenko
• Bernhard Tritsch
• Carsten Dreyer
• Christian Huber
• Helge Klein
• Jeroen van de Kamp
• Nico Ludemann
• Sascha Juch
• Thomas Kotzing
• Ulrich Stamm
  
  

The above list of speakers is a very impressive list, but if you were able to attend the sessions, you would have seen first hand the level of knowledge and passion that they bring to an event like this. It's kind of interesting to note, that TechEdge is a conferene onto itself, in that it is meant to give the audience a level of technical expertise that the main conference, meaning iForum is not geared towards. Not to say that iForum is any less or any better, but its more about focus. And I have to say the folks from Citrix had 20/20 vision on this event. I noticed a lot of the little differences on how things were run, as compared to the things at a U.S. event, nothing worse and nothing better, just different, for good reason of course, right. Maybe it was because I was the "New" guy at the event, as like other events, there are always a lot of the same faces, but it seemed that there was no lack of energy or passion when talking about technology and the level of networking was huge. This was a very social event in which we all gained a lot of knowledge, and made a lot of connections. At the end of the day it's all about people, and Citrix Germany put together an incredible TechEdge event, my only regret was that I was not able to stay for iForum, but there is always next year.

Please stay tuned for more about TechEdge 2009 Munich, as I still have some pictures and thoughts to post about the event

Is Geek Speak an international language? I would have to say yes. As one who's native language is English, and one who only knows key words and phrases in other languages, I was actually able to attend a German speaking event and for the most part figure out what was being discussed, and for the parts I couldn't, everyone was more than willing to translate for me, which in itself was unbelievable.

A few months back Ramzy Mansour from Citrix Dublin and Markus Klein from Citrix Germany contacted me about the possibility of me presenting at Citrix TechEdge 2009 in Munich. Sadly, with all that was going on at the time, or that would be going on during the event time frame, that didn't pan out. If you aren't aware, there were multiple things going on at almost the same time, or back to back. We had Synergy 09 in Las Vegas, PubForum in Dublin, iForum in Edinburgh, iForum in Benelux, and iForum in Munich. If I could only make virtual copies of myself...

The big draw for me in Munich was that they had also planned a Geek Speak track. When I first heard about it, I was very excited to hear that they were interested in doing one, and that they also were going to have one. It really showed that the whole Geek Speak concept is growing, and that people really want to participate in the presentation and conversation, which is so hard to do in most presentation styles as they are usually a one way presentation.

The following were presentations for Geek Speak at TechEdge 2009 Munich:

• Die Zukunft von Citrix XenApp:
  Alexander Yushenko
  Dr. Bernhard Tritsch
  Markus Hogenkotter
  Markus Klein

• XenApp 64-bit oder 32-bit auf einem Hypervisor:
  Helge Klien
  Ulrich Stamm

• Das Windows Nutzerporfil - das unbekannte Wesen?
  Sascha Juch
  Thomas Kotzing

• Terminal Services vs. VDI: Wann macht welche Losung Sinn?
  Martin Maierhofer
  Nico Ludermann

Previous to the TechEdge 2009 Munich event, I was attending the PubForum 2009 Dublin event. It was kind of funny to see many people who attended that event, were also attending the Munich event, some of whom also gave presentation there. One such person was Gary Barton from Citrix America, who also did presentations at both events.

I was completely amazed by how well the Geek Speak event was organized, they actually one upped the event, in that we have in the past given the presenters a standard power point in which to work with.
The creative fellows for this event, used Microsoft Onenote as a replacement to powerpoint, which went right in line with James Rabey, the founder of Geek Speak, had originally stated, which was that there should be no power point presentations, unless absolutely needed, as it should be all about the dialog. I remember the first Geek Speak that we held, at Synergy 08 in Houston, and how we had microphones to give to the audience, and I got to tell you the thought that went into Geek Speak at TechEdge Munich was on the money in true Geek Speak fashion. They provided a venue in which industry experts were presenting and being engaged in full on dialog from the attendees, I couldn't have been more ecstatic about seeing how engaged the audience was at this event. Remember that language issue I have, well I didn't get all of that was spoken, but one thing was crystal clear, Geek Speak at Citrix TechEdge 2009 Munich was awesome!

I will be posting more about TechEdge 2009 Munich with more thoughts and photos, so please stay tuned over the next week.

For more information about Citrix TechEdge/iForum 2009 Munich click below:
http://www.citrix-eventservice.de/iforum2009/

This year's PubForum 2009 Dublin event was just brilliant! It was great to be back in Dublin, Ireland and to see all of my European friends, colleagues, and fellow geeks. One can always measure an event by the number of repeat attendees and new attendees, and PubForum is going as strong as ever. There was about a fifty/fifty split of return and new attendees, which tells me the event is truly a premiere event that is one that many want to attend, and if you plan on attending one in the future I highly recommend you book in advance, as the event tends to sell out early.

At last year's PubForum 2008 Nice event, the usual linear fashion of presentations for the event were given a twist, a second track was added to the schedule as to host master classes. Master classes were offered so that presenters and sponsors could offer even more hands on or dedicated time to a smaller group of people who wished to have more of a deep dive into a product. The success of last year's Master classes continued this year with a full three days of Master classes.

The really big news for this year's event from a Citrix point of view was the inclusion of a Geek Speak track. You know this is kind of funny, I don't think I could ever imagined myself talking about parallel tracks at a PubForum event, not to say this is a bad thing, just that the event was always about one for all and all for one, in that it was like one really big round table discussion with presenters. It is great to see that the inclusion of tracks has not taken away from what makes PubForum one of the most brilliant and truly independent community events that one could ever attend.

In the past year Geek Speak has been part of many events, and we at Citrix were very much honored to take part in PubForum with the inclusion of a Geek Speak track. Citrix has always done a phenomenal job of supporting PubForum by providing Speakers and Sponsorship. It was great to see PubForum expand into even more choices for its attendees with the inclusion of Geek Speak.

The following were presentations and discussions during Geek Speak at PubForum:

• Radoslaw Smigielski - "XenServer Deep Dive"
• Rene Vester - "Essentials for... Virtualization"
• Rich Crusco - "What's New in Provisioning Server"
• Shawn Bass - "XenDesktop 3.0 and Its Impact on the VDI Landscape"

And of course the part I love most about attending events were the discussions

• Geek Speak Discussion Club... two hours of ongoing technical discussion and debate

Geek Speak has been a part of the following events in the past year:

• Geek Speak Live - Citrix TechEdge 2009 Munich, Germany
• Geek Speak Local - PubForum 2009 Dublin, Ireland
• Geek Speak Live - Citrix Synergy 2009 - May 2009
• Geek Speak Live - Citrix Summit 2009 - May 2009
• Geek Speak Virtual - Project Virtual Reality Check - March 26th, 2009
• Geek Speak Virtual - Citrix Delivery Center Live - December 4th, 2008
• Geek Speak Local - Des Moines, Iowa - December 4th, 2008
• Geek Speak Live - Citrix Summit 2008 - October 2008
• Geek Speak Virtual - Citrix Delivery Center Live - September 9th, 2008
• Geek Speak Local - Des Moines, Iowa - June 25th, 2008
• Geek Speak Live - Citrix Synergy 2008 - May 2008

You can always check for upcoming Geek Speak events at the following link:
http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Geek+Speak+Events

I usually take a plethora of pictures from any event that I attend, this event is not different, but...
My camera took a dive into a beer and the floor, so I have been playing surgery on the memory card so that I could recover all of the photos on it. I will be posting more thoughts, pictures, and videos from the event over the next week, so please stay tuned for more on PubForum and Geek Speak.

For more on this years PubForum event and past events please visit the following link:
http://www.pubforum.info/welcome/PubForumEvents/PubForum2009Dublin/tabid/82/Default.aspx

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.

Those of you who attended Geek Speak Live! at Synergy from May 4-6, or read my previous related blog post know that we had more sessions, more discussions, and more fun this time than ever before!

Click here to view the entire collection of photos from Geek Speak Live! at Synergy 09 in Las Vegas.

If you attended Geek Speak Live! at Synergy this year, these photos will take you on a geektastic journey down memory lane. If you didn't have a chance to attend, they'll give you a good idea about what this year's event was like from start to finish. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and, if you take the time to view all of these photos, it'll be the equivalent of reading an entire set of Citrix courseware. ...Enjoy!

Would 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.

In a previous post I mentioned that we would be doing something extra for this years PubForum 2009 Dublin, Ireland event.

http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/richcr/2009/05/18/Reserve+your+seat+at+PubForum+2009+-+Dublin%2C+Ireland

We are going to be having some follow on sessions from this years Geek Speak Live - Synergy 2009 event, and there will be a dedicated room for Geek Speak to host a Geek Speak Discussion Club.

For an up to date schedule please follow the below link:
http://pubforum.info/welcome/PubForumEvents/PubForum2009Dublin/tabid/82/Default.aspx

We look forward to seeing you there, and I'm sure this years event will be just as exciting as any of the past PubForum events. Below is a short list of sessions that will be presented during the event.
 

Friday June 5, 2009

Geek Speak session:
Title: XenDesktop 3.0 and Its Impact on the VDI Landscape
Speaker: Shawn Bass Microsoft MVP, 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.

Saturday 6, 2009

Geek Speak session
Title: XenServer Round
Speaker: Citrix EMEA XenServer expert

Geek Speak session
Title: Citrix Essentials for... Virtualization (or the other topic if Rene prefers)
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.

Geek Speak session
Title: Citrix Dazzle (exact title TBD)
Speaker: Rich Crusco
Description: Citrix Dazzle - the first self-service "storefront" for enterprise applications - gives corporate employees 24x7 self-service access to the applications they need to work.

Geek Speak Room
Title: Geek Speak Discussion Club

Description: Open dialogue on any topic! Suggested topics include:

• Citrix, Synergy, and the Geek Speak Program
• 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?

At present there are only 6 seats left for this years PubForum event in Dublin, Ireland, so if you intend on attending please book now as to avoid any disappointment.

Click below to visit the PubForum 2009 Dublin event page:
http://www.pubforum.info/welcome/PubForumEvents/PubForum2009Dublin/tabid/82/Default.aspx

The PubForum Conference is a non commercial event, which is a very cost efficient and a highly effective way to gain the best Citrix and Microsoft product knowledge as well to receive the best vendor and independent expert's training. It is also a chance to meet many independent industry experts who are also attending the event and the ability to talk directly to the vendors support engineers in a non formal atmosphere.

We are working on something special for this years event, and will be posting more information when available, so please stay tuned.

Geek Speak Live! at Synergy 09 was a raging success, the result of having the most seasoned, skilled technologists from across the globe assembled in one high-energy location for a three day, content rich, audience interactive event!

Event Highlights

Some memorable GSL! at Synergy 09 moments include:

• A Geek Speak Tonight! session where three esteemed Citrix CTOs - Simon Crosby, Brad Pedersen, and Michael Harries, and three renowned Citrix CTPs - Rick Dehlinger, Brian Madden, and Bernhard Tritsch - shared their thoughts on the future of application delivery. When is the last time you witnessed six brilliant thought leaders on one stage discussing their ideas and projections about one of the hottest trends in IT?

• Two separate and unique Terminal Server vs. VDI sessions run by Rick Dehlinger, Brian Madden, and Bernhard Tritsch. In one session, Rick played Dr. Friedrich von Dehlingerhausen, IT specialist, who helped Benny and Brian's alter egos "TS" and "VDI" discover they had more in common than meets the eye. In the other, this triad of talented speakers began what was an excellent TS vs. VDI debate when, suddenly, the CTO speakers from Lounge B of the Geek Speakeasy decided to join in on their discussion. The result? An impromptu, highly entertaining twist on the already successful session. You'll just have to watch the videos to experience the sensation.

• At the Geek Speakeasy during Expo Hall, we had the opportunity to take a 50-minute journey toward a better understanding of "Client Side Virtualization: How Does It Help, How Does It Make Things Worse?" led by Simon Crosby and Ian Pratt. And how about Gabe Knuth's informative Geek Speakeasy session on the topic of "Client Hypervisors: What, How, When, Why, and Who?"

• A series of interactive Geek Speakeasy lab sessions on Mon-Wed were run by Jason Conger, Brandon Shell, and many other CTPs and technology experts. Demos and deep dives and test results, oh my!

• At Geek Speak Tonight!, Martin Duursma provided insight into "Why All Remote Access Solutions Are Broken," followed by Kurt Roemer and Charles Aunger who shed light on how to achieve "Security, Compliance, and Privacy in the Citrix Delivery Center."

• During Geek Speak Happy Hour, Ruben Spruijt and Jeroen van de Kamp, two Citrix CTPs, delivered a fantastic session about their "Project: Virtual Reality Check," a masterful follow-up to their Geek Speak Virtual! webcast that took place on March 26. We listened intently as they unveiled data and findings from this independent project, and shared their resulting analyses and best practices.

• Two Geek Speak Track sessions became a double-header lesson in awesome:  Steve Greenberg and Joe Shonk shared their expertise on "When to Use which Virtualization Platform," while Brad Pedersen and Richard Hayton gave us solid insight into the "Future of Remoting Protocols."

• And a Geek Speak Tonight! session that deserves a special highlight...Shawn Bass's "XenDesktop 3.0: One Year Later, What's the VDI Landscape Look Like Now?," a fantastic follow-up to last year's session that included Shawn's acute and thoughtful observations of the latest XenDesktop release, turned out to be one of the most thought-provoking and entertaining sessions of Synergy 09!

Acknowledgements

GSL! extends a warm "thank you" to all of the incredible speakers who contributed to making this event a success, including:

Citrix CTPs:  Alex Danilychev, Bernhard Tritsch, Brandon Shell, Brian Madden, Charles Aunger, Jason Conger, Jeroen van de Kamp, Joe Shonk, Michael Keen, Rick Dehlinger, Ruben Spruijt, Shawn Bass, Steve Greenberg  

Citrix CTOs:  Abolfazl Sirjani, Brad Pedersen, Ian Pratt, Jason Lieblich, Kurt Roemer, Martin Duursma, Michael Harries, Simon Crosby

Citrites:  Adam Marano, Chris Fleck, Gus Pinto, Matt Lull, Rich Crusco, Richard Hayton, Sai Allavarpu, Vishal Ganeriwala

Industry Experts & Partners:  Gabe Knuth, Andrew Chambers, Chris Carter, Christopher Viamonte, Clyde Hedrick, Dan Palmer, David Miller, Hector Angulo, Kenneth Duda, Lee Kaminski, Martin Casado, Matthew Gray, Param Desai, Percy Wadia, Robert Tooth, Travis Graham

...And special thanks to those of you who started out as audience members and became speakers mid-session, contributing your questions and comments, as well as your ideas about each and every topic that was covered. We truly appreciate your participation and hope to see you at future Geek Speak Live, Virtual, and Local events!

We'd love to hear your feedback about GSL! at Synergy 09, and also get your thoughts and ideas about our year-round Geek Speak program that includes live, virtual, and local events. Please feel free to send me an email. For more information about the Geek Speak program, click here.

Event Resources

Throughout the event, some of our CTP speakers participated in head-to-head interviews on Citrix TV. Click on the links below for a replay!

•    Shawn Bass & Jeroen van de Kamp - Reaction to Dazzle
•    Brian Madden & Shawn Bass - The layer cake approach
•    Brian Madden & Brandon Shell - Automation & PowerShell
•    Rick Dehlinger & Brian Madden - Offline VDI
•    Charles Aunger & Michael Keen - To blueprint or not

 And don't miss the Brian Madden TV Synergy 09 Wrap-Up, hosted by Brian Madden and Gabe Knuth.

Stay tuned to the Citrix blogs, because we'll be posting more GSL! at Synergy 09 photos, session videos, and content. Brought to you by the letters C, I, T, R, I, and X (and the number 20).

Best,
Laura Whalen

Here are some photos I took on day 4 of Citrix Synergy 09

Click the below link or on the picture to view the album:
http://cid-7cee7fc8f528290a.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Synergy%2009%20Day%204?ref=1

Here are some photos I took on day 3 of Citrix Synergy 09

Click the below link or on the picture to view the album:
http://cid-7cee7fc8f528290a.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Synergy%2009%20Day%203?ref=1

Here are some photos I took on day 2 of Citrix Summit 09

Click the below link or on the picture to view the album:
http://cid-7cee7fc8f528290a.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Synergy%2009%20Day%201?ref=1

We have given the Citrix Technology Professional website a little bit of facelift, If you arent familiar with the Citrix Technology Professionals, here is a little excerpt about the program

The Citrix Technology Professional (CTP) program recognizes and supports the contributions of highly visible, credible and accessible individuals that have invested a tremendous amount of time, resources and expertise in Citrix products and solutions. These individuals have consistently demonstrated their real-world knowledge, industry expertise and technological insights.

Please click below to continue to the new Citrix Technology Professionals website:
http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Citrix+Technology+Professionals

Will you be at Synergy 2009? Are you interested in talking with the Citrix technology leadership? The Geek Speak unconference is your opportunity. The Citrix CTOs and others from the CTO Office are on stage for 12 sessions of Geek Speak. Here are the sessions for Wednesday. (I've already posted Monday's and Tuesday's sessions.)

Talk to the Experts - Open Q&A with the Technologists (CTOs and CTPs)

Client side virtualization: how does it help, how does it make things worse?

Client side virtualization is all the rage nowadays, with well established type 2 virtualization solutions from VMware, Microsoft, Parallels, VirtualBox and others, and type 1 hypervisors on the horizon from Citrix in partnership with Intel and the Xen community, and VMware. What does client side virtualization enable that's so powerful? Proponents will argue for the use of client side hypervisors to securely deliver corporate apps/desktops to rich client systems for disconnected, secure access to corporate workloads, enforcing separation of user and corporate state, and offering new ways to deal with app compatibility problems. But it remains true that users don't perceive value in client side hypervisors themselves, and client side virtualization has a nasty habit of hammering battery life and increasing the user's perceived complexity of the overall solution. Is this a storm in a teacup, or should you be gearing up for the next major trend in IT optimization? Bring your questions and opinions, and meet the world experts in design of client side virtualization at this Geek Speak showdown.

Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) Security

Bring Your Own Computer inititives are cool - but what about security? Hear arguments from both the user side and the IT side on how BYOC security really works - or doesn't. Bring your toughest BYOC questions and fears out for deliberation.

The future of remoting protocols

This session provides an overview of existing remoting protocols and how these protocols need to change to accommodate ever increasing requirements. Options for architecting a remoting protocol of the future will be explored.

We're looking forward to some great discussions. See you there.

Will you be at Synergy 2009? Are you interested in talking with the Citrix technology leadership? The Geek Speak unconference is your opportunity. The Citrix CTOs and others from the CTO Office are on stage for 12 sessions of Geek Speak. Here are the sessions for Tuesday. (I've already posted Monday's session. Look for Wednesday shortly.

Talk to the Experts - Open Q&A with the Technologists (CTOs and CTPs)

What Citrix needs to do to support MSP and service provider models

Are you a small or large enterprise considering alternate IT sourcing options such as MSP-delivered IT services? Are you a managed service provider interested in delivering managed application delivery services to your clients? Join this panel discussion to discuss the MSP market landscape, trends, drivers and challenges. Grab the opportunity to participate in shaping Citrix product, technology and go-to-market use cases and directions to support our MSP community.

Virtual Images: with great power comes great responsibility (Image Lifecycle Discussion)

The separation and containerization of Application and OS in virtual images is powerful and one of the greatest benefits that virtualization has brought. Whether it's desktop workloads or production server workloads you must manage the contents of those virtual images, keep them up to date, properly secured and dispose of them properly when you're done. Jason Lieblich, CTO of the Virtualization and Management Division, is looking forward to describing some of Citrix's thinking in this area, emerging products and hearing your thoughts.

CTO's and CTP's: The Future of Application Delivery

In many ways, our industry is at an inflection point. The virtualization and application delivery market spaces have collided. IT is being forced to deliver in with less and adapt quickly to weather challenging economic times. The rate of change and innovation in technologies, business models, and consumption patterns is dizzying! In this context, getting some perspective on the future of the industry may be more than an interesting aside - it could be a matter of survival.

This session will provide some valuable perspective. We've assembled a panel of senior technologists who have a very real impact on the future of our industry. They'll be discussing the 5 most important technology trends impacting our industry. Queue up your questions and opinions - you'll have an opportunity to share them during this interactive panel discussion.

Why all remote access solutions are broken

In this session Martin Duursma, VP Citrix Labs and CTO Office Chair will lay out some controversial ideas how remote access technology enables employees to work from any location, but introduces other issues into the enterprise.

Security, Compliance and Privacy in the Citrix Delivery Center

How does the Citrix Delivery Center impact Security, Compliance, and Privacy? In true GeekSpeak format, we will discuss and debate the triumphs and tribulations of security, compliance, and privacy in the Citrix ecosystem.

IT in the cloud

We're looking forward to some great discussions. See you there.

Will you be at Synergy 2009? Are you interested in talking with the Citrix technology leadership? The Geek Speak unconference is your opportunity. The Citrix CTOs and others from the CTO Office are on stage for 12 sessions of Geek Speak. Here are the sessions for Monday. (I'll post the other days separately.)

Talk to the Experts - Open Q&A with the Technologists (CTOs and CTPs)

Technology Trends Toward Solving Application Compatibility

Application compatibility will always be an issue for application delivery. Every time one layer of complexity is solved, another is added with new technologies and new applications. This session will provide some valuable perspective. We have assembled a team of Citrix CTOs and senior technologists to discuss the future of application compatibility. We're looking forward to discussing this topic with you - bring your thoughts.

We're looking forward to some great discussions. See you there.