IT conferences have always been a mixed bag of experiences for me. Some amount to a giant sales pitch with little value. The good ones cram a year’s worth of training and collaboration into a few days. They are almost always prohibitively expensive to attend when you factor in travel, but this year is different.
One of the best has consistently been Microsoft’s Ignite. Some executive had the bright idea to combine all of what used to be individual conferences like Tech-Ed into a single event. The result was a combination keynote, training, and exhibition. Being able to learn DAG and AG architecture from the actual Exchange and SQL teams has had an impact on my career.
Due to the pandemic, Ignite will be a virtual conference this year. Will it be as effective? That is hard to say. SolarWinds’ Thwack Camp has always been on-line and also makes my top five. In any case, Ignite is free, you just need a Microsoft account to register. It runs September 22-24. Sign-up or get more information at https://myignite.microsoft.com/home .
VMware’s VMworld has been a heavy hitter on the conference circuit since it’s inception. Some would argue that VMworld’s format is what sparked the Microsoft Execs idea for Ignite. Featuring a renown vendor exhibition, training sessions on topics like VDI and cloud infrastructure, along with keynotes from some of the most important players in IT. It is almost impossible to walk away from VMworld without learning something useful.
VMworld is also virtual and free this year. It runs September 29th – October 1st, register at https://www.vmworld.com/en/index.html .
techbloggingfool.com 