London VMUG - a great start of 2017

The first VMUG London for 2017 took place on a sunny Thursday, January 19th, at the familiar techUK location.
This was only my second VMUG in London but I already felt like I met most of the people. I like how strong and well-formed the local community is. You can notice it especially during the sessions - lots of insightful questions and discussions, not just passive attendance.

Of course it's always energizing to meet Linda and the rest of the VMUG leadership team. Pleasure catching up with community stars like Paul McSharry, Alex Galbraith and Ricky El-Qasem. The latter 2 had very entertaining sessions on AWS and PaaS and were rewarded for their contribution to the community in the end of the event.
Also, I finally got to meet Jane Rimmer in person - a true veteran in the virtualization community (before it was called virtualization :) ).

Last but not least, I got to spend some quality time with some old friends - Warren and Bogdan. The vBeers party after the event was in a pub just around the corner called The Old Bank of England. Actually, a pub might not be the best way to describe what appeared to look like a castle - with its marvelous architecture, big chandeliers and heavy drapes. A glorious place indeed, though it is hard to beat that mini brewery from the summer VMUG of 2016.

Thinking about it, I didn't really spend that much time attending sessions, as much as networking. That's the most valuable experience for me on such events.

Thanks to the sponsors Rubrik, iland and StorMagic, the community presenters and the VMUG leaders for making all this possible.

Oh - one important thing - Runecast is sponsoring the next London VMUG on April 6th! So that thing about sessions not being top priority - scratch that. You MUST come and see the Runecast session on April 6th! 

See you there!
STANIMIR MARKOV, CEO