VMware’s annual partner conference which is called Partner Exchange (PEX) will be held at the end of February this year and for once a VMware event in Las Vegas will not be at the Venetian where VMworld’s and PEX’s have traditionally been held at in the past. This year PEX is going to be held at the Mandalay Bay hotel in February from Monday, the 25th to Thursday the 28th, the boot camps which are mostly day long events that vendors can put on will be held beforehand on the 23rd-25th.
VMware PEX as the name applies is only open to partners, this includes hardware and software vendors like HP, Veeam, Dell, etc. as well as VARs such as Varrow, it is not intended for customers. The scale of PEX compared to VMworld is much smaller as there are typically only around 4,000 attendees. It is still held in the general format as VMworld with sessions and a Solutions Exchange but on a much smaller scale. In fact the entire Solutions Exchange is held in the same size room as VMworld registration is typically held in which shows you how much smaller it is.
Last year was my first time attending PEX and it was definitely a more intimate crowd and without customers there you were able to network with fellow vendors and partners much easier. If you’re a vExpert there are also special activities for you and last year there was even special signs scattered around acknowledging those part of that elite group. You may not got out of it as much as you do with VMworld but if you’re a partner it’s definitely worth attending. Registration for PEX is not yet open but you can sign-up to be notified when you are able to register. Be sure and checkout VMware’s PEX webpage for more information and look forward to seeing you there.
