VMworld 2012 - Day 0

Notes for Day 0 at San Francisco / VMworld

Here are my notes of my first full day in San Francisco. I call it Day 0 since none of the official talks have occurred yet. I will try to post my daily notes and experiences from SF/VMworld on this blog for the next few days, as time and other mitigating circumstances permit.

Walking

• The hills in SF are no joke. We walked to the Wharf. I should've ditched my compadres and taken a bus or street car instead of walking back to the hotel.
•  Chinatown is HUGE, and they like grocery shopping on Sunday.  It was tough walking up Stockton with all the produce shopping on the sidewalk.

Wharf 

• Alcatraz doesn't look *that* far. Determined people couldn't swim that?
• I didn't find the Bushman, but I wasn't looking either
•  The pedestrian bridge crossing the street to Pier 39 is a good place to stop and look around and see the sights from a high, non-crowded vantage point
•  After wondering why I was seeing helicopters hover around the Golden Gate Bridge for a while, I realize there's a big boat race going on. Come to find out later, it was an America's Cup race. You win again, Larry Ellison (damn you).

VMworld 

•  This conference is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It's in 3 buildings, and the fourth building has all the vendors
•  The vendors really make you work for "free" tshirts now. You have to have your attendee badge scanned, sit through presentations, and tweet their company names. I was starting to think I was going on a free trip at a time-share
•  Billy Mays would've been an awesome presenter for some of these products at the Vendor Booths
•  I guess the usage of "Booth Babes" is dead now. Where did they go? 

I will try to post Day 1 notes tomorrow.  I'm signed up from 8:30am to 6pm.  It's gonna be a long day.