AT/T 3G was basically not working at all in Vegas. Switched to edge only and was working like a champ - although a bit slower.

Right on w/ the Birds of a Feather setup.

Both my labs were a bust.  90% of the way through our SRM lab, ALL the lab PCs kicked us out!  Right at the point we were about to failover.  Talk about frustrating!  The entire goal of the lab was rendered moot by technical difficulties... Are we supposed to thank the sponsors??

Second lab had a manual that was out of order.  PowerShell scripting... in one step, create a snapshot via powershell commands, then delete it.  A few steps down, the instructions call for us to do something else w/ the snapshots.  Argh- we just deleted'em as instructed.

You're right about the snack and refreshments... it didn't seem consistent. It was more luck that you happen to get out of class and score a warm can of soda or snack.

VMware- you owe me two labs!

I had minor problems with my (1st gen EDGE-only) iPhone, where I got one text message hours late, and had problems making calls once or twice.

I also have an EV-DO aircard from Verizon, and that had much greater problems.  My connection would fail to establish, or drop randomly, or stay connected but not work right.  Not just in the conference, but in my hotel (Planet Hollywood) as well, despite strong signal strength.  It wasn't terrible, just not great.  I never even tried to use the conference wifi, it seemed futile

I never saw a T-Mobile banner on my phone, but for all I know the phone doesn't properly report the service provider, since I've never seen it say anything but ATT.

I don't understand where the conference capacity was a joke.  I think think that the flow between sessions was carefully thought out.  For the amount of people attending, there weren't any bottlenecks that I experienced. 

I had no connectivity issues with my Verizon Air card or my Verizon Cell either. 

I had a great experience except for one impatient guy in the Fusion lab.  <jerk>!  I am sure if VMWare or the meeting planners knew about his attitude, he would have been booted out.  (the tall one dark brown hair)  the rest of the guys working the labs were excellent with the help and knowledge transfer.  I still had a great experience in the walk in labs.

There were a lot of people, but the flow was carefully thought out.  I was personally impressed.

The snacks in the afternoon should have been provided later than an hour after lunch.  But it was nice.  It was difficult paying attention to the speaker in sessions having a popcorn back crackling behind you the whole time.

I had a great experience at VMWorld.  If I didn't, it would be my own fault and my own bad attitude.

B

I apologize.  I see that your experience is legitimate.  I did not mean to minimize the issues you were experiencing.  I guess I didn't think my response through.  It is certainly an issue that needs to be corrected for the next VMWorld.  Companies are investing $$ to send their employees and work doesn't stop when you walk out the door of the office.

There were some posts that were saying that there were too many people, lines etc.  I guess that was the point I was making is that even though there were a lot of lines, the flow was consistent.

My apologies to you and anyone I offended.

B

Fail!  You can't assume since quality has varied from year to year.

This online forum isn't the place for constructive criticism? Why not?

And about the feedback form... I was expecting a place to list of issues at the end of the form.  I listed a few items, thinking there would be an overall / general feedback area as the last question... much like in previous years.

Couldn't have said it better myself.  I too have been to LA in '06 (horrible crowds), SF in '07 (crowded but better) and Vegas recently.  I think VMware is learning from their past mistakes, and it was made obvious this year.  People gripe about the lines and such, but what else are you supposed to do?  I mean 14-17,000 (unsure of exact count) doing their own thing with no crowd control = mass chaos!

My only suggestion would have been to have signs designating "registered" and "non-registered" down the halls rather than just at the head of the lines, it would have made it a little more clear as to what line you were actually standing in.

I pre-registered for all my sessions and didn't get denied any of them.  I do agree with the previous poster with regard to a small break between sessions to allow time to navigate from one session to the next before it starts.

All-in-all, I think this was an excellent conference.  I think VMware did an exceptional job in handling the crowds this year.  My only concern is how are they going to handle next year in SF?