VMWorld, hosted by VMWare, is an entire conference dedicated to virtual servers. VMWare is the most popular vendor of virtual servers, and the number of IT professionals that attend VMWorld certainly reflects that. The first VMWorld conference held back in 2004 had 1,600 attendees. This year, roughly 20,000 descended on the Venetian Hotel to talk and learn about virtual servers.

If you’re wondering what navigating a conference with 19,999 other people is like, well, let me tell you. For four days straight, VMWorld offers anywhere from ten to fifteen VM-related classes on various topics. Many of these topics are repeated throughout the week to help prevent scheduling conflicts. So that the sessions aren’t overbooked, attendees must register for each one. You can do this on their website, or through a custom app they released for iPhone or Android cellphones. As people drop out, cancel, or simply don’t show up for a session they previously registered for, those slots free up in real time. Navigating this conference would be very difficult without a smart phone; then again, for this crowd, I don’t think that’s a problem.

A much bigger issue so far has been cell phone coverage. Free wireless has been set up at the venue, but connecting to it was so difficult that, for hours, I was convinced that it was not function. And 3G? Now I know what people in crowded urban areas feel like. I can’t imagine cell coverage is all that great to begin with in the middle of a casino, but 20,000 people all trying to check e-mail at the same time can’t possibly be helping. Remember that app I told you about that you need to use to register and monitor class attendance with? It’s pretty frustrating to use when you can’t get any signal.

I was hoping to write more about some of the sessions I’ve attended, but it’s time to start getting ready for today’s sessions so I’ll have to continue this one later this evening.