In a couple of weeks from now, the next best thing after VMworld will take place. On the 16th of March, the 1931 venue will be the place to be if VMware technology is your thing. The biggest UserCon in the world, the Dutch VMUG (or NLVMUG) is raising the bar in 2017 after a great edition in 2016.

This year has a couple of new tricks up it’s sleeve. The NLVMUG UserCon is a conference created by the community, for the community. That means that most of the speakers will be working either at a customers or a partner. And to give new and unexperienced speakers the opportunity to take the stage, the NLVMUG has introduced some new types of sessions like lightning talks, group discussions, whiteboard sessions and workshops/demo’s (next to the traditional break out sessions). This is a real awesome innovation as this year’s VMware-fest will have more than 50 speakers!!

I’m one of the lucky ones to be part of those speakers in two different sessions. In my first session, I will be joined with my friends and fellow VCDX’s Frank Denneman, Marco van Baggum, Niels Hagoort and Rutger Kosters to host a group discussion around the VCDX certification. We will focus on answering questions from the audience about certain topics of the journey towards the highest VMware certification available. Questions that the marketing slides won’t answer! If you are planning to go to the NLVMUG and would like to know more about the VCDX certification and the road towards the defense, attend our group discussion!

I will also present my own breakout session called “Workspace ONE, a secure workplace without consessions”. The consessions that I will be focussing on are the ones around User Experience. Because User Experience and Security don’t always go hand-in-hand. During this session I will explain some things around User Experience and what security measures can be taken to limit the degradation of the User Experience in a secure environment.

Next to all different sessions, the NLVMUG is also a great place to meet peers, vendors and other community people. I am really excited and I hope you are too. See you on the 16th of March!