Why do we vCommunity?

I went out for a lunch walk the other day to clear my head and listened to a really great episode of Freakonomics. The episode Honey I grew the economy focused on the process and motivators that drive innovation. The deep dive into drivers in particular resonated a lot with me. I saw parallels to how we approach IT as we kick off 2020. While that was super interesting, it wasn’t a giant leap for me to ask a similar question of:

Why do we get engaged in the various technological communities and what do we derive from those communities?

This seemed like a fun opportunity to hear from some of our Technology Community members to understand: Why do we vCommunity?

To Learn

For me, first and foremost, vCommunity is about Education. It stands to reason that it’s the most common entry point for people to engage. It makes sense: You need help on a topic, so you go looking around and only then do you learn about the plethora of opportunity’s available to you. When I personally started down the virtualization path, training dollars were tight, so to improve my knowledge I had to look elsewhere and as luck would have it, I found the Boston VMUG UserCon. That free one day training, gave me access to educational presentations, subject matter experts and hands on training. It was a formative moment for me, and opened my eyes to other avenues of learning. It also showed me that there were a ton of engaged people out there sharing via different mediums.

Stalwart of the vCommunity, Kyle Ruddy had something similar to share regarding his introduction to the tech communities “What I wasn’t ready for was the amount of blogs out there detailing issues I had run into. It was a complete lightbulb moment. From that point it was a gradual process of moving from reading blogs to creating blogs.”

Kyle also highlights a hallmark of the community in that there tends to be a strong desire to contribute back in the form of blogs, videos, podcasts and a host of other mediums. That was after all the genesis for VirtualVT as well. If you look at the mechanics of sharing content, it takes time and effort. You can’t help but boost your knowledge whenever you’re contributing technical content, because you end up spending more time with the underlying technology’s.  Unintentional education? Knowledge Osmosis? Whatever you call it, the brain gets bigger the more you feed it, and you have to keep feeding if you’re creating content about technologies.

To Grow

Bolstering your knowledge via the educational opportunities the communities provide is definitely a path to bigger and better things, but I’ll let you in on a not-so-secret, secret. Getting involved and putting yourself out there as a contributing member of the community can be equally impactful on your career. Contributing is an idealistic endeavor, but it often has the side effect of building your brand at the same time. I met the MVP power couple of Dave and Cristal Kawula this past fall and in a recent blog post Dave shares a bit about how he and Cristal started MVPDays and the impact their event has had on a specific community member: “…I talked him into doing his first presentation, which led to him speaking at user groups and conferences. Earlier this year he became a Microsoft MVP, and a few days ago, he actually accepted a position at Microsoft.”

The experience that Dave highlights is not unique to MVPDays. It crosses groups and goes to the heart of what Matt Heldstab (VMUG Board of Directors) shared with me recently “The fantastic power of this vCommunity and its ability to elevate the careers of its members never ceases to amaze me.”

It’s Fun!

vDodgeBall, vSoccer, vPoker are just a few of the side-events that come to mind for ways that we like to enjoy the lighter side of our geekdom. One of my favorite events was when our 2017 vExpert party was held at the Pinball Museum in Las Vegas. The reality is that many of us work really hard and through a plethora of events, engagement in the vCommunity can be a nice way to blow off some steam. My friend AJ Murry who I co-led a local VMUG group with, hits on this point “In the vCommunity I have found my people. I have made life long friends. I have learned great things and shared amazing experiences.”

It’s all about the people

I mean it’s referred to as the vCommunity for a reason! The one theme that comes up time and time again when talking about our tech communities, was the value of our peer connections. We learn, share and when times are tough, we support each other. Nikola Pejkova, Veeam Vanguard Community Mangager highlights the value of these connections: “I love being part of community because it enables its members cooperate together, strengthen and enrich their knowledge and learn from each others experiences.”

Everywhere I’ve gone and nearly everyone I’ve interacted with has been gracious with their knowledge and time. It’s a hallmark of these communities and a reason why there are so many deep bonds. You see it in every independent blog post, every community presentation and every response to a forum post. That’s the real magic to the vCommunity: We want to be there for each other and to collective lift each other up!

So how do YOU get involved?

It’s an amazing thing being part of this community, but like many things in this world, it can be intimated to get started, so what can YOU do?

Well there’s no time like the present. There are user communities abound. Listen, I live in a rural state where my favorite urban legend says that there are more cows than people. If I can find a local community, so can you! Find one (meetup can be an excellent starting point) and go, even if it’s not in your wheelhouse. Especially if it’s not in your wheelhouse! Go learn something new, meet some interesting people and hopefully have a good time!

Got something worthwhile to share? A blog is stupid easy to create these days. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t! Only a year or two, it was really hard to podcast or create video equipment, as the equipment required was cost prohibitive to most. As we kick off 2020, there’s no reason not to share it loud a proud! And if creating online content isn’t enough for you, there are always conference CFPs (calls for papers) that are looking for passionate people to share their successes.

All of these options strike fear into your heart, but you’d still like to help others? Online opportunities are abound as well. Helping someone solve a problem or answer a question in a forum, benefits not just you and poster, but future assistance seekers as well.

Whatever the avenue, just do it! If you’re still not convinced, I’d like to give Kyle the last word on why we vCommunity. “Now, why do I continue to be involved… over the years, I’ve found it extremely rewarding to share my experiences and knowledge, become a mentor, [and] … build up a number of friendships that exist still to this day.”

Thank you to my friends quoted here and to all my friends out and about in the communities for all that you do.

A Letter to the Veeam Vanguards

In 2000 one of my closest friends was getting married, so he and I went to NYC for a boys weekend. While we were there, we had a party and I made many friends for life and even met my future wife. The minute I got home from that trip, I sat down at my desk and wrote a letter to all my new friends. Unfortunately that letter was lost or otherwise destroyed (I’m looking at you Eric) and with the exception of notes to my son, rarely have I felt compelled to write a similar letter since. Until today.

I’ve been home from my first Veeam Vanguard Summit for about 24 hours now. I had to wait to pen this for two reasons. First, if I penned it immediately when I got home, I may end up married to a number of Vanguards and that’s not right or legal. Secondly, without 12 hours of sleep it would have read “Veeam Vangoiui7ioe79etgjl o87rnngdufi…”

I was pretty excited when I received my email in February acknowledging that I’d been accepted into the Veeam Vanguard program. When we first got together I was struck by the lack of pressure. There were little expectations of promoting the brand or pressure to produce content. The message that I heard was, ‘we want to share with you and in return we’d like your frank feedback’. To be honest, at first I was skeptical and was thinking there was some BS. I was wrong.

The year continues and there are periodic calls and webinars, some cool opportunities and early access to info. Some good, fun chatter on Slack should have tuned me in a little more as to what was to come.

For the Veeam Vanguard summit, we went to Prague. Now, if I stopped here and just shared my thanks, it would have been an experience of a lifetime. Before I move on though, just a few words about Prague. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a more magical city. The architecture is beyond amazing, the people welcoming, the food delicious and the beer plentiful. Anyone considering going, should stop considering and just start saving your pennies. Prague should be at the top of most bucket lists and I truly hope that I get to visit again in the future.

But we weren’t there to sightsee, this was after all a tech program. I expect to share thoughts about the content specifics from the Summit in the future, so I won’t spend time diving into that here. What I will share about this event is that I’ve never seen such candor from a vendor. Any vendor will tell you about what’s awesome in their products and there was definitely that, but the folks at Veeam also told us where things still need work. We got to see behind the curtains on where things are going. That’s pretty cool and again, if we stopped there, I’d still be appreciative. What really made the product discussions special though, is that our feedback was actively solicited and I know for a fact that feedback will makes it’s way back into the product roadmap and development. Seriously, when can you, as a user, sit down with the head of Development for a billion dollar company, tell them your thoughts and concerns, then watch them hand that feedback directly to their teams? I now know the answer.

For experiences like this, ranking and coming up with what’s “the best” is an exercise in futility. One of the things that make this program the most special and what was the most warming and touching part of this experience was the people. I’ve been involved in other programs, information exchanges, educational programs and the like for years. Only once before (luckily earlier this year, I’m blessed) have I ever experienced such camaraderie. From the Veeam-ers who made the event happen, to the Vanguards who participated, I’m so very great full to have met you. As I told one of the SVP’s at our amazing final event at Staropramen Brewery, I’ve never felt so welcomed into a community and god willing, I’ll get to pay that forward in the future.

To Anton, Rick, Cade, Spiteri and the rest of the technical teams, the content was amazing. Thank you for letting us share our feedback on it. Bring on v10!

To the rest of the Veeam team, Aubrey, Rin, Chelsea, Kirsten, and anyone I may have forgotten, thank you for your support. An extra big thank you to Nikola; what an amazing event you helped put together. I really look forward to working with you again in the future.

Finally, to my fellow Vanguards, thank you for the camaraderie, friendship, laughs and welcoming.

To all of you, it was an amazing adventure. Until I see you next, Cheers!

PS. While they weren’t there, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank my boss and employer. If I didn’t work for a such a fantastic person and organization, I wouldn’t be able to have experiences like this where I can learn, share and re-energize. You’re the best!