The drums are beginning to beat for the next big Citrix event. This is the first year where the iForum title has been deemphasized. It also is the first time in Houston with a new time in May. If you think about it, it really is only about two months away. That is not that long especially when you have been doing this for awhile.
The Citrix App Delivery Conference 08 is May 20 to 23, 2008. The keynotes are from the usual suspects Mark Templeton and Wes Wasson.
Virtualization is recognized as the most transformative IT technology of the next decade. However to truly impact the business, server virtualization is not enough – IT requires the power of virtualization from the datacenter for servers and applications all the way to the desktop. As IT organizations struggle to keep pace with the demands of business, application delivery is a major priority for IT organizations around the world. Industry experts agree the time is right to make the move from static deployment to dynamic application delivery. Application delivery is transforming business. Come hear why – and learn how industry visionaries are meeting the challenges of centralization and globalization with application delivery infrastructure that delivers applications to users with maximum performance, security, and availability.
But what are the top reasons to go?
- Get a glimpse of the future
- Bring users and applications together
- Tap into a powerful network
- Experience a new venue
- Get hands-on with new technology
Based on the success of the iForum series, the App Delivery Conference should do well. Overall, it has the goal of becoming more of an industry event. Also, Houston is a lot more centrally located.
Internally it is well known that it becomes important for Citrix employees to go. I would guess in some cases it is one of the few times that certain kinds of employees have any direct contact with customers and partners. Historically Citrix has always seen these kind of events to not only be important for external users but also to energize the Citrix troops around recent developments.
As a completely unrelated fact, Citrix has a policy of requiring employees to share rooms when attending these events. This was done originally in the old days to save money and it just stuck. I remember going to one of these things years and years ago and having Bill Burley as a roommate. It worked out fine but I couldn’t help but think I was living in some kind of real life “Odd couple” arrangement. I would not be able to tell you who was Oscar and who was Felix. I would guess that in that particular arrangement I was more like Oscar.
Anyways, I dare you to ask any Citrix employee who they are staying with and if it is working out. It is bound to raise a few eyebrows and will most likely break the ice. Can you imagine the snoring? I remember it even now. Or the late night return to the room? Perhaps it is inappropriate to ask but it does add some levity into what would normally be some very serious business.
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I like to think that the room-sharing policy is intended to keep as many rooms free as possible for the guests of the conference. At Citrix Summit in both 2007 and 2008, the host hotel ran out of room. (Not that I’m complaining. It’s cool to see that the conferences are popular enough to fill 1500+ hotel rooms.) And the cost savings are nice for Citrix too. 🙂
I think this policy only applies to the conferences. In other company-sponsored travel, such as college recruiting, each Citrite gets his or her own room, fully reimbursed.
Jason,
Fair enough. I’m sure lots of Citrix employees do not mind sharing. Obviously if the hotel is about to run out of rooms it makes sense to share.
The cost saving aspect isn’t as important as it used to be. I would consider sharing to be more optional based on how many people a department wants to send. Given them a budget and let them figure it out. We’ve done this for other things.
Jeff