The Big Party

As usual VMware had laid on a party on the Wednesday night with all attendees invited.

The format is now familiar - a very large room, 5 or 6 bars serving complementary drinks, pool tables, pinball machines, retro arcade games and then something a bit different, which this year was the option to go roller-blading alongside the hired dancers.  Great mix that, roller-blading and free beer!

The bars offered plenty of choice - including cocktails mixed to order.  I stuck to a few beers, being mindful of the need to get to the 9am sessions the next day.  A big improvement, I thought, was keeping the party on site at the conference venue.  There was a 90 minute gap between the end of the sessions and the start of the party - ideal to ensure that folks filled their time by walking the solutions exchange booths, and not wasting time on travelling between venues.  The party was from 7pm to 10pm so there was no excuse for staying up too late!  Well, not a VMWORLD excuse anyway.  Food was burgers / wraps, sushi and puddings.  Plenty of it too.

Entertainment was provided by dancers on roller skates, stilts or unusually dressed in interesting costumes or with ipads for faces, all backed by tunes from a DJ.  First act was an all girl group called High on Heels that comprised DJ, vocalist, sax, violin and percussion.  They did a really good job of covering classic and contemporary R&B, dance, soul etc., from Emile Sande to Black Box via Chaka Khan.  Good stuff, and, for me at least, somewhat more talented that the main act.  They also had a guy on stilts, covered in lighting and resembling Iron Man firing fire extinguishers just for the sake of it.  Better than it sounds!

I lost my specs to Taio Cruz.  Not sure if that's entirely true, but Cruz was up as the headline act.  He sang to a backing track provided by a DJ.  He did all 6 songs but I confess to not really spotting much difference between them.  The crowd were hyped up by his presence, but at the beginning of pretty much every song I thought he was launching into Dynamite, but I was wrong until the last track.  Still, I think I was in the minority as the crowd were very much enjoying themselves.  There was a great part of the set when large illuminated balls were passed out over the crowd (these were balls, not balloons) and it was great fun to bat them around overhead.  Except when one of them hit me on the back of the head, removed my specs and that was the last I saw of them as they were trampled underfoot by 2000 bouncing geeks.  Ho-hum, the hazards of partying!  Made the rest of my trip a bit tricky though, must remember to carry spares in the future.