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Citrix Synergy Orlando 2017 – The CTP way!

by Samuel Legrand, CTP

Citrix Synergy 2017 took place in Orlando last week, and here my thoughts, not about the content of the conference, but about the way I felt during this first Synergy as a CTP!

The CTP meeting:

Firstly: CTPs met for 2 days before the Synergy, so Sunday morning at 7:30AM: check-in at the convention center! As I had arrived to Orlando only a few hours ago, it was hard to wake up, but I was really excited to see how it was at a CTP meeting.

The schedule was quite a bit busy:

  • Sunday was fully booked with lots presentations handled by the different Product Managers. From HDX to NetScaler passing by IoT, XenServer and XenMobile, all the Citrix portfolio was on stage! In order to conclude this first day, Kirill TATARINOV – Citrix CEO was on stage to present us the company vision and, even more important, to listen to us. Thanks Kirill, we really appreciate that you could dedicate us almost an hour of your time.
  • Monday was the Unconference! After voting on the topics we wanted to discuss about with the Citrites, we carried out 16 sessions simultaneously in 4 groups. That was awesome and a really great way to provide feedback from the field to the Citrix Product Managers.

The ControlUp Expert meetup:

One of the benefits of being a CTP is to be onboarded (like the MVPs, vExperts, and now the CTAs) in the ControlUp Expert program. This program allows us to use the ControlUp monitoring product for free. For the first time, they organized an Expert meetup on Monday evening. The room was full to see the new features of the version 7. If you want to learn more about that: http://tech-addict.fr/controlup-a-new-version-is-almost-here/

The Synergy conference itself:

Citrix gave us a voucher for the conference and a cool badge to show our CTP status! They also provided us with pre-seating and a private wifi SSID for each keynote to allow us to follow and publish live!

Most of the sessions I attended were held by my fellow CTPs. These sessions are the most technical and, in my opinion, the most accurate of the event.

One interesting thing I discovered during this Synergy is that there are so many meetings:

  • With the Citrites to give them feedback again
  • With the press, I’ve been interviewed twice this time by the French press!
  • With the partners/vendors

Another one is that some of the vendors at the Solution Expo are also looking for CTP feedback about their products. So now I have a couple of tests to do! A special thanks to the LoginVSI guys who granted us with a bag full of goodies!

Just one word for the final party at the Universal Studios: AWESOME! Thanks Citrix for organizing such a great way to conclude this conference!

The E2EVC experience:

For a couple of years now, Alex COOPER organized an E2EVC (Expert to Expert Virtualization Conference) edition just after Synergy. Once again, there was a great panel of experts attending his (in fact our) event. Almost half of the current CTPs attended the event this year!

If you are not aware of this conference, this is one of the most technical meetings regarding virtualization.

Conclusion:

Being a CTP has changed my Synergy experience! There was an impressive number of different and interesting events that have completed my Synergy experience. I’m glad of being a member of this family and I look forward to sharing more next year at Synergy 2018 Anaheim!

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