by Saadallah Chebaro, CTA, UAE CUGC Leader

It’s that time of the year again, where you find yourself passing the days waiting for something extraordinary to start and, yes, by that I mean Citrix Synergy 2018. To me, Synergy is always a very long flight, but guess what, it never disappointed me and I feel privileged being able to make it every year.

I wanted to share a few words about what Citrix Synergy is all about to me, from a personal and professional perspective, knowing that many community members have already shared their ideas on Synergy in terms of what sessions to attend, where to stay, what to do, and how to have a good time …

This is my 4th year in a row attending, and I can boldly state that Citrix Synergy is all about People. The EUC community in general, and Citrix one specifically in my humble opinion, boasts individuals with the best IT expertise in the market covering all areas and fields for obvious reasons. VDI is not a walk in the park and overall End User Computing  requires skills that stretch far beyond plain virtualization. To put it in the words of last year’s guest speaker, “the bottom line in all of it is that, in life, it’s all about People.” –Colin Powell.

I find myself every year searching for those CTPs, Bloggers, Citrites, and Community Gurus, seeking to gain as much as I can from their expertise, experience, insight, and ultimately advise. Advise which eventually landed me on the CTA list, leading a CUGC group, and hosting one of the lunch tech table talks on Citrix Cloud. That same lunch table that I met some amazing people at years ago, and was inspired by their passion and dedication to the community.

Not to take from the overall experience of attending Citrix Synergy which is by itself an interesting ride, but some content I would rather watch later or miss for something just a bit more exclusive because it is something I can maybe watch online later or read about (definitely not the keynotes, those are a must !).

I want to seek those sessions that are conducted by CTPs, CTAs, CUGC members and EUC gurus just because they give you a broader perspective. I want to hit the Fireside chats and listen to people with different technological backgrounds engage in discussions that might come up with me in the future with customers. I want to go one-on-one with geeks in Match.Geek to take advise and professional guidance. I want to know how the market is transforming and how to keep up with this digital transformation with Meet the Experts. I want to eat and benefit from tech chats on lunch tables tackling those environment specific questions. And, last but not least, I want to meet new people and seek out those whom I know for a fact can not only advance my professional and personal expertise but also embrace as friends and part of the community.

I must say I faced a bit of disappointment trying to seek everyone out, but that is pretty normal, yet I am glad to say that 99% of people that I approached at Synergy whom are considered to be top players in the community have been generous enough to offer guidance, advise, and even sometimes technical support (not to mention become great friends). My advise is seek to make new friends at Citrix Synergy and learn as much as you can from the tremendous diversity of personal and professional skills available in this amazing event.

On a side note, being part of  CUGC “Citrix User Group Community” and joining the Pregame party is one of the best experiences in Synergy, especially for those of you looking to be social and connect.

Last but not least, I am really excited to be attending as a CTA this year, and hope to see you on the lunch table I will be hosting on Citrix Cloud. We in UAE have been blessed with an amazing Citrix channel team that made Citrix Cloud available to us from day one (you would never guess how hard that is), which led to several multi-site multi-cloud implementations, eventually gaining us the Citrix Cloud partner of the year for META region.

See you soon!