by Eltjo van Gulik, CTA
This year, I will be attending Citrix Synergy for the first time. And, if that wasn’t enough to make this experience extra special, I will be hosting a Synergy session as well. Together with my colleague Ryan Ververs-Bijkerk, I will be presenting ICT-R related content in a session called SYN215 “Performance and scalability tips and tricks from Citrix experts.” I have been looking forward to attending for quite a long time.
To make matters, extra, extra special, both Ryan and I will be attending Synergy not just as newbies and presenters, but also as freshly awarded 2019 CTAs.
Road to Synergy
When I first started thinking about attending Synergy 2019, it was still 2018. We just started our community platform ICT-R, and I hosted a well-received session about Citrix Cloud monitoring with OData at the Dutch Citrix User Group event.
I had a chat with Rob Beekmans a couple of weeks after, and we submitted three sessions for Synergy. And then the waiting began. Personally, I’m not very good at waiting… So, after a couple of excruciating weeks, the waiting was brought to a close with an email from Synergy that our session was accepted.
A huge shoutout to Rob Beekmans for making our Synergy session happen!
Than everything was swung into motion. Flights had to be booked, and we needed accommodation. Fortunately for us, usually a large delegation from the Netherlands always attends Synergy. So we decided to rent an Airbnb in Atlanta with a few fellow Dutch consultants. The flight was booked and we were ready to go…
Or were we?
Back on the home front my wife and I decided to buy a new house. With the transfer of ownership in May…end of May. So, that imposed some mild stress on the situation. And with mild I actually mean huge.
All systems go!
At last, everything was arranged and the transfer of ownership will be done right after I get back from Synergy. Phew… With that taken care of, we shifted our attention back to our Synergy session.
The first draft of the PowerPoint presentation was setup and sent in for approval. The Synergy crew also gave us the opportunity to work with two wonderful individuals as part of their speaker coaching program: Linda Kruse and Tom Fiscella.
The coaching genuinely helped us with creating the PowerPoint deck and inspired a lot of confidence while also greatly reducing a lot of the stress leading up to the event.
So, If you are just like Ryan and myself, attending Synergy, please hop by our session, or reach out on social media for a meetup with us. Also, please do check out the other CUGC members presenting at Synergy this year: https://blogs.mycugc.org/2019/04/19/cugc-members-presenting-at-citrix-synergy-2019/
Synergy, here we come!
https://citrix.g2planet.com/citrixsynergy2019/public_session_view.php?agenda_session_id=417
