vCommunity – “What does ‘insert your employer’ gain from you participating?”

As you may be aware there is a multitude of vendor community advocacy programs, for example, VMware vExperts, Veeam Vanguards, Cisco Champions and Microsoft MVPs to name a few. Some of you reading this might be part of one or more these programs or interested to learn more about them. This post is not intended to detail what is required to join/participate in these programs. This post is intended to help answer the inevitable question from your employer :

“What does <insert your employer’s company> gain from you participating/attending/presenting at these programs?”.

To answer that question I need to explain the what being part of the vendor Community programs entails.

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vExpert 2018

VMware vExpert 2018

A few weeks later than planned, yesterday was the day many of us were waiting for. vExpert 2018 announcements were due. We had a sneak peak of the application process and it was clear the standards were being rigorously evaluated. Everyone seems in agreement 2018 has been the hardest year yet to make the grade

So after the delay and a frustrating day watching my inbox last night the news I was waiting for finally arrived.

vExpert Announcement

For those that aren’t familiar with the programme;

Program Overview

The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap. The awards are for individuals, not companies, and last for one year. Employees of both customers and partners can receive the awards. In the application, we consider various community activities from the previous year as well as the current year’s (only for 2nd half applications) activities in determining who gets awards. We look to see that not only were you active but are still active in the path you chose to apply for. Continue reading