The debut of the Professional Development track at VMworld 2020 is less than one week away! It is a privilege for me to lead this sub-track within the Vision & Innovation Track. We have curated sessions all things career for our VMworld attendees including presenting, branding, collaboration, technical skills, accessibility, and carving your path based on personal happiness.
Not only is the Professional Development track new for VMworld, the diverse set of speakers in the track is also a first! By adding personal content and sessions on developing soft skills to the catalog this opened the door for new presenters who might not have had a place to present in past VMworld events.
The Professional Development track stems from a grassroots effort prompted by the #vCommunity. In 2017 and 2018, I was asked by a few VMUGs to share my thoughts on career and brand at UserCons. These presentations were well received and generated many follow-on conversations. When the VMworld Call for Papers opened for VMworld 2018, I chose to submit my session, “Achieving Happiness: Building Your Brand and Your Career”. At that time, we didn’t have a dedicated track for a professional development session, but the VMworld team accepted it into the Leadership track. In 2019, we saw more professional development sessions scattered throughout the VMworld catalog. They were highly rated by the attendees. In the beginning of 2020, the VMworld team recognized that professional development and soft skills are important topics for the #vCommunity and asked me to lead the track. It has been a pleasure getting to know the track presenters over the past few months!
I asked members of the Office of the CTO Global Field who have sessions in the Professional Development track to share what motivated them to submit a session. Their responses were inspiring, and I’d like to share a few with you.
Katherine Skilling, VMware Senior Consultant and member of the CTO Ambassador Program
Katherine is the author and speaker of “Finding My Way – Who Am I & What Can I Offer” [ETPD1986]. She works hard, and it shows—Katherine’s peers identified her as a powerful speaker. When asked about her session, she stated:
“During the {Office of the CTO Global Field} conference I attended a session which is also available at VMworld (ETPD1361) about delivering outstanding presentations. The impact of that session, combined with the content of the recommended additional reading material helped me turn that mind map {for the London VMUG presentation} into a full 50 minute story. After receiving some amazing feedback when I presented the session at the London VMUG, I was persuaded by some of my OCTO colleagues to submit the session to VMworld.”
Anderson Duboc and Caio Oliveria, members of the Office of the CTO Global Field Programs
Anderson and Caio developed “Outstanding Presentations – How to Improve Your Presentation Skills” [ETPD1361]. Here’s what inspired Caio to submit their VMworld session:
“Making an impactful and engaging presentation, especially now, on a remote world, is more important than ever and I’m glad that VMworld is opening for the first time a dedicated track to host Professional Development sessions. I’ve been studying how to better deliver a message for a while and I’m more than happy to share those insights in our main event for all of our customers and partners.”
The Professional Development track is for the #vCommunity by the #vCommunity. The sessions are from those who work in technology and developed skills for their technology career. VMworld and the Professional Development track is the platform to share their knowledge with others.
Please join us for our inaugural content here! I would love to hear what you think of the content – connect with me on twitter @AmandaBlev. Have a great VMworld!
Read more about VMworld 2020 Vision & Innovation Track from our VMware CTO Greg Lavender.
